Beer and Baseball!

The Hostel turned out to be ideal in the end. A comfortable enough dorm room, nice communal areas and a great location on 20th between 7th and 8th. I had taken quite some time back at home deciding which hostel would be best for me in New York. With it being my first stop I wanted somewhere that would be good to meet people and a decent location which going by reviews the Chelsea International Hostel seemed ideal and, of course, it was.

Having arrived in the City early afternoon I couldn't resist the urge to get out there and re- familiarise myself with this great City. A walk up to the New Yorker (scene of my last visit here) and off around the Empire State Building vicinity brought everything flooding back. I knew already that I was going to have a great time here again, it just felt so right almost straight away



As the evening wore on I had decided to head out and find a quiet bar to have a beer or 2 in and catch up with some writing. With it being a Friday this sounds easier than it actually was! I'm not entirely sure how long I walked for but suffice to say I had gone at least as far as 14th Street and wound up back on 23rd at an Irish bar where I was able to grab a table, a beer and watch the Yankees take on the Athletics. This was the life!

Although it wasn't late, sometime around 9.30pm the day was starting to catch up with me. I decided to head back to the hostel and try and get a decent sleep so I wouldn't feel the jet lag come the morning. Things didn't quite go according to plan! I was, shall we say, sidetracked, by fellow inhabitants of the Chelsea and copious amounts of beer stacked on the outside tables. Needless to say, I couldn't resist the urge to chat to a few people and drink a few more beers!

I finally caved in at around 1.30am local time, essentially 6.30am back in England and had been up for over 24 hours now! Sleep was of paramount importance and I went to bed praying that the next week wouldn't be screwed up by me ignoring my own advice of an early night!