Holiday: Part One

Well, the wireless gods are kind, so I get to update my blog! Greetings from NYC, faithful readers!


Disclaimer: This is probably not how New York City looks all of the time. This was the Coney Island Mermaid Parade...

The trip has awesome so far! It was a very long 24 hours getting to the States, but get there I did. Boston was lovely - a really nice place. It was a good way to start off the trip, I think, as the temperature wasn't too crazy-warm, and it's a similar size to Melbourne. So I got to adjust at a nice rate. I saw lots of things in the time that I was there - probably too many, as I seem to have crippled my feet something awful, which is not enhancing my NYC experience so far. Still, it's hard to feel too regretful about it.




Boston Common is so pretty. I also did the Freedom Trail walk, climbed the Bunker Hill monument, had a quick stint on the USS Constitution, wandered around the Fens, went to the Museum of Fine Art, sauntered around North End, ate chowder and sweets from Modern Pastry (as instructed!), squizzed at Harvard, and went to the Natural History Museum. I also met up with some lovely knitter type people and got taken to a gorgeous little local yarn shop. Not bad for only three days, right? The weather was gorgeous the entire time I was there too - sunny, with a nice breeze. And I loved the Boston subway system - so much clearer and better than Melbourne's trains (not that that is particularly difficult most of the time *grumble*)

On Friday it was time to head south. I was sad to leave, but the upside was that thanks to the assistance of a few generous knitting friends, I was escorted to WEBS on the way down. WEBS! I was a little overwhelmed at first, given it's probably at least five times the size of any yarn shop we have in Australia... but I got over it fairly quickly and got stuck in. It was great - and Northampton was a really lovely town as well.

After getting a generous ride down to New Haven, I plonked myself on the commuter train to NYC. I was really tired by the time I got there, so it was a little overwhelming at first, but once I'd found my hostel, dumped my bags and foraged for some food, I felt a lot better.

I had a very pleasant sleep in on my first day and then travelled down to Brooklyn to attend the aforementioned Mermaid Parade, though not before being fed bagels (real New York bagels - squee!) and mimosa by a friend. The parade itself was good fun - lots of outlandish costumes and floats, with a lot of commentary on the BP oil spill (somewhat unsurprisingly, I suppose).

I think this is my favourite picture, even though it isn't of a mermaid:



Today was a bit more low key, as my feet were sore and it was rather hot. But I got to walk around the Midtown area a bit (including around The Strand Bookstore, which was as awesome as you'd expect), and in the late afternoon I checked out part of Central Park, which was absolutely lovely.

Two more days in New York, and then it's down to DC! Whew!

Knitting has been slow, because I've been doing so much walking, but I am doing some (and not just hoarding yarn from WEBS). I cast on for an Annis shawl, and then promptly made a mess of the fifth row and had to begin again. But the second version is coming along. I also cast on for a second Wisp, as I wanted to have a mindless project that I could work on while chatting.

And that's about all I've got for the moment. I'm having a great time - if only my feet would heal up, it would be hard for this trip to have been any better so far!