Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair...

As my flight to London went via San Francisco it seemed rude not to take advantage of a short stopover - particularly as Miles (Rachael's boyfriend) is currently living there and had a couch with my name all over it!

After arriving, wending my way through the hills of SF's suburbs in a shared shuttle bus, then getting the keys from Miles, it was off to Pacific Heights. Miles lives on the border of Pacific Heights and the Tenderloin - so near to all sorts of interesting things! Day 1 had fantastic weather which I absolutely had to take advantage of, so I walked down to the Marina, checked out the Golden Gate bridge in all her afternoon sunshiney glory, then around the coast and back up the steep cable car street home. Oh, and via Whole Foods - or as it's colloquially known, Whole Wallet... It's definitely expensive but such delicious food! With a bit of mozzarella and proscuitto I transformed Miles' fridge ingredients into a pizza...mmm...

Day 2 dawned bright and sunny again, and after a sleep-in to recover from the plane ride, I ran down Van Ness Avenue to try and make the midday free tour of city hall - unfortunately just missing it by 5 minutes! But never fear, another one was scheduled for 2.30pm so I investigated downtown while I waited. It was a bit sketchy, what with all sorts of people muttering to themselves (and yelling to themselves too), and if I wanted to buy some dodgy goods I'm sure I was in the right neighbourhood, but interesting nonetheless. It was also directly adjacent to the fancy part of downtown (Saks 5th Avenue and the like) - I guess all the locals know exactly where the borders are!

Back at City Hall I had an absolutely brilliant 1 and 3/4 hour tour with our guide Al Lopez. He knew everything! It was fascinating how the building's had such an unstable history - completely destroyed in 1906 by an earthquake, rebuilt, hosted some infamous marriages (Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio), another earthquake in 1989 (whose cracks are still visible today) and political assasinations (Harvey Milk). It's a beautiful building as well - I would definitely recommend stopping by if you're in town!

After that it was a short stroll back through the Tenderloin and again to Whole Foods where I found some tamales for dinner. I'd always wanted to try them - just to see what they were as I'd heard the name and heard that they can be delicious! I can attest that they're quite delicious and I'll keep my eye out for them in London! After dinner Miles and I went to the California Academy of Sciences for their NightLife event. It was brilliant! The museum is packed with people, there are cocktails, DJs, and the ground floor aquarium (where we spent most of our time) was all dimly lit so the amazing colours etc. of the fish can be seen really well. I particularly liked the pulsating jellyfish and scaredy-cat seahorses. Hopefully some of the photos come out! We even managed to get a cab home without waiting too long which was an absolute coup.

The next day was nice and lazy - I slept in, checked emails etc. and then ventured up to Japantown where I had to physically restrain myself from buying every single piece of crockery I saw... I particularly loved these crumpled china mugs - like these ones - but thought they might be a bit inappropriate considering how close to (ok, over) the luggage limit I was! That night Miles and I went out to a delicious Thai restaurant in Pacific Heights, then into town for some cocktails at a kind of hidden bar behind another bar - very urban cool ;)

Saturday (my last day) ended up being a behemoth (we walked about 5 miles or 8km). First we walked to Chinatown for some dim sum (or yum cha as I've always called it) at a place called Gold Mountain - at US$11 each it was an absolute bargain. Their sticky rice was the best I've ever had - definitely another recommendation! Then, to work it off we went to a place called Precita Eyes in the Mission District. This is a community-based mural art organisation - murals being a big part of Latin American culture, and with 75% of the Mission's inhabitants being Latin American, no wonder it set up shop there. We went on a tour with one of the muralists (Patricia Rose) and saw hundreds of different murals. The streets were packed as there was a food festival in the neighbourhood at the time so it felt like a really buzzy, full-on place. The murals were beautiful and it was so interesting to hear their back stories.

Then it was off! Our taxi driver home from the Mission (and mine onwards to the airport) had been to NZ recently and was a great find - chatting all about this and that. I worry that I didn't tip him enough - it's so difficult to know what to do!! As with all other NZers I fervently wish the whole thing just didn't exist...

And then to London where a whole lot of new adventures await!

Noo Yawk

'Would it all be worth it?' I wondered as we dutifully offered up our fingers and irises to be scanned at the customs desk (do not under any circumstances annoy a US federal officerrrr). Thankfully, the Gattaca-esque interlude didn't last long and there we were: New York! (The Big Apple, City of Dreams...etc. etc.).

We were in town to visit Adrian's brother and his family, as well as other parts of the family who had trekked from the UK and NZ to attend baby Katerina's christening. Thanks to a whole lot of free airpoints this was remarkably less painful than it may otherwise have seemed! The only painful thing was my sickness (cough, general flu-like blah) which hung around like a bad smell for the first half of the holiday but fortunately died down enough for me to spend a good few days enjoying the sights and sounds of the city.

The first trek into the city was to eat some pretty good burgers and it was magical to see the snow on the ground and feel like we were in a completely different world! The best bit though was to see all three Mazur men asleep on the train on the way home - I bet their dreams were in sync...

The next few days were filled up with christening related events and we also had a great day up on the coast at Lookout Point (on Long Island) where the snow was still all over the sand! It was fantastic to be able to see a part of New York that most tourists who just see Manhatten would never have the chance to experience.

The majority of the second half of the trip was spent in the city however, ticking off all those 'must see' things like the Statue of Liberty (sneakily glimpsed on the free Staten Island ferry), the bull at Wall Street, Time Square, Grand Central Station, Brooklyn Bridge etc. etc. We managed to score cheap tickets to Avenue Q, a musical on Broadway, and even though it's well known that I'm not the biggest musical fan, this was actually really hilarious and well worth a look.

But then the big day arrived: BIRTHDAY! Everyone knows that I am a huge fan of birthdays (not only my own) and to have this one in NYC was fantastic! We started the day going up the Empire State Building and because it was early and the middle of winter there were no queues at all and hardly any people at the top. It was FREEZING though - the scarves wrapped around our faces like balaclavas should give some indication of the temperature (about -12C that day I think). But, again, because of the cold it was clear for absolute miles. I reckon we could see Connecticut even! After the Empire State we wandered uptown, getting a hot dog from a street vendor (mmmm....delicious...) and a fantastic deli lunch. Although it was one of the those places where you get salad and other food by weight and we got a bit carried away! In the grand scheme of things it wasn't too bad really, probably even cheaper than London.

After stuffing our faces it was time for some exercise so we headed to FAO Schwarz, the massive toy shop where they have a copy of the 'big piano' that was in the movie Big with Tom Hanks. We couldn't quite manage to play chopsticks in time, but I think our more eclectic creations would have gone down a treat with some alternative jazz musicians! I picked myself up a birthday treat in the form of an Ugly Doll who has been christened ‘Monster’ and who guards our house from marauding invaders whenever we’re out.

FAO Schwarz is at one end of Central Park so we wandered up through there (well, walked at a brisk pace because it was so cold!), marvelled at the amount of squirrels just hanging out, chewing the fat (and bark, and acorns or whatever it is they do), and arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Being such art snobs from all the fantastic museums we were lucky enough to see in Italy, we were a bit down our noses at some of the stuff (I mean really, why are these statues missing arms!), but on the whole it was a lovely museum and I particularly enjoyed all the shiny stuff and the fantastic Asian carvings.

That night we met up with everyone and went to Tortilla Flats, a Mexican restaurant in Greenwich Village and had absolutely yum food, lots of frozen margueritas, and even a beer drinking challenge which I spectacularly lost against three other people from different tables who hadn’t eaten yet and had nice empty stomachs... Ah well, a lesson learnt for next time!

Our final day in the city we spent looking around at shops in the East Village and then to MOMA (the modern art museum). That was AMAZING! I absolutely loved it, there was so much fantastic stuff and we could have wandered round for hours. We managed to coincide our visit for when it was free which was good in some ways (as in, it was free!) but it was absolutely packed out with other people making the most of it.

Being on Long Island meant we could spend some time checking out the malls which was great as well, even though the £ was a lot weaker than we would have liked (although at least it wasn’t the NZ$ eh...). I managed to continue my bargain streak and get jeans for US$18 down from $80 which I was pretty pleased with, among other excellent purchases. Although, Adrian did most of the shopping, getting kitted out for his big trip, as well as a new ‘pulling shirt’ just in case he gets tired of me at some point!

All in all NYC was great. MOMA and the Empire State Building were my two absolute favourites and I would love to go back in warmer weather to get a different experience of the city (rather than rushing from one indoor place to another because it was so cold!). Qudos to Hannah for the great food and things to see recommendations and thanks so much to the Mazurs for hosting us too, it was such a wonderful birthday treat! There are more photos on this link.