Was gallivanting around New York this last weekend for the first of this year's Dragon Boat races (the ERDBA New York Indoor Sprints). Lots of fun, lots of painful stints on paddle-adapted rowing machines too - my muscles are still very sore...
But the best part is the location - Chinatown.
It's absolutely delightful to wonder around for a few hours, sampling the goods, soaking in the atmosphere, bustling with the locals whilst behaving for all the world like the blissfully clueless tourist that I was (backpack and sleeping bag slung over my shoulder, barging into just about everyone... not intentionally, mind you).
(prizes to the first person who emails me with what the picture, over there, is of!)
planes,trains and more planes.
Were the bane of my weekend. A late flight in on Saturday saw me run into the event approximately 30 seconds before my first race began - a quick strip and a double-check to make sure I was actually doing 500 metres and not 250 and off we went. Oh the agony - paddling hard on no warm up. Ouch.
But the rest of it went well. We even almost beat the Philly guys in the team event again (they all are on the US men's team, so a pretty noble effort on our part).
Then off to meet up with the inimitable Euan - (via a train journey that was 4 times as long as it should have been...) - for fun and frolicks around Manhattan for the remainder of the weekend - including a very fine Bossa Nova band - ah, that's what New York's all about - you can do and see anything and everything :)
Brunch on Sunday with a whole bunch of Brits - poor waitress, I'm sure she didn't know what had hit her - to make up for the fact that none of us were in London for the First Monthly Burnsy's Brunch (photo to follow).
A quick jaunt with Rachel to Central Park before we intrepid travellers managed to get a bus Uptown and to LaGuardia via Harlem (passed the Apollo Theater, how cool was that?!) - very much at the last minute, but very much on time for our flight. Except!
That the silly US Airways lady in Pittsburgh had managed to cancel my return reservation - I'm sure she must have something against Brits - the evil lady...
Anyway, I had the fortune of having the most jovial and kindly airline representative EVER at the ticket counter and finally managed to get on the last flight out of LaGuardia that night on a different airline. You know, some people think I'm late to things because I don't have a good sense of timing, but I swear, the world is conspiring to delay me... I mean, a delayed first flight and an innadvertently canceled second one - what's a guy to do?!
But, you know, it all added to the flavour of a fine weekend in the Big Apple. Am liking that city more and more each time I go. Who knows, after 'My Kinda Town' and 'PittBritt' maybe the next blog will be titled something like 'Little Englishman in New York' ???
And I would have said the same is true of trying to get to, let's say, my sister's house in Bournemouth from my house in Pittsburgh - I mean, it's not like you could just do a GoogleMap and find your way.
