nacken travel blog
Sunday, May 11, 2003
3 Weeks passed really fast and now it is time to return to Fiji, back to our house and cat, also back to 75% humidity, pouring rain and a very questionable internet connection.
Things are all packed, I ended up buying yet another small suitcase since we ran out of space. In an hour Berna and Chris are coming by to pick us up and then off we go to the airport ... 6 hours to LA, then a 5 hour layover, then 11 hours to Nadi, short layover, prop plane 40 minutes to Suva, then a 1 hour cabride .. and we will be back home ...
Our ongoing Fiji adventure will be chronicled on the nacken fiji experience.
And THIS blog will become active again once we travel again.
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Busy days as we are preparing to go back to Fiji, running lots of last minute errands, and murphey's law of course made lots of things happen just to make sure we do not get bored .. thus I am still pasting together yesterday's fress-fest picture (hamburgers and then seafood ... pic will be up in a bit) and the written update
But tonight's Sushi feast is right here (YES, this is were the VIDEOclip is) . We were so buffed out .. though we planned to attend a musical gig of a friend, we could only muster up to go to East Sushi for that fun conveyor belt sushi .. the white tuna, which is usually a specialty there, was a bit on the chewy side ... but the unagi, ikura and everything else was great ... unfortunatelly there was a bunch of very loud, drunk, chinese people entertaining each other ... but they were loaded enough to leave soon ...
Friday, May 09, 2003
Thursday I went downtown to meet Berna .. and I was able to take a closer look at the ex-World Trade Center area ... it is just breathtaking ... this hole were those 2 huge towers used to be .. to be able to see Century 21 from the world financial center ..
For lunch we went to have Burgers at Jackson Hole .. very nice ... way too much food .. but the beef was perfectly done (we both like medium-rare, so our burgers keep bleeding) but we could not finish ... the cole slaw, the fries and the service were all great ... unlike TGIF the other night, the burgers were NOT at 15$ ..
For dinner we went to a place called "DOCKS" .. while it looks a bit like a fancy chain, it is not .. it is actually pretty nice . and we had a seafood salad, steamed scallops and a chilled seafood platter (mussles, jumbo shrimp and oysters) ... and it was all very nice ... I have not had fresh oysters in a while .. they were very yummy ...
Thursday, May 08, 2003
Wednesday night we went to see a broadway show ... after a very brief line at TKTS (a place that sells same day tickets at half price, usually very very long lines, heard about frequent 3 hour waits) we got tix to the the Elton John / Tim Rice version of Aida. For food we went to one of the tourist traps in the vicinity ... in this case TGIF ... we had eaten there often on our cross country trip last year and had fond memories .. and have not had ribs in a while ...
While the place was quite nice, the prices were easily double from what we had experienced on the road ... hey, well, it is freakin' Times Square ... so we settled for one mixed appetizer plate and one rack of ribs .. and boy .. that could have fed 4 full grown people ...
The show itself was pretty good, impressive in some parts .. somehow none of the songs stuck with me ... a bit too rock'n rolly for me .. I prefer musicals with more of a classic musical feel (like Beauty and the Beast e.g.) But I was never bored, the story unfolded beautifully and was wrapped in sugar coated bookends so that the hollywood spoilt american audience still had somewhat of a happy ending ...
After the show we walked to Aquavit to have a last drink with Christian. While I stuck with Gin&Tonic, he made a Creamsickle for Ritsu .. and mix of Vanilla flavoured Vodka, orange juice and cream ... he says it reminds him of an icecream bar he used to love as a kid. We had fun listening to his recent rental car adventures (including the elaborate re-enactment on how he threw the phone against the wall since the rental car agency screwed up his reservation) and general chatting ... We wanted to walk home, but it was raining when we left, so we took a cab.
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Tonight's dinner was mexican. Something we sure don't get in Fiji .. and it seems that the southwest of the US is still the best place to get it ...
We went to Ah! Chihuahua, since it was close and had good reviews .. but while there was nothing bad about the food, there was also nothing notably great about it ... we yearned a bit for our New Mexico experience .. I believe that the Chili at 4 Wind Corner (no idea where that place was exactly .. it was along the road) was the best I ever had, even though it's color of red looked quite strange .. anyways .. back to Ah! Chihuahua ... small, cozy place .. not crowded .. 2 guy waiters who look more like delivery boys (but were very nice) .. no chili on the menu .. so we went with Enchiladas and Fajitas ... the beef was a bit chewy .. the overall flavor could have used some fire ... pleasent, filling, fairly cheap .. and a nice place (better probably than one of the chain places like Manhattan Chili Co) ..
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
So, how was this Monday for you people? Mine was pretty good ... first we nearly overslept, Ritsu had a 10 AM meeting and I wanted to be at my favorite movie theater at 10.
So, after a 20 minute walk I arrived at the Ziegfeld, the most gorgeous movie theater I know. Huge auditorium which looks like an old old theater ... I had seen Moulin Rouge here, which was just perfect .. I also recall that my first movie I had ever seen in NY, Jurassic Park 2 happened to be there ... and then of course the 3 AM screening of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace back in 1999.
So. Today I went to watch X-Men 2: X-Men United and I really enjoyed the ride ... I did not enjoy the seating and the lack of nice snacks and drinks that home viewing would provide. But the movie was a nice step up from the first X-Men movie (which I had seen at the Ziegfeld too) .. it also feels very consistent, as if only a few months have passed since the last movie .. should make for a great double feature on DVD later ...
One word of warning, you kinda need to see the first to get into this one .. they totally skip any rush new character description and just expect you to know (which in return is actually great for pacing and further character enhancement) ... i think most characters benefited from that ... Storm is much much better, Wolverine gets a large chunk of the action (again), Bobby as Iceman is nicely developed from the 1st movie .. his brother (or pal?) Pyro, with the little time he has onscreen, gets more depth than Anakin Skywalker in 2 movies .. Mystique is more and better ... Magneto is great as ever! Maybe even a bit more. The new villain Stryker is dead on perfect.
Things that are somewhat less: Cyclops feels like a throw-away. Jean Gray .. naaa . well . dunno .. her last scene did not have the impact on me as it may should have had ... Rogue .. well .. she got lots in the first movie, so it was ok to underuse her .. Prof X disappoints me again .. in #1 he was knocked out half of the movie .. here he becomes a puppet ..
But my personal highlights were Nightcrawler and Deathstrike ... A runaway from a german circus, we do not know if he is good or evil .. but he is intriguing .. and how he does his thing looks awesome .. he has a great opening sequence ... Lady Deathstrike .. has no dialogue other than uh and argh while fighting ... but her fight with wolverine is just great .. why couldn't they put her in a bikini for that ??? ok .. minor quibble ..
Anyways .. a DVD i sure look forward to to buy ..
Then some shopping and going home .. Have I mentioned how DRY it is here (even though it was raining a bit) .. I bought a technical gizmo that tells me inside and outside temperature .. and the humidity .. only that this word does not apply here at this time ... in Fiji we have usually 75-80% ... here is was 33% when we came .. today it went down to 25% .. any idea what that does to your eyes, nose and skin??? wow .. living in extremes .. i wonder how 50%, the alleged "comfort zone" must feel .. and if it is a reality ...
for dinner (now we are in Nacken Food Blog mode again) we went for the second time to our favorite japanese place Tsuki and had great stuff like Monster Eel (first picture) and oversized piece of eel on rice .. that is like an Unagi Nigiri in XXXL ... then a 3 color tartar .. Tuna, Salman and some white fish chopped to pieces with sauce and different roes (3rd picture) .. then the Tuna Volcano Roll and then the rock shrimp roll, which was not as thrilling as I had hoped .. somewhat too mayonaissy ..
But we enjoyed it a lot, ahd tea and beer and a nice chat with the couple running the place .. they were very crowded and only one sushi chef tried to fill all the orders .. I overheard one phonecall, a customer wondering where his take-out sushi is ... happy and full we hopped on a bus to go back home ..
Monday, May 05, 2003
Not much to report about this Sunday .. not even a picture ... we slept in a little, then Ritsu got ready to visit her friend Yuka. I used the time doing some work on a client's website while still using / abusing the cable connection here to download stuff. Lunch for me was that second papaya salad we took from Saigon Grill last night.
Once Ritsu got back it was nap time and for dinner we went to a japanese Isakaya place, where we had some shrimp in garlic/mushroom sauce, okonomiyaki, dumplings and some fishcake accompanied by some Sapporo beer.. very nice !
Sunday, May 04, 2003
Ok, today's pics come in one big collage ... I am tired and a bit lazy ...
So, after sleeping in and strawberries for Ritsu for breakfast, we set out to mainly do japanese supermarket shopping ... But we started with a long walk all the way from east 44th to McDougal/Bleeker. According to yahoo maps that was 3 miles ... On the way we passed the empire state building and the flatiron building, many shops, washington square park. Since it was already after 2PM, we wanted lunch, and that happened at the best Doener Kebab place in New York: Yatagan. A small hole in the wall place, but for 5$ you are getting a great, authentic Doener. Highly recommended !!!
We then kept walking back east to Sunrise Market, the japanese supermarket. A fun fun place .. tons of stuff that keeps me wondering what it is (most of the labels I can't read) and we stocked up on some bare neccesities to bring back to Fiji.
Hands full of bags we returned home by the way of public transportation (Bus) and Ritsu took a nap. When she got up it was getting close to dinner time and we decided to visit our favourite vietnamese place Saigon Grill. A basic, crowded, highly unfanncy restaurant with fantastic food ... We used to order out from them a lot. We settled with crispy fried spring rolls, my all time favourite green papaya salad, some BBQed pork and Bun Xao noodles with chicken ... the best part is, the stuff tastes even better when you bring the leftovers back home and eat them next day .. thus I ordered a second papaya salad to add to our doggy bag.
We started heading home, kept turning our heads to check if a bus was coming .. but in 30 minutes we walked down 15 blocks and finally decided to take a cab.
Saturday, May 03, 2003
Today was a pretty stuffed, hectic day, but fun too !
I had a meeting for a working session with one of my clients and it was really good to do a face to face meeting again .. we came up with a bunch of new ideas and it seems I will be working with this client for some time more ... great.
Since busses and taxis were to slow during the peak hours I did a lot of walking, which I then noticed I was not really used to anymore .. but the weather was nice and I enjoyed it. When I got home, Ritsu and I went to Sakagura for lunch. Ritsu had a noodle/chicken/egg dish and I had a salmon overkill also known as Sake Ikura Don. Raw salmon slices over sushi rise topped with Ikura (Salmon Roe) ... cho oishikatta desu yo !
Later that afternoon I left to meet with Berna down at the financial center, but somehow we missed each other, then it started to rain and I thought she had left already because I was a bit late anyway (I forgot all about the perils of friday afterwork rush hour on the 6 train) ... but heard later that she actually saw me when I then left .. she tried to get my attention .. but I was kinda running to get out of the rain ...
The next big thing was going to the AppleStore in SoHo where they had a special event for the release of the new iPod (for those of you living under rocks, this is an MP3 music player, you can have basically all your CDs with you in one tiny package and listen to it until the battery runs dry) I missed the 6 PM opening .. but I sure did not miss the line which wrapped itself all around the block ! ... And so I was standing there with other apple enthusiasts, waiting an hour in the rain, till it was our time to get in (also see posting below) ...
This shop is just beautiful .. it reminds me more of an art gallery ... I went straight to the line to get my iPod (and another one for Jonathan back in Fiji) and after lining up there for 15 minutes .. the next fun part was that my CC company really wanted to make sure that I am who I am .. the puzzled cashier (Josh) had to wait on the phone for like 10 minutes until he reached someone ... but in the end all worked out and I enjoyed the event a bit .. there was a DJ playing (on iPods) and some band by the (rather silly) name of "glassjaw" was playing music upstairs ..but it sure was a fun athmosphere ..
Back home I unwrapped my new toy and it is gorgous !!! A 30 GB mp3 player .. that is music enough for weeks .. or for many people simply it means they can carry their whole CD collection in a small pack the size and weight of a deck of cards .. amazing ... it also looks great .... and as I found out, it technically has the ability to record sound, but that seems to be still in testing mode ...
Home now, doing blog update, Ritsu is out with some colleagues, i bet they persuaded her to go for some karaoke after dinner .. darn, i love hearing her sing !!!
Reporting and blogging live from the applestore in SoHo where they are having a big event releasing the brandnew iPod.
After standing 1 hour in line (in the rain), 15 minutes at the register (plus 15 miuntes talking to the CC company, who must have thought I have a substance abuse problem with apple products, after I just bought a laptop there 2 weeks ago) I am very happy that I managed to get 2 of them (one for a friend back in Fiji) ... more later
Friday, May 02, 2003
Lots of errand running today: e.g. I crossed the island (from east to west) to drop of some of our dive gear for servicing. On that trip I passed Times Square and here is a little video clip for your enjoyment. Below in the picture is this one guy I saw, just wearing socks and carrying his shoes. For some reason I found that quite funny.
For dinner we were invited to our friend Jana's place and she cooked cod on lentils, and it was very nice. We had a great time playing with the cat (my right hand sure has some more scratches now) and chatting and laughing a lot.
Thursday, May 01, 2003
I know, this is turning into a FoodBlog ... but it is really just so great to have all these different things that we cannot have in Fiji ... and tonight we went to have some really great Pizza
For that we just walked down 10 blocks on 3rd Ave to get to "Patsy's Pizza". We ordered a single size arugola salad (enough to feed 2.5 people) and a large Pizza with mushrooms, olives, prosciutto and garlic ... and we managed to eat 5 of the 8 slices (the other 3 are in the kitchen now .. I am just waiting for the midnight munchies to appear)
There is something divine about basic pizza .. the subtle hint of olive oil in the thin crisp crust, the understatement in use of topings .. not one of those greasy monsters that Dominos would create !!!
