New York- the city that really never sleeps!! (by Rone)

It was a good thing we had 8 days in Jamaica of doing nothing but chilling. I don't think we would have had enough energy after a hectic week in Cuba followed by an all happening New York adventure. The previous times I visited New York was with work and I stayed in Manhattan Island in the Hilton hotel next to Central Park. After about 4h searching on the Internet for accommodation I realised that we, as travelers, will not be doing the same...Even the price in a hostel for a 6 bed dorm was about $150 for the two of us/ night. 

The girls and Max

But after some solid searching we found an awesome place which was perfect!!  We booked a room in a house (home stay), which was situated in Long Island city. About 2 tube stops from Manhattan. The owner Allan was amazing and waited for our arrival at 1 am on Tuesday morning with a Brooklyn beer. It was a really cool neighborhood and Allan and his Doberman Max were fantastic.  We were spoilt with coffee every morning and Allan gave us lots of recommended itineraries to explore.

At Columbus circle

Shopping!!!

The first two days mostly consisted of shopping and walking around in Manhattan. I also managed to do some running including a run in the awesome Central Park. We both loved this park: beautiful trees everywhere, boulders, ponds and entertainment playgrounds for the kiddies. It had so much vibe. Everyone always comes to New York and talk about the shopping. And I think New York really lives up to it's expectations. The shops have so much variety which caters for every kind of shopper. You get a real buzz whether you window shop in the designer shops or spending 4h in Macey's (as we did the one afternoon!) Eventually we replaced a few T- shirts and much needed items after travelling for almost 4 months.

NY Time square

On Friday we rented some bikes and went exploring the Brooklyn neighbourhood. It was such a good way to see different parts of New York besides Manhattan. Queens and Brooklyn neighbourhoods both had a really nice feeling to it. After reaching Prospect Park in Brooklyn, we cycled over the Brooklyn bridge heading towards Manhattan. The views were awesome and before long we were cycling in lower Manhattan pass the financial district and China Town. Pretty surreal!!! We tried to follow some local New Yorkers on bikes since traffic was hectic, and eventually we reached our home again after 4h of cycling. Our legs felt like jelly and we rewarded ourselves with lunch at a diner across our home. The diner was exactly like in the movies, which inspired us to go to the movies that evening - first time in 5 months.

Cycling across the Brooklyn bridge to Manhattan

Runs in Central Park

Saturday was full of action. Maybe because it was the day before my birthday :) It started with me doing a run in Central Park and Karen doing some bouldering in the park.

Following this, we continued with our daily Star Bucks routine, more shopping and just walking around and taking in New York's atmosphere. We even managed to go to one of New York's recommended bagel shops for lunch. The New Yorkers really know how to make them!!

In front of Bloomingdales !!

Best Bagel

     

In the American ballet theater

Early evening Karen somehow managed to get us to walk to the American Ballet company building, while pretending to look for a specific shop. I mentioned how nice it would be to have seen a show or ballet here. Then she surprised me with: " I HAVE TICKETS for tonight". It was a surprise birthday present. I couldn't believe it... The American ballet company is one of the best companies in the world!!

Big smile outside the ballet

They have ballet dancers from all over the world. We had 30 minutes to get our tickets at the box office and change from our shorts and T- shirts to Jeans and a fancy top. We still looked pretty under-dressed comparing to the cocktail dresses there, but we embraced the experience. I was floating from excitement from this amazing surprise. Our seats were allocated on one of the side balconies with a perfect view to watch the ballet Sylvia. It was a classical ballet with amazing choreography and music alongside it.  It was such a special evening to remember and we were still on a high from the beautiful scenes and music when we left the theater that evening. To top it off Karen bought me a surprise Starbucks birthday cinnamon bun to eat at midnight.

After such an awesome day on Saturday, New York was special enough to throw me a party for my birthday. It was the Gay Pride parade in Manhattan which received lots of publicity. We watched the Parade for about 3h before heading into the streets again.

Pride Parade:massive media attraction after the DOMA case

       

                                    

Over 2 million people usually come to the streets to support the NY pride parade, but this year there was an added feeling of celebration to the parade. The NY pride parade followed days after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to strike down DOMA ,which resulted in restoring same sex marriages to California also granting gay couples the federal benefits of marriage they were denied before.                                   

Around 7pm it was time for birthday drinks and Karen treated us to a bottle of Pinot Noir with some nibbles as we sat at one of the street cafe's next to Central Park.  We finished our New York experience with  a slice of pizza as the New Yorkers do.

           Finishing the birthday with a NY pizza slice!!

Exhausted we returned to our home in Long Island city and chatted a bit to Allan and Max before packing for our early start the next day to Washington DC and a 3 week climbing trip in Kentucky!

Yah Mon, No Problem (by Karen)

"What do you think the odds are of us finding it?" Rone asked as we walked past the pool bar, with its Jamaican Reggae music blasting out and slightly tipsy lilly-white tourists crowding around in their skimpy bikinis.

"Jeepers I dunno, maybe a million to one" I answered.

Those were the odds we faced as we headed toward the swimming enclosure where I had managed to loose our hotel room key. Armed with only our mask and snorkels, we were about to attempt to find the lost key in a bouyed off area in the sea roughly 100 meters by 40 meters, and up to 4 meters deep!

Earlier that morning I had absently put our room key in the back pocket of my swimming shorts. A pocket which was very shallow and very open! The key was attached to a small circular twisty plastic band, a bit like a telephone cable. The additional unlucky bit was that this plastic was a pale beige colour, almost bang on matching the colour of sand. After lying on the sun chairs for a while we then headed into the water for a swim.

Because we were on an All Inclusive package, and because the resort had the most delicious food selections, we were eating a tad more than we usually would. This meant that it was imperitive for us to work up an appetite ready for our next delectable meal. And so after idly snorkling around for a bit, I then started doing some laps across the enclosure. I paddled around a bit more and then we climbed up onto the big floating trampoline and bounced around a bit, ending with a big jump into the water off the trampoline. Eventually after being in the water for about 45 minutes and having swam over almost every square meter, we got out and headed for lunch.

It was only after lunch that I realised I had lost the key. We checked the obvious spots - the spot by the sun chairs, the bathroom, the pool bar, everywhere I may have walked, but deep down we both knew it lay somewhere on the ocean floor.

Why such an effort to find it? The hotel charges US$50 for lost key, so although we were resigned to having to pay this fee, we figured we might as well give it a try in finding it.

We started by focusing around the ladder where you get into the water (this particular swimming area is the 'deep water' area so you enter off the decking). The sea bed around the ladder and moving out 20 meters in all directions was very rocky, covered with coral and seaweed and spiky things. Slowly I moved further and further away from the ladder, constantly ducking down to get up close to the floor to make sure I didn't miss anything. I kept thinking, if only I knew for certain it was around there then at least I would know it was just a matter of being thorough. But the darn key could really be anywhere in this 4000 square meter enclosure!

After about 20 minutes I decided to scrap the systematic approach and just go with random luck. The enclosure was so big there was no way we'd be able to properly cover it all anyways. So I started just swimming around, randomly ducking down and scouring the ocean floor, eyes eagerly searching for any sign of non-natural.

And then there it was! Lying inertly on a patch of sand, attempting to blend in but just recognisable as not belonging. I ducked down and as I came up closer to it I could see the number 43 etched into the top of the key. Our room number! I grabbed the key and swooped up for air. I pulled my mask off my face and sought out Rone. When she turned and was looking at me I jubilantly waved the key in the air, grinning from ear to ear :)

So what were the odds? Was it a million to one? Or more, or less? I guess we'll never know, unless someone is good with statistics and wants to work it out. But whatever the odds, we figured ourselves extremely lucky and immediately went to the bar for a Piña Colada cocktail to celebrate :)