As some of you may know, this is my final post of Bogan in the City. Tomorrow night at 11pm I set sail to Jakarta for a new assignment. For the few of you out there that are sighing, no need to worry I have another blog in the midst - Bogan in the Big Durian.... I will save the root of the name until my first post.
So since my last post, this Tour Guide Barbie (think Toy Story Two) has been busy again. It was like one day after I posted last time that I found out I was moving, so Lisa (Brett's youngest sister) who was planned to come to NY in December for her first trip overseas, had to bring forward her trip and get on the plane 5 days later.. a pretty impressive feat given she didn't have a passport.
Given I had to work out my last month, I took on tour guide by weekend and night, and Lisa either self-directed herself or went on days trips with Brett. She managed to do a number of my standard tour items - you know, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the flea markets at Williamsburg ....
Central Park, Museum of Natural History, Movies at Bryan Park (it was closing night and ET was showing this time - cried my eyes out the entire time), Woodbury Commons for some serious hardcore shopping (Brett & I took the opportunity to stock up on cheaper shoes, jeans, boots etc. etc. etc.), Niagra Falls, Washington DC, and plenty more that I just can't remember at the moment.
I got us some tix again to America's Got Talent - this time the Backstreet Boys were performing.. they've just released another album, though I'm afraid the debut single is a little lame, even for BSB standards. No VIP tix this time either, we were up in the nose bleed section, way up in the 4th level! We went out for farewell dinner with Lindsay at a funky Mexican in SoHo where the chefs cooked in a Kombie van, and they served amazing White Sangria's (not too good for the head the day after), and afterwards checked out music at Rockwood Music Hall.
We introduced Lisa to the Burgel - a Brett&Michele creation of a hamburger in a bagel... bloody brilliant and bloody delicious! This is going to fund my retirement one day. If I see this in a takeaway place in Australia, I'll know it is one of you that stole our idea!
I got in a few things that I hadn't done before, the first being Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),
and then that afternoon a hip hop festival in Central Park. It was a fun way to spend Lisa's first day in town. She even made a little friend - Destiny...
Another one on the bucket list was Woodstock. We headed upstate to the beautiful little hippy town about 2 hours out of the city, only to discover the location of Woodstock festival is actually in Bethel, about another 1 1/2 hours from Woodstock! ... you don't find them publishing that in Woodstock as they profit from the name. Obviously, Bethel didn't quite have the same ring to it... but actually the reason it was called Woodstock is that the festival was organized by the Woodstock Art & Music foundation. Anyway, it was a beautiful trip across the state from Woodstock to Bethel and after we made our way up this small windy road, starting to believe Apple Maps was taking us on a bum steer to a farm, over the ridge we find the location of the most famous festival in the world!... and there happened to be thousands there (we apparently came in the back way) all there for a Blake Shelton concert.
Another new thing was checking out the Talent Show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem - it was too cool. For the performers, if you are good, you are guaranteed a cheer, but watch out for those that are not so good - they get booed straight of the stage, accompanied by the "Exterminator".
We went to Sylvia's restaurant before the show, a famous Soul Food restaurant in Harlem where Fried Chicken & Waffles were invented. The history is that in times of segregation, the white folk would have their own jazz shows, but they'd finish at 2am. Following this, the real party would start with the local African Americans who would party through to the morning. Over to Sylvia's they'd go and after a night of booze, they craved some good ole fried chicken, but to make it acceptable to eat for breakfast, they paired it with waffles, and so Fried Chicken & Waffles was born!
The last thing I knocked off the list was watching a football match. It's pre-season, but it was NY Giants v NY Jets, so a great match. I tell you, no matter what the sport, the New Yorkers sure know how to put on a show. There were fireworks, music, dancing... no cheerleaders though which was a little disappointing...We somehow managed to score good seats for this game too, so we had a great view of the field. After 20 months in the US I was even able to explain the game to Lis.
Whilst I spent the first half of this week in Mexico, Lisa set off to England to spend time in Caimbridge and London with some friends she has living and travelling over there.
It hasn't quite hit me yet that we're leaving, it seriously happened soooooo quickly (so don't feel bad if you don't know), but I sure feel like I've filled in the 20 months I've been here and this is where I'm so grateful for this blog - reminding me of great time I've had and the crazy things I've seen... I think I may have to bind it up into a little journal for myself. Going from NYC to Jakarta is certainly going to be very different, but hey life isn't life without some sort of adventures, and I have no idea what sort of posts you'll get from the Big Durian... but that's the fun of it.
In the meantime, this Bogan in the City is signing off from NYC! Thank you for following me along the way and for all of your positive comments. It's been fun for me and I hope you've all enjoyed it too.
Michele
