Enjoying the last of U.S. at least for now

Los Angeles

After my final exams I flew over the country to meet up with Jyri. I was excited and of course wondered how it would feel like after being almost five months apart. At the first sight every “strange” feeling went away, and it felt like we hadn’t been apart at all. Well at the hotel after a long night and day travelling, we decide to just rest and do a little walk around downtown to get something to eat. LA is really huge. Everything was really spread out, but luckily their local transportation was good, even though it could take a while to actually go somewhere… In four days (without any rush) we saw the whole downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, a little bit of Beverly Hills, we biked on the beach of Santa Monica and spent an afternoon in Disneyland. We had great weather and just couldn’t be happier in each others company. I was, and I think we both were surprised how nice our hotel were and surprised overall about LA, since people had warned us that LA is a horrible place. All the negative critique about LA and especially the downtown area was completely unnecessary.

For pics you can check Jyri's Picasa-album

American Christmas in Albany

American Christmas. After enormous traffic jams and some other complications we arrived in Albany 2am in the morning on Christmas Eve. It was a very different Christmas, but not necessarily bad. We opened our gifts in the morning, since that was the time they opened gifts back home, around 7pm in the evening. For lunch we made the traditional Finnish rice porridge and made some potato casserole! Jens parents invited us over for dinner, and we had delicious lasagne (I had rice and the same sauce) and spent some time in the hot tub. It was so nice, since it was a cold and little rainy evening. Christmas Day which is THE day in U.S. my roommates opened gifts with their families and Jyri and I had a nice relaxed morning and then had Seafood dinner with Kari’s family.

Friday which was my last day in Albany, we all had dinner at home and then had some people over. We went out to some bars, since I wanted to go one last time, and I also wanted to show Jyri how it was like to go out in Albany. I had, and I think everybody else too, had a great time! Saturday at noon Erin and Kari drove us to the greyhound station and we jumped on the bus to New York City. It was extremely hard to say goodbye and it felt like I wasn’t ready at all to leave. But at the same time I know I have something nice to go home too! It’s always hard when you find people you really like and get so close too…On the other hand, one can always come back! =) It is not as big and scary as I thought five months ago!

New Year's in the City

New York is already starting to feel quite easy to manage and not as chaotic as at first sight. Even though this was my fifth time in the city I could totally enjoy my stay, you cannot get bored of the place. To the matter of course is also that I spent my time there with my wonderful boyfriend, who was the first time on Manhattan. As I said earlier we arrived on Saturday evening. We started of with a walking tour around Empire State, Macy’s and Madison Square Garden. This time a year it gets dark quite soon, so we hadn’t really time to see that much outside.

On Sunday we walked down from our hotel on 29^th street to Union Square on 14^th street on continued on to Greenwich Village, Little Italy and Soho before we headed up to Madison Square Garden and the Knicks Game. Madison Square Garden was impressive. It was a big arena and it was almost fully packed even though it was a normal game, the play offs hadn’t even started yet. I have never been that interested in basket ball, but the game was easy enough to fallow. Jyri, who knew a little bit more than I, explained briefly the rules to me (that helped a lot!). The feeling in the arena was awesome, people cheered and was very into the game. It was an interesting and quite tight game, which unfortunately ended in favor of the guests, Denver Nuggets, which was a shame of course.

Monday we walked around in Central Park and just enjoyed the wonderful surroundings while the sun was shining for a blue sky. After lunch we decided we had to do something we had thought of since we booked the flights and the hotel in the city, yes, I shore you know what we were thinking of, the thing the New Yorkers love to do in the winter: ice skating! It was a lot of fun! Something one apparently never forget, even if one does it no more than once a year or even less. We also managed to take some pictures, even if it was strictly forbidden, uups… In the evening we had booked a table at an Italian restaurant on time square, it was absolutely delicious. I have to thank Julie for the tips, because we would never found the place if it wasn’t for her. They had good prices, good service and the best tomato-mozzarella salad I have ever eaten! Afterwards we went to see Chicago and the Ambassador Theater, it was a great show with very talented actors and actresses.

Tuesdays plan was to take the ferry over to Ellis Island, but as we came down to Battery Park, we saw the longest line we had ever seen… It would have been at least an hour line for the tickets and another three hours to get on the ferry. It just wasn’t worth it! The amount of tourists over all was absolutely crazy. But what other can one expect for Holiday season. Maybe it felt different because I didn’t feel we were really what one can call a normal tourist. Well, we skipped our plans and decided to walk the downtown area instead.

We saw the financial district, e.g. Wall Street, New York Stock Exhange etc. Among other things we saw the South Seaport, the twin tower site, Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown and Canal street. Again our plans change a bit, because of the crazy amount of tourists… We wanted to go up to Empire State while it was still light to see the sunset and the view when changed to dark, but, the line was over three hours. So we almost ran to Rockefeller Center to go up to the Observation Deck instead, hoping the ques wouldn’t be as crazy there. It turned out to be a good call. We waited for an hour and got up 40 minutes before it got dark. The views were absolutely stunning! Just one word is enough: wow!

Wednesday we took the subway over to Brooklyn, where we met up with one girl, Kamilah, who I got to know through UAlbany Track Team. We walked in the botanic garden and then went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art. It was a good call, since it was cold and a little snowy that day, and the collection of Egyptian, Japanese and Chinese art made almost your mount to fall open. Wednesday, of course, also New Years Eve, which after five fours of waiting in the cold on Time Square, turned out to be a great disappointment. They apparently ad a lot of program all evening, but no speakers or screens so that other people than those between 42th and 46^th could take any part of. It was pack of people though, all the way from 42th to 59^th street, unbelievable! Nothing we would do again… We agreed on that, if we’re spending New Years Eve abroad on other time it will be in Sydney where it’s warm for shore! =)

Thursday I wanted to take Jyri for a REAL brunch, so we went to Hells Kitchen to the same place, Film Center Café, where I had brunch with Jen and Julie my first time. The food there is so delicious and for a reasonable price they had unlimited drinks, and we ended up with a little boost in the middle of the afternoon, a REAL Manhattan brunch, hahah! A little more culture was to be done, so we spent the rest of the day at American Museum of Natural History, an awesome place. We had over three hours, but it wasn’t enough, well it was in that meaning, since one cannot take in so much at the same time, but I don’t think we saw even half of it. Last thing, we met up with Julie one last time, to have cheesecake at Juniors (a place Kamilah recommended, but as we got there, it turned out you couldn’t sit, so we chose another cheesecake place Roxy’s, which too had really yummy cheesecake! Last evening, it felt weird. Felt that five month went by so fast, like I just arrived, little and lost by my self on JFK airport the first time. The feeling of standing alone outside Grand Central Station, having no idea of where I was and how to find thing, and the difference now, to feel absolutely secure to move between the streets and avenues, taking the subway and becoming so used to the high buildings, the travelling etc.

Again, for pics from NYC you can see Jyri's Picasa album