New York, New York!

---

So after a few hours on the Bolt Bus the New York skyline came in to view. Was very exciting to see; 'The Big Apple', 'The city that never sleeps' coming into view. That famous skyline that you've seen so many times in so many films and tv programmes. Unfortunately for us this was only a fleeting view as we were continuing through on our way to visit Becki's friend Emma, who lives out in Long Island. The bus dropped us off right in the centre of NYC and it was as insanely busy and hurried as you may expect from a city of 14 million people. We found our way to Penn Station and got on board the Long Island Rail Road out to Port Jefferson. Here we were greeted by Emma; I had never met her before, though Beth had on a couple of occasions back in England.

We got the tour around Port Jefferson which was a nice, sleepy little port town. After we were acquainted with the town we headed back to Emma's house to get acquainted with Emma's pets; a dog called Zoe a cat called Charlie and a few other cats whose comparative lack of friendliness has led to me forgetting their names. A little later Emma's parents returned home, Emma's mum, Valerie worked at the hospital in New York, her Dad, Charlie is a history teacher and also does a folk radio show with the local radio station.

After getting to know the family over dinner we headed to Emma's friends Lou and Kara's place for a couple of drinks and a chat. They were both really nice and we even had some wine called 'Lan' which Lou had invested in after being told it was the 42nd best in the world. We joked how rare something being 42nd in the world was worthy of boasting.
The next day was meant to be our exploration out along long island to a town called Greenport. After a hearty breakfast at a local diner called Toast, we set off. An hour or so into our journey we noticed a strange noise coming from the car; we pulled over to discover that we had the flattest tyre of all time. Luckily for my manliness, even if I had known how to change a tyre (which lets face it, I don't) we didn't have the required tools in the car. We called out Bob's garage to come fix it and after a long wait they arrived and fitted the temporary tyre. We were back on the road again, but only as far as the next town to get a proper tyre fitted. By now the day was getting on so we called off the journey up the coast in admittance that this is one portion of America would remain undiscovered by us. That evening Beth went out for milkshakes with Emma while I stayed in to chat to Charlie about folk music, to me that was heaven. Swapping band recommendations and alternating Dylan songs we loved - he even gave me an early Dylan album I’d never heard.

The following day we headed back to NYC and after a bit of confusion managed to locate our hostel. It was a nice, big hostel and pretty central (in New York terms at least) about 15 minutes subway from Times Square. As James wasn't arriving till the next day we were keen not to do anything too exciting without him. We spent the day wandering around Central Park, Greenwich Village, Times Square and the Upper-East Side. It was amazing a really amazing city to walk; its scale is overwhelming, its wealth (in Manhattan at least) was incredible and its natural and architectural beauty are unique. However, after a day of walking we retreated to the hostel to chill for a couple of hours before James' arrival; all we had agreed with him was to meet him somewhere at Grand Central Station and for him to call my UK mobile from a payphone. We checked online to make sure that his flight was on time, unfortunately this internet was inconclusive; one site said he was going to be on time, the other said his flight was delayed 6 hours. Whilst we waited for his call we mingled with some of the other hostel-goers and enjoyed some complimentary beers from the hostel. However, it was now an hour after his plane was supposed to have landed and there was still no call......

Over to James....

I arrived in the states about an hour later than scheduled, after saying goodbye to my friendly female travelling companion (whose name I forget and whose number I never got) I headed towards immigration. The man in the booth was a humourless man to whom, I can only presume, a smile was a thing of legend rather than everyday reality. He asked me the purpose of my trip, and what I did back in England, I made a bid to make Kitchen assisstant seem as glamourous as possible, but I don't think he believed me. He asked me for my ticket out of America, and when he saw that I was leaving only two days before my three months were up he became less impressed with me than he already was. After pointing out that I was cutting things rather close, and that, in his opinion I didn't have enough money to afford the trip, he asked me what I would do if a natural disaster occurred, and I was unable to leave the country. Sadly I was the only one there able to note how calmly and politely I answered that idiotic question. I was also impressed by the way I was keeping my face relaxed and my voice calm, I was somewhat less than impressed by just how much my legs were shaking under the table.

Anyways, long story short, after a couple more stupid questions he let me into the country (yay!), I fetched my bags and headed for the terminal. I quickly noted the counter for the shuttle to Grand Central Station and headed off to find a payphone. Problem 1 - I had no quarters for the payphone, easily dealt with, I found a shop and brought some gum so they could open the till and give me some quarters. I went back to the phone, tried several combinations of Aled's number before finally getting it to ring once before it cut off, and I wasn't able to get hold of him again which brings us up to problem 2.

No worries though, the plan was still to meet at Grand Central Station, and I knew where to get the shuttle from, I went back there to find the queue gone and the counter closed, nice to meet you problem 3.

I searched around found a computer terminal that offered internet access, at the very least I thought I could e-mail or facebook Aled and Beth and let them know I was ok, I swiped my card, paid for 10 minutes and tried to log on to Facebook, only to find that the keyboard was broken. At this point I felt that this was just grimly predictable more than anything else, so I got up and headed outside to see if I could find a bus.

No, is the answer to that one. Experienced New Yorkers would no doubt be able to decipher the bus time tables, but for me, and my 23 hours of being awake, this was too much to ask. Feeling less than well disposed towards the country that I had saved up months to get to I succumbed to the easy option and jumped in a very yellow (and very expensive) cab.
The cab journey was actually quite fun, and the view of Manhattan at night was astounding, the cab driver dropped me off around the corner from Grand Central station and left before telling me exactly where Grand Central was. Two thoughts occurred to me at this point: I have no idea where Aled and Beth are, and I am completely lost. We'll call these problems 4 and 5. Digging out the address of the hostel and the map of New York I figured I could try and walk there (this would have been a mistake it turned out, it would have taken me hours). Having decided on this I headed in what I hoped was the right direction, and luckily walked right past Grand Central Station. Taking a chance I walked inside, it's an impressive building, but its most pleasing aspect was the sight of Aled and Beth at the other side of the terminal.

.....and back to Aled

As it had been a few hours since his plane landed and we still had no call we decided to head to Grand Central. After 45 minutes or so of frought wondering around the huge building of Grand Central Station, relief hit as James came into sight. Together we made our way back to the hostel and after a brief catch up we turned in for the night as it was about 4.30am to James. We awoke for a day of touristy things and showing James the ropes from our two months of travel. We headed out first to catch the free Staten Island Ferry to catch a close glimpse of the Statue of Liberty. Though the statue is much smaller than you'd imagine, it's still an impressive sight; all the more so with the thought that it would have been the first thing that millions of immigrants would have seen on their boats entering the US. After getting the ferry straight back we headed Chinatown for some lunch. After accidently eating some dim sum we thought may have been free we got some really nice main courses. After lunch we headed to Brooklyn Bridge as we'd heard it offered good views back at the city's skyline. Though it was a long walk, it was certainly worth it as it gives you a chance to get out of the city in order to gain some perspective on its intimidating size. We arranged with Emma from Long Island to meet up in the evening as she was going for drinks in the city. After a couple of hours chilling at the hostel we headed out to meet Emma and her friends at a bar called Rare. As soon as we arrived at this place we could tell that we were far too poor to be here. After eating some of the leftovers from her friend’s meals we ordered some drinks and headed up to the roof top bar about 20 floors above. It was an amazing place to be drinking a cold beer, however, by this point James' jet lag was getting really bad, so after a quick look around we headed back to the hostel.
The following day we headed straight for Central Park, first visiting the sight of John Lennon's murder, just inside the park the was a memorial to him called Strawberry Fields Forever. We continued to wonder Central Park's its extensive green space, first checking out the famous Central Park fountain and then walking the literary walk to the Upper East Side. At this point we randomly stumbled upon a German parade - we never quite worked out what it was for, but it seemed to be everything from German beers to religious groups on the floats. We followed the procession up the road to the Met and headed in for a spot of culture. It was a really impressive museum, holding an extensive selection of works of art as well as ancient artifacts. After taking in everything the museum had to offer we headed to the Rockefeller Centre to go to the top viewing platform; we'd been told by a lot of people that this was better than the Empire State as it was almost as high, and from it you got the view of the Empire State. The lift took you the entire height of the building in just 45 seconds, and if that wasn't enough to impress you, the views from the top certainly did. 360 degree views around the city gave us unique views of NYC's landmarks and highlighted just how huge Central Park was. We headed back to spend the evening chilling at the hostel after a busy day. Strangely my dad had been in contact to let us know that a colleague of his lived in the suburbs outside New York and had offered us a place to stay if we wanted; being poor travellers and keen to meet new people we took them up on the offer and planned to stay at theirs for the next two days.

The next day we headed to the incredible Grand Central Station to catch the train out to Bronxville, where we were met by dad's contact's wife, Mandy. She was really nice and friendly with the added bonus of having originally being from the UK, and even having been to Salisbury numerous times. She showed us around her house and we met her son, Ben and her daughter, Clare. We spent a really nice evening with their family; Ben gave us some beer and explained the rules of American Football as we watched a game. After this Mandy ordered some pizza and we had dinner together, exchanging stories and discussing the differences between the US and England. It was particularly interesting hearing some of the crazy stories about American fraternities first hand from Ben; they are a truly bizarre tradition.
The next day we got the train back in to the city to tick off the last few things we had left to see. First we headed to Greenwich Village, where Bob Dylan and Joan Baez plied their trade as they began a historic shift in the history of music. The musicians seem to have moved on; however, it was still a really nice trendy area where we spent the early afternoon relaxing by the fountain. After a Mexican lunch we headed to Wall Street where we saw the New York Stock Exchange as well as the set up for the upcoming Wall Street riots. Next we headed to ground zero, which was a really humbling experience. Unfortunately the affected area was actually sectioned off as a memorial of fountains was being built; however, we still had access to the Ground Zero museum. After a while of looking around the area and hearing first person stories of 9/11 we were all suitably depressed and decided to call it a day, so began the long journey back to Bronxville. After another nice evening in with their family, which included a true British dinner of beans on toast, we said our goodbyes and turned in for the evening.
The next day we headed in to New York to catch our Megabus to Washington DC. My lasting impression of New York would be of an amazing city; constantly awash with the bustle of people’s feet, it is truly testament to the abilities of human beings to create a stunning urban environment.

---