Thursday! Torjantai!

Today (17th Feb) is thursday (torjantai) and that means Porterhouse of course. Porterhouse Central is my favorite pub in Dublin and pretty much every thursday I have been gathering there with couple friends. While ago Porterhouse opened their first US location in NY so I had perfect change to check it out and get back on track with my record off all Porterhouses visited.

If you're in NY and want some real good Irish stout, skip all places serving Guinness and come here. (Porterhose at Fraunces Tavern, Pearl Street). Note also that they have bottles of Koff Porter that is considered to be best Finnish beer.

32. Porterhouse Hophead

Hophead was as good as back home, but I did miss bar staff from Dublin. It's not same without you...

Thursday was also the night for me in NY so I wanted to return to my favourite pub: Pony Bar. There are great beer bars at Manhattan but most seem to be at posh area and therefore quite expensive. Pony with 5 dollar pints, no matter what you take was more for me.

33. Barrier Ruthless Ipa
34. Ithaca Flower Power

While having pint at Pony, Steve called and asked me to join house party at 46th st. Steve's collague was trying to get rid of extra drinks he had and I was willing to help.

Place was awesome, suberb location, interior with old wood and red tiles. And to top it up, rooftop access straight from bedroom. Beers on the roof and little bit of wrestling naturally!

35. Blue Moon
36. Coors
37. Hooengarden
38. Corona
39. Amstel
(Hey it was a party, with beers on the house)

NY has been awesome. Great pubs, great neighborhoods and best of all; people. Thanks Steve!

Ps. Abram B, what the hell did you do with my ribs? Still sore.

Heartland & Brooklyn

Heartland is chain of brewpubs that apparently aren't really brewpubs. They have their own stuff there but I was told that their beer is brewed mostly outside Manhattan and then brought in. However I needed to make stop in one of those before heading up to Empire State building. You need to get bit courage before climbing 100 floors, right.

19. Indian River Light
20. Cornhusker Lager
21. Harvest Wheat Beer
22. Red Rooster Ale
23. Indiana Pale Ale
24. Farmer Jon's Oatmeal Stout
Some lame and expensive beers I say. Stout was ok but otherwise...

It is amazing how many totally different style areas you can fit in relatively small area. Brooklyn seemed to be my kind of area. Relaxed feeling, nice small pubs. Feeling here is quite different from busy Manhattan.

Main attraction in Brooklyn for me was of course Brooklyn Brewery. Unfortunately it was closed so I ended up pub crawling in some really nice small neigborhood pubs.

25. Old Thumper Double
26. Magic Hand Brewing Winter
27. Rogue Brutal Bitter
28. Brooklyn Weisse
29. Brooklyn Ale 55
30. 21 Amendment Brewery Hop Crisis
31. Sixpoint Righteous Rye

Ps, full pint of Hop Crisis was tough call on that point of evening. 10,8 % ABV

City with no memory

One tip I got from bartender at Chelsea was The Pony Bar (10th av, 45th st). I was told that I won't be disappointed and o'boy he was right. 20 taps and all those were changing craft brew taps. Have to say: Wow, me likes!

Every time tap runs out and new is tapped, staff rings the bell and everybody in the bar shouts "new beer". After that silent wait when name of the new beer is put on the wall.

I had some superb beers and also noticed that chips ain't same thing here than back home in Ireland.

9. Firestone Walker Double Jack Ipa
10. Victory St. Victorius Dobbel Bock
11. Southern Tier Ipa
12. Ommegang Hennepin
13. Long Trail Hibernator
14. Ommegang Rare Vos
15. Ommegang Adoration
Not sure about names of last 2, was getting bit tipsy here

While sipping drinks I met Steve, cool arty-techie guy from Long Island. We ended up having quite a few brews and after a while Inju, hazy, lazy, mazy girl and Nouri, part time president of Iraq showed up. Together they made a team working with comic "Bucktooth". Check it out, some fun nasty shit!

From them I learned for example that:
- NY was established by transvestite and Central Park is trans -area of NY
- Richies stay at south Manhattan or at their mansions at Long Island
- Biggest explosion before atom bomb was here in NY
- Pavmanok means fish shaped
- NY has no memory

I know, my notes are amazing! There was also lot's of stuff that I wasn't quite able to figure out.

Nouris friend was performing at Bowery Poetry Club so I joined them to see mixed stand up and burlesque show. Some hot acts I say, specially cute girl with fire!


Highlight of evening was however was possible the coolest bar I've been into: Mars Bar. Place was filled with punk and rock'n'roll spirit. I was told that this was pretty much what there was left in NY after they took down CBGB. One place with heart and now they were going to close this aswell... I just made it on time to witness last nights of this awesome bar. Of course I had to leave my heritage also on the wall of this place famous for punk rock and its lack of toilet paper.


(At least)
16. Brooklyn Lager
17. Bass
18. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Oh yes, I had bit difficulties first navigating with subway but after getting stoned it all seemed to make sense. 24 hour subway is awesome, so easy to get back from bar.

New York, New York

Bit trouble getting in as there was distrupions on subway lines. I had no map so I picked up some random stop to get up. After walking little bit I located myself close Rockefeller center so I was in the hoods already. Did bit sightseeing but backbag and jetlag were getting heavy so I headed to hostel I had booked.

Luckily close to hostel, maybe 5 streets away was one of places I had marked sightseeing spot; "Valhalla". Small bar on 9th avenue was not much from outside but inside they had 37 taps!

Had small chat with bartender and tasted first pints of journey (I don't count stuff on the plane).

1. Harpoon BPA (Belgian pale ale)
2. Stone Levitation Ale

At this point time difference got me and took me to bed and then woke me up at 5 am. Well, lot's time for sightseeing. Central park, Harlem and for last , so I thought, nice stroll from 36th st to head of Manhattan. Soon I noticed that 1st st is not close to head at all...

Walked all the way but after 6 hours walk all together I decided to take bus from head to my second must see spot; Chelsea Brewing Company. This is only actual brewpub located at Manhattan. There is another chain calling them brewpubs but I'll return to them on later posts.

Chelsea is located on old pier so I bet this is the place to have a sip on warm summer day and watch sailboats go by. Bartender gave me great tips and told lot's about beers in NY while I was enjoying some real good brews. Only minus was that they had only 6 brews available at the moment.

3. Checker Cab Blonde
4. Sunset Red
5. Hop Angel
6. High and Dry Porter
7. Pumpkin Spiced Ale
8. Seasonal special, (not sure about name)

Before takeoff 2

Flights - check
Ground transportation - no idea
Accomodation - NY booked, otherwise open
Places to visit while there - no idea
Visa to Cuba and China - ongoing

I flied to Finland to store things I wanted to keep, 3 was total amount of suitcases, my life didn't fit in two... Week and a half time to get visas before first flight so I headed to one of my dear friends place who was planning to join me in Japan. She also happened to live on area very close to most embassys. Visa to Cuba was amazingly easy. Took 3 hours from leaving application to have visa in my pocket. Smooth so beer for celebrating.


Couple days later I was at embassy of China. Bit more paperwork, looks easy. Only but was what to fill in as visa was valid for 3 months from application only and my plan was to get out from China later than that. Negotiations at office were interesting, lady didn't quote understand untill after a while and then personnel needed negotiate a while if what I requested was ok or not. They showed me green light: "you can enter China if you enter before 3 months is up". Good enough for me, I'm not in hurry to leave from there so I didn't keep asking if I can also get out.

Before takeoff

Here It goes, my first day off. I'm actually still on payroll, couple days vacation before leave starts. 6 months that I'm really looking forward. Some days to get rid of my apartment, sell extra stuff and if it goes well, make some extra bucks for traveling. Goal is to get whole life again on 2 suitcases, just like it was when leaving Finland for working in Ireland.

It has been good 4 years, years that have made me answer Dublin if someone asks what is my hometown. Still it started to feel that something needs to happen so it was time to leave. I had a small see you in 6 months party instead of goodbye forewer even that deep inside I'm not sure if I will return to same job at least. We'll see that in next half year.

Prolog

Many as been talking and asking about my little book that I usually have with me when going around. Usually it is just for my own fun and I normally share only mostly beer related stuff elsewhere. However as people have been asking, I'll publish stuff on my world tour. I'm bit lazy writer so bare with me.

For those who don't know whats going on, and those that I have just met; I just took small break from evil corporate wheel and packed my backpack. I'm going around for some months and fulfilling dreams I've been building.

I start this blog bit late so first updates about world tour will be updates from backlog. Stuff that I have written down during my first weeks of leave and some stuff from my back of my head of course. I'm expecting several (and longer) updates when catching up and most likely bit slower pace when I'm back on track.