2011: A NYC Odyssey (plus Quidditch!)

One of the cool things about living in the part of Maryland where I do is that I'm within reasonable driving distance of three pretty cool cities: Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. This weekend my family and I drove up to New York to see the Quidditch World Cup on Randall's Island. We also saw Chicago on Broadway and visited Times Square (which is only a few blocks from most of the Broadway theatres). It was a ton of fun and I wanted to share some of the pictures we took. They're not exactly stirring nature shots like Petty and Ringdrotten have, but I'll take what I can get.



Times Square is always a little bit trippy at night, and I still find it a bit weird to be in one of the most famous cultural locations in America only to be surrounded by wall-to-wall video ads on every building surface surrounding the square. Still, I enjoy the place, and fortunately it wasn't too crowded.



My mom insisted on getting a picture of this guy. I guess honesty is a virtue.



At last we got to the World Cup itself! Tickets for Saturday, Sunday, and the finals (on Sunday) were sold separately, so we went on Sunday after a Saturday at the theatre.





The game itself, despite being adapted from a children's book, was actually surprisingly intense. There was a lot of athleticism from the players. I think it's also the only full contact coed sport I've ever seen.



And finally, a gorgeous sunset, looking across the East River and past upper Manhattan. Of course, I failed to capture it properly on my cell phone camera, but c'est la vie.

In any event, I had a lot of fun and would love to go back next year for longer. I'd never seen a Quidditch game in real life before and it really is an actual sport, with rules, referees, a governing body, and the like. That said, I'm sure everyone at the World Cup was also a huge Harry Potter fan, but for me, that was the main attraction.

How did that guy keep playing while impaled on a broomstick? Ouch... Mind I've sometimes thought of ramming a broom up your ar... ..... errr... um... anyhow, Eldo, nice pics!

Go to admit runnning about the field of play with a broomstick stuck between your legs -well apart from being a bit uncomfy wouldn't you just feel like a bit of a prat? Apart from the broomstick looks like a sanguine version of polo.
I like the Times Square guy- always wanted to go there just because its so famous. If I ever do I'm buying that guy a bag of weed.
Cracking sunset Eldo. For some reason it reminds me of my time living in Glasgow- big city with a river maybe- good memories.

Orwell wrote: How did that guy keep playing while impaled on a broomstick? Ouch... Mind I've sometimes thought of ramming a broom up your ar... ..... errr... um... anyhow, Eldo, nice pics!

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Go to admit runnning about the field of play with a broomstick stuck between your legs -well apart from being a bit uncomfy wouldn't you just feel like a bit of a prat? Apart from the broomstick looks like a sanguine version of polo.

The brooms are a bit awkward, and some of the players have expressed an interest in getting rid of them, but as far as I can tell they're kept because it (1) makes the sport unique, and (2) keeps a sense of light-heartedness around even when it gets very athletic and sometimes brutal (two players were taken off the field in stretchers during the last two games alone). The games has clear influences from polo, basketball, field hockey, rugby, and probably other sports as well, but I think it defies simple classification. If you care to watch, the International Quidditch Association has a rather well-made documentary about last year's World Cup on their YouTube page that explains how the game is played.

Also, whether or not it's silly, I find it hard to complain about the only full contact coed sport I've ever seen.

Cracking sunset Eldo. For some reason it reminds me of my time living in Glasgow- big city with a river maybe- good memories.

Thanks Petty. I'd never been to that part of NYC before so I enjoyed it a lot. Being in an open grassy area so close to the city -- but one with an unobstructed view of the sky and sunset -- was quite nice.

Hopefully the Ministry relaxed the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy for this major event! Would be shame if there were no real wizards partaking! Sounds like it was a great event though! So do they have a real magical snitch- or something else? It does look like people were taking it seriously, quite a few shots there of some severe grappling!

Ah Chicagooooo, was actually going to see that at the west end a few years back, but I fell ill and didn't go in the end.
Great pictures; I always like seeing pictures of America, especially amazingly cool things like Quidditch world cups, so thanks, sounds like it was a blast!

Cool pics, Eldo The US is also on my "countries to visit" list, there are so many places I'd like to go and see (NYC being one of those places). I had no idea people actually played Quidditch, though Who were throwing bludgers at the players?

You get to throw stuff at the players? I'm starting to like the sound of this sport.

Ally wrote:Hopefully the Ministry relaxed the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy for this major event! Would be shame if there were no real wizards partaking! Sounds like it was a great event though! So do they have a real magical snitch- or something else? It does look like people were taking it seriously, quite a few shots there of some severe grappling!

Well, there were some wizard rock bands and quite a few people wandering around in robes. As for the snitch, the people dressed all in yellow are the "human Snitch". The Seekers have to catch the "tail" (with a tennis ball in it) dangling from the back of the Snitch's belt in order to end the game, though it's worth only 30 points, not 150, to make it more fair to the rest of the teams. The Snitch doesn't have to hold a broom and can run outside the field and use whatever dirty tricks he/she likes in order to escape, including tackling people and stealing brooms. They were actually probably the most fun part of the game. Also, the Snitch doesn't appear until after about 10 minutes, so that games are of a reasonable length.

Ah Chicagooooo, was actually going to see that at the west end a few years back, but I fell ill and didn't go in the end.

I'd never seen it before but I've heard it was good and enjoyed it quite a bit. I still have a few of the songs stuck in my head.

Great pictures; I always like seeing pictures of America, especially amazingly cool things like Quidditch world cups, so thanks, sounds like it was a blast!

It was definitely a blast! You and Ringdrotten (and even Petty ) should try to make it next year and we can have a Forumshire meet-up.

Ringdrotten wrote:Cool pics, Eldo The US is also on my "countries to visit" list, there are so many places I'd like to go and see (NYC being one of those places). I had no idea people actually played Quidditch, though Who were throwing bludgers at the players?

Thanks, Ringdrotten! The bludgers were dodgeballs (and the Quaffle a slightly deflated volleyball). Unfortunately they didn't fly around, but the beaters were able to throw them at any other player, and any player hit had to run back to their end of the field and touch the goal posts before returning to play. It's a bit complicated but all-in-all I think they did a pretty good job of adapting the rules from the books to a non-magical world.

Is there a buckie stall? Worryingly you didn't seem to have any in the pictures you posted. I ain't going if there's no buckie stall.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Is there a buckie stall? Worryingly you didn't seem to have any in the pictures you posted. I ain't going if there's no buckie stall.

Yes, there was. At first they even let people take beer into the main area, though later they started to enforce the "no beer outside the beer zone" rule. You could still see the action from the beer zone, though.

"Beer zone" whats one of them? The buckie zone here generally goes by the more common name of Scotland!

It's a semi-separate area that alcohol isn't supposed to leave (or at least, alcohol in bottles; I don't know if they let you take it out in cups). It's a pretty common practice at large public events in the US.