http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/ Welcome to Been there. Your tips on the places you know - that you love, live in or have just visited - are what make this guide. http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33662 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33662 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33615 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33615 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33517 This is Burning Man, which describes itself as “an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance”. And radical it is! It’s also crazy, beautiful, safe, generous and buzzing with life, love and laughter. It’ll stretch you, for sure. But you’ll rise to it and surprise yourself. Trust me. You’ll experience (perhaps for the first time) the complete freedom to be and express yourself in whatever ways you feel like, whether that’s a squeak or a roar.
Given that freedom, and all the characters and creativity you’ll find at Burning Man, there could easily be a hundred life-changing possibilities a day. Dress up like Priscilla Queen of the Desert, or rip off all your clothes and paint yourself blue. Ride around under the stars on a giant neon spider. Climb up an intricately carved wooden temple and scrawl your deepest secrets on the walls, then watch the temple catch fire a few days later, taking your secrets with it forever. Jump on a pimped up bicycle and follow a troupe of fire dancers around, then ask them for a twirl. Or simply pluck up the courage to wander into a complete stranger’s camp and be welcomed with open arms for coffee and conversation. Then if you get tired, just take a seat on a huge red velvet sofa that just happens to be rolling past on wheels...
But for me, the most profoundly life-changing aspect of all was to discover what happens when you give people, en masse, pure unadulterated freedom. Far from anarchy or debauchery, what you actually get is something almost akin to an earthly paradise. Amazing!
There’s no crime, abuse, hassle or even any litter. Not a single cigarette butt or beer can is dropped during the event or left behind after it (following the philosophy of ‘leave no trace’). No money changes hands during the week, everything is freely given and received between friends and strangers. Nobody will push you into anything, leave you out of anything, look at you disapprovingly or give you cause to feel uncomfortable in any way. In fact I’m not sure I even saw anyone in a slightly bad mood, ever!
Somehow, in the absence of society’s usual rules and boundaries, what rises from the hot desert sands (apart from dust, which does get everywhere) is a quite beautiful marriage of liberation and personal responsibility, individuality and community, an outpouring of creative inspiration, expression, mutual support, pure joy and fun. And when you find yourself a part of that, something very, very unusual happens. You feel proud to be a member of the human race, which is a life-changing experience indeed! And you start to think hey, maybe we humans aren’t so bad after all, perhaps there’s hope for us yet. If we can do it in Black Rock City, why not the world? But even if we’re not quite ready to pull it off wholesale just yet, at least we still have Burning Man. Try it!]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33517 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33512 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33512 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33470
This is Burning Man, which describes itself as “an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance”. And radical it is! It’s also crazy, beautiful, safe, generous and buzzing with life, love and laughter. It’ll stretch you, for sure. But you’ll rise to it and surprise yourself. Trust me. You’ll experience (perhaps for the first time) the complete freedom to be and express yourself in whatever ways you feel like, whether that’s a squeak or a roar.

Given that freedom, and all the characters and creativity you’ll find at Burning Man, there could easily be a hundred life-changing possibilities a day. Dress up like Priscilla Queen of the Desert, or rip off all your clothes and paint yourself blue. Ride around under the stars on a giant neon spider. Climb up an intricately carved wooden temple and scrawl your deepest secrets on the walls, then watch the temple catch fire a few days later, taking your secrets with it forever. Jump on a pimped up bicycle and follow a troupe of fire dancers around, then ask them for a twirl. Or simply pluck up the courage to wander into a complete stranger’s camp and be welcomed with open arms for coffee and conversation. Then if you get tired, just take a seat on a huge red velvet sofa that just happens to be rolling past on wheels...

But for me, the most profoundly life-changing aspect of all was to discover what happens when you give people, en masse, pure unadulterated freedom. Far from anarchy or debauchery, what you actually get is something almost akin to an earthly paradise. Amazing!

There’s no crime, abuse, hassle or even any litter. Not a single cigarette butt or beer can is dropped during the event or left behind after it (following the philosophy of ‘leave no trace’). No money changes hands during the week, everything is freely given and received between friends and strangers. Nobody will push you into anything, leave you out of anything, look at you disapprovingly or give you cause to feel uncomfortable in any way. In fact I’m not sure I even saw anyone in a slightly bad mood, ever!

Somehow, in the absence of society’s usual rules and boundaries, what rises from the hot desert sands (apart from sand, which does get everywhere) is a quite beautiful marriage of liberation and personal responsibility, individuality and community, an outpouring of creative inspiration, expression, mutual support, pure joy and fun. And when you find yourself a part of that, something very, very unusual happens. You feel proud to be a member of the human race, which is a life-changing experience indeed! And you start to think hey, maybe we humans aren’t so bad after all, perhaps there’s hope for us yet. If we can do it in Black Rock City, why not the world? But even if we’re not quite ready to pull it off wholesale just yet, at least we still have Burning Man. Try it!]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33470 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33366 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33366 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33365 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33365 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33229
New York, New York, so good they named it twice,
New York, New York, all the scandal and the vice, I love it!
Gerard Kenny, 1978.

I’m not so sure about the vice, but I love a bit of scandal and news, so what better way to start the day than with the New York Times? Sitting in one of NY’s many diners, while knocking back endless cups of coffee and wolfing down a real Big Apple breakfast, is a pretty good way to soak up the city morning atmosphere.

It does not matter what interests you, New York has it all. There are a million things to do and see, from art to sport, from shopping to parks and from Broadway to boat tours, it is impossible to be bored.

I started my affair with New York in 1972 when I visited the city for the first time at the tender age of fourteen. Flying from London on my own, too scared to disturb the passenger next to me – or to use the lavatory – I remained in my seat for the whole journey. Listening to Tony Blackburn through crackly headphones, on a continuous one-hour loop, must surely earn me some kind of medal? Emerging surprisingly unscathed from the experience of hearing the iconic disk jockey’s cheesy jokes eight times, I was met at the airport by the American family I would be staying with for a month.

It was the time of flower power and the hippy generation, a movement I embraced with open arms, marvelling at the brave new world of shopping malls. I bought LPs by Carole King, Harry Nilsson, and Alice Cooper, covered myself in cheap jewellery, slavered on the patchouli or musk perfume, and squeezed my feet into cuban heeled cowboy boots. I went to the Empire State Building – just pipped at the post as the world’s highest building by the recently built World Trade Centre. I saw the Rockerfeller Center, Central Park and the Statue of Liberty, but it was Saks 5th Avenue which impressed me most. Fab, all those bright, blinking, winking things.

Most amazingly of all during that trip I was somehow smuggled into a cinema to see the X rated “The Godfather”. Life did not get much hipper or happier.

Since my first glimpse of the metropolitan heaven that is New York I have been back often, sometimes on holiday and sometimes on business, but always with pleasure and affection. It has changed over the years, with even places like Harlem getting a makeover and becoming gentrified – this once ‘no-go’ area now offers Harlem Heritage Tours.

If you've never been before I would try a whistle stop tour of the major tourist sights – they are all worth seeing – but just strolling around Manhattan gives a great flavour of the place that spawned ‘Fame’, ‘Friends’ and countless Woody Allen flicks. Catch a Broadway show and see a Hollywood star in the flesh, if you are lucky, but ‘Off Broadway’ or even in one of the other boroughs – Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx or Staten Island – there are performances most nights.

NY never ceases to thrill and to throw up something new. The Frick Collection and Museum of Modern Art are always worth visiting for a culture fix. For aspirational shopping it is hard to beat Barneys, and the boutiques around SoHo are full of gorgeous clothes and to-die-for trinkets.

There is nothing quite like waking up in the city that never sleeps and I haven’t even mentioned the bars...

For more tales have a look at www.lizcleere.com
]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/33229 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32963 It also has two delightful cafes serving Viennese style food, wonderful cakes and gorgeous breakfasts. It's quite small and a refreshing change from some of the enormous museums in New York that can quickly exhaust you. Also it's not far from the marvellous Frick collection which is also fairly small and "do-able"]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32963 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32937 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32937 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32849 Beautiful room, fabulous host, AMAZING breakfast, good wifi, voip phone in the room, and excellent location in a great area and right near lots of public transport. I doubt there is a better place to stay in the city. I will definitely be going back.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32849 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32844 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32844 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32826 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32826 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32695 Coming from Washington (especially if you are on a wine tour that might include Walla Walla - about which I must write one day) a stop at Maryhill would work as a gateway to the Columbia Gorge on a trip through some very interesting towns, beautiful waterfalls (Multnomah especially), and great bicycle rides), on the way to Portland in Oregon - a fantastic destination in its own right.
The strangeness of the Stonehenge Memorial doesn't really dissipate, even as you enjoy the wine, and if you're lucky a performance in the amphitheatre, or a visit to the attached Art Museum.
If heading on to Portland, try stopping at Hood River (home to Full Sail Brewery and lots of parasailing), or Stevenson - nestled in temperate forest. It's all very beautiful.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32695 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32694 Coming from Washington (especially if you are on a wine tour that might include Walla Walla - about which I must write one day) a stop at Maryhill would work as a gateway to the Columbia Gorge on a trip through some very interesting towns, beautiful waterfalls (Multnomah especially), and great bicycle rides), on the way to Portland in Oregon - a fantastic destination in its own right.
The strangeness of the Stonehenge Memorial doesn't really dissipate, even as you enjoy the wine, and if you're lucky a performance in the amphitheatre, or a visit to the attached Art Museum.
If heading on to Portland, try stopping at Hood River (home to Full Sail Brewery and lots of parasailing), or Stevenson - nestled in temperate forest. It's all very beautiful.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32694 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32587 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32587 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32586 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32586 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32585 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32585 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32432 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32432 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32371 Owner and chef, Jason is a gracious host.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/32371