Quite Excited

[shermarama]

 Right, I've got a pile of clothes behind me that need putting in bags, a big pile of printed papers for all the flight, hotel, train and bus bookings (hooray for the paperless e-ticket and online reservation, eh) in front of me, and I've got to get up early enough tomorrow morning to catch the 05:05 National Express to Heathrow, although at least that's calling basically at the bottom of my street. 

Having got the bus, I'm going to eat a dirty great fried breakfast with a pint of CAMRA-discount beer in the airport Wetherspoons, breakfast of champions etc., and then fly to New York. And then get a train to Buffalo, and a bus to Niagara, and go to a conference there and present a paper on Monday and spend the rest of the week hob-nobbing like mad and handing out my lovely business cards (with my phone number on them in resistor codes, not that anyone will notice; Tom didn't get it and Tom has spent many of his working days using the trays of resistors in the electronics lab at Varndean which I spent some time in about 2001 labelling with their proper sets of stripes) and then get a bus back to New York and do touristy things and meet the sister I've never met. 

Any suggestions for must-do things in any of those places?

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but then when you get off the ferry walk up toward the Financial Center past a lot of street artists and the globe sculpture from the middle of the World Trade Center, now torn and twisted like a crashed car, which gives you more of a feel for it than visiting the actual WTC site which just looks like a building site surrounded by weaselly little men selling illegal souvenirs now.

Go to Central Park, to the statue of Hans Christian Andersen, and to the American art section of the Metropolitan Museum, which conveys the underlying American-ness of everything, like you're following the journey of immigrants from the despair of a 35-man bunk room in Ellis Island to the free abandon of having thousands of square miles to leave your conventions behind and dream in. In fact just walk around Central Park a bit, if you have good shoes for walking with you. Be prepared to get lost and waste entire days in the Metropolitan Museum getting distracted. Also helpful for when you hit that "I have been here for days and there is too. much. New. fucking. York" moment.

Don't go to Macy's, it's pretty much just another department store. Times Square is also just like Piccadilly Circus but bigger, and full of morons looking up through a camera.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Is the conference actually in Niagara-On-The-Lake? Obviously do the Maid of the Mist if you get the chance.

I should know more New Yorky stuff to do - walk everywhere if possible is a good idea.

[ironlord.livejournal.com]

I'm going to eat a dirty great fried breakfast with a pint of CAMRA-discount beer in the airport Wetherspoons

Achtung. The London Pride I had in the most obvious bar was noticeably watered down.

Any suggestions for must-do things in any of those places?

In NYC? Ask bighairydave for confirmation, but all the bars we visited when I was there were top notch. The Hop Devil Grill has gone now, so I hear, but Double Down and dBa should still be going.

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

resistors code - that reminds me i meant to ask you about that before you left london... well, next time i see you, if either of us remembers, i'd be interested to see one of those business cards.
NYC - i went to a nice bar called Employees Only. when the boy went he went to a good pub, sawdust on the floor etc. i'll find out the details.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

No suggestions, but they sound like cool business cards!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Any suggestions for must-do things in any of those places?

Don't go to the Wetherspoons. LOL!

Er, if you want to do some bargain clothes shopping in NYC, try Filene's Basement (http://www.filenesbasement.com/). It's essentially a basement with a huge pile of unsorted clothes, which can be pretty frustrating, but you'll come away with a stack of designer clothes for about $3.60.

Probably best not to chuck yourself over Niagara in a barrel though.

Enjoy