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Published: April 30th 2009
New York City
The Late Show with David LettermanNew York, NewYork
And here it is. Our final (and largest) entry on our US/Canada trip is the one and only New York City. While we've tried to make the most of our trip to North America by enjoying trips to several of the large, important cities in this part of the world, there is no hiding the fact that this trip was mainly all about our final destination. And we definitely saved the best until last.
The bus trip from Philly to NYC is a short two hours and despite being overtired (even after a fairly relaxing time in Philly we were fighting the sleep as the 2 and a half weeks of endless walking, travelling and sleeping on uncomfortable beds were catching up to us) we didn't sleep a wink in anticipation of our first glimpse of the Manhattan skyline. And then suddenly there it was in front of us, in all its enormous, bright, bustling, big city glory. In no time we were through the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River and at our drop off point at Pennsylvania Station. Penn Station is America's busiest station serving Amtrack trains, many public transport trains including subway lines,
and coach pick up and drop offs. Being a Saturday evening the place was packed with folks coming into Manhattan to spend their Saturday night. Added to this the New York Rangers NHL team was about to start a match in the adjoining Madison Square Garden, so there were hundreds of ice hockey fans converging on the area as well. This had the potential to start our New York visit off on a very stressful footing but in no time we had managed to barge our way through the masses with our packs on our backs and get on the subway for a 10min ride up to our hostel near Central Park. When I say near Central Park I mean half a block from Central Park which meant a very pleasant walk to and from the hostel every day. Again we were staying in a YMCA which was comfortable enough but we were glad that this would be the last hostel we'd see the inside of for a while.
We didn't waste too much time mucking round getting settled into our room. Instead we pretty much just dumped our packs and headed straight back out into the chilly night
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More neon in Times Square to have a wander round the spectacular Times Square. Times Square was only a ten minute walk from our hostel and it wasn't hard to find, we just looked skyward and headed in the general direction of the bright hue over the skyscrapers in the distance. The Square itself is a real sensory experience on a chilly Saturday night. People were everywhere so it was all shoulder to shoulder on the footpaths, and much the same on the roads with gridlocked traffic and yellow cabs honking constantly and NYPD Traffic Cops forever blowing their whistles and waving their white gloved hands around in a hopeless effort to direct the traffic into some sort of order. The square is surrounded on all sides by towering neon signs, bright as bright can be and flashing and flickering on and off. Then the smells of the city hit you, a delightful mixture of petrol fumes, the stinky steam rising up from under the street and the smells wafting out from the restaurants and the kerbside vendors. Its below freezing, but you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, giddy with excitement like a little kid at the circus. You take great delight at being
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The other end of the square sucked in by the wannabe hip hoppers coming up to you offering a free signed CD of their work but only if you can give them a donation (when Shotime finally makes it big I'll be able to sell my signed CD and cash in on his fame, not a bad return on a $5 investment). Then when the freezing temperatures get too much for you, you can head inside one of the flag ship stores for Toys R Us, Virgin Records, Hershey's or M & M's and pass some time away browsing their many attractions.
After a time soaking up the atmosphere of Times Square we continued our journey south along Broadway to Macy’s to look at their xmas decorations, then across to a skating rink and some xmas markets near the Empire State Building, back up Fifth Avenue checking out all the decorations of one of the World's most famous shopping streets, and then to the Rockefeller Centre where thousands were enjoying the famous xmas tree and decorations, and the more exclusive ice skating rink. Along the way we suddenly realised we hadn't eaten anything so had a hot dog purchased from a kerbside vendor, and it
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Ferris Wheel inside Toys R Us was great. Must be all those fumes that are mixed in with it. At around midnight our legs began to ache so we called it a day and headed back to the hostel, stopping off along the way for a genuine slice of NYC pizza, and believe me a slice is all you need. Choice.
Next morning we headed off early towards Times Square to check it out in normal daylight and grab a hearty American cooked breakfast. Even though the full effect of the square and all its neon isn't felt as much during the day, it still seems to be the centre of Manhattan and is always bustling and vibrant. After breakfast we continued to head south, trying to stick to Broadway as is diagonally crossed the gridded street system. Along the way we past a few famous NY landmarks like the Flatiron Building (that really narrow building you always see on TV), Houston Street and City Hall. For a city the size of NY they have to have one of the most modest and understated City Halls you're ever likely to see.
Just around the corner from City Hall was St Stephens Church, an amazing
little church located across the road from the World Trade Centre that survived the building collapses virtually unscathed (a miracle if ever there was one). This place played a very important part in the grieving and rebuilding process for New Yorkers. You will all no doubt remember those images of the posters of missing loved ones that families posted to try and find people who were missing in the collapse, well it was along the fences of the churchyard that all those posters were posted. The church was also a place for the workers involved in the rescue and clean up process to take some time out and reflect on the job they were doing. The church has been, and still is, a place where memorial services happen regularly and it has become a tourist attraction in its own right with a display featuring the story of the tragedy and the churches role in it.
Across the road was Ground Zero, and as you'd expect it is a very eerie place. Its one of those places, like the battlefield at Hastings was, or what I'd imagine Paschendale or Normandy or Anzac Cove or Auschwitz would be like, where you
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Lego Empire State Building complete with Lego King Kong simply can't comprehend the scale of the destruction and devastation. At the moment its still a deep hole, though the construction of the Freedom Tower is well underway. But even at the stage it is at now it still has a freshness about it, and even though it was more than 7 years ago it still feels very recent and very real. Its so fresh in fact that I couldn't help feeling that it was still a bit soon for the guys who hang around the site selling pictorial books documenting the destruction and rebuilding to tourists to be making a quick buck out of the tragedy. Can't blame them for trying to put some food on the table but the way they were doing it just seemed a bit wrong. There was one dude though who was carrying round a massive folder of photos and clippings and telling tourists all sorts of stories and info and seemed to be doing it just for the pleasure of telling people the story.
From Ground Zero we continued south to nearby Battery Park, the southern tip of Manhattan and the place where the ferries leave to Liberty and Staten Islands. Being
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Lego Statue of Liberty and Chrysler Building the cheapos we are we decided that rather than pay for a trip to the Statue of Liberty we would make use of the free Staten Island Ferry service that links Staten Island with Manhattan via a route that takes you reasonably close to Liberty Island for a good view of the Statue. The Statue itself seems a little smaller than what you imagine from all the movies and TV shows but is still large enough to have a dominating presence over the harbour. It is certainly prominent in its position in the harbour and is easy to see why it became such and important landmark for NYC and the US, and a symbol of hope and liberty for those thousands of immigrants for whom it was a sign they had arrived in the freeworld in the hope of making a fresh start.
The ferry journey took around 20mins and once on Staten Island it soon became apparent there was nothing much worth seeing there. We headed out of the ferry terminal and along the road to find some lunch, then went straight back to get on the ferry and head back to Manhattan. Staten Island seemed quite sleepy
and subdued compared to where we had just come from, and wasn’t quite what we were up for, so we decided to get back to the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. The sun was just starting to go down as we were heading back which made for some pleasant scenes of the sun reflecting off the water and the Lower Manhattan skyline.
Once back on dry land we walked up to Wall St and into the heart of the Financial District. It was a Sunday (I think) so the place was dead but it was interesting to see the heart of the global financial industry. And the NYSE building was definitely worthy of a photo or two. We then headed to the rivers edge and along to the Brooklyn Bridge, getting some good pics of the bridge and the Brooklyn skyline glowing in the late arvo sun. By the time we got to the bridge the sun was gone so we walked half way across to have a look at the lights of the Manhattan skyline which are very impressive. From there we decided we had had enough and begun the long trek north to our hostel via Fifth
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Emma about to rip into a curbside hot dog Avenue, Park Avenue, Madison Avenue, Lexington Avenue, the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station. All in all it was a 74 block hike to Battery Park and 74 back to the hostel so we were well knackered by the time we got back, and sadly we pretty much crashed straight out.
The forecast for the next day looked pretty promising so we decided to set it aside for exploring Central Park. Being right next door to the park we were able to sleep in a little without having to worry about catching public transport or walking miles to get there. The day was an absolute beauty so we were in t-shirts as we made our way through the park, which seemed weird seeing as we were in mid December and we had been freezing in temperatures below zero in previous days. We entered the park at the its southern end along W 59th Street and immediately tried to find the famous bridge where all those movie scenes are shot. We found it in no time and took some shots of Emma looking very beautiful on it, then proceeded to continue our exploration of the park up the Mall, over
to Bethesda Fountain (again in lots of movies) and Cleopatra’s Needle, around the massive Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir and up past the ice skating rink to the northern end of the park. We then turned and headed back south down the other side of the park. It was about here Emma and I began to wonder whether anybody would be filming in the Park today given that it was such a beautiful day. Sure enough not five minutes later we stumbled across a film set for the TV program Criminal Intent: SVU. The Canadian TV networks love a good crime drama so we had become very familiar with the show while we were in Vancouver and really enjoyed watching the two main stars in action. Its really interesting to see how much is involved in producing one ten second shot and how many people are needed to make it happen. We watched for about half an hour in which time they only did one quick shot of the cops chasing the baddie through the park. We then headed off diagonally across the park to check out the Met(ropolitan Art Museum). We’re not really into art museums so made do with
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Yay, Flight of the Conchords (for the uneducated they are a famous kiwi comedy duo) a photo of the outside and continued on to the Alice in Wonderland statue. This is where we had 'the incident'.
Casually strolling along the path I looked ahead and to my surprise was confronted with the sight of Jermaine Clement casually strolling towards us. For those of you who don’t know the name Jermaine Clement, he is one half of NZ's fourth most popular folk comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. No seriously, he is a Kiwi comedian, musician and actor who has become quite a celebrity in the US through the massively popular TV show of the same name. We’re both big fans so we hurriedly got the camera out to take a sneaky snap to prove to all of you that we saw him. But we weren’t quite sneaky enough and he saw us and tried to take evasive action to get out of the shot. In the end he stormed straight towards us saying sternly 'Did you just take a photo of me? Well don’t!’ before carrying on his way. We were both left stunned and speechless so didn’t respond with anything other than a low grunt. I can certainly understand that he was annoyed
New York City
Xmas tree in the Rockefeller Centre - this is the one they light up on tv etc with us taking his photo while he was having a relaxing stroll through the park, and I guess that maybe he is struggling to get to grips with his new found fame and celebrity, but that’s all part of the job I reckon, and it’s a job he gets paid extremely well for so I don’t feel too sorry for him. He probably couldn’t tell from our grunt that we were fellow kiwis, but I’m sure if he had of realised he might have reacted a bit different. We were both shocked but didn’t actually know if he was being serious or just having us on as he sounded exactly like his character does on the TV show, and you can never take him very seriously. The things we do for a good photo for you guys eh. And with the guy next to us on the plane home to NZ confirming that he had seen Bret from the same show in the men’s room at the departure lounge in LAX waiting for our flight back to Auckland, and our bumping into Murray from the show at some TV studios in London earlier in the year, we can now say
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Decorations on a building on Fifth Avenue we have had close encounters with all three of the main characters of the TV show. Pretty cool huh? Yeah I knew you’d be impressed.
Anyway, once we’d recovered from the shock we carried on to the famous statue for some photos, then through the zoo and out of the park. It was a really enjoyable morning and the relative peace and tranquility that can be found in the park in amongst the hustle and bustle of Manhattan is quite amazing. Not to mention all the celebs milling around.
That afternoon we just wandered around some more and took a closer look at Grand Central Station, had a gawk at the UN building and then stopped to have a look at a genuine NYC crime scene, just like in the movies. On our way back to the hostel we saw large crowds gathering round outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre for the taping of The Late Show. We had tried unsuccessfully to get tickets for a taping but knew that if you hang around outside you can see some of the celeb guests or even be on part of the show itself. So we camped out across the road
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This was decoration outside one of the Cartier store. from the stage door with all the Paparazi and waited in the freezing cold for a spot of celeb spotting, not actually knowing who was on the show that day. We were eventually rewarded for our persistence, firstly with Rob Schneider (actor from Duece Bigalow, and the guy that says ‘You can do it!’ in all Adam Sandler’s films), then Adam Sandler himself and finally Jerry Seinfeld. Schneider didn’t really acknowledge the waiting crowd or the Paps, but Sandler and Seinfeld stood for photos and said gidday to people. We were too far away for our crappy wee camera to take any clear photos in the dark so you’ll just have to take our word for it.
Next day we decided to head back to Times Square to see if we could track down some tickets to a Broadway show for that night. We checked out the prices for Phantom of the Opera which were absolutely ridiculous so decided to try our luck at the newest show on Broadway, ‘Shrek: The Musical’. Tickets for that were far more reasonable so we got ourselves booked in for that night. The rest of the day we took it pretty easy and
New York City
More decorations wandered the streets aimlessly again, dodging snow showers, into Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, around Madison Square Gardens and through the Rockefeller Centre. A pretty relaxed day really. Truth be told, its so long ago now I can’t actually remember what we did but it can’t have been very exciting as we don’t have many photos for that day. Doesn’t sound very exciting I know, but that’s the thing with places like London and NYC, its very easy to fill in a whole day not really doing anything but directionless wandering.
Later that night we went to the show which was a lot better than we had expected. After seeing the prices for some of the shows we had decided to try and choose a show that we wouldn’t be able to see in London. While I’m sure Shrek will eventually find its way to the West End, as it was only new we figured it wasn’t going to happen whilst we were still in London. The show was based on the first movie with a few variations to the plot. The costumes were great, the performers were fantastic and funny, and the sets were brilliant. When we left the
theatre after the show the ground was covered in snow so we got to experience a genuine NYC snow dump.
Next day was our last full day in NYC so we planned to make it a big day and jam as much in as possible. We started by heading over to Greenwich Village to find the ‘Friends’ building. Its not the actual building of course as the show was filmed on a sound stage in LA, but it was the building that is used in all the exterior shots as the apartment building where Joey, Chandler, Monica and Rachel supposedly live. And it is true, there is a café on the ground floor, though its not called Central Perk.
From there we jumped on the subway and headed across the East River to somewhere in Brooklyn. We had no idea where we were or no map to tell us where to go, but we got off the subway at some random stop and headed back in the direction of the river. We found the river without any trouble but couldn’t find the Brooklyn Bridge that we wanted to cross back into Manhattan. We headed south for an hour
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Crazy window display or so and eventually found what we were looking for. Along the way we walked through one of the Othodox Jewish communities of Brooklyn and it felt like we stepped back about 70 years. Interesting. We eventually got to the bridge and crossed it for the second time then headed to Battery Park.
We’d given in and decided to fork over our hard earned dosh for the $12 ticket to Liberty Island. Once we passed through the airport style security we got on the ferry and were off to the island. Theres not much to do on the Island other than inspecting the Statue close up and checking out the Manhattan skyline, but it was definitely worth doing to get a nice close look at her. Prior to 9/11 it was possible to get right up inside her as high as her crown where you can get a great view of Manhattan. Now though its only possible to go as high as the base she stands on which doesn’t offer much of a view in any direction. After walking around the island we were back in Manhattan within an hour or so and back on the subway to midtown
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Another crazy window display Manhattan to the Empire State Building. The way the weather had been that day we weren’t terribly hopeful at getting up the top with a good view due to the low cloud cover. However the weather gods were watching over us that day as inbetween the short time we were travelling from Battery Park to the Empire State Building the weather had cleared almost completely. Due to its popularity and the heightened security the Empire State Buildings is one of those attractions where you have to queue to get in the queue for the queue. Thankfully the queues move pretty fast and it was a reasonably quiet day so the wait wasn’t too bad, and the wait is definitely worth it. The views of Manhattan and beyond in ever direction are breathtaking. The density and height of the buildings is amazing when viewed from this high up. And we picked the best time of day to go. We got there with the sun just starting to fall and within 30-40 minutes we had an amazing view of the setting sun and then the lights of the city coming on. Definitely a must do. One to put on the bucket list.
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Emma into a massive New York slice From there we headed back to our hostel to chill out a little before we took our Horse and Carriage ride through Central Park. Once I’d made (or rather attempted to make) a very important phone call we headed off over the road and picked out a white horse called Charlie to take us for a ride that Emma had been talking about taking for months. Once in and all rugged up the horse took as along the outside of the park for 15mins or so before heading into the centre of the park. Once we were well inside the park I decided to give Emma her late birthday present/early xmas present that I’d been holding off on for a while. Emma excitedly got to opening her present at the end of which was me struggling to bend down on one knee in the carriage with a ring and a very important question. Thankfully she answered correctly and we were engaged then and there. Needless to say we were both very excited (oh the feeling of relief that it was finally over and done with) and thoroughly enjoyed the second half of our ride. To celebrate the engagement and
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Looking towards Time Square by day the last night of our trip we headed to Applebees (remember? Off Talladega Nights?) in Times Square for a true blue American family restaurant meal. By the time we had a feed and a few drinks it was nearly midnight so we thought we better get back to the hostel to spread the good news and get some sleep before our 6am flight.
It was after 1am before we finally got to sleep and we were up 2 and half hours later to get out to JFK in time. Lucky we did give ourselves the extra bit of time as it took us a lot longer to get on the subway and to the right terminal than expected. In the terminal it was disorganised chaos. The check in line was massive and not moving at all so we decided to self check in, and of course that didn’t work either. We eventually got some help from the one staff person working and got on the flight alright with 20mins to spare. The 6 hour flight to LA was the worst we’ve had. The guy checking us in had put us at opposite ends of the plane and I was
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Thats a bloody big Hershey's Kiss sat beside an Asian gentleman who had ants in his pants and was up and down like a yo yo, forcing me and the girl next to me up to let him out everytime. It got very old very quickly, as did his loud, obnoxious coughing, hoicking and snoring. There was no in-flight entertainment and no food apart from a few cookies and small cups of water, which we really needed seeing as we hadn’t had time to get breakfast or a drink prior to boarding. The leg room was crap and if I tried to read my book I started to fall asleep but for some reason I can never quite fall asleep on planes. So it was very uncomfortable and it was a relief to finally touch down in LA. Imagine flying Air NZ domestic for 6 hours. It was shit.
At LAX the weather was a comfortable temperature with cloudless skies so we spent the first 2 hours of our 9 hour layover outside acclimatising to the sunshine in preparation for our arrival in NZ. While waiting we got talking to a really interesting gentleman from New Jersey who was just returning from a month in
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And thats a bloody big chocolate bar Tonga. He was a self employed dude in semi retirement and worked for a few months at a time to make enough dough to head off and explore some new part of the world. We convinced him to do NZ next, though he really didn’t need any convincing. He wasn’t at all interested at going to Aussie though which was quite refreshing. We had a very pleasant time with him listening to his stories of places he had been and people he had met. The 9 hours actually passed surprisingly quickly and it was funny to sit there listening to the Air NZ staff over the PA with there terrible kiwi accents. Even though we’ve been around kiwis most of the time we’ve been away, you begin to notice how weird the kiwi accent sounds. But it was a nice thing to hear, knowing we would be home in familiar old NZ 12 hours later.
So it was goodbye North America and hello NZ. We’d had a fantastic trip and seen some great places, and even had a pretty big life changing moment in NYC which I’m sure will mean we always have fond memories of the place and
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Time Square by day feel some kind of connection to it. But for now we were excited to be heading home to the people and places we hadn’t seen for two years. Bring it on.
Gaz and Emms
p.s Well that was a long one. But we always knew it was going to be. You’ve all probably got bored of the prose by now but hopefully we’ve included enough photos to keep you amused. Sorry it took so long. It seems a bit ridiculous to be writing about a trip that happened nearly 6 months ago but it was a pretty important one for us so we thought we better persist to make sure we had a record of it for ourselves. The blog was actually finished a few weeks ago but the website crashed and we lost it all. It was the worst blog to have to start again from scratch and after it happened we struggled to find the motivation to start again. But here it is, and in fact we already have a few more blogs in the pipeline which hopefully won’t be too far away either. Then you’ll be all up to date. Enjoy!
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shylah
non-member comment
Yay engagement!!
as interesting as this blog was...the engagement paragraph was the best :)