New York Super Fudge Chunk!

New York. What can we add to the endless amount written about this place? The classic white T (and coffee mug, hat, keychain and handbag) says it all really:

I <3 NY

We arrived from Boston on the Wednesday on our comfortable Amtrak train, a little tired, a little hot, and a lot exhausted. Penn Station proved easy enough to find our way around. The subway was a little less transparent, (in fact it was pretty grimy...) but we got there in the end, after about 3 transfers and a lot of 'Eeeeee we're in New York!!'s, yessiree!

Being as it was late afternoon already, we decided to go slow on our first night, and merely took a stroll through the verdant and sunny Central Park. Again, another incredible landmark that we couldn't believe we were actually standing in. New York just really seemed to make sense, and Ju in particular felt right at home after being there only a couple of hours. (All together now: "Another place I'll have to come back to!")

We walked across the packed baseball diamonds to 5th Avenue, down to the Met, around the reservoir and diagonally back to our Upper West Side digs. The number of people in the park was phenomenal - half of Manhattan seemed to pile in after work for a jog, walk, skate, bike, or ball game. (In fact, half of New York probably does - the fit half. Everyone in the park seemed very healthy, sporty and tanned...) We felt extremely virtuous for not going straight to bed, and rewarded ourselves for our walk with pasta in a Mexican/Italian diner over the road from our hostel.

Day 2: Thursday
Our first task the next day was to join the New York Public Library, so we headed to the main branch at 42nd and 5th. Distracted slightly by Times Square on the way, we arrived at the address to find the library a very grand old building indeed. It was created to inspire respect, and show the world just how cultured was the new nation of America. It suceeds admirably - from the imposing and just a little inscrutiable lions guarding the front steps, to the huge balconies, long corridors and high ceilings within, a gorgeous building fairly screaming knowledge - although it screams it in a respectful low murmur, so as not to disturb the studious.

Our Library Cards were duly issued - with photographic ID as well as magnetic strip and barcode. They do take things seriously here, as this is not a lending library but contains stacks of rare books and manuscripts for research - our bags were searched three times every visit: on entry, on exit from the main reading room, and on exit from the library. We made an effort to visit it every day, not just to use the free internet, which was extremely welcome, but because it's such a cool building.

Downtown, we emerged from the subway with the intention of visiting Wall Street, but were again quickly distracted - this time by the site of the World Trade Centre. The memorial is begining to take shape - the rubble of the foundations has been cleared, and the huge square holes will become water features - with torrents falling down the vertical sides into the void left by each tower. We were also struck by the black draped Deutsche Bank building nearby. It is the last work remaining in clearing the site, and once the toxic coating has been removed by experts it will be imploded.

A few streets further down, the Stock Exchange on Wall Street is under heavy armed guard and the Visitor's Centre which used to provide information is permanently closed. Juliet took great pleasure in conducting her own financial transaction in the largest money market of the western world - she cashed a couple of traveller's cheques at the Wall Street branch of the New York Bank. (!!)

The rest of the day passed in a haze of spontaneous descision-making: eating lunch in Battery Park we people, river, boat and seagull watched, until we heard the comentary start on a tour boat moored nearby. We found the information interesting, so when it announced it was leaving in ten minutes and was the last boat of the day we decided to be on it. The intonation of the speaker was very odd - it seemed as though the comentary was spoken by a computer, a more benevolent HAL - so you can imagine our suprise when halfway through the tour a tall and imposing man arrived up on the top deck, and there was the deep, mechanical tone, the arhythmic meter, issuing from a person right there in front of us! The tour was very good, lasting not quite an hour, motoring slowly around the southern tip of Manhattan, the coast of New Jersey, the Statue of Liberty, Governor's Island and the edge of Brooklyn up to the famous Bridge. The weather was lovely and we both took far too many photographs.

Off the boat we spent the rest of the evening shopping at Century21, a large department bargain store. Clinique is so cheap in the States and we were in New York, at the end of our trip, so we had a bit of a blowout there, and then tried on designer jeans from hundreds of different labels, a pair of which Jenny successfully bought. We celebrated with pizza!

Day 3: Friday
After another stop at the spectacular New York Public Library, 5th Avenue became our next target, and we shopped our way along a substantial portion of it, discovering that the section south of the Park gets more and more touristy and trashy the further south you go. The Yankees and NY souvenier stalls and shops abounded, and we purchased some sweet 'I love NY' lapel pin badges, sorry buttons. We made our way past Madison square to the Flatiron building on the hunt for further souvenirs, and although we failed to find the perfect t-shirt Jenny purchased some striped and polka-dotted scarves in the classically tasteful hues of hot pink and lime.

All tackied out, we stopped at a designer label clearance sale and enjoyed the air conditioning, and noted that we had both had the Chrysler building and the Empire State building confused. Luckily, a mistake you can't really make once you've visited! At four we raced up to MoMA for the Free Friday, which at first we were disenheartened to find a massive queue for, but the staff were extremely efficient and we were inside that paradise of modern art within 20 minutes. It was.... wow. I think I speak for both of us when I say I could happily visit again, and again - and go on, again, and again...

We boggled at the amazing collection, certainly one of the most memorable of our trip. Jenny was delighted by the incredible design collection, graphic, 3D and architectural....not to mention the photography and print galleries and then the Van Gogh, Klimt, Warhol, the list goes on and on. Ju found it hard to leave the gallery of Picassos, and then got held up again by Jim Dine and Kandinsky. The free audio tour was also a huge plus.

Tuckered out by our long day, we treated ourselves to a 'create your own pasta' bar at a cute little restaurant, promptly followed by a trip to an Irish pub with a very friendly barman - to sample Manhattan cocktails on their home turf. Consensus: Whew!!

Day 4: Saturday
As we had not booked far enough ahead, we had to move hostels for a night on Saturday. We relocated two blocks down the road to a cheaper but altogether less satisfactory hostel, and spent a long while updating our blog at the library. Probably the last significant update you guys have read, until we get this up! We then headed south for a Greenwich and East Village walking tour detailed in our Lonely Planet, which took us past locations from such movies as Conspiracy Theory, Six Degrees of Separtion, Great Expectations, When Harry Met Sally and Coyote Ugly. We were struck by the way neighbourhoods change within the space of one street, from dry dusty throughway to tree-lined residential street, table lined cafe area or rough-as-guts graffitti spayed board fences. We especially loved the confusion where Chinatown, Little Italy and Soho mix - chinese groceries next to pizzerias next to little boutiques, the mish-mash is awesome!

On return to our new hostel we found our designated room, but all the beds appeared to be full... was there no room at the inn? We were swapped into a smaller room with two untalkative guys and two very talkative english girls, and attempted to prepare and eat our dinner without any utensils at all. (In the end we ate in shifts so as to use the fork which came with Jenny's noodles.)

Day 5: Sunday
Leaving our bags in storage, we set off first for the Rockefeller Plaza, which was filled with bright flags, flowers and tourists, and then across the way to mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, Madison Avenue. The cathedral is both huge and beautiful, it's amazing to find it still intact in the midst of a forest of glass and steel skyscrapers. Unfortunately the mass was rather an 'express' version, and we were ushered out directly after it - obviously the cathedral has so many visitors there is a strict rota in operation.

Lunch was an experiment in street stands: Jenny tried a New York hotdog - verdict: average, and expensive - and Juliet savoured a hot pretzel - verdict: very good, but far too much salt. The large white grains looked pretty but the only way the thing could be eaten was by brushing them all off!

Returning to our original hostel that night we cooked up a monster batch of pasta, and had an hour's entertainment watching people stealing each other's assigned beds in our dorm room - each new person that arrived just took someone else's bed instead of reporting the problem to the front desk, causing an escalating problem that rather reminded one of a silent slapstick movie - except that these girls were far from silent!

Escaping, we set out to see a movie in Times Square, and ended up at Akeelah and the Bee which we both thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend. Very predictable but extremely sweet and well acted.

Day 6: Monday
This was designated Metropolitan Museum of Art vising day. Unfortunately someone forgot to inform the Met that two such illustious personages had such a plan.... and it turned out that the Met has been closed on Modays for over 20 years. Ho-hum. Let that be a warning to you all - Visitors' Guides are there to be read! It all turned out okay though, don't fret: Juliet patronised the Guggenhiem while Jenny took in the view at the Neue Gallery.

We met later on at the library, which had also decided to be shut, so we took free time: Jenny walked the length of Broadway back to the hostel, taking in the sights and purchasing a New York hoodie along the way, and Juliet shopped for NY t-shirts and saw a film: Stick It which was thoroughly enjoyable nonsense, with plot holes so big the fabric of time and space should have ripped as the earth dropped through them. She loved it.

We swapped stories of our afternoons slouched on the lounge sofa, ignoring The Godfather III and eating our 'hers and hers' tubs of Ben and Jerry's.... oooh, perfect delight for exhausted girls! We do not feel it is over the top to state we love Ben and Jerry's!

Day 7: Our Last Day in America
(which, in the interests of accuracy,

The Brooklyn Bridge looking towards Manhattan
This Bridge has a pretty amazing history, which those of you who were in American Studies with me will know, so will those Engineers among you, and those who were on the cruise. For everyone else - i... [more]

happened to be a Tuesday)
All dreams must come to an end, and finishing this entry off now, in England, it does seem rather as if we had dreamt our time in the States. We had such an awesome time and saw so much, and we really didn't feel ready to leave New York that day. In keeping with our spirits it was a miserable drizzly day in New York as we packed up, checked out of our hostel, visited the library one last time, and went up the Empire State Building. Even moody grey, with a biting wind and stinging raindrops the view is spectacular - although the cameras couldn't get the best of it in the haze. We shouted goodbye from the rooftops and set off on our last subterranean NY journey, off through Brooklyn to JFK and the trip to Germany.

- Oh, and Juliet finally managed to buy an I <3 New York t-shirt.

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