You can take away the nights with sights with bright lights

So it probably feels like I've abandoned this thing. I've been to New York and come back (believe me when I say I'm going back pretty soon) and I've not really done much of the arty writing stuff I thought I was going to do.

I haven't even told you about the few places I went to. Until now. I randomly found this place before I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, I didn't mean to namedrop that I've walked over the Brooklyn Bridge just then honest. It's in DUMBO, Brooklyn and is kinda like Magma in Manchester. It was full of arty, really expensive stuff, though I did pick up this pretty cool book about New York - Adventures in the City by Ian Frazier. The girl who served me was immensely cool and I more or less had an instant crush on her, you could tell she was some kind of artist/musician. I asked her randomly about where was good to go for a coffee and she directed me to this cafe round the block, it was pretty good coffee and the cakes they baked looked amazing, the name of it currently escapes me though.

So yeah that was one thing that happened. Hopefully I'll the few pictures I managed to take up here and/or on the Facebook, not that I'm even sure too many people read this thing.

I need to go to bed now.

Are you aware of the shape I'm in?

You clearly aren't. I've been back for just over a week and haven't even looked at this thing since I returned from the Five Boroughs (for some reason I dislike New York's Big Apple nickname).

So how was it? Good. Pretty darn good. But not great. That's nothing against the city itself. Mainly because I didn't get chance to do half the stuff I thought I was going to.

But I did some pretty cool bits. More about those later. I need a bath and bed.

I desperately want to go back to America. Most likely next year. Whether I just go to New York or somewhere else entirely different (maybe Boston) is another question.

Don't hold your breath for awesome pictures. My camera busted on the Tuesday so while there's a few, including the ones I took on my phone, there's not too much.

Peace easy.

To the Five Boroughs!

This is it. I'm actually leaving to New York. Currently at the departure lounge at Manchester Airport and spent a silly amount of money on newspapers, magazines and sweets.

Been here for about an hour and got quite a bit to go until I depart to Amsterdam (on a connecting flight), my uncle gave me a lift down which is why I'm so early.

Pretty nervous now, in a way it doesn't seem real that I'm going even now. I guess that'll change when I got on the plane from Amsterdam to JFK.

Not sure if I'll update much when I'm over there. I don't like using the interent while on holiday. Hell I don't even like using the interent here (I'm paying £1.50 for 15 minutes on here. EDIT make that £2 for 20 minutes. Robbing fuckers). O'm not sure there's much else for me to say so I'm going to leave you with this quote...

"As for New York City it is a place apart. There is not its match in any country in the world." Pearl S Buck

I won't lie. I'm scouting this airport for hot girls. I hope I get to sit next to one on the plane. Knowing me I won't do though.

So I try living in the moment 'til the moment it just froze and I felt sick and so alone

It feels like I've abandoned this thing and in a way I have/did. The much lauded trip to New York was off for a while due a family illness which I've no desire to talk about on here. But it's back on now. For real.

I'm due to fly on Saturday afternoon and am so unprepared in every imaginable way possible that you wouldn't believe. I'm so not ready for this trip, though I'm not sure anyone can really be ready for what is most probably the most famous city on the planet.

Awesome right?

Yeah New York, yeah Big Apple! Let's go!

So of course it's taken me ages to make a second entry on here. What were you expecting regular, well-written, good-quality content? I'm not at work now ok?

At present I've not got anything too firm planned/booked. I know already that New York is going to be bigger and busier than I could ever imagine and I'm already too much of a stickler for saying I want to do certain things and then never end up doing them and then get mad at myself when I don't do them. I'm keen to avoid it this time. I don't think it matters too much if I don't see xxx. I already know that I'm going to go back. Plus while I do want to do some touristy stuff (going up the Empire State Building for instance would be epic) I don't want to do too much of the overtly obvious schtick, I'd much rather hang out in a cool coffeeshop, then head to a museum and then go to a bar for a gig (or 'show' as I believe they call it on the other side of the pond).

I have however bought a ticket for this which should be pretty sweet. It's at Madison Square Garden which has got to be one of the most famous, if not the number one, venue in the world, plus I've always wanted to see a basketball game. It's not featuring either of the teams that I follow, which are the University of North Carolina and the Boston Celtics by the way, but it should still be pretty good. Plus its pretty cheap, my ticket was about $25, though I could have paid $10 for not as good a seat if I wanted to. If I went to a Knicks game, still at MSG, it would have cost me $60 at least. Same goes for a Rangers (that's ice hockey) game. Balls to that, though I wouldn't mind going to a bar and watching them. Likewise for the football (that's English football aka soccer, not that NFL stuff), USA are playing a friendly against South Africa away while I'm there, so it may be a cool time to wear my USA football shirt that I bought here a few weeks ago. I wouldn't mind going to the ESPN studios at Time Square but I don't think that they do tours. If you hadn't figured out by now I quite like American sports.

Anyway I'm going to wrap this up. God knows where I'll be four weeks time, Williamsburg, Little Italy, the Upper East Side, Fort Greene. It's all pretty exciting and at the same time kinda scary.

Oh yeah, if anyone reading this has been to the Five Boroughs and has places/things to recommend feel free to leave me a comment or message me. I'm still trying to figure this thing out so I'll adding more links and dicking around with font types and that for quite a while I imagine.

I actually bought I and Love and You by the Avett Brothers the other day. I've not listened to the full album yet but it's pretty awesome.

I'm gone.

Late.

So it starts

The last thing I needed was another social media profile (if you haven't already found me you can find me on current online fads such as Facebook) but hey I wanted to keep a record of my travels and after reading about various people's recordings for their travels this seemed like a good place for it.

If you hadn't figured out I'm going to New York in just over a month's time. Excited much? You bet. To say I've had an obsession with all things to do the US would be too much of an exaggeration but it's certainly the one country in the entire world that I've always been fascinated with and wanted to go to more than anywhere else. I'm always saying how I wanted to do things in life but never get around to doing them. But somehow for some reason I decided to take the plunge and go ahead and do something.

So New York it is. There's so many places I want to go in the US and I will see them (I'm already looking to go next year), but for now I'll start with what is probably the greatest city in the world (and perhaps Philadelphia as well, but that's another matter entirely). I can't wait to go, I mean really, really CAN'T wait to go. For at least the first few nights I'll be staying Bedstuy, Brooklyn. Gritty yes? While I will be doing some touristy stuff during the week I want to go 'off the beaten track' as it were.

I'm feeling pretty beat right now so I'm going to cut this entry off here. There'll be more about New York before/during/after my trip.

If you wondering where the title of this blog came from (To The 5 Boroughs and No Sleep Til Brooklyn were already taken), its from I And Love And You by The Avett Brothers. It was an episode of One Tree Hill and it just killed me.

Anyway later.