Around The World In 80 Waves

Although I am planning on being away for a year my time is going to be fairly limited at every point along the route. I have to decide between Niagara Falls and Washington in the time I have left before moving on. The US capital wins because there will be more to see once I am there, the journey is 6 hours shorter, and I will definitely be seeing my share of water and waterfalls along this trip.

It is probably a good thing because I would only have wanted to try to surf it and I suspect that would have resembled Pooh Sticks on Steroids. ie which part of me or my board would they find first as opposed to which stick emerges quickest at the other side of the bridge.

Buy the tickets to Washington and then have a few beers with other travellers to warm up before my last night in the Big Apple

New York’s tree at the Rockefeller Centre is good but it isnt a patch on Trafalgar Square. Lots of festive trimming on offer here though. A bit disappointed not to have caught the Thanksgiving Day parade but it happened just before I arrived. Never mind.

The parade is sponsored by Macy’s which is the largest department store in the world and seemed like a good place to head for to do my Christmas shopping. After five hours and nearly losing the will to live I emmerged with a massive stack of parcels which I lugged over towards the Post Office.

It wasnt much fun at all dragging them through the hordes of frenzied teenage girls trying to get a glimpse of One Direction who were performing at Madison Square Garden, but I made up for it by convincing a sizable crowd that they were coming out the other door just by virtue of a British accent. The stampede I nearly created was quite impressive but clearly my queue to get inside the post office before the NYPD turned up. New York had the last laugh when I had to stump up over $100 to get the parcels on their way, completing a form of my whole life story for each one. The whole procedure took over an hour! You dont realise how good Royal Mail is until you see the alternative.

Manhattan island is the central borough of the five that make up New York City. (The others being The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.) After a short boat tour of the harbour area, I was armed with my tourist map and some comfy trainers and thought the easiest way to see everything on the island was start with Battery Park at the southern end, where you catch the free ferry to Staten Island, and then zig-zag my way north checking out places of interest along the way until I got back to my Jazz on the Park Hostel on 103rd St. Those of you who know New York will have already realised that is far easier said than done. As the crow flies it is 7.5 miles but I reckon I must have done nearer to 20, with backtracking, wandering round inside places and generally getting lost! Today in order I saw:

• Battery Park
• Ellis Island
• Statue of Liberty
• Brooklyn Bridge
• Manhattan Bridge
• Williamsburg Bridge
• Seaport Historic District
• Heliport
• Wall Street
• New York Stock Exchange
• Ground Zero of 9/11
• The building site of the new memorial plaza
• City Hall
• Court Buildings
• Chinatown
• Little Italy
• New York University
• Broadway
• Greenwich Village
• 5th Avenue
• West Village
• Meatpacking District – not a euphemism before anyone asks!
• Elevated Walkway
• Empire State Building (the picture is looking back from here at the new Freedom Towers currently under construction on the site of the old twin towers)
• Madison Square Gardens
• Grand Central Station
• Chrysler Building
• United Nations
• Time Square
• Theatre District
• Diamond Disrict
• Rockefeller Centre
• St Patrick’s Cathedral
• Marilyn Monroe’s Subway Grating
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Guggenheim Museum
• Central Park

I have to say that despite crossing the whole of the island I have to say I am disappointed not to have seen any of Tony Soprano, Carrie Bradshaw, Robert De Niro, King Kong, Jay-Z, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen or any of the cast from Friends. Not even Spiderman! I do however have a much greater appreciation of how hard The Warriors’  task was in getting back to Coney Island which is going the other way. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV4cgs-bPic)

My feet are killing me.

🙁

My spiritual surfing home. It is where just about every wave I have ever surfed has been generated. (Barring one session on the Indian Ocean side in South Africa which was not great because I was put off the whole time by being more than a bit concerned about the Great Whites known to be under my board!) It is often considered the little brother to the larger Pacific, but waves surfed recently off the coast of Ireland, Portugal and France have shown to the world how heavy it can be.

New York itself was reminded of this shortly before my trip when Hurricane Sandy trashed just about everything in its path along the Eastern Seaboard. There is no real evidence of it left in the city that I have seen, but my plans to visit Liberty Island to see the statue there, and Ellis island where millions of immigrants got their first taste of the US have been curtailed because they are still cleaning up the mess left behind by the storm there. Took a boat trip around the islands though and got a few snaps of them both, and have at least managed to get on the water, even if the only wave I have seen is the bow wave off the front of the boat. Am a little concerned that my plans to hire some gear locally will have been hampered by Sandy destroying all the surf shacks where I might have hired some gear. I will know more once I get closer to the beaches.

Checked into hostel yesterday. Think the Costa Rican bloke who nabbed the lower bunk thought he had done well until he realised my great lump was going to be above him all night. You could see the fear in his eyes!

Hostel is about 100m from central park so think I will go fo a run there at some stage. However head out into the city straight away even though it is technically 1am London time when I do so. Take my first yellow taxi and go down to Time Square which is mobbed. Find a decent bar for a few beers but dont stay out late because I am so tired.

Wake up several hours before sunrise due to the time difference and am releaved to see the Costa Rican has not been killed through the night. There are four ladies also in the room but I havent met them yet. I knew there was a reason I came on this trip though.

Off to see the sights and get a US phone. Unsurprisingly my Vodafone number is not working properly. ##**£*%$#!!!!!!

Got past customs, with a few confused looks from the bloke who couldn’t understand how I was going on a surf trip without a board.

The Big Apple beckons, but you know you are in the land of opportunity when there are two buskers, one Michael Jackson impersonator and one lady selling cookies, all asking for donations for their efforts before I have even got half way across Manhattan

Woke up on Dom’s sofa in Honor Oak Mansions thankfully not too hung over from last night’s drinks. Cab to the airport whilst trying not to allow the latest episode with Vodafone to give  me a seizure! “Yes Mr Pearson I can assure you that there will not be any issues” – Hmmmmm!!!

Check in but not counting my chickens yet. It wouldn’t be the first time I have missed a flight despite arriving three hours before the flight took off. I can laugh now but it wasnt at all funny at the time.

Get on to plane and settle in for a feast of movies. The Bourne Legacy, Avengers Assemble and finally The Sweeney, which seemed like a lovely bit of synergy upon departing the Mansions for the last time given the Pilot episode of the original 70s series started in my flat. John Thaw’s first words were bursting through the door of my flat to collar some villain with the immortal line of “Put your trousers on. You’re Nicked!”

A great overnight stop in Gloucester staying with my sister Sarah, Kevin, Scooby and Tsar. I’m leaving my trusty Red Panzer surf mobile in their care for the next year.

Enjoyed a feast of British Fayre to see me well on my way. A massive steak dinner in the evening followed by a monster fry up in the morning. I wont be short of protein for a week or two.

More calls to Vodafone to sort out the stuff that supposedly wouldn’t be an issue after the last call/wasted hour of my life. You would think that converting from pay monthly to PAYG would be a painting by numbers operation, particularly because I stumped up £100 before the transition to make sure I would have plenty of credit after the migration, but how wrong you would be. Want to go into full rant here, but am resisting the urge to do a “Robert on the phone” (as described by my sister) preferring to stick another pin in my Vodafone voodoo doll! Todays bug bear was paying for technical assistance, for half an hour at a time repeatedly through the day waiting to speak with somebody, only to be told the systems are down and nobody has the ability to phone you back later. I must have been mistaken but thought you were a telephone supplier. (Clearly efforts at avoiding a rant have failed miserably!)

Notifying banks about a year of international card transactions is only fractionally less painful. Apparently answering “all of them” does not go well into a system when asked which country I will be visiting. Is this the 21st century or not?

Quick dash to the coach station to catch one eastwards to Heathrow to drop off my bags and catch up over a beer with Neil Stafford, who is a great friend of mine whom I owe so much to. That includes this blog website which simply wouldn’t have happened without his help. Many thanks buddy to you and those behind the scenes. More than happy to recommend his web marketing skills to anyone.

Final dash of the day over to East Dulwich in South East London where the flat I owned for the last 12 years was located. (The sale of which is funding this indulgence by the way.) Some of my lovely neighbours are also moving on and I was able to guest star at their leaving drinks because it happily coincided with my own departure plans. Great chance to have a final beer with so many old friends, almost all of which didn’t know I was coming. Lots of fun all round.

I will miss my bachelor pad in the big bad city, but the next chapter of my tale begins here. Hope you like the story.

My Home Break

I am expecting this to be the most upsetting wave along the way. Had a very busy but lovely two months being pampered by my Mum in North Wales before leaving on my travels. We enjoyed a lovely walk with Hugo along the sea front at Llanduno before I left, which is where I grew up and my home break. Lovely day and a wonderful image to take away with me. I was sent on my way with lots of love and a packed lunch like I was going on a school trip to Conwy Castle. Quite sad to be leaving.

My apologies to all those I didn’t get to spend as much time with as I would have liked to before departing. So much admin, one loft conversion, one garage clearance, one mototorbike sale, a neverending chase of the dog around the house, one disposal of milk bottle collection, moving my entire life in and out of storage, and Vodafone failing in every regard to do what they said they would do all cost me loads of time, which impacted on the goodbye time. Sadly Vodafone is an ongoing battle.
Anyway I am on the road! Watch out world here I come.