The Archive

Day 1 and all's well

Day 1, we arrived in New York without either of our traditional airport activities:

1. the harrowing wait for someone who’s really late to turn up or
2. early arrival rewarded with a cancelled or delayed flight.

So that was good news.

And the hotel, not only was it comfortable and clean, it also featured a New York listings magazine in the lobby which had a quite remarkable picture of John Cusack playing chess with a stuffed crow (at least I’m assuming it was stuffed. It may, I suppose, have been a live, chess-playing crow).

Eh? Chess with a crow?

If you have any idea what that’s about, please stick it in the comments. I’m dying to know.

So after settling in, we got out and about and headed into town, taking a lovely walk through Central Park and down Broadway. Eventually we decided to get a drink in Greenwich Village.

Problem was, as you know I am no fan of live music, especially in pubs and bars. The rest of the group felt much the same way.

So why we decided to go to a street famous for its live music scene for our drink, I’ll never know.

Bar after bar we tried. Bar after bar had some maniac with a guitar and an inflated sense of his own importance warbling away.

Finally, though, we found somewhere. We went in, got our drinks and sat down.

It’s worth noting something about the drinks at this point, actually. Wig decided he wanted a “large whisky”. What he didn’t know was that in America they give you proper drinks, instead of the stupid, tiny measures the UK grudgingly doles out.

So imagine his surprise (and pleasure) when Wig was presented with a tumbler filled to the brim with neat whisky.

Anyway, we got this and our other drinks and sat down.

It was, I think, about on the second sip that the band arrived and started playing.

Bastards!

Anyway, we moved on to another bar for a few drinks, then decided to go to a club.

Which is how we finished the evening in what I can only describe as a middle class black person’s bar. We stood out a bit.

That said, the music was fantastic, the atmosphere was fun and a super time was had by all.

And so, after a dance and a drink, to bed.

End of day 1.

posted by Peter The Great @ 1:22 PM