Hakuna Matata

As you know, we went to see the Lion King on our third night in New York. 

We’d already braved the gauntlet that is Broadway.  It is quite an experience: exhilirating or horrific, depending on your piece of mind.   On this occasion, I’m happy to report that it was definitely the former.  Below is the view we enjoyed from within the theatre (the Minskoff).

The show itself was fantastic!  I’m not too hot on musicals to be honest but even I can’t resist some classic Disney – and this was classic.  Much of the show follows the film verbatim so if you enjoyed one, the other won’t disappoint.  The performances were uniformly excellent but for me it was the stage that really stole the show – the set was remarkable.  No photos allowed, sadly.

Broadway was even more spectacular after dark.  Not everyone’s cup of tea, granted, but it’s difficulted not be taken in by it all.

Earlier in the day, we’d explored the downtown area.  We visited the World Trade Center site, now a building site.  The construction of the Freedom Towers is still at an early stage so there was not an awful lot to see.

Across from the site is St Paul’s Chapel.  Remarkably, given its close proximity, this small church survived September 11th unscathed – trees in its yard protected it from the worst of the debris.  Subsequently, the church became a hub for the rescue effort that followed and is now a permanent exhibition recalling this aspect of the time. 

From here, we headed to the Hudson River and walked along the shoreline in the direction of Battery Park, which sits at the Southern most point of Lower Manhattan.  It was on this pleasant stroll that we caught our first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty.  I’d always thought it was closer to the mainland than what it actually is – this shot was taken with full zoom. 

Once we’d reached Battery Park, we found some shade and tucked into giant pretzels.  Very American.  And salty!!

After the excitement of the Lion King, we had a rare lie in the following day.  You might expect, and not unreasonably, that in New York of all places, we’d be out and about 12+ hours a day.  There is, after all, so much to see and do.  But to be honest, it’s here that we’ve been at our laziest.  I think in part, we have been unconsciously winding down – either that or we’re just fed up of walking x hours a day and have thus timed the duration of our trip to near perfection.  I would probably say the former, Anna the latter.

Anyway, once we did get out we went for some excellent noodle soup in Chinatown.  Stuffed (it hasn’t ceased to amaze how filling soup can be!), we carried ourselves to the Brooklyn Bridge.  Famous for being the first of its kind, there is a steady stream of tourists heading in both directions.  We joined the throngs and snapped away. 

In a cool twist (in my limed bridge experience, I should add), the pedestrian section of the bridge runs direct down the middle, above the traffic.

Once on the otherside, we meandered our way to Brooklyn Heights and the waterfront, for views of Lower Manhattan. 

On Tuesday (our penultimate full day – we have been going into countdown overdrive of late: last this, penultimate that) we were up at the crack of dawn with the intention of joining the queues to get across to Liberty and Ellis Islands.  Unfortunately, my travel buddy was feeling poorly – another bout of tonsilitis we feared – and so it was straight back to bed.  When we did finally get up and out, we skipped (not literally, I assure you!) through Cental Park to take some photos of the Guggenheim museum.  An architectural favourite of my father, it is indeed a stunning building. 

We didn’t pay the inflated fees to see the exhibits (we are not the most cultured of souls, where art is concerned) but we were able to nip inside and marvel at the building’s equally impressive interior.

Job done, we had a quick lunch at Grand Central (truly grand, as stations go) before doing a spot of shopping.  With limited success on this occasion, though Anna did emerge from Niketown with a couple of purchases.  And then we both had a bit of a fright.  Anna, as I’ve mentioned, had not been feeling too hot the past day or two and so we’d decided to return to the hotel for a siesta.  Well, we made it as far as the Subway platform – which, it should here be noted, makes the Tube feel chilly (certainly the platforms; the trains, mercifully, are air conditioned) – when Anna fainted.  I am talking proper fainting here.  At first I thought she was itching her back against the wall and then next thing I know she was on the floor.  Luckily, I’d been right by her side so I’d managed to cushion her fall but from there my composure began to crack. A friendly bystander (and there was just the one, I’m sad to say) was phoning for help but Anna came to.  Kind of.  The train was just pulling in as we got her to her feet but she was still swooning as I sat her down on a seat.  And this was probably the worst part of the episode (from my point of view, I think for Anna the nadir was lying on a subway platform … ), Anna was just starring at me all glassy eyed, looking really out of it, her skin having taken on a very unhealthy looking tinge.  And then, just like that, back she was, in the land of the living and BIG sighs of relief all around!!!  We were laughing about it within the hour but it was a scary few minutes.

We had Mets tickets for that evening and after a ‘power’ nap, Anna was adamant that we still go.  The Mets, forever in the shadow of the Yankees and far less successful, play in Queens, at the Shea Stadium.  It is a huge arena and our seats, though not bad, were stratospheric. 

On the evidence of those around us, a ball game is as much an eating occasion as it is a sporting one.  Anna and I definitely tried to get into the spirit of things but making just a paltry two trips to the food stands, failed miserably. 

We didn’t sit it out until the very end so I can’t even tell you who won, except to say that the Mets were 5-2 up as they closed out the penultimate (my word of the week) innings.  Oh, they were playing the San Diego Padres, if anybody cares.

Our final full day was fairly low key.  Mostly, it was a day of (more) shopping, both of us spending money I’m pretty sure we don’t have.  

At sunset, we made our way to the Empire State Building and its 86th floor observatory.  As Anna commented in the last blog, we were slightly underwhelmed by the building itself but the views were stunning. 

Not a bad way to bring our tourist activities to a close.  All that was left to do was to have a last meal.  I let the invalid choose.  If you know Anna well, her choice will come as little surprise: duck. 

A bloody good choice as it turned out – it was amazing.  Anna’s appetite not what it normally is, I was left to clean up (darn!).  On account of Anna’s tonsils, I was also left to pour a lonely beer.

So, this is it. 

In a couple of hours we will make our way to JFK airport and while away the last precious hours of what has been an incredible trip.  The title of this blog, although obviously linked to and inspired by the Lion King, resonated with me more because of its relevance to our experience – Hakuna Matata perfectly captures the past 6 months.  For sure, it has not been a completely worry-free time but more often than not, the worries have been minute: where (and indeed what) to eat, how to get to the hotel, getting ripped off by  sweet old ladies, trying to recall if toothbrushes had been packed etc., etc.  Far more pertinent – and I think I speak for both of us – has been an overriding sense of well being, of everyday being a new adventure and, up until quite recently, of new places and new experiences, being mapped out ahead of us on an ever-expanding horizon.  It has been like living in a bubble, a cosy cocoon that has protected us from the ‘real world.’  As we board our flight this evening, that bubble is about to burst.  Just as Simba had to return to Pride Rock, so too do we have to face the on-rushing realities of work, finding a place to live, finding the money to find a place to live and other such serious matters.  Which isn’t all bad.  I’m certainly not complaining.  We are both excited (mostly …) about the coming weeks and months.  Instead, I’m just grateful that we’ve been fortunate enough to have had this time, to have seen what we’ve seen, experienced what we’ve experienced and, most important, to have enjoyed every minute of it.

A Penultimate Post

As we were in Boston we decided to head over to Cambridge and check out possibly the most famous (and certainly the oldest) Ivy League college in America – Harvard.  We enjoyed a very pleasant walk to Cambridge and had a little explore before Jords decided it was simply time for him to have a haircut.  He found a cheap hairdressers and I wandered the streets some more!  When he came out he wasn’t altogether sure on the cut but thought he’d bear with it – see if it grew on him.  We were also just in time to get to the visitors centre where the free tour of Harvard started. 

Our tour guide was a student of Harvard called Matt and his tour was very informative.  It was amazing how well he spoke in public at the age of 19 to a large crowd of people.  No nerves at all!  As a student he was able to give us a much greater insight into what studying and living at Harvard is really like.  For example, he said that before moving into halls in the first year you have to complete a huge form about your music taste, time keeping, tidyness etc – all so the accommodation department can match you up with a perfect roommate!  Also, as there have been many great minds (and even some celebrities like Matt Damon) to graduate from Harvard the new students are interested to know who stayed in their rooms before them.  Apparently, when the new students move in, they have a list of their rooms’ previous occupants and although our guide’s room didn’t have anyone particularly famous staying in it before him, he said his friends moved into a room which had once housed Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones as roommates!

The tour mostly took place outside the main buildings but we were able to go into one of the buildings which has the lecture halls and more importantly the food hall for the first years (which apprently looks like the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies – sadly it is strictly ONLY the first years that are allowed in there).  The inside of the building was beautiful with many stained glass windows.  Interestingly, instead of religious figures adorning the stained glass, Harvard has great literary and historical figures decorating their stained glass – William Shakespeare was one such example.  I’m not sure if he’s on this particular pane but this is a good example of the types of stained glass on view here…

The Harvard Library is also impressive, and I’m not just referring to the exterior building, although it is pretty grand.

The library is one of the largest in America as it has many branches throughout Boston and Cambridge, and even one in Washington DC.  When the library was built, there were certain stipulations put in place by the lady who donated the money to fund the building.  It was built in honor of her son, a Harvard graduate who died on the Titanic trying to bring old and rare documents back to America.  Apparently her stipulations included that the face of the building could not be changed from it’s original form, so that her son’s name would always remain on the library, and her second stipulation was that every student had to complete a swim test before being allowed to graduate.  This was because she believed that if her son had been able to swim he would not have drowned aboard the Titanic.  For many years the university stuck to it’s word and all graduates had to complete a swim test before they could graduate – thankfully this practice no longer exists today.  However, the first condition is still adhered to, and in order to house more and more books the university has had to build down and outwards making the majority of the library underground.

After our fascinating tour of Harvard we were both pretty tired so we headed back to Boston and had an early night.  We’ve enjoyed our time in Boston at a more relaxed paced, and we were pleased to have a bit of a break after all the museum-hopping in Washington DC!  We found many a moment for a cool relaxing dip of the feet in the local ‘frog pond’ with our books.

Only 2 days after visiting Harvard Jords decided that he could not stand his haircut any longer so one afternoon he left me and went for yet another haircut!  This time the results were much better and he was a happy chappy again!  So much so that he treated us to some delicious sweet treats from the aptly named Sugar Heaven after a not-so-bad burger (oven cooked chips, fruit smoothies, brown burger rolls – it was great)!

On our final day we decided to visit the famous Fenway Park that we had seen so many times from our room lit up at night and full of life.  We visited it first thing in the morning, so it was much less lively, but still a sight we wanted to see.  It’s actually not the prettiest park out there but it’s steeped in history blah blah blah!

After walking to and from Fenway we grabbed a lazy breakfast and then walked into town again.  We were going to visit the Samuel Adams brewery for lunch but we knew we could get the beer in all the local pubs so come lunchtime we made our way to the nearest and nicest pub we could find!  We were faithful and had a pint of Samuel Adams (incidentally the brand of the first legal beer I had in the states) accompanied by some traditional Boston Clam Chowda.  It was a delicious combination and a good way to spend our final afternoon.

After enjoying our final meal in Boston we walked home along the pretty little streets and packed our bags for the penultimate time on this trip.  Next time we do that we’ll be packing to come home….

The next morning we were up at 6am to catch our final Greyhound (hooray!) to New York City.  We were able to catch an earlier bus than expected so less sitting around than usual which was nice!  Along the way our driver succeeded in getting lost, backing into a fence and not stopping once contact was made, and hurtling through the streets at the speed of light – thank GOD our final bus journey was over (it was only after that we heard what had happened in Canada…).

We found our hostel with ease and after checking in we headed out to enjoy the good weather.  We went straight to Central Park (a couple of blocks away) and made a plan for our time here.  We did a little walking too, past the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, before heading back towards our room, picking up some chinese en route.

On our first full day in NYC we walked into the downtown area and stumbled across Times Square.  It was absolutely heaving with people, screens, flashing lights – a truly crazy experience!  You can see the Lion King theatre in the foreground of this picture – so exciting!

Whilst in the theatre, to see if we could get our tickets, (and avoid the pouring rain!), the Naked Cowboy walked past the window.  Hopefully some of you know who I’m talking about?!  The guy who has a guitar and sings in a pair of underpants, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat!  It was like seeing a celebrity – people were giving him money to have their photo taken with him!  It’s a crazy city and somehow I feel like that is our first of many ’Only in New York’ moments!  Along the way we saw the Empire State Building and I have to say we were both a little disappointed by it.  It must have been a very impressive building back in the day but it looks a little old nowadays.  We still took a photo of it though!

I think it will look better at night and certainly the views from the top will probably make up for its appearance!  We also took to NY shopping like ducks to water, both making a couple of purchases late in the evening!  We have the Lion King to look forward to tonight – cannot wait!