Philly, New York and LIVE 8
Sunday, 3 July 2005
This week, our final week in civilisation before we head to Ecuador, we've spent staying with Martin and Tina in Philly. It's been pretty action packed and very american.
It started off kind of badly when we got to JFK airport quite late. We ended up deciding to stay in a hotel near the airport. Little did we know this would be an expensive escapade. The hotel we ended up in was expensive and dodgy. The whole room was mirrored (even the ceiling above the bed) and it had a kind of brothel feel to it generally. It was also in the arse end of Queens which made our going out for food more interesting than it would normally be. There's alot of narky people in New York. They argue about all kinds of stupid shit. Remember that bit in Coming To America where Eddie Murphy gets to Queens and stands on the balcony and shouts "Good Morning Queens!" and everybody shouts back at him "Fuck you!". Well, that about sums it up.
The next day we did make it to Philly and met up with Martin which was very cool. We had a good look round Philly for a couple of days (well, I actually skived off touristing for one day to have a good chill). Philly is really cool though. I found some good new jeans which was lucky because my current ones were about to literally fall off my arse. I did actually find a load of jeans that were too big even for me. The big and tall sections of hip hop clothes shops have up to 60 inch waist baggy fit jeans. I was impressed.
For anyone who ends up in Philly, there's an excellent area for shops and bars called south street. Go there. We ended up in a small cafe near there and talked to the owner for a while. He apparently is a scramble shark and Catherine challenged him to a game which he was really up for but unfortunately it never came off.
The next couple of days we spent making day trips to New York which included alot of wondering around Greenwich Village and East Village and looking at lots of shops and stuff. We also wondered around a few sights like you do. Because it's near independence day the actual orginal declaration of independence was on display in the New York Public Library which was kind of interesting. We also had a wander around Grand Central Station where martin showed us a place where you can whisper into one corner and a person standing the other side of the room can here it. Now that's entertainment.
After this we went to a baseball match which was definately a highlight. It was The Phillies vs. The Braves and the phillies dissappointingly lost devistatingly although at the end of the match there was a gigantic earth shaking firework display that cheered everyone up. The atmosphere at the games was great though. None of your english football thug bollocks, it's really friendly and upbeat and they do a great job of keeping everyone entertained inbetween breaks in the game. We did a bit of mexican wave action and all that kind of shit. Wicked.
On this night we also sampled the local delicacy, the Philly Cheese Steak. Imagine this if you will:
A hot dog bun filled with minced up steak that has been mixed together with Cheese Whizz. Cheese Whizz is like that kind of fake cheese that sometimes comes in a spray can. You can have it with or without onions and sometimes with lots of other stuff like peppers and mushrooms or whatever.
It may sound bad but as with other types of food in America it's strangely extremely tasty in a guilty kind of way.
Ah, actually, we had another American cullinary experience in a famous New York deli the other day. The sandwiches they served in this place were literally a six inch high pile of meat (of your choice, normally pestrami or pepperoni or whatever) with a tiny piece of white bread balanced on the top without any other kind of dressing at all. You can't even pick the bastard thing up, people just attack it with a knife. Im quite a carnivour but that was just silly. The burger I ordered there must have easy been a 1 pound burger - I finished it though. Rargh! I am the master of the meat. As usual, the Japanese tourists were providing amusement. As they got the sandwich they ordered from the kitchen (which was essentially just a vast pile of meat as described above) they'd have a kind of wide-eyed look of terror on their faces as it landed in front of them. They'd just stare at it in wonder for a while then finally they'd take a photo of themselves with the sandwich and hurry out of the resturant leaving it un touched. Comedy.
So yes, yesterday we went to Live 8 and it was good fun. It's blazing hot in Philly at the moment and feels very summery. Seeing Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff performing 'Summertime' in their home town was amazing. The other bands all did well too I thought. Destiny's Child were good as was Kanye West. The whole thing was so massive though that getting close enough to actually see any action on the stage was impossible and it watching the screens was the only way. Great atmoshpere though and more cheese steaks were had. Tasty. The evening involved a mini party at Martin, Tina and Tanya's house while we watched the wind up on TV.
Tomorrow we are flying to Ecuador. I'm not sure I'm ready for that at all. Oh well, off we go. I think Bowelwatch might get a little more exciting soon...
