New York

9/7/8

After 7 long hours of watching films and eating plane food we touched down at JFK airport, finding ta we suddenly had 5 extra hours in the day to kill.A guy drove us to our hotel in literally the biggest car I have ever seen (it would have comfortably seated 11). On the way into Manhattan we got a great view of the whole skyline, which (unsurprisingly) compleely doinates he srrounding lndscape. My first impressionsof New York are that it is both exactly the same and completly different as you would've imagined it. The way to experience the city is by walking, so we set off in the sweltering afternoon heat to wander around. As soon as you step out into midton Manhattan you are overwhelmed wth noise, smells and sights. The building are huge - you really don't appreciate just how big they are until you are there and the rid system s amazing becaus not only can you aiy fid your way around, but it's brilliant to see for miles down some of themain roads.From our 21st floor suite you can se the lights of Times Square, which took a long time since there are so many people and so many roads to cross - speaking of crossing the road; at first it seems like an ordeal since the drivers seem to be allowed to drive though red lights so long as they don't hit anyone, and the pedestrians seem willing to risk their lives by sprinting ahead of oncoming traffic. Contrary to popular belief, the people don't seem any more obese than back home but everyone does seem just a little bit crazy. Times Square was insane - there are adverts everywhere - there are even people with LCD screens strapped above their heads to act as living adverts who can follow you around. It's also virtually impossible to move around as there are so many people. We ate dinner in the Hard Rock Cafe in the square at what was midnight for us. We then returned to the hotel to go to bed.

10.7.08

Our first full day in Manhattan began with eating out for breakfast at the Cosmic Cafe, a traditional New York diner. We then walked to the west side of the island, where we signed up for a three hour guided boat ride all the way round. The boat started off south down the Hudson rIver, with the state of New Jersey on our right. We then came round the south of Manhattan, getting right up close to the statue of liberty. As we came back north up the East river we had Brooklyn and then Queens on our right, passing under the famous Brooklyn Bridge. Then in the north we had the Bronx on our right and Harlem on our left. As we came back round to the top of the Hudson river, the view upstream is much more green and wild, giving a good impression of what the city must have looked like hundreds of years ago. After all, the native American word "Manahatta" roughly translates as "island of many hills and trees" according to out guide. After the cruise we headed back into the center of Manhattan to exploit the weak dollar. In Times Square's Footlocker I found an offer of 5 T-shirts for $20, which was too good to refuse. We then headed to Macy's, which is basically an American Debenhams or Selfridges, only with a more confusing floorplan (they have a floor no. 1 1/2 between the first and second). I even bought my first suit for school next year, and the excitable guy that sold it to us recommended that we check out the small Korea district near our hotel. So despite my complaining that 9:20pm was far too late to go out for a meal, we walked into the second Korean restaurant we saw. Having no prior experience of Korean cuisine, I had no idea what to order and in the end decided almost by random to go for Bibim Bap - looking at the plate when it arrived didn't really help me that much in understanding what my meal consisted of, but I just ate it all anyway and it actually tasted pretty good.

11.7.08

Once again we terurned to the Cosmic Cafe diner for a huge and extremely cheap breakfast, where I had 3 enormous pancakes with syrup. We then set off for another busy day which started with a visit to the Empire State Building. After numerous queues, bag searches and metal detectors we got into a lift which took us up to the 86th floor observsation deck. Beforehand I had wondered whether the view from the top would be worth it but it definitely was. You get a completely new perspective on the city and can see right to the Atlantic Ocean and to all the city boroughs. It's exactly what you'd expect but that doesn't make it any less impressive. On the way back down we stopped at the absolutely "only in America" Skyride, which incorporated both elements of Star Trek and the actor Kevin Bacon in a vitrual tour of New York. And yes, it was as bizarre as it sounds. we then ventured down into the subway for the first time and rode to central park. The park is huge (hundreds of acres) and lengthwise it spans around a quarter of the entire Manhattan island. It provides a welcome break from the busy urban environment that surrounds it. we went into the museum of Natural History and saw a few exhibits on old Asian cultures but my favourite part was this giant white sphere in a huge , futuristic glass hall. You walked round the sphere and signed read things like "if the sphere were the sun, the Earth would have a diameter of 24cm" I found it really interesting as it was a great way of showing relativity, but some of the others weren't so keen so we took the subway back to our hotel before soon going out to dinner in Soho. We had reserved a table at Balthazar, a big expesive french restaurant. The food was good and the portions were big and expensive, so it lived up to its reputation. We then went back to the Affinia.



I'll try and write some stuff about these last 2 days at some point, but tomorrow we're getting up early and flying to Vegas.

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