hockeymoon in review

our hockeymoon was AHHHH-MAZZZING. there are things we never want to forget. things we'd definitely do again. however, there are also things we'd change. and some things we'd never want to relive. so this is my hockeymoon in review, a review of ALL FOUR CITIES. the best of, the worst of, what we'd change and what we'd keep the same. i'll try to keep it short and sweet, but take all that you want from it. you know, for when you are planning your next hockeymoon ;)

the best of...

hotel: we were split. we loved both affinia and aka. affinia had that manhattan feel to it. you walked up and there was that "wow!" factor. plus we got free champagne and wine. the hotel staff was phenomenal. our room was pure luxury. and the hotel restaurant/bar was also amazing. only negative: we had a balcony that we could not access.
aka was also very luxurious. and plus it was bigger. it designed for the business traveler who might stay for weeks at a time. so our room had a full kitchen. plus the wine + cheese + roses gig did earn the hotel a few points ;) only negative: hotel restaurant was very pretentious. definitely not our style.

game: hands down carolina v. montreal. and no, not because it was a 'canes game! this was the most competitive game start to finish. it was a good game to watch, beginning to end.

arena atmosphere: this one would have been difficult to choose if philly fans weren't such assholes. but MSG took the cake. the fans were having a great time, no matter what was happening on the ice. and there was also plenty of on-ice entertainment as well.

subway system: montreal wins because they had a small system that was easy to navigate with no technological assistance. it is a color system, much like boston. however, NYC and PHI both have subway apps for the iPhone, which made getting around both of those cities easy as pie.

friendliness: toronto was by far the friendliest city. toronto is a huge melting pot, so they were accepting of everyone. probably because you really have no idea of who actually lives there. we never once felt like outsiders.

city atmosphere: toronto basically has it all. it's laid back. there is tons to do. it's walkable. it's on the lake. it has an underground walkway system. what more could you ask for?!

arena: i am beginning to sound like a drum here, but toronto had the best arena. it had the "wow!" factor. it was new, fresh, in-your-face, over-the-top, over-stimulating...it was awesome. plus, they served free samples of alcohol, who doesn't like that?
i will give philly an honorable mention here because their arena felt so much like "home" to us. so we really liked it and felt comfortable there. except when we were being cursed at, of course.

snow village: so this is a little bias considering montreal is the only city that had a snow village. but it was so awesome that it is definitely worth giving a "best of" award to. and if you ever go to montreal, in the dead of winter...you must go to the snow village!

food: toronto. and this may be a little bias only because we ate food for 4 days in toronto. so we got to find stuff that we really liked. however, we did notice that most everything we ate in toronto was fresher, less processed food. and we were down with that.
and NYC gets an honorable mention here too. because how can famous NYC pizza not!?

underground walkway: you guessed it...toronto. and no, it wasn't the only city with one. montreal has one and i would be willing to argue that nyc has one. kind of. but again, we utilized toronto's the most. we couldn't figure montreal's and really had no need to explore nyc underground. so, there you have it.

THE BEST CITY... so, after all of those categories, we picked our favorite city. obviously, NYC is already near and dear to my heart. however, there is a new king in town. toronto really stole our hearts on this trip. as i mentioned in my toronto blog, there are many reasons we now love this city. so much, in fact, we tried to book our first anniversary trip there. too bad airplane tickets now cost your inheritance.


worst of....
luckily we don't have too many categories to discuss as being the "worst of"

fans: philadelphia. these fans were the worst. they cried about everything. the score. being "late" to the game. or nothing at all. one flyer's fan passed by a penguin's fan on the concourse and yelled "fuck you asshole" at him. for no reason. what gives philly?

helpfulness: this means there was a lack of helpfulness. in which case that would be montreal. if you don't speak fluent french, in the local dialect, the locals are not interested in talking to you, much less helping you.
which ties into montreal is the worst city to get lost in if you don't speak french.

arena: it was a tough call. but i guess someone has to be the worst, so montreal it's your arena. it's old and out-of-date. but MSG, don't breathe a sigh of relief, you were a very close 2nd.

game: montreal vs. toronto. montreal won 5-0. it was a total ass kicking. it was embarrassing. and not worth the price of admission. ok, that's not true. everything else was amazing. except for the game.


what we'd do differently....
traveling through to 4 new cities across 10 days, you are bound to hit some snags. after this trip, i can say...there isn't too much we'd change. if we were awesome enough to do it all over again.

less bags. we carried TWO 50+lb bags, one backpack, a rolling carry-on, and my purse. it was wayyyy too much shit to keep up with. i would suggest each person gets one rolling bag and one backpack. AT THE VERY MOST.

spend at least 3 days in each city. we spent 4 days in toronto and 2 days everywhere else. well, the other three cities, we basically got one day there, which was the day of the hockey game. so i recommend at least three days. one day for the game and one day for touristy shit and one day for travel.

Be prepared when you arrive at each city. basically, know how to get from point A (where you are) to point B (where you need to be). don't assume it's going to be as easy as it looks OR as easy as it was in a previous city. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. hailing a cab isn't the worst thing in the world either.

Before you go: review and find local neighborhood bars/restaurants. we enjoyed the walkability of the cities we were in. so we definitely should have used that to our advantage a little more and researched what was in the neighborhoods we stayed in. so that we could have enjoyed what the locals enjoy. you silly.


and last but not least...what we would never change...

the way we traveled. we flew to toronto and then traveled by train to all the other cities. and utilized public transit within each city. OHMIGOSH was it stress free. we didn't have to worry about parking. or where to park. or how much it costs to park. or driving. it was awesome.

which leads into...being in a walkable city. we loved being able to just walk out of our hotel rooms and just GO! we could walk to a deli or bar. or head to the subway station to get across town. the world was at our finger tips. in all four cities. it truly was remarkable.

exploring as much as we could. even though we slept in, a lot (hey, it was our honeymoon!)...we tried to see and do as much as time would allow us to. we have no idea when/if we'll ever be able to do something like this again. so we had to soak it all in!

taking too many pictures. even though we can't get them off the camera. we have over 1000 pictures of our trip. and they will be lasting memories of all that we did and saw. and for now, we know they are in a safe place :)

the games. just doing a multi-city road trip in and of itself would be amazing, but hockey is who we are. it's us. so we could never have imagined doing this trip, or another one like it, without the hockey. we loved every minute of going to new arenas and learning new hockey cultures. it was once in a lifetime. and we hope to do it all over again. in 4 new cities. some day soon.

we loved our hockeymoon. we miss it as much as our wedding. it is another storybook of wonderful memories we will cherish for our lifetime.

xoxo,
ks

the city that never sleeps.

so wednesday, februrary 15th we traveled. ALL DAY LONG.

we said goodbye to montreal around 9:30am and hello to NYC! at a much later 8:40pm. it was a veryyyyyyy long train ride. we slept. a lot. we enjoyed the views of upstate new york. the hudson valley is incredible. we ate and drank. we read. and of course played on our phones. free wifi! thanks amtrak! we definitely kept ourselves busy, but at about hour 9-10 we were going stir crazy. LET ME OFF THE TRAIN. I DON'T CARE WHERE WE ARE. I MUST RUNNNN.

sooo bored.

really bored.

the most bored.

being cute.

arriving into new york at night was pretty amazing. the city was all lit up. and what's more is that it looks like this magical, peaceful place. full of wonder and shiny lights. our train came into penn station, which was great. because our hotel was right across the street. there would be no wandering around looking lost idiots in NYC. thanks, we've got this. we can cross the street.

we stayed at hotel affinia. and when we checked in the lady asked us about our honeymoon, which was a piece of information i had provided all the hotels as to the reason for the trip. but she was the first to ask. she also asked about our wedding and how excited we must be. then she said "this may be a silly question...but do you guys like champagne?" and we both kind looked at each other, smiled and replied yes. and she then asked if we'd like a complimentary bottle sent to our room. uummmm no thanks we're good. OF COURSE WE WILL HAVE SOME FREE CHAMPAGNE!!
so we went up to the room, got settled, waited on our champagne, and made plans for dinner. we toasted to our honeymoon and being in new york and off we went!
since it was kind of late, we just decided to have dinner at the hotel restaurant, niles. wow. what a place. it was poppin'. it was a restaurant/bar. so people come in off the street to get drinks and hang out. plus there had been a knicks game earlier and with all the "linsanity" that was going on...everyone was out celebrating.
up until we got to new york, i felt like we'd be pretty tame in our honeymoon. in that we hadn't stayed out too late or partied too hard. we did lots of touristy stuff. we had done a good job, so far, to keep it all well balanced. well...something changed in new york. there is something about the new york lights that just gives you energy. you just want to do stuff ALL NIGHT LONG. you want to be out and go places. meet people and do things. so while we were at niles, keith celebrated his new york energy by having 11 beers. ok, so not 11. but it sure seemed like it. and of course, drinking makes you hungry. once we left the bar we just had to order a new york pizza. some how keith kept it together to order a pie. which was sooooo delicious. i love new york pizza. hands down, it's the best pizza in the world.

yummmmmmmmmmmmmm

 the next day...was our first day of shitty weather. we had gone 7 days of great weather. and then this day happens. it's cold. it's windy. and it's fucking raining. however, when we got up and got ready it wasn't raining. so i decided it would be a good idea to wear these stupid knit boots. that are definitely not waterproof. so we head out for the day. and guess what? it's starts raining. and better yet...my feet are soaked in a matter of minutes. so now i have cold, wet feet. awesome. i hate rain. i really hate cold rain. so i am really trying my best to hold it together since i brought this misery on myself. i spotted the NHL store. not the macy's or bloomingdales, but the NHL store. yes, i am a true hockey fan. so we go in there to warm up. we browsed around and bought some hurricanes gear that we can't get in raleigh. yeah that's right. what the hell kind of sense does that make?

crappiest weather of the trip. yuck.

Not excited about the cold, rain, and wet feet.

hurricanes shoes! that we did not buy.

hurricanes/whalers gear that we did buy.

so anyway, we head back outside to the cold and rain. a few more minutes of walking and i am back where i started. soaking wet. and now my feet are going numb. you know, since it's freaking cold out. and i am getting more miserable by the minute. we are close to rockefeller center, so we go there to see the ice rink, grab some lunch, inside! and then head back to this gap store to try to find me some boots. luckily they had some rain boots...on sale! they really saved the day. 

gap rain galoshes! saved our day.

then we hopped on the subway and headed down to the 9/11 memorial. to get inside was like going to the airport. security was tight. we had to unzip our coats and take off our belts. nuts. but i am not surprised either. i told keith that while we were there, we were probably in the safest place in the world.
the memorial was breathtaking. sad. left me in awe. tear-jerking. amazing. calm. beautiful. serine. it is so awful that something so terrible had to happen to create a place that is so beautiful.
being there made our hearts sink, but it was something we had to do while we were in new york.

we left the memorial and had to get our mind elsewhere, after all, we had a hockey game to get to.
we headed back to the hotel, got ready and received our complimentary bottle of wine! i had a coupon from the hotel. wine and champange?! this hotel is awesome.

it was hockey night, game three of our trip. chicago v. new york rangers.
madison square garden (MSG) was also located right across the street from our hotel. which made it soooo convenient. right when we walked in this guy was yelling about free hoodies. my ears popped up. i was like let's look into this. i mean, every hurricanes fan needs a NYR hoodie. so the deal was we had to sign up for the sunday NY times, and can cancel whenever we want. and presto! a free hoodie. i have yet to cancel the subscription. we actually like reading it. so i see it as a win-win.
anyway, MSG was weird. i felt like a train station or an airport to me. all the signage was similar in nature to what you'd expect to see at either of those places. the arena corralled you up the stairs and around and around like cattle. it was weird. and it's old.
BUT the game atmosphere was really great. the NYR fans were a lot of fun and just had a good time with the game. even getting beat 4-2 by the blackhawks. plus, the beers were awesome. not only was it in a plastic cup with a handle, it also came with a pretzel.

beer + pretzel = no need for $5 popcorn

only bad news? beer sales stop right when the puck drops at the start of the 3rd period. so weird. at the end of the 2nd period, i saw fans flying out of their seats and i was thinking, "what is the rush?" well, now i know.
and during the 2nd intermission, keith and i got up to also get more refreshments. i was ahead of him and as i was walking down the stairs, i thought i faintly heard my name. so i grabbed the handle bars on both sides, and kind of turned around. at that same moment, i felt my feet go out from under me. it turns out keith had seen my gloves in my back pocket (yeah, sure he was looking at my gloves) and they looked like they were about to fall out. and as he was reaching down to get my gloves, he slipped and fell on his ass, which caused him to kick my legs out from under me. it felt super great. and he was mortified. he tried to repair his pride with beer. it took lots of beer.

excited!!

MSG.

US, post-game 3.

Final, Rangers 2 Blackhawks 4

after the game we went to the flying puck. it is a bar that is located across the street from our hotel. i saw it the night before while we were at niles and insisted that we go there before we leave new york. i mean, who wouldn't want to go to a place called the flying puck?! it was the best hockey bar ever. every tv had a different hockey game on. if you wanted to watch any other sport, too bad. it wasn't happening at this bar. there were even minnesota wild fans there cheering on their team. how did minnesotans get to new york? were they lost?
before we wrapped up our night, we went back to our hotel bar, niles, for a quick bite to eat. hockey makes us hungry...i guess.
we love NYC and really hated that our trip went by so fast. we hardly got to enjoy it, but enjoyed all that we did have time for. there isn't enough space on this blog to discuss my love for NYC. it's a vibrant town that just makes you feel alive. we had a great time there. next time our stay won't be so short.

and there it was...staring us in the face...our trip to our last city. sooo sad.

xoxo,
ks