U S of Ayyyy, have a good day!

I recently embarked on a journey across the pond to the Land of Opportunities.  Ok let me rephrase - 5 months ago I embarked on a journey across the pond to the Land of Opportunities! I have the Daily Mail sprawled out around me filled with political pieces, rubbish about X Factor and the very annoying Pippa Middleton - updating my blog is soooo much more appealing!

So in Mid-September I boarded my flight along with my sister.  Destination: John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, USA.  Where the food is plentiful! We weren't too exhausted and once my sister had been interrogated by the US Border Control we set our sights on island of Manhattan.  We boarded the AirTrain hauling our luggage and our excitement - I used the time to check out the Americans, (or Yanks!) some munching "Cheetos" and others looking drained from longhaul flights, like ourselves.  We eventually made our way onto the airconditioned subway trains which had to be one of the perks of using public transport as we had a couple of stinking hot days.

We checked into our Hostel and headed straight for the shops, well food shop! This was the beginning of our loving relationship with Whole Foods Market.  I literally could've pitched a tent in the shop.  The fruit and vegetables were shiny, big and looked incredibly tasty.  I think my sister could've quite happily pitched her tent in the ready made food section.  Anything you could imagine from salads, curries, desserts, olives and fried foods.  Heaven! Until you reached the check out point....

My sister and I spent 9 fabulous days in New York City doing all the touristy sites, eating lots of food, cruising around The Hamptons like movie stars, eating a hot dog in Central Park and spending a good 10mins saying "OMG there's Jacobbb's car - eishhh!".  Little did we realise was that South Africa would be chilling in one of them larney hotels at the south end of Central Park for a UN summit of Noncommunicable diseases.  Oh yeah and Obaaaama was in town too. We didn't see anyone famous, despite walking around the Upper East Side of Manhattan like seriously under-dressed stalkers.

We spent a morning walking around Union Square Market.  Our eyes popped out at the delicious looking fruit and vegetables, homemade cider, dairy products and general passion for food!

One day, we walked around Greenwich Village on a food tour tasting pizza, cheese and an awful custard flan tart.  It must have been one of the hottest days we had in NYC but we washed it down with a delicious mojito at a bar in the Village, ya'll.

We returned to our hostel only to find out that the State Fire Department had come to inspect the building and subsequently CONDEMNED the frikking place! We panicked.. until we saw that we could stay in our room according to the sign on the door.  Regardless, we were still going to be kicked out.  We sat in the common room biting our nails and violently searching on google for alternate accommmodation for about an hour and a half only to be told by the staff that the "owner" had negotiated with those official peeps to let us stay until Monday - well thank Bejeeezus we were leaving on Saturday before for San Francisco.  We were quite glad to say goodbye to our prison cell, erm I mean hostel room for the delights of our stunning accommodation in San Fran!

We were in room 503, phew!

We left NYC with mixed feelings - sad to say goodbye to the concrete jungle but glad to be staying in a building that was hopefully not condemned! The Starbucks in Columbus Circle had taken all the money they could've from us - having given me about 5 Pumpkin Spice Lattes and plentiful "Have a nice day"'s to last me until my next visit to the land of stars and stripes!

We touch-downed in San Fran and lugged our bags up a relatively steep hill, past some worrying fire engine sirens going off (Oh dear God, is this building condemned too?) and up a couple of flights of stairs into our gorgeous private room fit with a TV and fridge *cue angelic music*.

Man, did we walk up a couple of hills in San Francisco!! Which morons decided to build a city there? It was lovely, but very hilly.  I was quite sick with a cold and nearly pegged at the summit of numerous hills.  We explored the waterfront of Pier 39 where I slurped on a delicious vitamin-packed smoothie.  Apart from eating at a diner, we boarded a bus to Napa Valley where we tasted hideous wine but enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and sunshine.  The Golden Gate Bridge was glorious but we nearly melted in the heat and slathered on plenty of sunscreen.  We definitely enjoyed our accommodation at USA Hostels in Post Street - it felt like The Ritz compared to the crummy NYC cell! 

Lombard Street - The Crookedest Street in the world! 

Beautiful Betties in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

We left San Francisco on time, but arrived in London LATE! A long story... that involved a water salute, circling above Rochester, turbulence, a sister as pale as a ghost praying to the Lord above to save us, refueling in Philadelphia, running across JFK airport (just like the movies) and finally sitting on a later flight to London.  On arrival, we waited an hour for our luggage because of a power failure. But hey, it was all good fun and we had a fabulous time filled with good food and friendly Americans. Have a good day ya'll!