BiH – suprisingly beautiful!

The first glimpse of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Not a bad view, yes? This was our “Welcome to Bosnia and Herzegovina” sign as we entered from Croatia back in August. I was astounded. Freaking beautiful! I had no idea what to expect really, all I knew of Mostar was the infamous bridge jumping (Thanks Hamish and Andy).

And it got better…. We arrived in Mostar an hour late thanks to Croatian “on-time” transport. It was hot. We were tired. Our hostel was a bitch to find. BUT the locals displayed awesome hospitality, in the end a random man led us to the Hostel Herzegovina, or home for the next two nights. A very welcoming hostel, soon to be bigger and better with a new building going up. (So be sure to book on your next trip to BiH!)

Exploring time!

Mostar Bridge

Such a pretty town, but damn cobblestones annoy me! Wearing thongs on the Mostar Bridge is a no no if you are unstable on your feet like my un-coordinated self! ’twas a bit scary!

We were lucky to take a wonderful tour through Hostel Miran, and off we went on an adventure with great tour guides Vedad and Esmer. They were pretty happy gentlemen, with 11 girls to entertain for the day 🙂 how lucky!

Vedad and his ladies! Photo Courtesy of Hostel Miran (thanks!)

It was a great tour, saw some beautiful sights and learn A LOT about BiH and the recent war. A lot of sad stories of death and destruction, but the boys got us laughing as well, and DJ Esmer had our little car pumping with great tunes…. I will forever think of BIH roadtrippin’ when I hear “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and my new favourite – “Uno Momento” (Sorry about the video clip, just listen to the music lol).

Fresh water cave, deliciously refreshing…

Climbing the fortress

Beautiful Fortress

We had an awesome breakfast followed by a quick go on the swing for Chloe and I…. just can’t help ourselves! Visited an old ottoman house, got dressed up to enter (I scored baby pink. Baby pink and I don’t get along). On the road again for more sing-a-longs to arrive at a place with a wonderful view. An old fortress that (of course) had amazing views of the valley. Then it was waterfall time! Kravice Waterfalls are AMAZING! Terribly cold in the water though. Like numbing cold!

The Falls

Freezing our bits off… pic courtesy of Chlo

After we warmed up in the sun, with a beer, it was feast time. BiH cuisine is delicious. Similar to that of surrounding countries we had a lot of meat and bread. So well done though, fresh and full of flavour. Last stops on the tour were the East and Western Frontlines from the war. The city itself is full of bullet ridden scars on buildings and other war remains. We heard interesting and shocking stories of what went down only 20 years ago.

Looking out from a bunker on to the Eastern front

Picking Blackberries at sunset, 1100m in the air.

War remains, and someone has made every effort to resume normal life in the building.

Some thought provoking street art.

Had a great walk around town the next day, getting close up to the street art (which is really impressive!) and the war remains. Such an intriguing country, such lovely people, fresh history, delicious food, beautiful environment. I will be back to explore further! Lise

Thanks Mostar (and BiH), you showed us a really good time!

Croatia – My Sea-bed

A little disappointed with everyone’s efforts on the “Choose your own adventure – Greek Islands” post! Please read after this and contribute some witty captions…

The beautiful Dubrovnik

Everyone has told me how amazing Croatia and Dubrovnik are – and I can say I fully support these comments! I once listened to my cousin, in slight disbelief, tell me that the BEST pizza is made in Croatia. Now I haven’t been to Italy (my 5hrs and pizza slice in the airport unfortunately don’t count), but I can tell you that the pizza in Croatia is PHENOMINAL My growing belly fat will support this argument.

Dubrovnik is a magical place, unfortunately missed the next season of filming for Game of Thrones by 2 weeks! So I am yet to make my GOT début. It is no wonder why they chose it! It was rather hot though, so we spent most days sourcing out the ‘beaches’. I no longer take our beautiful Australian beaches for granted… god damn we are a lucky country!

We did find Club Boninovo – AMAZING!

Beach Swimming, Dubrovnik Style!

After a rad few days in Dubrovnik, swimming at the “beaches”, wandering the awesome old town walls and sweating it out in the sun, we were all ready for a week on the sailboat, swimming, eating, drinking and sleeping. And repeat.

So then we set sail! Our boat, Mariner was a star! Our Skipper, Charlie was a lovely British chap who was full of knowledge and I’m fairly sure we cracked into his humour by day 2! Our crew…. of three Aussies, three lovely British ladies and a fun Russian couple made the trip amazing! If you are thinking of doing a sailing trip of the Croatian Islands, don’t do Sail Croatia (all Aussies!); avoid Yacht Week (don’t see enough!); I highly recommend MedSailors!

The Mariner

It was a wonderful week, exploring the beauty of Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast. I was lucky (?!?) enough to catch a beautiful 6am sunrise on day 2 and had one of those “Life is wonderful” moments:

Sunrise at Sea! Sipan, Croatia

Take me back! Dalmatian Coast, Croatia

We ate delicious seafood, swam and sunbaked and explored at night. Had a lovely (but intense uphill!) bike ride around the Mljet National Park. Got to go wine tasting in Korcula (one of my favourite islands) which was a hilarious afternoon, all starting with a taxi ride to the winery belting out the lyrics to Sweet Child of Mine. After tasting 3 wines (generous tasting portions!), cheese, anchovies and 6 different flavoured Grappa’s… the taxi ride back down was just as entertaining!

Grk – enjoying some Croatian Wine and Cheese

Mariner Crew! Post winery tour and drinking games, pre dinner.

Nailed it…

Conquered the paddle board, both stand-up and riding behind the boat….

Nailed it again! Photo Courtesy of the lovely Lauren Marshall… stole it! Thanks for documenting the week so well Loz!

Team Mariner made my holiday phenomenal (this is my word of the week… great word!). We had the superior boat and superior crew… so of course we where a shoe in to win the MedSailors Regatta for Sail Week 16th August 2014. Champagne flowed and the party went late into the night!

Victory shines!

So that’s the brief, I could put up tonnes of photos as it was so beautiful, but for once I enjoyed the scenery and company rather than over did it on the photo taking!
Thanks to the Mariner crew for making my week so spectacular and memorable!
I will forever think of you all when I hear Toto’s “Africa”…

In the words of our favourite J Boog…. “Nice to nice to know yah, let’s do it again!”

Lise xx

NOW – go and read my Greece post again, and contribute some captions or ELSE…

Greece – choose your own adventure

Ok, so I think I’ll have some fun with this one… In Greece I met up with the lovely ladies, Chloe and Jo, and I was ready for sun and fun in Mykonos and Ios.

Instead of telling you these stories (which included vodka, getting a fever and lots of iced coffee frappe’s!) I am going to post a few photos from our Greece adventure and YOU get the chances to be creative..

I have created a poll for each picture, (this is not the most attractive blog post!) so for some or all of the photos, pop in a caption that you think suits the image. I will then maybe publish my favourites in a future blog post (giving special credit to the winners if they so wish to be famous in my blog!)

Here’s what you do….

Put your comment in “other” and if you would like credit for your wit and humour, pop your name on the end, otherwise you will remain anonymous. I’ll give you an example on this one:

“How’s the serenity? Sooooo much serenity!” – Lisa McC

So get the picture? (that is actually a witty pun and fully intended!) Please get involved, it will be fun! 🙂

Lise xxx

 

 

 

But a few pretty photos for viewing pleasure as both Ios and Mykonos were gorgeous!

Mykonos

Mykonos

Ios

My Boston Sofa Bed – The Foley’s

A spectacular reunion with Miss Brittney Foley, after not seeing my Seppo Roomie from 104 (Whoop Campus East, Post Grad!) for almost 8 years….. I jumped on the train from NYC up to Boston, Massachusetts.

Reunited!

With a local in charge, we had a lunchtime tour of some Boston sights, I enjoyed my first New England Clam Chowder in bread bowl complete with oyster crackers…. and a Snapple. I devoured it all, whilst we sat in the square outside Quincy Market and got a lecture on giving to homeless people by a Bostonian…. I took the candid Cheers! photo, tried some Boston Chipyard Cookies (YUM… to DIE FOR), then explored Faneuil Hall.

Lunch, Faneuil Hall, Cheers! Mate and Quincy Market

More sightseeing planned for day 2, we trained it into Boston after stopping by Brittney’s work to try my tastebuds with a Marylou’s iced coffee. This place is sensational. Any flavour you could imagine…. I had to get Britz to start me off, I think it was a chocolate hazelnut delish concoction, from memory, and it was awesome. Set me on the upward coffee high for a day packed with sightseeing!
We got tickets for the hop-on hop-off bus, at student price (bargain! thank goodness I was wearing my SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE t-shirt ;-P more on that later) and off we went on a tour of the lovely Boston. With time short, we made only a few stops, had to get off at Fenway Park of course!

Photo-bombed by the bus driver; Marylou’s pink explosion; Home of the Red Sox.

We wandered through the community gardens, awesome space for people to try their green thumb (again, I am so inspired to grow some veggies and flowers when I get back to AUS), then I “ohhhh”ed and “ahhhh”ed at the awesome architecture and had a moment at the Boston Marathon finish line.

I just loved the mix between beautiful old architecture and new shiny modern skyscrapers….

Lunchtime! Brittney’s Uncle Rich very kindly shouted us an AMAZING lunch at a restaurant with a beautiful view. Sam’s certainly put on a show, located at the South Seaport with a lovely view of the harbour and phenomenal food, it was a lovely afternoon spent with great company!

Fine food, views and wonderful company!

We then had time to line up at Modern Bakery for delicious bakery treats… There are two “institutions” in Northport, Boston when it comes to baked goods. Mike’s Bakery versus Modern Bakery. Both have lines out the door with people waiting in the hot sun for their awesome cakes, truffles and MACAROONS! Now those who know me well, realise I cannot go past an average bakery… so when I find a good one…. chaos hits! Macaroons for the Foley Fam, carrot cake, eclairs. We went all out.

Potato Skins; the Foley Castle (featuring Guinness the dog); Foley Brewing Co delicious Raspberry Blonde; Baked goods….

These baked goods went down well with our Foley Feast, delicious home cooked dinner with all the family, accompanied by a GREAT home brew courtesy of Mr Craig Foley of Foley Brewing Company, and Kim’s AMAZING dessert that was cream, Oreo and all things delicious. I also had the pleasure of experiencing a potato skin from UNO, thanks to the lovely Nicole! A deep dish pizza with mashed potato, cheese and bacon…. tick tick tick. We ate and drank the night away with a fire bucket, awesome tunes and an exciting firecracker display (they will know what I’m talking about ;-P)

Boston turning on the sunset!

I am also now FINALLY the proud owner of a Springfield College t-shirt. When we lived together in 2006, Britz would wear her college shirt and I would get drunk and tell her to get me one so I could be “Lisa Simpson from Springfield!”… so bless her soul, she did…. but never actually sent it to me! I had to visit her to receive it so  almost 8 years later….

Mix up, UOW and Springfield College!

Britz, thank you for being a spectacular hostess and showing me the sighted. Thanks to the rest of the Foley Family for making me feel welcome and attempting torn at least humouring me with my vegemite and avocado on toast!

Stay healthy and happy Britz! You have such a lovely family and wonderful friends, thanks for sharing them with me!

Lise xx

PS Go to Boston, the “cawfee” is great, driving a “car” is safe and there are plenty of fine “bar’s”… 😛 wish the Boston accent was better on paper! (Sorry, couldn’t help myself!)

Quebec City

 

What to do when delayed at the airport?!

Ok, backtracking to my Quebec adventure back in July:

From America back to Canada – airport delay meant I had a little over an hour to kill at the Boston Airport… so I did some wine and cheese tasting of course!

Arrived in Quebec to a taxi driver telling me to learn more French quick smart or I would not survive in Quebec, and to think about buying a house, marrying my “make believe” boyfriend and having babies before I’m thirty because after that apparently I’m “going to have a lot of heartache”… well “Merci beaucoup vous trou du cul!”. He wasn’t all bad news though – he pointed me in the direction of the Bryan Adams gig that was on, and almost finished, and some Jazz to enjoy with a late dinner.

Jazz in the rain in Quebec City

I liked Quebec City, but definitely only needed my two nights there. This is what I did –

1. Explored the old city and surrounds. It is really easy to get around by Foot Falcon in this city. I went for a nice morning walk along the water, came across the Citadel at a very convenient time, when they were about to do the Changing of the Guard. Good half hour show meant my first sunburn of the trip!

The Fancy Fairmont Hotel, where I did not stay.

Lucky to arrive just in time for the Changing of the Guard at the Citadel! Score..

The Queens Goat inspecting the Guards for duty. Apparently this is goat number 14. I saw goat number 3 stuffed in the museum.

A girl in my hostel had handed me a flyer for Crossing the Holy Door in the Note Dame Cathedral. I thought that would be pretty cool to check out. The parish is 350 years old, and the Pope has opened the Holy Door in celebration. I walked through a few doors, not quite sure if I got the right one…. Beautiful old church!

Looks like rain…. inside the Notre Dame

Religious Graffiti

2. I did beer tasting. I was looking at what I thought was a walking tour organised by the Hostel. Turns out it was actually a ferry ride across to the river to Levis to take some great snaps of Quebec City….. When our Hostel tour guide suggested beer tasting after a hike up to the lookout, I was all in! Great decision as I met some lovely people and sampled some great beers!

Group Beer tasting at Corsaire

Our tour guide, Matthew had suggested another microbrewery to try, called Le Barberie which was a small hike out of the old town but had a lovely beer garden. I decided to go on a solo beer tasting adventure. Now these sample sizes were slightly larger than our afternoon Corsaire samples so needless to say I proceeded to get quite drunk after taster 3… By taster 6, a group of French boys had noticed me drinking by myself and invited me over for a chat. Which was good as I needed to talk rather than drink – the 8% amber ale had knocked me off my feet!

Solo beer tasting at Le Barberie.

3. I ate. Delicious crêpes, awesome pizza, maple walnut ice cream and a really tasty burger…. I was thinking of going for a poutine but though I would leave that till Montreal (SO glad I did!). Then I walked off my eating with exploring the city walls, perusing the Parliament House and enjoyed the Plains of Abraham before the rains set in for the afternoon – my cue to catch the bus to….. Montreal!!

Parliament House, complete with community garden out the front. Kudos Quebec!

 

Canada does flowers really well! My next home will have a garden, so for christmas I would like a gardening book!

Bush walking through Plains of Abraham in the rain – thank goodness for my awesome raincoat!

My Icelandic Throne

So I’m skipping ahead here…. I am yet to disclose my Boston adventure and Montreal Debauchery but I want to share with you the wonder that is ICELAND!

Requirements prior to reading this post – go and pop on a Sigur Ros Album, some Emiliana Torrini or Asgeir to set the scene.

Local Airline sums it up nicely… Iceland = WOW

WOW! What an amazing country! This word kept escaping my lips for the entire 5 days I was there. Iceland definitely has a feeling of ‘middle earth’ with magical elves and trolls. I also quite enjoyed my attempts to find Jon Snow near the Wall and James Bond despite my lack of success.

A photographers dream and adventurers wonderland. I am neither and still loved it 😉

I arrived bright and early at 7am, the sun was well and truly up by then though! Went for a wander along the northern coast of Reykjavik, biggest grin on my face, saying “Wow” to myself continuously. It was a beautiful sunny day to arrive! Photo montage of what I found below….

Reykjavik Beach – touched the North Atlantic Ocean!

Reykjavik Roasters – coffee with real milk, creamy and delicious!

No Tractors on the highway please! Beautiful Harpa building, traditional Icelandic woolen jumpers and my new favourite thrift shop name… where I purchased a $3 top of course!

What I found most difficult about travelling solo in Iceland was making a decision on which tours to embark on. And you all know how bad my decision making is normally! There is no “life waiter” around to make me hurry up and choose! (A term I picked up from a Frankie article that was stuck to my work desk for years… basically I am that person who can’t decide on what to eat until the waiter comes back and forces me to make a decision. Now I simply ask what their favourites are. This has good and bad outcomes!)

I eventually decided on:

1. Golden Circle Afternoon Tour –

A must-do whilst in the capital, though hindsight shows and suggestion to future Iceland adventurers would be – hire a car and drive the route yourself! The sights are all free entry, so the 6,500 Kr I paid (about $65AUD) was for travel alone. The drive is lovely and a car lets you do it at a individual pace. It was a beautiful tour! First stop Þingvellir National Park. Walking down through the gorge did feel like I was in Game of Thrones, the Wall shot nope too far away.

Þingvellir – view from the Wall… winter may come eventually!!

Next stop was Gullfoss Waterfall – promoted for its grandeur and beauty when the afternoon sun turns the water golden. I was lucky enough to capture a rainbow shot in the falls! Elves are at it again with their middle earth magic! I got so excited and bragged to the English gentlemen next to me on the bus… he had a pimping’ Canon Digital SLR and MISSED IT HAHA. IPhones do the trick 🙂

Gullfoss Waterfall – saved from destruction by one brave Icelandic lady!

Last stop, the geysers. Smelly but impressive! Got to witness Strokkur go off a few times, I was super lucky that I moved just in time as moments later the geyser went of twice in a row and showered the exact spot I had been standing! Felt like I was hanging out in the Elephant Graveyard – I was waiting for Shenzi, Benzi and Ed to come and attack me…

Bubbling geysers

Our awesome guide who was punching out the facts about Iceland (some of these at the end of the blog) let us sneak in an extra stop at another waterfall. He claimed everyone misses this one, but as we were super prompt at getting back on the bus in time we could have a quick photo stop (I wonder if everyone got this spiel..). Faxi was impressive though! Named Faxi as it looks like a horses mane, there is a salmon run to the left (which makes me hungry looking at it…)

Faxi Falls

2. Blue Lagoon

The below says it all! I went all out for this adventure, going for the PLATNIUM experience with bathrobes, towel, thongs, algae facemask, drink and dinner voucher all included. Pimpin’…. Had a lovely soak for 3 hours with two nice American girls that I met on the bus, and then wandered off to eat delicious Icelandic lamb for dinner.

Blue Lagoon, champagne and face masks.

3. Jökulsárlón Glacial Lake & Southern Iceland

WOW – I say it again!

Pictures speak for themselves here…

Getting Glacial

Jökulsárlón Glacial Lake

Biggest Glacier Tongue I have ever seen…

Black Sand Beach at Vik

See!! Iceland = WOW!

More pretty waterfalls… you can actually walk behind this one!

 

So, my Iceland fun facts….

Population: 325,000

Police Force: just over 700 strong

Prisoners in Jail: 85

So why would you not want to live/visit this country? So many wonderful musicians are the born from this amazing place, I enjoyed an array of Of Mice and Men and Asgeir as I watched the beautiful landscape flash by on the bus.

Go to Iceland. Be prepared to pay high prices, BUT it is all worth it!

I am currently sitting in the airport in Rome with Chloe and Jo – waiting for our flight to Croatia – bring on our sailing trip! So I had planned on dribbling more shit for this blog post but you’re lucky!

Pizza and Gelato are calling! What you do when you are in Italy for 4 hours… blog and EAT!

Lise xx

 

 

 

 

Chelsea International Hostel Lounge

So I found a comfortable Hostel in Chelsea and kept going back. It may not be the cheapest in NYC but I loved the location, rooms were comfortable and met some great people there! After my Long Island adventure and my Brooklyn antics, it was back to Manhattan to eat, shop, sightsee and watch some serious World Cup matches and Broadway of course!

Meeting Stars after Of Mice and Men! No James Franco or Leighton Meister, but a great actor nonetheless! And meet my new friend Claire!

Chicago on Broadway…. and you know me- I just could not help myself 😉

So yes, Broadway. I had plans to see more shows, but time got the better of me (I know I was there 4 weeks but I just had too much fun!). So I saw Of Mice and Men which was BRILLIANT, some of my favourite stars who did a really great job. Chris O’Dowd played Lennie wonderfully! Also saw Chicago which I really enjoyed and had “All that Jazz” in my head for the next week!

Coney Island

Had a lovely day exploring with new pals Cynthia and Jair – we sweated it out in Washington Square Park (GORGEOUS, stand in the middle and you can see the Empire State Building to the North and turn South and voilà! The Freedom Tower!), Carrie’s house from Sex and the City (wahoooop!), cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery (have had better) and then ventured out on the air-conditioned train to Coney Island.

Train is stopped suddenly on the way to Coney Island by track workers. Turns out they just wanted a lift to the next station. Lunchtime!

So then there was 4th July antics – backpacker style! My roomie Mel (whoop! Aussies everywhere!) and I decided against paying $90 to see Matilda the Musical at Time Square and then spent the equivalent at the MAC Store. We did not partake in another Broadway musical but at least we looked the part for 4th July 😉 We did get some great tourist shots of us in Time Square!

Interesting names for our beauty products… Hailin’ taxis in Time Square and backpacker street antics. Standard July 4 celebrations! #Flatoutfabulous #girlabouttown

Then it was World Cup time, great thing about staying in Hostels is that you meet travellers from all locations, right? Well this made the Soccer games much more entertaining! France Vs Germany was a vocal game to watch, at the favourite destination Peter McManus’ around the corner. Brazil vs Argentina was equally entertaining, watched in an Irish Sports bar in Time Square (spent a lot of time there on July 4 it seems!).

A mixed bunch – international’s do 4th July!

Apologies if you guys don’t appreciate the use of the above photos…. suck it up or pay me to take it down, I like it! Met the most interesting and diverse group of people at the Hostel with made 4th July a tonne of fun. Don’t ask if we saw the fireworks… we got distracted playing cards, then I led everyone on a wild goose hunt which ended up with us watching in a bar LIVE on a big screen! Who needs to see that polluting entertainment when you have a fun bunch of internationals around!

Also entertaining are International UNO games. We had a ‘bonding’ night on Tuesday free pizza night at the Chelsea International Hostel. Now we had some fiery personalities partake (no offence meant Val/Mel, myself included in this!) and combine this with many many beers, let’s just say we cleared the common dining area of the Hostel pretty quickly! There are some interesting International rules for UNO, the Brazilians had some particularly good rules to adopt – Frenchies maybe not…. sorry 😉

Other fun adventures included but were not limited too:

– Prospect Park for another free gig – picnic and beers and dancing provided by Jair and Jess! Robert Glasper Experiment – really cool!

– Drunken photos in NYPD buggies with Val (I was fascinated by the 3 wheel buggies! They are seriously ugly and not intimidating machines at ALL, enforcing the law one squirrel at a time) – I wanted to post the photos up here but not sure if they will let me back in to the country on Wednesday!

– Smalls Jazz Club for late night Jazz jammin’ followed by late night pizza and garlic knots.

– Meeting “Robert De Niro” and the crew at Peter McManus’… seriously thank you for putting up with us! Though we did give you great business… and entertainment.

– Bathtub Gin with Jazz entertainment and difficult bouncers. (if you get a chance, go to this place in NYC – really cool!)

I had a lovely afternoon in a row boat on the Lake in Central Park. Many thanks to Aleks for providing beers and doing majority of the rowing, along with Ufuk and Jess! My rowing effort was pathetic despite my big guns… 😉

Central Park row boats and beers!

 

Secret sky messages from God. Or #Smartcrew

I should not have exclaimed loudly about my name on these bad souvenirs… the guy wanted to sell me 5. He should at least keep the time in line with Grand Central Station Clock!

Death by Junior’s…. Rubens and egg creams

So then it was my last day and night in this magical city. Did some last minute shopping (bad idea Lisa) with Jess and last minute eating… Ruben food comas don’t go well with shopping at Macy’s! Do not get egg creams. Milk and Seltzer (soda) do not mix well.

On top of the world! Well the Strand at least! Beautiful ladies!

I wanna say a HUGE thank you to the wonderful Jess, lovely Sarah and spectacular Aleks for waiting patiently as I attempted to send 8kgs of junk back to Australia… $130 and 1.5 hours later – beers and burgers! Seriously, you guys are fucking legends! My stuff arrived safely in Wollongong a week later FYI. Thank GOD.

(Great presents for Xmas friends and family!)

Time Square after midnight! Aleks, Sarah, Jess and I after too many cocktails at The Strand.

So the fun part of travelling. Making awesome quick friendships with complete strangers. (Makes me think of the song ‘Fast Friends’ by Paul Dempsey!) Some people you see again, others will be just part of the wonderful memories made.

All in all, Chelsea International Hostel crew.. CIH for short (just made that up, go me!) CIHeers…. all the best for your adventures in travel and life – I will be seeing some of you in Europe! Here’s looking at you Ufuk, Val, Felix!

So that’s the end to my NYC adventure… I will be back. Maybe sooner then expected 😉 hehehe

Lise

x

The purdy durty couch – BROOKLYN

People, meet Brooklyn. Brooklyn, meet people.

Well should I say Bushwick, I took the above picture on our morning exploration of the streets west of our Hostel, Sophie, Tim and I did not find much more than graffiti and shoes hanging from power lines. However, head east of our place of residence, the New York Loft Hostel (highly recommend!), the streets are lively, more so in the evening with bars, cafés and restaurants, pop up ‘vintage’ stores (seriously, in a van!) and food trucks to feed hungry drunk people.

Poor teddy…. funny story about this building actually… read on

It was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Chelsea to stay in a ‘quieter’ neighbourhood. That being said, it was weird and wonderful. Funny story goes……

We were coming back from a big day and night drinking in Williamsburg (whaooop Brooklyn Bowl!) and were in the “let’s take funny photos with things!” drunken mood. Tim poses like so:

Poser…. and creep! And shame on you Skize!

As I take the really impressive shot above we hear a guy yelling at us from the building featured in the dead teddy shot. He was like (New Yorker accent) “Hey! So you like photography? Wanna see some of my photography? Come up to my apartment and I’ll show you some!”

Now I don’t know about anyone else, but alarm bells were ringing. Thanked him for his generous offer but proceeded to our next bar. I didn’t want to end up like that teddy.

So already you are probably guessing the weekend in Brooklyn was party time? Yes.

It was so nice to hang out with Soph, Tim, Jackie & Bob in the city and play up explore! We went to a free Warpaint gig in Prospect Park, tattoo-watched at the gig and decided on our airbrush tattoos. Mine was an emu on one calf and a kangaroo on the other, bring them together an huzzah! The national emblem. 😉

The name of this blog is inspired by one sported by a early 30s looking gentlemen with $ signs on the back of his arms and “Purdy” under one and “Durty” the other. The $ signs coloured in with American Flag by the way…. WORD.

Park Picnic while others waited in line. 5 people long. For 1 hour. Idiots. We drank beer.

Celebrate Brooklyn! Warpaint gig

Yum…. Brooklyn Brewery

Brooklyn we go hard! There was some great beer tasting at the Brooklyn Brewery and then bowling at the Brooklyn Bowl next door. Champion was Sophie, what a star! We then found Rosemary’s…..

Williamsburg, Rosemary’s: where the beer is horrible but plentiful, and photographer Lisa orders her models around… “Be a water tank” and “I want a hard core Brooklyn pose”. Great efforts by the Models!

So Rosemary’s was this great little bar decked out in horrible décor – BUT with cheap beers served in massive Styrofoam cups as big as your head. I am fairly certain there are no positives to note about Rosemary’s. Maybe the great neon lights in the street windows. Let’s go with a glass half full approach…. at least my phone still works after throwing the damn thing in my full beer! Jackie wanted a photo, so me being a smart arse pulled out my phone exclaiming “Here’s one I prepared earlier!” and I threw it in the cup. We all kinda stared for a few seconds in disbelief….

Thankfully Sophie snapped out of the trance and reached into my beer for the phone. Great job Soph! (I hope your hands were clean!)

Here’s one I prepared earlier… prior to the phone in beer cup incident.

Moving right along, phone still working as my main camera – we explored Smorgasburg and ate ourselves into a food coma (and it was so damn HOT!). I liked the cheese pops. I need to create this stall at the Wollongong Markets. $4 for a piece of cheese on a stick!! Rolling in cash… and cheese 😉

Also checked out the Brooklyn Flea, got some Christmas presents (I am so ready this year… you are all getting vintage tins. Kidding.) and spoilt myself with some jewellery.

Smorgasbord – a great view of Manhattan and delicious delights!

Brooklyn Flea, found some great treasures and enjoyed chatting to the artisans.

the local… it’s no White Horse but it is delicious coffee!

Our last daily coffee together at Swallows was sad. The café was certainly lacking in the great service I am used to at The Matchbox, but the coffee was good. Time to say goodbye to Sophie and Tim! So we had a Polaroid photo shoot (we seemed to do a lot of these over the weekend!) and I must say Tim did a great job:

BRKLYN polaroid style. Thank you photographer Tim!

So I ate my grief of losing my friends and being alone again…. it was awesome! MOMO Sushi near our hostel was SO GOOD. I am drooling just thinking about it!

Eating fine food. Fruit Loops are fine food right? The Sushi was amaze… MOMO in Bushwick

I thoroughly enjoyed my time exploring Brooklyn, what made it more spectacular was the AWESOME company I had. Thanks for a great adventure kids! It was a Purdy Durty time. And now….

Back to Manhattan…

Lise xx

The many lounges of New York City

So like any great adventure, I have passed the 2 month mark of  my journey and I am behind on my journal and blog. BUT the iPhone is filling up with pictures, I am finding it difficult to choose which ‘hipster’ shots to post on instagram and my belly is growing as a result of too much booze and American food.

My month in New York has been AMAZING. To those of you that were shocked at my chosen length of time in this great city I say PHFFFFFT. I could have stayed another month. There is still so much on my list to check out and check off. This post I will cover my week of intense tourist sightseeing, which actually finished with my Long Island luxury week with the Rossbotham’s.

I think I will structure this as a check list, I just scrolled though my “potentially include in the blog” photos and reached 20 for the first 3 days…. I saw a LOT of stuff on my 5 day NY Pass – totally worth it though, highly recommended!

Flatiron Building, walking distance to my hostel

Statue of Liberty! Kidding…. the real thing later on

Setting my watch to the main clock in Grand Central Station. WORD.

Rooftop Bar at The Met… heaven basically! Drink then explore some Van Gogh, Monet and Picasso….

The magnificent Guggenheim, two down now!

Being Gossip Girl on the Met steps… so serious. This is for you Shell!

Central Park!

Central Park,Belvedere Castle

Madison Square Garden, where you run into Aussies from everywhere – even Wollongong! Travel well Mitch! Go Bluey’s (Savvy Survivor reference for those who don’t get it…)

View of financial district from my 3hr FULL ISLAND tour of Manhattan. That I did on Father’s Day. Without my Dad, but with loads of others. Love you miss you Dad!

There she is! The real Statue of Liberty

On board the Intrepid, trying my luck at sailing a BIG boat.

 

And that is half of it…… yup, told you I did a lot! No sitting on the couch for me!

Lise xx

The Rossbotham’s Lounge

A nice 4 hour train ride (scored a Business Class seat, sooooooo much leg room!) is the perfect opportunity to get on top of my blog. I’m going a little out of order here, but I firstly want to share with you…..

My wonderful week (and a sneaky extra day) with my NY family…. the Rossbotham’s!

Rossbotham Family L to R:, Lisa, Chewy, Jackie, Lois and Joe. Absent: Bob

After a HECTIC week in NYC sightseeing (and overdoing it!) I was ready for a relaxed time in Huntington Bay. I was slightly hung over after Jackie and I hit the town in NYC the night before. She can hold her own, I am becoming weak. I would like to take this opportunity to point out how cheap and ridiculously LARGE the alcohol is here. Cheap-wise, we purchased a small Smirnoff bottle (you know, the ones with 11 standard drinks that we smuggle into festivals?) for only…. $8!! Yup I could not believe it. Large-wise, everyone buys these MASSIVE 1.5L bottles of wine which I can hardly lift to pour from!

Back to the lounge topic….

The Rossbotham’s welcomed me with open arms, and I really appreciate the generosity and wonderful hospitality that was shown to me. Saturday was…. Party Time! How lucky that I was in town for Jackie and Bob’s Engagement Party! Met some awesome people, ate delicious food (my favourite was the Ribs and Cheese platter… of course) and drank in a beautiful setting. Bob, it was so lovely to meet you!

Jackie and Bob’s Engagement Party

Sunday was recovery Sailing day. My first trip on a Sail boat and I damn hope it is not my last! We ate, drank beers and swam. Then went to Huntington Bay Yacht Club for dinner and to watch the US vs Portugal Football match. Joe, you are a legend for shouting us a delicious dinner, THANK YOU!

Sailing on Gusto!

The wonderful tour guide Jackie, showed me the Huntington sights, introduced me to Garlic Knots and by FAR my favourite NY Slice pizza. We drank beers at Sapsuckers and with all the tight mini skirts out to find a rich husband at Prime (no luck for me! Wearing too much clothing!).

Huntington NY Slice and Garlic Knots… best in NY State!

Did someone say beer? Enjoying a brew at Sapsuckers

Had an awesome tour by the man in charge at Lois’ work place, Camusett State Historic Park Preserve, which has an amazing big old mansion and beautiful gardens on a 1750 acre block.

Drove through the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory where Watson and Crick discovered DNA (cool, hey!) and went to the beach for a day at Robert Moses State Park.

Beach Time!

So to end this lounge session with a nice cup of Chai, I would like to say thanks again to Joe, Lois, Bob (and Chewy the Cat, sorry I kicked you out of your room girl!) and especially Jackie!! All the best for a wonderful year planning what will be a beautiful and fun-filled wedding!

Much love,

Lise

xx