New York, New York

New York

Love, love this city!! It was my second time to the "Big Apple" but Sam´s first intro to all things Yankee. So good to be amongst english speaking people again and of course any type of normal food you can imagine....too easy! Its funny how excited you get when you come across a supermarket with food not unlike you would get from home after travelling so long. I can´t remember New Yorkers being so helpful and friendly last time I was here but we couldn´t get over it (those who work for London Transport have a shitload to live up to).

We headed straight for Times Square our first day to soak up all the excitement and energy, came across M&M´s world.....yep, a whole three story department store (across the road from the Hersheys one) entirely dedicated to all things M&M´s. Didn´t think such a place could exist but then you remember you´re in America, enough said. There, we witnessed the world´s biggest wall of choccy and sampled quite a bit of it too. Quite a bit to see in that area of town, we ran into the Naked Cowboy where I was much obliged to
Times Square at Dusk
get a cheeky pic with him (girls, you will understand when you see the pic....too funny) and of course got to all the usual sites.

Last time I never got to go up the Empire State Building so this time we were keen to get up there and have a look at the city from the top, though the queues seemed to go on forever and it was way too expensive so we scrapped that idea and headed straight to Central Park for a wander. Just happened to be there at the right time of day and a couple of fellas who called themselves the "Afrobats" put on a pretty awesome show of acrobatics right next to the Bethesda Fountain, not bad entertainment and I think they did alright tip-wise judging from the crowd they pulled.

We bought tickets in Times Square to an exclusive "Stand Up Comedy" club, the tickets were cheap (though there is a two drink minimum at $15 per drink we weren´t told about) but the place has had people like Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld headline there so we thought it couldn´t be too bad. We didn´t get to see those guys but
Statue of Liberty
we got to see Patrice O´Neil (stars in the US version of " The Office") and Brian Scolero (plays Stewart on Pammy Anderson´s sitcom show Stacked) we got right into watchin the telly in Ireland while savin coin for this trip so we knew who they were and were pretty stoked with the line up and the other guys were´nt too bad either I tells ya.....great night out!

Got tickets to see the Yankees play the Angels at Yankee stadium as the Bronx is only a couple of stops away on the subway it wasn´t a mission to get there, though we avoided the overpriced tiny hotdogs and Budweiser (yuck) they were selling to the fans (can´t believe people pay for that stuff!!) The game itself was pretty slow, the Yankees creamed em! we left during the eigth play to avoid crowds and the score was 14-nil at that time. Still we got to chant along to the tunes they bang out over the stadium to get the fans involved and participated in a couple of "waves" that ran through the place a few times......stellar afternoon, oh and according to one of the main sponsors "America runs on Dunkin"
The Sign
gotta love those doughnuts!!

We ventured down to Ground Zero and it was nothing like I remember four years ago. A lot of the memorials have been removed and the place is busy with construction, a good sign I guess to see that the city is moving on. Not sure what is going to replace the Twin Towers though it wasn´t something I really wanted to ask. Headed to the suit area of Manhatten, Wall St, remembering when Rage Against the Machine was able to shut down American capitalism for that brief moment during the filming of their video for "Sleep Now In The Fire".


From there we caught the Staten Island ferry to get a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, you can´t go up the statue anymore due to security reasons so we avoided the ferry over to Liberty Island (which you have to pay for) and just took a pic of her on the free ferry cos we can.
What visit to America would be complete without a visit to Hooters Restaurant for proper American tucker? The food was great though Sam was a little dissapointed that the ladies weren´t as well endowed as
New York Stock Exchange
Sleep Now In The Firethey lead you to believe in the adverts, still, we found the prettiest waitress there who was more then happy to get her photo taken with him which kept him quiet for a while...he he!!

Our last day we travelled quite a fair way out of the centre to have some pie and coffee (cwarffee as the Yanks pronounce it) for smoko. Visiting Kat´z Delicattessen, New York´s oldest and best deli. It´s been there since 1888 and walking in there absolutely nothing has changed, its like stepping back in time. Most of you may know it from the movie "When Harry Met Sally" it was the place where they shot the scene where Meg Ryan fakes an orgasm.......yep, we had what she had. The place is lined from wall to wall with pics of movie,sports stars and politicians that have been there, Sadly, Johnny Depp didn´t make an appearance that afternoon.

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