Advertisement
Published: April 8th 2008
Edit Blog Post
New York Hostel
The standards are dropping... New York, the greatest city in the world? Perhaps, but I'm not yet convinced. It is certainly huge, busy, almost frentic. I was also surprised to find that it has a heart. But there seemed to be a certain something lacking, a buzz that was nothing but fizzle.
April 6
A travel day, one that will be easily forgotten. After several consecutive days of lacking sleep, I was like a zombie. Going through LA airport was a blur, the only highlight being a women with a small dog/rat in a pram. A big, full on pram. I have met some very nice American's, but also some who are very, very nuts. The flight to New York was spectacular, apparently. I say apparently because I slept through much of it. Luckily the flight was half empty so I could lie down across the seats for some much needed sleep. Victoria, however, got some very nice pictures of the Grand Canyon etc.
Arrival in New York was rather stressful, as our shuttle didn't pick us up for until two hours after we had arrived. Various calls were made and much stress was experienced, but we got there in the end.
By the time we got to our Hostel it was completely dark (having begun our journey at 6am in LA). The hostel itself is okay, commensurate with what we paid. That is, it is not as nice as previous places, but it is certainly liveable. The location is okay, not in the heart of the city, but rather a newly gentrified section of Harlem on the upper West side. Apparently we shouldn't go walking any further North, but our area is okay.
Anyway, after checking in we went looking for dinner, ending up having burgers at a traditional style American diner, which was kinda cool. It was also very cold, which I am finding tough, but Victoria likes it, prompting comparisons to cold-blooded lizards (not by me of course).
April 7
Thankfully, the day started with a sleep in, which I desperately needed. We started off catching the bus down to Time square, which while not as discrete as I had thought, wasdefinitely as intense. There are people everywhere, all on a misson somewhere. This is all framed by a plethora of neon billboards, which must use more power than the average Third world country. Opulence, indeed
New York Hostel
The same homeless women, all scrubed up is the theme of time square, and it was one we eagerly participated in, visiting stores like they were tourist attractions. This was capitalism at its most enjoyable, what one could easily imagine would feature on the glossy cover of a perspectus advertising capitalism to some far off land. This, I'm sure, is not too far from the truth. Behind this facade of bright lights and stimulated desires , however, is an ultimately dull world of commodities and profit that, sadly, is so compelling to so many who are bound to a disappointment they will seek to fill in the very same way. So, we moved on
The next step was lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, made famous by the movie Forrest Gump. Again, we had authetic American fare. Lucky we are not staying long, or I would be leaving here huge!* Moving on, with a typically American reduced capacity for exercise, we neogiated the subway down to the bottom of Manhatten. Here we checked out the Statue of Liberty (which is miles away in the Harbor) and Wall Street - just a street really, although walls were commonplace. We did try the Century 21 fashion outlet
M&M store
Big Brother is watching - capitalist style... store, a site of much passion and fear - passion for the bargin hungry shoppers, fear for us in the way! There are few things more intimidating for a timid lad like me than being stuck in the middle of crazy New York women and discount handbags.
Writing of passion, our next step was 'Ground Zero' of 9/11. While the memorial was physically disappointing (almost literally nothing to see), the quotes and pictures inside the memorial were quite moving. There is no doubt that this was a great tragedy, and some of the stories are very sad. I just wish the Americans could appreciate the frequency of these events on a global scale, and their complicity with them. Noticably, while they seem keen to retain the memory of the event - not rebuilding the towers on the same spot or immediately removing the rumble - there is no mention at all of the cause(s). They just don't seem to be able to process it. After the 9/11 site, we made our way through the subway and wearily back to hostel, with some bloody sore feet and interesting experiences in the memory bank (also in the memory of my computer
and this internet site).
* Possibly the size of a regular sized man
Advertisement
Tot: 0.105s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0473s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb