New York

I have been to New York 3 times now and every time i go its different.The first time i went was in 2007,i traveled alone to see my brother who was living in Maspeth,Queens at the time.I had never been to America before and it was a big deal for me.My first time there i did the usual tourist things,i seen the statue of liberty,rode the Staton island ferry,went up the empire state building and walked through time square.It was a race against time for me,i had so much to see and do but i wanted to spend time with my brother too.i wanted to ride the subway and listen to the buskers and i only had 4 days to do it.

Maspeth queens

However a major dent was put in my time there,i had decided to have a drink with Colin in his favourite bar after a long day walking around Manhatten,simple,one drink then back home.We walked into a bar called 'the fat cat' on 7th avenue.It was the type of bar you would walk by and not even realise its there but once inside this place was huge.It was quite impressive actually,there where maybe 10 pool tables, a couple of people playing table tennis and board games and at the end of the bar which ran halfway down the lenght of the room was a jazz band.I had never been in a bar like this and i loved it.Colin knew one or two people and had done his friendly hello's,i nodded and said hello but did not get into any meaningful conversation due to my accent and surroundings,a problem i had encountered already.We played pool,listened to the band and caught up on what we had both been doing since we last seen each other.It was the first time i had been able to relax and not have to hurry somewhere else.

We left after a few pints and slowly made our way to the subway,at least that was the plan.We walked by another bar that had absolutely no appeal to either of us but our desire to have another drink outweighed our desire to continue home,this was the first of many error of judgements that night.It was in this bar that i learned a valuable lesson,American bars do not rip you off as much as Dublin bars do.When you order vodka and orange in a bar in america you get a vodka with a splash of orange,in Dublin you get an orange with a splash of vodka.The rest of the night is beyond me,i know we hit another bar and i know i wasnt the only drunk.I remember Colin having a go at me for giving the barman a hard time,this of course was not true because i was facing the opposite way trying to focus on the clock which turned out to be a giant Greek flag

.Now the rest of the night is a complete blur,infact the next two days where a blur.I have never felt as hungover as i did that next day,i had the shakes so bad people could have thought i had parkinsons disease it was horrible.I seen some great things on that trip and really had a good time but i knew it was going to be the first of many trips there.