New York

New York, New York. Well after a reasonable flight with plenty of sleep, I jumped on the tram to Flushings for my first hostel of the trip. I was a little disorganized booking my hostels, so I had to spend the night in Flushings instead of in the heart of town. But I had booked for the hostel I wanted on the Sunday and Monday. The hostel was ok as it was a private room and had a TV, so I spent most of the night chilling out in front of the TV. I was in no rush on the Sunday morning, but yet I did not look over the room before I left, leaving my iPod in there. After a frantic call after one stop down the train to the city, I was informed that it was not in the room. I told them that I would have to file a Police report and that I was coming back to the hostel to have a look myself. When I returned I took a look in the room and found my iPod underneath the fitted sheet - (this not being the first time I have found something under the fitted sheet, the last my drunken self with a lovely lady fully clothed in my bed, but she was atop of the fitted sheet). It must have been either my threats to get the police in or bad house keeping that meant my iPod was still there. So jumped back on the train to the city, and checked into my hostel, which was bigger, better and very well located.

As the hostel was only 2 blocks away from Central Park, I thought it would be the best place to start. After a walk through a park full of activity on a Sunday afternoon I went down 5th Avenue to see all high fashion stores, each with their own security guard on the door. It was then I saw the Roosevelt and Empire State Buildings, the latter I took the trip up to the 86th floor viewing deck. It was quite an impressive outlook of the city. From there it was to Madison Square Garden to see where the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Patrick Ewing use to weave their magic. A few more blocks up the road and you come up to Time Square, where you get to see the bright lights of the city, not as big as Vegas, but still pretty impressive. I got to see the Virgin Mega store that Richard Branson had raved about in his autobiography (which I did finish before I moved into my 3rd house in Tahoe, some kind of record, but not beating my pages read per day in the Caribbean, but still impressive). I did the token hot dog from the street vendor (a rip off at $2, as you can get 4 for that at BP in the Quay). After all this I headed back to the hostel to check in and lounge around in the common room, checking out my emails, face book and watching some TV.

I awoke to the New York traffic and pouring rain on the Monday morning, but I still had to see the sights. So after a slow start it was off to the ferry terminal on the subway, I went on a 75min trip to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where all the immigrants were processed (looks a lot nicer that Nauru or Kangaroo Island). After that I headed down the subway to the World Trade Centre. Not much was stirred with me here, as it is now just a massive construction site. But it was still worth seeing, from here it was not a long walk to the New York Stock Exchange or Walls St. The rain had started to come down quite heavily at that point, so it was a bit of a run between the two. The stock exchange was not that much to see from the outside and you’re unable to get inside to see any of the action. I headed back to Times Square for a bit of shopping for some of you who may be reading this (Zoë, I got your tee). The hostel that night had a comedy show in the cinema area. I was keen for a movie and relax. The show was quite lame and the microphone was not working, but it was better than nothing I suppose, but I have had funnier times in the kitchen in Lake Tahoe.

The Tuesday was meant to be my last day in New York, but it became my 2nd last due to difficulties using my frequent flyers and it was cheaper to spend another night at the hostel than book a semi cheap flight. So as I had seen most of the sites I just roamed around the city, thru Times Square, 5th Ave and the streets surrounding Central Park. I had a look in the foyers of a few museums, but found $20 a bit steep since I will see better in Europe. The Guggenheim was also not at its best as half the building was covered with scaffolding, so I did not get to really take it in at all. Zoe would have been disappointed to know that on her birthday I was in Tiffany & Co New York. The problem for her was that I am operating on a world travellers budget, so there was no hope for the young lass. That afternoon Doug arrived in New York. Since we where staying in separate hostels, we each did a tour of our hostels. That evening we had drinks at Dougs Hostel, as grog is not allowed in mine(even though it is a lot better than his). We sat on the roof looking at the New York City lights and listening to the tooting cabs. There was a few Aussie girls from Perth, Swedish girl and French guy who where travelling together after meeting on exchange in Canada. So a few of us headed out to a local uni bar for cheap drinks. It ended up being a big night, which led to a slow start on the Wednesday morning, but I still made it to the airport for my flight to Chicago with plenty of time to spare.

---

---