Saorrento

When you travel to any country it is always good practice to familiarize yourself with the local customs before your arrival. If nothing else this prevents you from unknowingly insulting the culture and at the same time can protect you from being taken advantage of. The noble gesture of ‘tipping’ is one such custom which is very popular in the United States.

The idea behind tipping is to show ones appreciation for the service received. Since this is usually a voluntary gesture there is no defined value, a patron can tip as much or as little as they want. In fact in 2007 a NBC tabloid did an article on a Pizza Hut waitress who was tipped $10,000 from a family of regulars who heard she couldn’t afford college.

In Las Vegas we put tipping to good use by tipping the waitresses at the casinos one dollar every time they came around the casino floor with a alcoholic beverage for you. In the gift shops on the strip, again due to the tipping custom we were more inclined to say keep the change or round things up to the nearest multiple of 5. Even in Phoenix, after a great number of round of drinks had at Applebees we again tipped the waitress a couple of bucks to show our appreciation. Let it be known, I am under no illusion that my one or two dollar tip here and there on its own doesn’t mean much, but by the end of the night when these waitresses count up their tips it could add up to an amount. It was a part of American culture I began to like, it just went that little further than a polite ‘thank you’, if you really did enjoy the service then this was a great way to express it. Then we arrived at New York.

New York extended this courtesy by instead swapping the good service that we were accustomed to tipping in Las Vegas and Phoenix for the convenience of telling us how much we should tip them by usually adding a 15 to 18% ‘appreciation tax’ to the bill. Yes, so if things were not already confusing enough here is how it worked: you go to a restaurant in NYC, order the Lobster, the menu says it will cost $35 dollars. Come time to pay the bill, you have your lobster charge of $35, then the gst of $3.50, then a gratitude tax of $6.30!

A notion of gratitude is one thing, but when you decide only to tip the staff a few dollars because the meal was mediocre and the service was nothing flash only to have the waitress return to your table after paying the bill and saying, “oh, here in NYC we tip 18%” is just plain rude, and defiantly doesn’t deserve said tip after such a imposition.

It should be pointed out though for those that don’t realize, these are the views of an Australian of which tipping is not a local custom. An interesting alternative view point of ‘tipping a waitress’ can be found here . They do have a point, but I still believe that tipping should not be a mandatory thing and should be at the discretion of the patron.

Having fallen in love with the laid back get outdoors nature of Golden Colorado it has taken me some time to adjust to New York City. The two are complete opposites, Golden promotes its outdoor lifestyle and NYC promotes the life in the city; where being close to nature i.e. a window view of Central Park from your apartment will set you back $3000.00 a month.

Broadway to me seems a separate entity of NYC altogether. In some sense it reminds me of the Las Vegas strip, with just fewer neons and instead of people handing out cards of strippers and escorts you have people offering you free seats to the ‘funniest standup in town’ (free as long as you purchase a couple of drinks at the show).

We arrived into New York rather exhausted from our six hour flight from Denver and caught a cab straight to our hotel The Modern, near the corner of 55th and Broadway. The journey was going rather well until we reached lower Manhattan where we got our first introduction to NYC traffic congestion – brought about by President Barack Obama making a guest appearance on the Letterman Show which was less than a kilometer from our hotel.

Finally after taking what seemed to be an hour to reach the hotel from 62nd street we finally made it to our hotel. Unfortunately, only to discover that the hotel had made alternative accommodation arrangements for us that night due to a leaking pipe in what was to be our room. The receptionist went on to explain that we have a room waiting for us at the Bentley Hotel, up on 62nd Street, quite a bit away from the Broadway strip. Michelle was less than pleased, I wasn’t too thrilled either, the whole point of choosing the Modern was that we were in easy walking distance from Times Square.

Having worked closely with Receptionists in the past I knew taking my frustrations out on her would lead nowhere, she was just the messenger, so I swallowed my frustrations and worked on a solution. The solution wasn’t ideal, but it was making the most of a bad situation, we received complimentary cab rides to and from the Bentley back to the Modern as well as a upgrade to a Junior suite when we returned to the Modern. On top of that, aside from being located further away from Broadway, the Bentley was a rather posh hotel, a whole star grander than the Modern, and we had a room with a fantastic view of the Brookland Bridge. It’s just unfortunate that by the time we got there and settled in we were both too overtired to really appreciate it at the time.

The next morning, having checked out of the Bentley and back into the Modern we finally set off around midday down the Broadway strip. The strip spanned easily several kilometers with theatres and gift shops on each block. The M&M store, a favorite of Michelle’s and mine whilst in Vegas also had its spot on the Broadway strip.

The Broadway strip didn’t really thrill me as much as it did for Michelle, to me it was a repeat of Vegas, but a poorer repeat. Broadway was dirtier and somewhat sleazy at night, and to my surprise with the occasional broken neon light, not something I expected from the Big Apple.

Later, we boarded a tour bus to take in the sights of this metropolis. The history behind some of the buildings was incredible. What New York lacked in ‘wow’ it made up for with the history.

We passed the Macy Department store founded by Isidor Straus. In 1912, Traveling from Germany back to the United States, Isidor and his wife were passengers of the RMS Titanic when, on April 14, it hit an iceberg. Ida reportedly would not leave Isidor and refused to get in a lifeboat. The officer filling up the boat told Isidor that he could get into the boat with his wife, but he refused to before other men and instead sent his wife’s maid, Ellen Bird, into the boat. Ida refused to board the half-full boat, saying “I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die together”. Isidor and Ida both died on April 15 when the ship sank. Isidor Straus’s body was recovered by the Mackay-Bennett and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Ida’s body was not recovered. Since that day, in memory of the Straus’s, Macys west door entrance has remained closed since that day.

The next historic landmark we passed by was the Empire State building, the 102 story icon of America’s determination completed in 1931 standing as the tallest building in the United States (aside from the period between 1972 and 2001 when the World Trade Centre held that title). It was a very impressive structure, and a tribute to American engineering and determination – considering that the development of the Empire State building took place in one of the more darker moments in American financial history, the period nick named the ‘great depression’; a point in time which Central Park as we know it today for its lush green surroundings, zoo and piece n’ tranquility was at that time known as ‘tent city’, a place where those who had nowhere else to go wound up, a place where development tycoons employed cheap labor for the most risky of jobs. It wouldn’t be surprising to learn the lives that were lost during the construction of the Empire State building came from Tent City. Ironically, once the great building was completed (some 13 months later) America was still struggling its way through the recovery of the depression, and as a result not many businesses took up residence in this new tower. In fact, once competed the owner paid workers to travel the hallways at night turning on and off lights to various rooms at random, to give the impression that the building was buzzing with activity. To the locals, the Empire State Building was better known to the local’s in the know back then as the Empty State Building.

We then journeyed to ground zero; formally the location of the World Trade centers which met their fate on September 11, 2001. We have all heard of the tragedy that through the destruction of so many lives and united America and the world; we have all heard of the September 11 memorial, the notes to the firemen that did their duty on that day, the notes to loved ones which were lost. To our surprise those memorials and notes to loved ones had all been relocated to one of several remembrance memorials around the city, Ground Zero itself was under development, a new prouder Trade Center design was to be established in its place, one that honored the tragedy of 2001 but also looked towards the bright future of the United States of America.

After a fair amount of walking and stumbling through the WFC (World Finance Center) we finally came across a couple of the remaining street memorials honoring the brave firemen (incidentally the Fire station was located immediately next door to the WTC) who risked their lives that fateful day.

Although I am somewhat pre-determined to never live in NYC, I have so far enjoyed my visit. There are still a number of things yet to experience, from visiting the Statue of Liberty to my first Yankees match. It is going to be a fantastic couple of days ahead.

When I was young, by that I mean seven or eight, my favorite actor/idol of all time was Michael Crawford. He was a very famous actor in the 70’s; probably most notably for his performance in ‘Some mothers do have em’ – but at that time I had not head of that show, and to Michael it would have been a distant memory of earlier days.

The film I first saw Michael Crawford in, a Disney production, was of a comic book writer turned secret agent. Essentially being at the right place at the right time and due to the circumstances having the CIA under his finger he was able to request all of the gadgets he invented in his comic book and live his adventure comics for real; the comic chronicles of ‘Condorman’.

Yes, this was a spy spoof of a film, and remember it is a Disney production, but to a eight year old, it was great; it had the humor, the swish looking car (which I obsessed over) and of course the evil of evil bad guys! That movie was my life, the actor who played the super hero ‘Michael Crawford’ was my hero – I wanted to be like him.

I recall at about the same time, perhaps a year on, my sister and I going out to the Wannaroo Markets with my Nanna and Grandpa. They turned to me and my sister (three years younger than me) and said, ‘here is twenty dollars, spend it on whatever you like.’ – As I recall my sister of six years wasted no time and immediately directed my grandparents to a piercing salon, and came out of it the other end with pierced ears (much to my Mum and Dad’s horror). I however walked as far as the nearest music store where I was immediately confronted by promotion posters featuring my favorite actor ‘Michael Crawford’. He had gone on to perform Andrew Lloyd Webbers ‘Phantom of the Opera’ – without hesitation I raced into the store with my $20 and purchased the cassette. To this day I still have it, although I have nothing to play it on.

Some sixteen years later on I find myself on Broadway in New York City, sitting in the audience of the longest running musical in Broadway history; The Phantom of the Opera.

For me, this opera experience was extra special, not only was the opera piece itself performed fantastically (not as well as Michael Crawford however) but also stirred all these memories of a childhood that existed so long ago.

The sets were incredible; the addition of the fog and fire just brought the production to life. The orchestra beneath the stage; the deep throbbing beat just prior to the organs introduction of the title piece echoing through the Majestic theater; you could feel the music vibrating through you.

Colorado has been amazing, and continuing with the American spirit we have experienced thus far, the people have been really friendly too.

We arrived in Denver Colorado at 5.25pm, almost three hours later than we were initially scheduled for. Although it may not sound too much a lot happened in that time; for one, what was a sunny afternoon three hours earlier had begun to fade into the night, and secondly a front was coming in, which meant the one full day we had in Golden Colorado will probably be a miserable one.

We were picked up from the airport by Jon, a work colleague I befriended last year in Sydney and his wife Julie. They proceeded to check us into our accommodation before inviting us to join them for some dinner at a local steak house. The four of us hit it off right away and we had a fantastic time just exchanging stories and getting to know one another, they really are a great couple.

The next day after being somewhat well rested (as much as one can be from a late flight, a later dinner and three episodes of back to back Criminal Minds) I headed out to visit Epilog and take a gander of their factory where they engineer and assemble some of my favorite office toys.

Golden has so much to offer its community, and many work forces recognize this by extending the lunch break so workers can enjoy the great outdoors that Golden has to offer. On a clear day Golden offers anything from hiking, fishing, mountain bike riding, photography, on a winter’s day, there is skiing and even more photography. Golden also caters for hunting, long interesting Sunday drives into the mountains and even gold panning (though this is mainly a tourist thing). After all that, why not stop at the Coors Brewery for a free beer or three? Yes, FREE! Oh, did I also mention this is the largest brewery in the world?

Right now every bone in my body is saying ‘move to Golden’, and perhaps I am jumping the gun on that a little – there are a couple of down sides, though none to do with the county itself, moreso the country. For instance, 2 weeks annual leave a year! I am still trying to figure out how I managed to score 8 weeks annual leave this year, there is no way I could go from 4 to 2. At the very least though, Golden has just skyrocketed up my list of destinations; return perhaps a week earlier next year and hire a car and spend a week around Golden; take day trips to Aspen and South Park. Hire a bike and go riding through some of the most majestic scenery I thought only existed in Europe, and then when the snow comes in, trade the bike for skis.

The day started cold and damp with heavy cold drops in the streets of Golden, little did we know however that as it was raining in the Valley, the alpine trees on the mountain side were getting laced with fresh powdery snow! Around midday we headed for lunch at the Red Rock Amphitheatre / Café well over 6000 feet above sea level. The view was phenomenal – the mountain range extended as far as the eye could see, from the base of the escarpment the vegetation changed from red rock formations to green alpine and then further above that a white snow line running across the mountain side, and everything above that was snow.
Shortly after that we headed up into the mountains. The rain was coming down quite heavy at that stage and it was almost as if we were driving into the storm. The rain pelted onto the wind screen with quite a bit of noise, then all of a sudden the noise was gone – the rain drops had morphed, dancing across the bonnet and wind screen in the form of snowflakes. You have to understand, the day before we were in Phoenix in high 40’s heat, on the evening of our arrival into Golden it was still at least 28 with clear skies, in the morning raining, and now snowing – four seasons within a 20 minute drive – Fantastic!

After spending some time just wandering in the snow and poorly dodging the snow balls my girlfriend was pegging at me we headed back down into the valley of Golden, but not before coming across some giant Elk.
We pulled the car up on a private drive way to get a closer look at these massive creatures, as the lay in the snow. I took a few photos from the car with the window down before stepping out to take a closer look nearly tripping over Michelle in the process whom by that time was crouched down beside my door more interested in handling the snow rather than photographic these majestic creatures.

The vegetation continued to change as we drove back down towards Golden, changing from its white frosting appearance to almost autumn one of light greens and oranges. We then made our way to the Coor’s Brewery for free beer from only the largest beer brewery in the world. I mentioned it was free didn’t I? Oh well, it’s worth mentioning twice, three times at least.

Finally the day ended with a Mexican meal with our new found friends at a very authentic Mexican eatery – the food was spicy and served to us by a real Mexican!

We both had a fantastic time in Golden, it seems to be the central hub for everything related to outdoor activity. You really do feel alive – or perhaps it’s the high altitude making me feel high.

Next stop New York City! The Big Apple.

Or at least that is the way to get to Golden on the road, which in retrospect would of probably been more relaxing and enjoyable rather than having to put up with our second flight delay in the United States. Similar to the flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas, our United Airlines flight to Denver has been delayed by two hours due to extended maintenance required for the aircraft.

I don’t know which comforts me more, the fact that United Airlines are thorough with their maintenance and thus happily taking more time to get it right, or the fact that the aircraft in question requires the extra attention. Perhaps they ran out of duct tape and need more?

It is a shame, we are both looking forward to checking out Colorado, it sounds amazing and we have such precious time as it is; now we have lost an extra two hours.

As much as I was excited about visiting a new place like Phoenix, I was also somewhat reluctant, especially after spending the last five days in Las Vegas. From Vegas’ wild night life of neons and alcohol to the sandy plains of the wild-west; or at least that is how I pictured it to be.

For the most part I was right, but I have enjoyed it here none the less. Sitting at a higher altitude, with the desert heat of 100ish degrees (30ish Celsius for the metric folk) Phoenix has been a nice relaxing stop on the way to Russia.

Although a great time of Phoenix was spent either at our motel recuperating from Vegas or at a engraving company I visited I did see enough of Phoenix to begin forming some opinions of the Arizona people and Americans all together.

The people are FRIENDLY. Never have I seen so many smiles and friendly gestures, which is a shame because I have always thought Australia would be one up on the US on this one. From continual gestures from drivers to walk out in front of them crossing the road, to a friendly smile and service of the waitress’s at the local bar and grill – Phoenix has been a very welcoming place.

On our first night there Michelle took me out around the neighborhood – since she had the opportunity to scout out food spots during the day while I was with Vision Engravers seeing how their production line worked. Being in the engraving industry I found the tour of their facilities particularly interesting, as I am already very familiar with their product from a customer receiving perspective, it was great to see it from the construction and engineering perspective. Anyway, I digress; Michelle and I stopped in at a bar and grill for dinner, the bar itself was very ‘yankee’ with wooden floors and walls, men wearing their truck-driver caps at the bar sipping a pint of (by Australian standards pathetically WEAK) beer, while those with families and tourists alike took up the tables and seating along the parameter which were serviced by the friendly waiter staff.

Being a huge fan of Potato Skins, something to which I owe to my Aunt and Cuz for introducing me to at the Queens back home we ordered an entrée size serving for starters. For those who have not had the pleasure, and I mean that as they are simply divine, a ‘potato skin’ is simply a potato, halved, with the potato contents scooped out and replaced by an assortment of cheese and bacon and lightly grilled n’ served with sour cream.. YUM… hmm I digressed yet again… anyway, this was followed up by a cheeseburger (an American favourite) where the waitress asked would I prefer fries or mashed potato (Michelle jokingly thinks she was just asking to strike up conversation with me) of course I ordered the fries, who has mashed potato with their burger?! The evening also involved several rounds of Budweiser which got cheaper as the night progressed between our waitresses fudging up the bill and that we were now well into ‘happy hour’.

Although being at a grill there was a pretty good assortment of beer to choose from our choice of Budweiser came easy since it was the only beer not labeled ‘Lite’ – since when did the yanks drink lite beer? Australia may be now the fattest nation (which if you come over to America you may find hard to believe) but we sure as hell can drink ‘em under the table! – Even their Strawberry Daiquiri uses Lite Rum!

So although the Phoenix stopover has gone in a blink of an eye, it has left a strong impression; very friendly locals who won’t ask for a tip to smile, desert heat with zero humidity which agreed with me, and the realization that our Australian accent is alluring to the locals!

Next stop Denver ahoy!