nyc 4

So it took me 5 days to write and post the last blog, and am now trying to play catch up as tomorrow i set sail for Toronto! I am a little wary now as feel so settled here, uprooting in the morning will be wierd i think - but the whole point of travelling. So. i last left you at the beach. Well, following that day, the forecast was due to be beautiful the following day too, and not wanting to tempt fate, i decided to get up at the crack of dawn and go to the observation deck at the top of the rockefeller and catch sunrise. This was due at 7:13am, but the deck didn't open until 8am. However, this didn't matter as it was so cloudy and hazy that there wasn't really any sun to be seen!
This hacked me off, as anyone would know i am not the most gracious person in the mornings, expecially when i couldn't see the sun! It was however, an amazing view, and there were only 3 of us up there, so had complete freedom to enjoy the deck. I didn't realise how small manhatten actually was until you can see it's edges all around you! Still, i made a friend out of gary the security guard, who then made it his mission to give me free coffee, ice skating or anything else we came accross on his coffee break he kindly took to show me round!

After grabbing my free starbucks and escaping, i then wandered through the park, which is looking more and more beautiful everyday with autumn really having kicked in now. I then spent the day in the park, literally sleeping, reading the papers and watching the world go by. There were so many groups of friends out playing frisbee and volleyball etc, it was like a summers day in brighton. As i figured that the rockefeller could be hit or miss, i had bought a double ticket which allowed you back up at sunset too, so once the sun had disappeared from the park and i started to freeze, i headed back to the rock. The evening session was a completely different story. The queue was enourmous, and loud, and crammed. It was horrible. After about an hour and a half of queuing the sun had set more than i had planned, but this time the view was simply stunning. It really looks like a completely different place at night. in the queue i met a photography professor from mississippi who helped me with my camera settings to get some great pics - cheers roger! The deck was very crouded though and had limited time before being pushed and shoved all over to take photos. To top it off - if you come up in a 10 man life, you have to come down in a 10 man lift! it took another hour to get out of the place!! So night lights - great, mornings - much much more tolerable!

Once out of the rocks grip, rach and i went to Madam tussauds after dark halloween tour. There have been tons of haunted houses cropping up everywhere, and had hoped this was a sure-bet. I have never been to the museum in the day - or in london to be fair, so found the waxworks a little freaky, but then it was pitch black too. The tour surrounded a story that since the actual waxwork of tussaud had arrived from london, strange things had been happening and people had been disappearing. So they showed you this film in a movie theatre which had air jets in the seats and vibrated to make you jump. this set the scene and totally freaked me out, they then armed you with a 2 inch glow stick and sent you off into the museum. The tour consisted of people jumping out at you, more airjets, screams and shouts etc. All very simple, but pretty effective when you have worked yourself up like a nut job anyway. Some poor chinese guy had me hanging on his arm the whole way round screaming - i never did catch his name!

So - friday i found the Chelsea high line, which is a massive overhead disused rail track which runs for about 7 blocks and has been converted into a garden space with benches, coffee stalls etc. It was pretty cool, and seemed kinda out of place running between the high rises, but also had great views of hudson & liberty. I really like it and can imagine it being very busy in the summer. Today however, it was bloody freezing, so after enjoying the walk up above the buildings, i took refuge in a bar in the west village where a very kind barman kept me company for approx 3 hours with apple crumble, coffee and what seemed an endless red wine glass until rachel arrived for dinner! Folks are definately alot friendlier here than uk!

Saturday came ... as well as more rain! (cant wait for the nz weather!) So - museum time again!! even though it seemed the rest of ny had the same idea, we trundled off to the Met, which was awesome. The building is huge and very beautiful. We had great fun running round the samurai and photography exhibits, and then left quite sharpish after a guard thought i had scratched their picasso. He was not impressed. Then came my first roller derby!! It was unreal. Rachel played in a team in london, and i knew of it, but dear god it is one vicious, but great game! Basically 2 teams of girls skating round a track, trying to flatten and trip the other team up to gain points. This was a championship final, so the place was stacked. All the girls had roller names, and halloween costumes were everywhere. cant describe it, but hope they all had medical insurance as loads ate the floor.

Sunday - finally another beautiful day! So we headed up to the Bronx to go to the zoo! We were both pretty excited. It was very different to a zoo back home - there were no massive metal fences, and even the grizzly bears just seem to have a waist high wooden fence! The enclosures were pretty small, and there was only one or two of each animal, but this did mean we were very close to all of the animals. It was a great day, we got ripped off in the zoo cafe, but it was great to see all the kids dressed up in costumes! we had fun. Last night we went to a La roux gig, which was pretty good as well! we didnt have tickets, but i had visited earlier in the day, and the manager is from brighton and we had mutual friends! so after this, we returned later with many starbucks for the doorman and had no worries walking right into a sold out gig. Even though she is new to the uk too, the place was buzzing. Really good gig, but she only sang for about half hour due to lung problems or something.

so that takes me to today. and tomorrow takes me to canada. want to take rachel with me! See ya soon!

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