Day 1-2: Sydney to NYC via LAX

Day 1: April 6 - Australia - Sydney; USA - LAX Airport, New York City
Accommodation: Manhattan Inn Hostel

After all the waiting, all the counting down, all the organising, all the booking, all the credit card whoring, all the packing, and all the anticipation, it was finally time to catch that first flight, also the longest flight of my whole trip. I got to the airport, my mum took photos of me with her as if I was leaving for years or something, and it was time to get rid of those bags. Starting weight, 18kgs. Carry-on luggage was a flimsy blue backpack with thin material full of junk thrown into it at the last minute. I should’ve prepared myself for the unexpected with a decent backpack. Still, my flight left on time and I was off. I think it was a mixture of excitement and the fact that it was 11am when the flight left but I watched 2 movies and 4 or 5 TV shows and didn’t get to sleep for 9 hours. Qantas Video-On-Demand is the best thing EVER! Almost 4 hours later we were getting close to landing in Los Angeles. I couldn’t believe how smoggy it looked. The flight attendant hands us warm moist towels. I’m thinking what the hell do I do with this? So I wiped my eyes with it and thought I’d give my face a wipe down too, and for no real reason I wiped my hands too. Touchdown and it’s 7am, but on the same day? Crazy. Without even going through customs or passport control or anything we are whisked out into a line for our connecting flight that stretches outside the actual terminal. If it wasn’t for the fact that they had my 18kg bag I could’ve walked into the country unnoticed. Go American airport security! The LAX terminal didn’t excite me too much otherwise. Eventually I’m back onto another plane but it’s of a much lesser standard. Little did I know that Sydney to LAX and LAX to New York would be the best and worst flights of my whole trip. Welcome to American Airlines. Your seats are narrower and barely recline, our plane interior looks like it’s stuck in the 70’s, any entertainment you see is what we show you on the big screen, and you need to pay $2 for headphones if you want to actually hear what you see. At least I got a can of Pepsi, but I decided against watching Fun With Dick And Jane because apart from the fact I thought the movie would be painful my eyes were hurting and probably bloodshot. Still, I got 3 hours sleep and safely landed at JFK airport. I get out of the plane and to baggage claim surprisingly quickly, but our bags took an hour to actually appear on the conveyor belt. Thankyou for flying American Airlines. We hope to severely inconvenience you again some time in the future. Thankfully this was my last AA flight for the trip. I walked outside and being a bit wary about using the NYC subway I caught an airport shuttle into town while befriending an elderly lady from Pennsylvania. Heading past the rundown houses and basketball courts in the night along Van Wyck Expressway seemed a bit daunting. The bus dropped us at Grand Central Station and for a while it seemed like I had to find my own way through the 8 blocks to my hostel. Then we were offered a free shuttle to our accommodation. I had arrived at the Manhattan Inn and it was around 8pm and I was tired and hungry. Luckily my bed was ready and there was a Subway across the road, and the room was pretty large for a 6-bed dorm and had its own ensuite and TV with cable so I was satisfied. Well, so far I’ve survived.

Day 2: April 7 - USA - New York City
Accommodation: Manhattan Inn Hostel

I didn’t really have much of a plan for my first day, so I did probably the most clichéd and touristy thing I could think of and I caught a subway down to the Statue Of Liberty. I arrived just after 10am and the line was HUGE! I was starting to consider whether this was such a good idea especially when I was told the Staten Island Ferry takes me past Liberty Island for free, but I figured I’ll probably have to get in line at some stage if I ever want to see the Statue up close so I did. I was mostly surrounded by school kids and other loud Americans, and a handful of actual foreigners. We were entertained by several buskers and black guys selling fake sunglasses and watches and handbags. None of them actually got my money, but the Jamaican dude playing the steel drum was a close one. He was happy and played sing-a-long songs and even let this little girl play tambourine. Gold! By 11:30am I was finally through to the metal detectors (I don’t know what for though, seriously, am I going to hold up the Statue with a shotgun for her torch?) and onto the ferry. We got off and I walked around for a closer look and to take photos and I found out in order to climb up the Statue I had to book at least 2 days in advance with the national parks service, and apparently even then I could’ve only gone halfway up because it was an orange alert or something, whatever the hell that means. So I took photos and the ferry took us to Ellis Island. It was 1pm and I’d already wasted a lot of my day so I just went back to Manhattan. The subway took me down to Ground Zero and the place where the Two Towers came down didn’t seem to touch me as much as I thought it would but it was definitely a sombre moment. The cross made out of two bits of steel melted from the building was very eerie. I headed down to the United Nations Headquarters but they were closing up as I arrived so I didn’t get to take a tour. I did however get to try Quiznos soup and a Snapple so that was pretty yummy all round! I haven’t had a Snapple since they left the Australian market over 5 years ago. I wandered up to the Museum Of Modern Art because I head a rumour they were doing some sort of free entry deal, and they were! So I got to see some Monet, Andy Warhol, and whatever else caught my eye, all for nothing! I was surprised at people taking photos but then I learnt they were allowing photos without the flash on so I joined in. I didn’t know if it was blasphemous to take photos of art pieces or not but I did it anyway. After that I figured I’d go check out Times Square, passing the NBC Studios and Radio City Music Hall along the way. The lights and the advertising was pretty huge but not as big as I’ve seen on movies and TV, but still kind of impressive. My next destination was the Empire State Building. It took 45 minutes to stand in line but I didn’t seem to care so much. The view was absolutely amazing! I stayed up there for another 45 minutes taking it all in. My photos didn’t come out how I imagined but I didn’t mind too much. After such a big day it was about 9pm and I was pretty buggered so I grabbed a street hot dog (they’re a lot smaller than I expected!) and wandered back to the Manhattan Inn.

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