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Published: August 18th 2007
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Tuesday 7th August
After waving our goodbyes to our hosts, we embarked on 'the last of the greyhounds'. They're excellent ways to get around North America cheaply and from a range of locations, but comfort is not top priority! However, buckled and broken, we emerged five hours later into NYC, the Big Apple, or as a certain Mr Sinatra remarked 'New York, New York'.....a city so good they named it twice. Now the thing that strikes you immediately about New York is the pace of everyday life....everybody eats, drinks and communicates on the move, you can catch a taxi on any street corner, and believe me, you actually can get lebonese food at 4am. All of this I expected, but what we weren't prepared for was the humidity. Although not particularly hot, the air was so muggy it really restricted the pace we could move. Another thing that surprised me as we made our way through the city was that unlike many capitals where the financial/tourist areas make up the city centre, New York is composed of residential neighbourhoods throughout Manhattan and around tourist hot spots such as central park. These neighbourhoods also seem to be very much segregated by race,
to a dramatic extent. And this was only Manhattan....Queens alone has a population of 2.2 million, and Brooklyn and Williamsburg sound like districts that could be visited in a seperate visit.
Eventually we arrived at our hostel and after grandad Ball settled in for bed (at a hedonistic 9pm) Joe, Mike and myself set out for a few drinks in Greenwich village. After aimless wandering for what seemed like hours, we arrived in a small blues bar and were entertained with a majestic 45 minute set from a morgan-freeman lookalike and his house band. They were truely excellent, and set us on our hour-long stifling tube journey in good spirits and anticiapting a busy day........
Wednesday 8th August
Awakening to yet more humidity and bizzarely tales of over-night flash flooding that had crippled the subway system (!), we switched to our next hostel on the other side of Central Park and then set out for a walk through the park. Although not expecting the park itself to have it's own road system, we meandered past reservoirs, lawns, concert halls and would you believe a castle. By this time Joe and I had both shed our clothes like a very
weary snake would it's skin....let's just say one of us was attracting admiring looks from the passing joggers. Desperate for nourishment, we found lunch in the form of Wholefoods, a supermarket chain which is about to hit the UK this summer I believe. It is something to behold, aisle after aisle of fresh,organic produce from local producers. However you only get what you pay for in America......on return ask Mr Seager how his $30 salad was....sorry $27 Joe! The afternoon consisted of the Natural History museum in search of a life-size blue whale, T-rex skeleton and minature solar-system model. It was indeed illuminating....did you know that if the history of the earth was a 24 hour clock, the human race would take up a fraction of a second before midnight. Wow! However, as we quickly learnt in the US, facts are often followed by free pizza and shuttle launchs on the TV, and having met two dorm-ees as we like to be known (Jason, an essex boy at the end of a year long trip around the world and Katie, a german girl hot off the plane) we embarked on a search for a couple of cold ones in the
east village. Eventually we ended up in a bar where we lured into the cellar for a classic un-plugged acoustic session, which saw Joe in his element. After an attempt at crowd-interaction that went down like George Bush making an appearance at a mosque, Joe played a very soothing set of American classics that put everyone in a pleasant frame of mind.
Thursday 9th August
And boy did we need it! Thursday was NYC tourist day....SAS style. We started off with a ferry-trip to Staten island, once again accompanied by Katie for the day. It was a nice way to see Manhattan and the statue of liberty from a different perspective....and it doesn't hurt that it was free too! We then ventured into chinatown, where we had a hearty meal of chicken noodles, duck and spring rolls. Mike contemplated the house-special of pig's intestines, but then decided that he fancied a change from his usual student fare and went for the noodles instead. We then progressed to a walk around the ground-zero site which was very humbling, but also slightly tasteless as there still people who attempt to make money by selling brochures and merchandise around the periphery. We
then split ways, Matt and Mike taking their 'jazz hands' to the ambassador theatre to see Chicago, whilst Joe and myself climbed the Rockerfella tower (yes literally) and took in the breath-taking views of the New York area at night, illuminated by thousands of lights. Unfortunately sods-law took a strong hold just as we reached the top when my camera battery died. I can almost hear my paparrazzi-wannabee father tutting in disgust...'have you learnt nothing from me son??'. However Joe stepped up to the plate man-fully and produced some amazing shots. We then met up as a group for a meal at TGI fridays and then a wander around Times Square. This was the moment we felt in New York City that we had grown up with in the films. Neon signs, blatant capitalism displays by Coca Cola and McDonalds, men with snakes around their necks promoting their latest studio album. Ok almost exact! We were also enthralled by a man who made an awe-inspiring picture of the New York landscape in a lunar-style just using spray paints. However with weary legs, emty pockets and full stomachs, a re-occuring theme, we were ready once more for the road!
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Sue B
non-member comment
food food food
Good to hear you are not fading away!!!! Keep it up lads - you certainly seem to be in the swing of this site seeing. Great to hear your movements. x