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Published: June 29th 2006
Ground Zero...
Still hard to imagine what happened there. 7 buildings were actualy destroyed in the end. The Twin towers stood over twice the height of that black tower in the centre of the picture.Alright by now most of you realise that we came home early!! We cam back for a few reasons;
1. To surprise everyone
2. Save money
3. To be back in time for the world cup :-P!!
4. I was getting annoyed with Kim’s relentless smoking and drinking binges!! :-P
While we were away our plan to come home early was pretty hard to keep from everyone so we had to slow down our blog entries and tell a few white lies so people thought we were in different locations than we really were! Writing a New York blog before coming home would have given the hint that we were coming home early especially as our final flight was from JFK airport. We had a lot riding on NY and hoped it would live up to its reputation, we were used to cities by now and hoped NY would give us something that no other place would, we wanted to end our 6 month adventure in style. So now I finally (perhaps a little late by now) give you part one of our New York Blog!! Wiener!
We Arrived by Train from Boston on the 23rd of May
Kim devouring pizza
One of the few times she didn't have a bottle of beer, wine, spirits or cigarettes in her mouth, Janet I hope your reading this! :-P
Look at the concentration on her face!!! An eating machine, she never left me any leftovers!!! very happy to finally be on our last ever Amtrak train! In fact we figure we have spent nearly a week on trains while we have been in the States!! The train into NY was fantastic we got a really good view of the city and could make out the empire state building and the Chrysler building and all manner of other skyscrapers. Our first stop after arriving at Penn station was to figure out how to get to our hostel using the metro system. It was a bit more complicated than we had realised, Kim went and asked a cop who turned out to be probably the most condescending police officer in the City who thought we were totally naive and seemed to think that NYC was the capital of the world and that we were from some backwater place (well it’s kind of true… Romney Marsh…). Anyway after eventually figuring it out for our selves we headed for ‘Jazz in the Park’ our hostel located on 103rd street north of central park and worryingly close to Harlem :-s, but at least it had good reviews!
After getting all our stuff into the hostel which was a bit
Time Square
We spent a bit of 'time' in time square ho ho ho.... of a squeeze as there were 12 beds in the same room and also there strange pong which we later found coming from a pair of socks hanging in the window (I personally think they were Kim’s)!!! We then headed out into the city for the first time to have a look around, both very excited!! We headed downtown and decided our first stop would be to have a look at ‘ground zero’ as it was fairly close. We made our way downtown heads looking up as the height of the buildings were astounding, there are so many tall skyscrapers in such a small area, New Yorkers say that you can spot a tourist from a mile away as they are always looking up. This is definitely is true, we spent most of the time staring up into the sky! Some areas even seemed to be in permanent darkness due to looming buildings overhead blocking the sun.
It was easy to find ground zero and as we got closer you could really sense the scale of what was literally a huge hole in a surrounding city full of towering skyscrapers. You also got an immense sense of enormity of
New York Public Library
Its like some medieval castle inside. Me and Kim both have membership cards too...how sad! the events that must have taken place almost 5 years ago. Everyone has seen it all on TV numerous times but being there gives it a much greater sense of reality. It was a strange atmosphere, very sombre in places but also very busy in others as New Yorkers are always on the move especially in the financial area. It was also thankfully far less touristy then we thought it would be. The whole area was fenced off and on one side there was several information boards that explained the events of Sept 11th and some pictures and stories of those fire fighters and police who died on the day trying to help those trapped in the towers which was quite sad to read. There was also a list of all the names of those who died which was depressingly large. However it was not all negative and there was boards that explained what was going to be built on the site eventually. A memorial garden with waterfalls where the 'foot prints' of the tower stood will be made and finally the Freedom tower which when built will be the tallest building in the world, examples of what the skyline
Rockefeller center
Far to many American flags for me!! Possibly enough to give one to every American in America!! will look like really show how massive the new tower will be!
All the walking had given us an appetite, so we decided to go and try one of New York’s most famous foods, NY pizza!!! We walked round for a while and found a very small pizza place hidden amongst the many narrow shops. It was nice and very cheap, $2 a slice and very large, you have to fold it to eat it! It’s not as good as the stuffed deep pan pizza we had in Chicago but for the price we couldn't complain (we ended up eating a lot of pizza while in NY, just another reason why so many Americans are obese). We were pretty worn out after the train journey and the walk around the city so we headed back and had a quiet evening in the hostel. It is also good to mention that we lay of the alcohol for once, we had only seven days in the city and a day with a hangover would really ruin things as there is so much to pack into a week in NY.
The next morning hangover free for once we got up early
and ate our free bagel wooo... We got to the Metro and bought a week pass and took it to Madison square Garden’s the famous stadium where we decided to have a walk around (its really nothing amazing) and then headed to Time square. Time square was pretty overwhelming, so many tall buildings and so many lights, it was very busy and there was of traffic and taxi's beeping their horns none stop which is something they seem very fond of doing, often for no reason at all. Time square even has its own mini police precinct! You could see the empire state towering overhead and the Chrysler building. I must also add it was very hard for Kim to not look in shops at this point, I think she managed to pull me into the MTV shop! We then decided it was time we told a few more white lies on the internet telling people we were in Virginia at a beach house so we headed for NY public library. Kim will inform you that the library was used during the filming of 'The Day after tomorrow' (what a cinematic masterpiece *cough*), in fact it’s a very spectacular library
United Nations building
Geeky bit of information. Its actualy recognised as international territory...interesting huh. as libraries go.
After hanging around the library for a while we headed for the Rockefeller centre. I wasn’t particularly impressed it’s apparently far better in the winter as they turn it into an ice skating rink. Also I’ve never seen a place in States with more American flags and that’s really saying something! We also headed to Grand central station as it’s also a building famous for being in many films and is situated right near the Chrysler building (all this walking at least would work off some of that fatty food we’ve been eating!). That evening we met two people from Canada who were staying in our room, Annie and Paul who seemed really friendly we also chatted with some of the other guys in the room and decided to break our drinking fast and splash out on a few beers (but not too many obviously).
Hinges
Next morning hangover free again!(surprisingly) Kim and I headed out on the metro to Coney island where the beach and fairground attractions are located, its also home to Nathan’s hotdogs, the first place in the world (apparently) to have starting selling hot dogs back in 1906. Took ages
Wall Street & Stock exchange
Where all the suits were, busy buying and selling whatever it is they buy and sell!! to reach there on the metro and wasn’t the best ride especially after a group of young kids came on and released a stink bomb and then ran out leaving us all to cope with it!! Anyway we finally arrived and headed to Nathan’s and tried a hot dog which was alright but a bit overrated and Coney Island itself looks rather like Dreamland Margate, it’s pretty uncanny the similarity….sadly. We didn’t actually stick round and it did seem like a slight waste of time to go all that way for what was a rather average hotdog!! totaly
Once back across the bridge and into Manhattan we headed for the ferry port to catch the Stanton island ferry which is a free ferry that goes from Manhattan to Stanton Island regularly. The plus is you get a great view of the statue of liberty for free and you can make out Ellis Island which is where all the immigrants used to arrive at 100 years or so ago. The trip only takes 20 minutes and the view is pretty amazing, thought the statue of liberty itself isn’t all that big (part of the reason why we didn’t get a
Your either S.W.A.T or your not!!!
Heavy security around the business area. Though I doubt that guy would be able to chase anyone down, looks like he's eaten to many donuts..fatty! trip to the island itself), so once on Stanton Island we headed straight back on the ferry back!! Sadly we got little done that day due to the fact it took ages to get to Coney Island, evening was getting on and we had made plans to meet Annie and Paul at the empire state building which up and till now we had kept putting back, hopefully it would be worth it!!
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Nicki
non-member comment
HotDog
Looks like your enjoying that HotDog Trev...did u not think to share it around form looking at the size of that beast...yummy mustard and ketchup on it...real USA style!! x