Hello everyone from Canada - country number 54! I feel slightly guilty counting it as I'm only going to Toronto, but I'll be back one day to do a big trip here so I guess it's ok!!
We had a really great New Year's Eve. After a few hours of relaxing, napping and getting ready we got the train into Manhattan. I'll admit I had butterflies, I was really nervous about the crowds. In 2010 I was in Paris for New Year's Eve and the crowds were so extreme and massive that it was scary.
We got off the train at 42nd street and quickly discovered that getting around was going to be tricky, but this was a good thing. Due to a couple of incidents involving trucks ramming into crowds this year (Nice, Berlin) there were 7000 NYPD officers on around Times Square alone, and the entire perimeter was closed off with barricades and checkpoints, as well as sand bag trucks designed to block any possible attempts at driving something through. So I felt a bit claustrophobic, but I felt safe!
We started to queue for a place called BB Kings, but soon realised our tickets were timed for different places and we weren't allowed in there until 11pm. So we instead went to the place we had a 7pm ticket for - a bowling alley/club called Bowlmor. Once in we decided we liked the music, we knew where the food and alcohol was, so we decided to stay. Getting into this place involved having our passports checked about three times and then a police escort, and being out in the crowd was stressful. We didn't want to risk being locked outside and not able to get in anywhere.
The ticket we bought included unlimited food and drink, so we immediately took advantage of the bar, but food was hard to come by. Luckily whilst talking to a group of guys from India, a man walked past with a tray of chicken and pasta. We loaded up our plates and scoffed it. Lots of people missed out and didn't get any food at all, so we were lucky.
Unfortunately that type of disorganisation and miscommunication was a bit of a theme for the evening. The staff hadn't been briefed on what was going on, and there seemed to be endless rules. Even though we had paid top dollar, there were no seats we could sit in as they were all reserved. We could only get drinks at a certain bar, and after having sat on the floor for an hour we were asked to stand up. Which is fair enough, but provide some seating then!!
There were arcade games so we had a bit of a go at the basketball, ice hockey and photo booth.
As it approached midnight, we secured a spot downstairs and checked three times with the bar staff that the main screen on that level would be switched to New York (it was showing Miami for some reason). But even though we checked and we're assured yes it would be, it didn't. Luckily we could see the ball drop on a smaller screen, but the fact the staff lied to our faces was a bit frustrating.
The disorganisation of this place was capped off when we decided to leave at about 12.30 once (hopefully) the two million people in Times Square had cleared out a bit, and the cloakroom couldn't find Shannon's coat. After about 20 minutes of us trying to be reasonable, them saying they took no responsibility, us getting angry (Alisha was AWESOME) and them being incompetent, they somehow magically found Shannon's coat!!
So don't get me wrong, we had a good time. The music, food and drinks were good and I was in one of the greatest cities in the world for New Years with some of my most favourite people in the world. But the venue were pretty disorganised! I'm just grateful that we were able to have one last night of fun together. I was very saddened to hear while we were at the club that 35 plus people had lost their lives in a terrorist shooting in Istanbul, Turkey. They were doing exactly what we were, just in another place.
The journey home went fairly quick with lots of people wishing everyone on board the train a happy new year and cheering! We got home, I packed up a little and we went to sleep.
I got up at 8am and felt a little rough, but a shower helped. I said goodbye to Alisha, Shannon and Jess (which was sad, it hasn't really hit me yet) and set off for the station. I had to get two trains to get to Penn station. From here I had to walk to the big Penn station terminal (got a beautiful last view of the Empire State Building on the way) and caught a New Jersey transit train to Newark Airport.
I'm not having much luck with planes so far on this trip. I got to the airport at 11 for my 2pm flight only to see on the board it was delayed until 3pm. It was a really boring, small airport, but I passed the time by reading, listening to music and watching a TV show on my iPad. After what felt like an eternity we finally boarded.
A lady asked me if I would swap seats with her so she could sit with her friend. I accepted gratefully, as I realised I would then be sitting on the side of the plane that Manhattan would be on. I had such a gorgeous view out the window during take off, it was amazing. I can't believe how much we saw and did in the last ten days, it all went so quickly but at the same time we got into this really good rhythm as a group. I'll never forget the time we had there together :)
The flight was alright apart from some super bratty kids (who to be fair were probably very restless after the delay). I had a view of he Great Lakes as we flew over, we made up some time in the air and then landed in Toronto, Canada! The view as we were descending was spectacular as well. Such a beautiful looking city!
I got the train to Union Station and met up with my friend Courtney who I met in Peru. She's from Wagga but moved here nearly four months ago. Her friend Tori is here visiting her too so the three of us went for dinner and caught up.
Now we are just planning a bit of what we will do the next few days :)
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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