Kathleen Elise Photography: Chicago and New York City 2011

Here is just a taste of my trip last year to the U.S.A. I'm finally putting them up after almost a year has gone by since I went over there.
I had a lot of fun with my friends exploring the two cities. My favourite city was Chicago but we didn't get to stay there very long so I will have to go back some time. The main reason we were there was for Art History so we visited a lot of museums and galleries, it was so great being able to soak up the art scene.
One of my favourite days would have to be on the last Saturday we were over there and we were given a free day to do whatever we liked. I decided to go out and explore the Upper West Side and part of Central Park all by my self. It was rather daunting at first but I did it and felt very proud of my self when I got back.

Firstly I got a map of the subway out and a map of all the places I wanted to go and made sure I was ready before I set out. When I got to the subway I realised that the train I wanted didn't run on weekends, so I had overlooked that part when planning my little adventure. I found another train going in the same direction and boarded it. I was so nervous waiting on the platform by myself with random people walking by me and waiting with me so when I got on the train I was a little relieved, although not too much. I was sitting there trying not to look too touristy and nervous and I realised that the train passed my stop so I had to get out further up the line and then I asked the ticket lady at the station which train to take back. It was all rather scary because where I was there wasn't another white person in sight! And I felt so out of place I almost raced back onto the train and was going to forget about my day out and go back to the hotel.

I finally arrived at my destination and sat outside near Central park on one of the benches outside the park and ate my lunch before I made my way across to Riverside Park and tried to find the park from 'You've Got Mail' where Joe and Kathleen meet at the end. After wandering around the beautiful park, taking photos of squirrels, flowers and park benches with plaques on them I found this little steep hill bit and started walking up and as I did so, I felt like Tom Hanks walking up to Meg Ryan and it was then I knew I was in the right spot. My heart starting pounding and like the geek I am I was beaming from ear to ear. I couldn't believe it. I was here. I pretended for a while that I wasn't a geek because there were other people around, so I started taking photos of some of the flowers around as well as taking a pic of THE garden. A group of people walked up after a while and were talking about 'You've Got Mail' and took a few pictures and I went up to them and asked if they could possibly take a picture of me with it. They were nice and took some for me :)

After that I went in search of Kathleen Kelly's brownstone and I think I managed to find it. I took photos of two of the ones I thought it might have been. I then walked up the road and found the little cafe that Joe and Kathleen meet in when Joe finds out who she is. I sat outside because they were very busy inside and I didn't want to do the touristy thing when they were busy. But it was a very nice quaint little cafe by the looks of it. After that I wandered around and found the supermarket that they went to and tried to avoid each other in, but ended up at the checkouts together. After that, I think I headed back to the hotel. When I got off at my stop I got a little disorientated and walked the wrong way and then walked the right way then the wrong way again then I realised that I was infact walking the wrong way so I pretty much walked 2 blocks too much before I found myself in familiar territory. So funny now but my feet were hurting like hell when I got back. But I still loved the experience anyway.

Well this blog has turned out to be a lot longer than I planned. But I hope you enjoy looking at the photos .