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Published: January 8th 2012
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We have now been home for over a week but the memories of this amazing city are fresh as ever. We cannot believe this is it our final stop on our year long journey; we had mixed feelings about going home to face reality so we made the most of our last few days. We arrived by the Mighty Megabus mid afternoon downtown NY; laden with bags it was a bit of a nightmare making our way to Helga’s our final couch-surfers. For some reason we found it difficult understanding the ticketing system on the underground and a 30 minute journey turned into a 2 hour one eeekkk!! We arrived at Helga’s tired and hungry but our first impressions were great; a lovely home, our own room and an interesting host. Helga took us on a short walk of the neighbourhood, we were at the highest point in NY (not counting the sky-scrapers) offering excellent views over the Hudson River and into the nearby Bronx. Helga cooked us a lovely stir fry and we spent the evening exchanging travelling stories; Helga has done some very interesting things including climbing Kilamanjaro at 62; fantastic. We turned in for the night and slept
like babies and when we woke Helga had prepared a lovely healthy breakfast of fruit and cereals.
We felt ready and raring for a day of exploring. 1
st stop The Dakota building where John Lennon was shot; it was a stunning building where he lived but there was nothing there to commemorate what happened on this spot to such an iconic figure. After a brief stop there we walked across the road to central Park to Strawberry Fields a dedication to the star and a bit of tranquility within the madness. We spent the next hour walking through Central Park – such a huge space in the middle of this concrete jungle; we made our way down Fifth Avenue taking in all of the designer shops and a tribute to the apple founder Steve Jobbs. We went into the Chrysler Building and the Rockefellar Centre; such huge and magnificent buildings; we felt like ants amongst all of these buildings. Next stop was the Staten Island Ferry terminal intending to see the Statue of Liberty but it was foggy so we decided to come back another day. We went to Times Square Starbucks where we met Gaz; an old university
friend of Dim’s; Times Square was impressive with so many lights and people it felt a bit surreal that we were really here.…
Gaz showed us around his Ben Sherman office he seems to be living the dream and we could see the Ghostbusters library out of his office window!!! We made our way to his apartment in Brooklyn and he treated us to Fish and Chips and Dim even found me Rowntrees Fruit Gums; a real British treat. It was fantastic spending the evening with Gaz, his wife Hilary and their 8 day old son Harry and had a real good laugh. Back at Helgas, we stayed up chatting for a while before turning in; a long but great start to our NY experience.
It’s now 6
th January and for some reason I have found it a difficult task to finish this blog, but to carry on from above; Another early start today and we had booked to go to the World Trade Centre Memorial but it wasn’t open until 1.30pm so we visited the United Nations and went to the Occupy Wall Street protest site. We were minding our own business when out of nowhere Tom
Morello of Rage Against The Machine popped up a metre away from where we were stood and did an impromptu performance; it was great to be so close, we listened to him for a while before heading to the memorial. As you would imagine security was tight and in my opinion slightly over the top; we must have had our tickets checked by 10 different people. The reflection pools memorial was a lovely tribute to the victims of 9/11, I did however feel uncomfortable with the tourist element of it this in the very place where thousands died (very hypocritical as I too fell into the tourist trap); people posing for pictures and a big museum was being built that will probably generate millions of dollars. As long as the victims’ families were consulted and are happy with the memorial that is all that matters.
We made our way to Helga’s after this and we cooked for her to thank her for her excellent hospitality and it was interesting to hear more of her travel stories. Dim and I went back out after tea; we had to experience a bit of NYC night life after all, I just wish
Tom Morello
Was good to see him perform from this close!! we could have remembered it all. We went to a bar in Times Square and got cocktails; I got talking to a Scouser and it was good to have some good old British humour; he was working for an oil company in Brazil and was out on his own so we took him under our wing and the 3 of us ended up having a crazy night drinking lots of jager bombs, wearing silly hats and fooling around. We ended up in Greenwich village and the next thing I know we had lost the delightful Scouser and were munching on chicken nuggets in McDonalds; a very comical evening. Maneuvering our way back to Helga’s was interesting I was shamefully sick along the way; probably not been so drunk in years, 1 night with a fellow Brit and look what happens.
The next day brought the hangover from hell but we still had things to see. We caught the ferry to Staten Island passing the Statue of Liberty which was amazing to see, very iconic and it was also nice to see the NY skyline from the water. We managed to secure tickets to see Phantom of the Opera on
The Stock Exchange
where it all happens Broadway and although we were still feeling worse for wear, we managed to pick ourselves up and headed to the 230 fifth bar on the advice of James our Washington couch-surfer who said we would get a great view of the Empire State Building. We weren’t disappointed the view was great especially at night and see the street below full of taxi lights. The show was excellent apart from the idiots behind who insisted on talking loudly throughout the performance; Christine and Erik (the phantom) had stunning voices a brilliant final night out on our year long adventure. The morning after we bid our farewells to Helga and to NYC, and headed to our hotel near JFK airport in preparation for our flight the next morning. We dumped our bags and caught an hour long train to an outlet centre to get some last minute bargains. We spent longer than we wanted in the shops and had our final burger and chips in a diner; the obvious American meal to have for our last supper. We had little sleep that evening and before we knew it we were boarding our last flight of our trip sitting next to Florence and
the Machine crew on the plane – a very rock and roll ending to one hell of a journey.
Please watch this space for my thank you and summary blog that I promise will follow shortly – I am on a roll again……..
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