New York I

Now I've really been in New York. Been. Because right now I'm sitting on my bed in the Hotel Westin in Montreal in Canada. But maybe I should explain that chronologically: On Thursday Kai, Thomas, Sandra and me took the 10AM train to the airport in Zurich. We were pretty early, so we had plenty of time to have a coffee at Starbucks, eat something and stroll around the shops in the shopping mall. The flight with Delta was quite okay, I mean it took almost 9 hours from Zurich to JFK in New York. During the flight we had stunning views on greenland, revealing its snowy mountains and deep valleys. Having arrived, we got our rental car and then waited for Laura, a girl studying with Kai at HSG. She was in Berkeley during summertime and now joins us for the trip to Canada. When we finally had our car, we headed for Boston, but as it was already late, we needed a hotel for the night. So we stopped at Sturbridge in Massachusetts where we found the Hampton Inn. There, the desk clerc asked us where we were heading to. As he heard that we were on the way to Boston he told us that the city would be crowded with people because Ted Kennedy's funeral would take place there. We already heard that in the news, but didn't know that even President Obama would come to the funeral in Boston. So we had to change plans and instead headed north to the canadian border. On the way to Montreal we passed by the skyline of Albany, NY which is actually the capital of the state New York and came across Lake Placid, where the bobsleight runs take place in winter.

As I already said, we stay in the Westin here in Montreal. The rooms are just great! We even have Starbucks coffee in the rooms and a radio with iPod connection. All in all perfect. For dinner we dressed in shirt and went to Steak Frites (405, Rue St-Antoine Ouest). I enjoyed a perfect filet de saumon and duck rilettes as appetizer. For desert I tasted the crème brulée, which was good, but that one I had in Paris last year was, I'm sorry, better. But the restaurant as well as the clientele were superb! But funny enough, some restaurants do not have a licence to sell alcohol, so you see a sign in front of the building that says: Bring your own wine. Thus, many guests walk in with bottles of wine in their hands. Before we walked back to the hotel, we had a drink at Suite 701 (701, Côte de la Place d'Armes), a nice lounge in an old majestic building. But we were so tired, that soon after we went back to our rooms and had a long and deep sleep.