charleymarley

Before I arrived in New York City on Sunday 1st June, I had been told by many that it would be an unforgettable experience. Well, it certainly turned out to be but not in the way I thought it would. This holiday was mine and Simon’s first together, and my first time on a plane in my whole life (a very surreal but exciting experience for sure), so to be evicted from our rented holiday apartment by the Court Marshall (America’s equivalent of a bailiff) at 8.30am the day after we arrived put a very clear picture of the “Big Apple” in my mind.

We had been turfed out of our only place to stay, with nowhere else to go and not enough money to pay for somewhere else, lugging our suitcases behind us as I sobbed my way down block after block. It was clear to us that we had been scammed, the woman we rented the apartment from had taken $1600 of our money and wouldn’t answer her phone when we tried to contact her. After filing a complaint at the local police station, where the lack of donuts and coffee surprised me but the sitting around eating Mentos and watching ‘Cops’ didn’t, we were pointed in the direction of the Civil Court where we were told nothing could be done as we were not residents of New York City.

At that point my feelings of sadness about the situation turned into anger. I felt completely let down by this wonderful and exciting city I was supposed to experience. I saw the people as unpleasant, the police as ineffective, and my legal rights as a visitor insignificant to those around us. I take back those feelings now but at the time I was devastated that I had not fallen in love with the city right away, something people swore I would do. After a day of trying to find a new place to stay and get our money back, we finally got in touch with the woman we met at the apartment who confessed to us she had posed as the owner whilst they were away from the city. She had no idea why the rent hadn’t been paid and met us later in Times Square to hand over the $1600 we thought we had lost. We were relieved it had turned out to be a genuine mistake and not an elaborate scam, but had lost a day of our holiday! For my first trip to the former Big Onion (yes thats right!) I didn’t plan to traipse up and down Times Square with no make-up on and unkempt hair, especially after not having the option to shower either! Never did the Y feel like a brilliant idea until then…Thanks to our lifesavers Julie and Todd in Brooklyn, Simon and I had a safe and comfy place to stay for two nights and were free to finally enjoy our holiday.

My negative feelings towards the city started to vanish as I stared up at the huge buildings, feeling about 2 inches tall. My tan was topping up nicely too in the 30 degree humid heat! After years of being a milk bottle in training I was finally becoming the bronzed beauty I had always wanted to be. (Not as much as Salma Hayek but for me it was a start!). I began to see city in the way I should have the first day, it’s busyness was inspiring, and I felt myself stride through it with pluckiness. I don’t know exactly what it was but there was a feeling of ease that came with doing things over there that would normally make you quiver in your knickers back in London. Simple things like walking down an empty street at half 10 in the evening to go to the grocery store felt like an exciting expedition, with no worry of being mugged by a teenage chav in an Adidas tracksuit. In fact there was a distinct lack of chavs in the whole place anyway…that was refreshing. As I was previously warned, the food portions were pretty much my weeks supply of meals on one neatly heaped plate. However, that didn’t stop me from attacking a super size slice of pizza from Sbarro and later on epically failing in a fight with a mozzarella and pesto panini with chips and salad, plus a side of half a pickle placed on top of a lettuce leaf. Simon wasn’t so impressed with the pickle…

We took a nice day trip to Liberty Island and Simon soon forgot about the pickle impostor, but later became confused with the lack of salad cream and the dried vegetable pieces sprinkled over our chips. Their weak attempt at traditional fish and chips almost made me bellow a big fat HA, much like Nelson from ‘The Simpsons’ actually. Enough about the battered fish inadequacy anyway as I’m sure our feeble attempt at American pizza pies are equally as laughable! I thought Chicago Town Takeaway was giving me a taste of culture but boy was I wrong. A nice look up Lady Liberty’s dress and the amazing view over to Manhattan made up for the fact I’d just climbed 146 steps after flashing my bum to everyone in the security queue (thanks to the padding down machines that blow compressed air onto your body). Later we took a choppier boat over to Ellis Island and sat down to search for some relatives, then we discovered the huge circle of names outside! The serious business got done and we found quite a few names that might have had something to do with us, then we came across some very funny names indeed. I still feel like God was looking down on us with his angry eyes when we were wetting our pants over the Samuel and Fanny Weiner Family, but by the time we’d gone past Harry Wankoff I’d lost all shame.

The Empire State Building was next on the agenda so we began our trek through the marble halls and up the escalator to the queues. 15 minutes later we were in the lift to the 80th floor, and were released into yet another queue for half an hour. Once at the 92nd floor I was armed with Simon’s camera to film my Sleepless in Seattle re-enactment. Oh it was magical, and so was the night view. I wasn’t deterred by the hoards of schoolgirls walking down the queues with mascara streamed cheeks, they were just wimps. By the time we had got halfway back down the building my feet were absolutely killing me, the trusty New Look shoes I kept re-buying had finally failed me. No amount of strawberry Twizzlers or Junior Mints could keep me happy so we departed back to our fancy hotel in Brooklyn, our hotel with the marble bathroom, queen size bed, 42 inch HD tv, and city view. Oh yes, take THAT East Village apartment owner.

The 4th of June arrived and so did the Diggnation live podcast, where the queue of about 3,000 people tried to pack into a 500 capacity venue. After a very long wait and the both of us being in separate queues as I’m under 21 (by 5 months, come on!), we finally got into the Studio B venue to see Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht do what they do best. Whilst we were queuing they both came out to say a quick hello to their fans, so I feel quite privileged to have been 2 steps away from Mr Rose himself! You can watch the podcast at www.Revision3.com, episode 154. And while you’re at it check out where the podcast comes from at www.digg.com, as Diggnation only covers the hottest user submitted stories from the social network.

All in all, I spent most of the holiday in awe at how tall everything was, at how flippin’ hot it was!, and how great it felt to actually be there. Walking around Central Park felt like a nice and normal day out in the sun and I wished I could have spent every day there for the rest of my life. The subways were clean and air-conditioned, a far cry from the greasy head marks on the glass in our London tubes, and the clothes were dirt cheap! I loved that I could actually afford Marc Jacobs over there, where back in Britain I leave my breath and paw marks on the windows of shops like that. I can’t wait to go back for another holiday, hopefully sometime when it snows so I don’t feel like I’m going to die of heat exhaustion every time I step outside! Whatever the weather though, it ain’t gonna stop me from shopping until I drop.

Before I arrived in New York City on Sunday 1st June, I had been told by many that it would be an unforgettable experience. Well, it certainly turned out to be but not in the way I thought it would. This holiday was mine and Simon’s first together, and my first time on a plane in my whole life (a very surreal but exciting experience for sure), so to be evicted from our rented holiday apartment by the Court Marshall (America’s equivalent of a bailiff) at 8.30am the day after we arrived put a very clear picture of the “Big Apple” in my mind.

We had been turfed out of our only place to stay, with nowhere else to go and not enough money to pay for somewhere else, lugging our suitcases behind us as I sobbed my way down block after block. It was clear to us that we had been scammed, the woman we rented the apartment from had taken $1600 of our money and wouldn’t answer her phone when we tried to contact her. After filing a complaint at the local police station, where the lack of donuts and coffee surprised me but the sitting around eating Mentos and watching ‘Cops’ didn’t, we were pointed in the direction of the Civil Court where we were told nothing could be done as we were not residents of New York City.

At that point my feelings of sadness about the situation turned into anger. I felt completely let down by this wonderful and exciting city I was supposed to experience. I saw the people as unpleasant, the police as ineffective, and my legal rights as a visitor insignificant to those around us. I take back those feelings now but at the time I was devastated that I had not fallen in love with the city right away, something people swore I would do. After a day of trying to find a new place to stay and get our money back, we finally got in touch with the woman we met at the apartment who confessed to us she had posed as the owner whilst they were away from the city. She had no idea why the rent hadn’t been paid and met us later in Times Square to hand over the $1600 we thought we had lost. We were relieved it had turned out to be a genuine mistake and not an elaborate scam, but had lost a day of our holiday! For my first trip to the former Big Onion (yes thats right!) I didn’t plan to traipse up and down Times Square with no make-up on and unkempt hair, especially after not having the option to shower either! Never did the Y feel like a brilliant idea until then…Thanks to our lifesavers Julie and Todd in Brooklyn, Simon and I had a safe and comfy place to stay for two nights and were free to finally enjoy our holiday.

My negative feelings towards the city started to vanish as I stared up at the huge buildings, feeling about 2 inches tall. My tan was topping up nicely too in the 30 degree humid heat! After years of being a milk bottle in training I was finally becoming the bronzed beauty I had always wanted to be. (Not as much as Salma Hayek but for me it was a start!). I began to see city in the way I should have the first day, it’s busyness was inspiring, and I felt myself stride through it with pluckiness. I don’t know exactly what it was but there was a feeling of ease that came with doing things over there that would normally make you quiver in your knickers back in London. Simple things like walking down an empty street at half 10 in the evening to go to the grocery store felt like an exciting expedition, with no worry of being mugged by a teenage chav in an Adidas tracksuit. In fact there was a distinct lack of chavs in the whole place anyway…that was refreshing. As I was previously warned, the food portions were pretty much my weeks supply of meals on one neatly heaped plate. However, that didn’t stop me from attacking a super size slice of pizza from Sbarro and later on epically failing in a fight with a mozzarella and pesto panini with chips and salad, plus a side of half a pickle placed on top of a lettuce leaf. Simon wasn’t so impressed with the pickle…

We took a nice day trip to Liberty Island and Simon soon forgot about the pickle impostor, but later became confused with the lack of salad cream and the dried vegetable pieces sprinkled over our chips. Their weak attempt at traditional fish and chips almost made me bellow a big fat HA, much like Nelson from ‘The Simpsons’ actually. Enough about the battered fish inadequacy anyway as I’m sure our feeble attempt at American pizza pies are equally as laughable! I thought Chicago Town Takeaway was giving me a taste of culture but boy was I wrong. A nice look up Lady Liberty’s dress and the amazing view over to Manhattan made up for the fact I’d just climbed 146 steps after flashing my bum to everyone in the security queue (thanks to the padding down machines that blow compressed air onto your body). Later we took a choppier boat over to Ellis Island and sat down to search for some relatives, then we discovered the huge circle of names outside! The serious business got done and we found quite a few names that might have had something to do with us, then we came across some very funny names indeed. I still feel like God was looking down on us with his angry eyes when we were wetting our pants over the Samuel and Fanny Weiner Family, but by the time we’d gone past Harry Wankoff I’d lost all shame.

The Empire State Building was next on the agenda so we began our trek through the marble halls and up the escalator to the queues. 15 minutes later we were in the lift to the 80th floor, and were released into yet another queue for half an hour. Once at the 92nd floor I was armed with Simon’s camera to film my Sleepless in Seattle re-enactment. Oh it was magical, and so was the night view. I wasn’t deterred by the hoards of schoolgirls walking down the queues with mascara streamed cheeks, they were just wimps. By the time we had got halfway back down the building my feet were absolutely killing me, the trusty New Look shoes I kept re-buying had finally failed me. No amount of strawberry Twizzlers or Junior Mints could keep me happy so we departed back to our fancy hotel in Brooklyn, our hotel with the marble bathroom, queen size bed, 42 inch HD tv, and city view. Oh yes, take THAT East Village apartment owner.

The 4th of June arrived and so did the Diggnation live podcast, where the queue of about 3,000 people tried to pack into a 500 capacity venue. After a very long wait and the both of us being in separate queues as I’m under 21 (by 5 months, come on!), we finally got into the Studio B venue to see Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht do what they do best. Whilst we were queuing they both came out to say a quick hello to their fans, so I feel quite privileged to have been 2 steps away from Mr Rose himself! You can watch the podcast at www.Revision3.com, episode 154. And while you’re at it check out where the podcast comes from at www.digg.com, as Diggnation only covers the hottest user submitted stories from the social network.

All in all, I spent most of the holiday in awe at how tall everything was, at how flippin’ hot it was!, and how great it felt to actually be there. Walking around Central Park felt like a nice and normal day out in the sun and I wished I could have spent every day there for the rest of my life. The subways were clean and air-conditioned, a far cry from the greasy head marks on the glass in our London tubes, and the clothes were dirt cheap! I loved that I could actually afford Marc Jacobs over there, where back in Britain I leave my breath and paw marks on the windows of shops like that. I can’t wait to go back for another holiday, hopefully sometime when it snows so I don’t feel like I’m going to die of heat exhaustion every time I step outside! Whatever the weather though, it ain’t gonna stop me from shopping until I drop.