Around the World in 42 days - Day 31 - New York City, New York

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Day Thirty One
15 March 2010
Location: New York City, New York
Hotel: On the Ave Hotel, New York

The sun rose over the New York City skyline and I awoke with a burst of energy. For the first time since Orlando I was absolutely raring to go. We had 6 and a half days in the city and while we were excited to get out and see as much as possible, we didn’t want to burn ourselves out.

Erin wanted to go and do some shopping at a department store she had been telling me about for the last three months. I figured that would be a good starting point (mainly as I didn’t want to hear about discount handbags any more).

We left the hotel and skipped hailing a cab. Today we would start using the subway and I was looking forward to experiencing it. We had sampled the public transport in every city we had been in and we were yet to see anything that even came close to the Tube in London for efficiency and ease of use.

Our hotel was located at the corner of 77th Street and Broadway. The nearest station was 79th street, which was on the (1) line. We walked the two blocks to the station and down the steps into the bowl of the underground. It was raining slightly and I had forgotten the umbrella, so it was nice to get undercover.

Once in the station, we purchased two weekly tickets for $27 each, which was a bargain considering we were spending an average of $10 on each taxi ride. Our tickets allowed us to travel all day every day and on any line that forms part of the subway network. Considering that the NY transit system has no “zones” it was a great deal.

We entered the platform via the turnstiles and waited for the next train. Unlike Paris, where it’s extremely hard to figure out which way the train is actually travelling, the subway in New York is extremely simple. You just need to know if you’re travelling uptown or downtown and head to the associated platform.

The train arrived within a few minutes and we boarded. Once on the train it was a fairly standard affair. Probably the most awkward part is how to handle the people begging for food, but we didn’t have to deal with that too much. They were quite polite about the whole thing, but it’s awkward when they are addressing everyone in the carriage and you don’t know the etiquette.

Today we were on the (1) line heading downtown to Cortlandt Street Station. The (1) is probably the busiest line on the transit system as it practically runs down the length of Manhattan, through all the major tourist districts. It was practically the only subway line we needed to use our entire trip.

We had a decent 15 minute journey by my calculations and as we stations whisked by, I started to wonder why there was no mention of Cortlandt Street. As it turned out, Cortlandt Street was no longer there as it was part of the World Trade Center Plaza and as such, the station was being rebuilt.

We ended up in South Ferry and had to catch the train back to Chambers Street. It was no big deal and only cost us about 10 minutes. We were soon at Chambers Street Station, which was about seven blocks north of the department store.

We started to wander south along West Broadway and we could see the World Trade Center site in front of us. It was little more than a construction site, but I’ll come to that tomorrow. We veered left and onto Church Street and we could see the department store only a block away.

While standing on the corner of Dey Street, Erin noticed a hair salon as she had been talking for weeks about getting her hair straightened and I suggested she take the opportunity to do it now. The place looked nice and we went inside. She managed to get seated right away and instead of waiting, I decided to get a trim as well.

Erin was off getting her hair attended to and I was soon seated and having my hair cut. It was the longest haircut of my life. Not to say it was bad, but it was just long. I couldn’t believe that it took the hairdresser 45 minutes to cut my hair. If she was that slow in Australia she wouldn’t have a job. I really knew she was taking her time when Erin was left waiting for me!!

We both left the hairdresser, looking much prettier, and made our way down the block to the shops. It was getting to be late morning by this stage and Erin was excited to finally be at the Century 21 Department Store. She had been talking about this store for so long, I felt I knew it intimately before we even walking in. What we found, was discount store chaos. It was buzzing with crazy discount shoppers and Erin soon entered the fray.

We made a beeline for the handbags and Erin proceeded to ignore every rack in search of the Guess bags. I couldn’t believe I had travelled this far, listened to all her excited stories about the store and now I was watching her practically ignoring 99% of the goods in search of yet more Guess bags. You can’t say that she doesn’t know what she likes.

We finally found the Guess bags and Erin promptly started to review each bag, clutch, purse and anything else with the Guess logo with the type of scrutiny I hadn’t seen since the security check at Miami Airport.

After she had picked a few items she liked, with the help of yours truly, we continued to browse the other areas of the store. After a while the crowds became a bit too much and we decided to make our purchases and move on.

By this stage we were getting pretty hungry, but decided to wait until we reached our next stop. We walked p to Park Place Station and jumped on the train up to Union Square Station. We exited the station and found the area around 14th street to be busy with tourists and locals alike. The Union Square Park was really pretty (even though a bit damp and wet) and we had plenty of food options.

We noticed a Wendy’s on the corner and as we weren’t looking for anything to fancy, we nipped inside for a quick burger. After our meal, we wandered back outside and I noticed a radio shack across the street. I had been on the lookout for an electronics store as I needed a new portable hard drive. We quickly went into Radio Shack and I found a suitable drive.

Now it was time to find the store I had been told about the previous day while at the NHL Store. It was nestled at the corner of 18th Street and Broadway and inside it contained all the things I had planned to buy in America. Paragon Sports is one of the largest sports stores in NYC and it stocks just about anything you could want. I was hoping to finally buy some decent ice skates and a few other things not readily available in Australia.

We entered and I went downstairs to the hockey section. It was there that I found an incredible wall of skates and aisles upon aisles of hockey equipment. I was greeted by one of the employees who was quite knowledgeable and he helped me try on a variety of top line skates. I settled on the Bauer X60’s, as I thought I would, and then proceeded to scour the store for any other equipment I needed.

I ended up walking out of the store with a new hockey bag filled with new skates, gloves and some other bits and pieces. It had been a pricey afternoon, but I was happy with my purchases.

Given my newly acquired large hockey bag and Erin’s various bags containing bags, we decided to skip further shopping and grabbed a cab to take us back to the hotel. The trip took a little longer, but given the size of our bags and the expensive purchases, we felt it would be safer and easier than taking the subway.

We arrived back at our hotel and it was mid afternoon by this point. We decided to hang around for a little while before venturing back out. I took the opportunity to do some laundry, and found a self serve landromat just down the block. I left Erin at the hotel and nipped down to wash our clothes. It only took an hour and I was soon back at the hotel.

About 5pm, we got ready and caught the subway back to Times Square. We got off at 42nd Street Station, which is the main station for Times Square. The place was already lit up like a Christmas tree and tonight we were more prepared for the spectacle.

We wanted to have a good look around the area tonight and also have a fun dinner somewhere. We started by walking down the main stretch between 42nd and 50th street. We went for a look in the fantastic Toys ‘R’ Us store and it was amazing to see a toy store with a Ferris Wheel inside! We also enjoyed all the chocolate stores, even though we had seen much of that in other cities on previous trips.

Erin especially loved the tourist stores will all the novelty NYC merchandise. I’ll admit, it was fun to look in them and I couldn’t believe the amount of Yankees merchandise available.

After our fair share of shopping and exploring, we decided to settle for ESPN Zone for dinner. Not exactly classy, but Erin and I like the novelty restaurants as we just don’t have that sort of thing at home. I was especially excited as there was a hockey game on which I could watch as we enjoyed our meal.

We were seated immediately and as usual, ordered up a few cocktails. They had Queso on the menu, so of course we ordered up a serve of our favourite appetizer and enjoyed out cocktails while we chatting about how incredible the city is.

Our meals came and we were pleasantly surprised at how nice they were. We’re not really into fancy restaurants, so give us a nice pasta, burger or steak and some good strong cocktails and we’re as happy as can be.

We didn’t rush the meal and enjoyed a few more drinks before grabbing the cheque. We went for a further stroll along some of the side streets and outer areas of the square before finally deciding to call it a night and head back to the hotel.

The subway was still busy, even though it was approaching midnight, but hey, that’s New York right?

We arrived back at 79th street station and walked the two blocks to the hotel. We were happy to be back at the hotel, but the buzz of Times Square never really wears off. We couldn’t wait to go back and were still talking animatedly as we hopped into bed.

Another great day in New York.

Paul & Erin

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Comments

[Karen Erdrich]

Trip report as good as any book I've read!
Just loving this trip report. I'll be curious at the end to know how you did with your budget...........how many extra suitcases to go home, and how much you paid in overweight charges.