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Published: November 7th 2006
Start spreadin' the news, I'm leavin' today
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York
With the soundtrack for the w/e suitably selected it was time to throw some clothes in my bag and make the 15min walk to the bus at uni, and yes of course I left everything to the last minute and had to rush to make the bus. I was making the trip with the McGill International Student Network (MISN) and my two travelling companions for the w/e were the devilishly dashing duo of Matt and Nick. The bus ride there was uneventful as we left at 11pm so I slept for most of it which was great.
The first views of
New York City are quite amazing, a towering island of skyscrapers framed against the bright blue early morning sky. We were staying at HI New York on Broadway and 103rd st, which was a few subway stops from Times Square and a couple of blocks from the western edge of Central Park. I didn’t like the place, sure it was clean and safe but there were too many rules, the staff seemed unhelpful and there were charges for everything extra; renting pool cues, milk for breakfast and storing our bags all cost us money. We chucked our
bags down and then wandered around for a bit looking for an ATM to fund the inevitable spending that would soon ensue. We then found what was desperately needed by all, a greasy diner selling oily burgers and deep fried fries dripping with cholesterol😊 Delicious. It was then time to begin the sightseeing that would take up the next few days. It is absolutely impossible to see everything in NYC in 3 days, there is far too much to do, see and experience, you can see most of the really, really famous buildings and sights but unfortunately this still leaves the merely really famous and the just plain famous things still to do. It is as I am sure you are all aware a very big city.
Day One: Initial Impressions and Musicals on Broadway The New York subway has to be seen to be believed it is dirty and smelly, with tight, twisting corridors and the grime of over a hundred years of use coating the more dubious surfaces. It is not a rarity to see a rat scurrying around the tracks and I loved it. Sure it was a bit manky but it had a bit of
Architecture of NYC
Cool building with sloped sides with the Chrysler Building in the Backgroundsoul and feeling that I find lacking in super clean, often white modern interior designs. Thank god it runs 24hrs though as every night we found ourselves far from home come midnight or later. We went to
Times Square after breakfast. Wow. Basically a really big intersection with advertising
everywhere, the massive screens completely cover the surrounding buildings and compete with each other, both in terms of size and brightness. It is truly an amazing place. We got talking to this street tout trying to sell us tickets to some comedy show, we declined but this is an actual excerpt from our conversation with him.
Where are you guys from? We're from England and Australia. England, where's that? Is it near France?
I didn't think people like that existed😊 All the Broadway musicals are just off Times Square so we wandered around checking them out and went to the Tourist Office to see if we could get any cheap seats. Matt then wandered over to
Schubert Theatre where
Spamalot was playing and miraculously they were selling cheap standing seats for that nights show for $21.50, practically nothing for a Broadway musical. Excellent
Once we had something planned for the night we had the rest of the day to wander around, we just walked down a
street towards the
Chrysler Building then happened across the
New York Public Library, this happened quite a lot. Just walking around and coming across some beautiful iconic building. We walked around the marble interior and had a look at the few exhibits that were on display, there was a nice little photograph collection of images of New York. The whole place seemed to stand as a monument to the iconic image of New York from the turn of the century when it underwent its massive expansion and skyscrapers everywhere began to reach for the sky. The building itself is designed very much along the lines of ancient Roman architecture and it is very impressive to say the least. We came upon this contrast numerous times over the w/e, a building from the days before New York's expansion now completely towered over by the modern steel and glass or masonry skyscrapers. The contrast was interesting and refreshing to say the least and there is a visible sense of history and progression that I found quietly thrilling. For example a few days later in the Financial District we happened upon the building where George Washington was sworn in as the first President
of the United States. This small building which presumably was some form of small municipal building is now completely and utterly surrounded by huge skyscrapers; it gives a sense of the historical aspect of the city but also of the phenomenal and sustained growth and development that it has undergone.
We then walked down to have a look at the
Flatiron Building cutting traffic at the corner of 23rd, 5th and Broadway. A very cool building. We headed back to the hostel to have a shower and put on a shirt and tie for our night out on
Broadway😊 Of course we were late and had to run to the theatre to get there on time. We stood at the back behind the last row of seats whose occupants were playing $100+ dollars for a view that was hardly any better, brilliant. Spamalot is a musical based on Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail with numerous other jokes thrown in for good measure. It was really, really good. Very random humour with great acting and some controversial songs thrown in to boot. It provided numerous catch phrases which we repeated continuously for the next few days. It
Drummer
An amazing drummer using everyday items was a great night.
We felt like a drink so went to this Irish restaurant where we had a pint of Guinness and some chips at absolutely extortionate prices. It felt slightly thrilling to be drinking illegally again😊 After that we felt like a few more drinks so we caught the subway to
Greenwich Village which has a great number of pubs, clubs and cafes. Unfortunately, none of us being 21, we were roundly rejected at every establishment. Bizarrely one bouncer refused us then as we were walking off, followed us and asked us if we wanted any weed or coke. Very strange, no drink but hard drugs are fine.
Day Two: Wanky Art Museums and a Very Big Hole in the Ground We rose a bit later and walked across
Central Park to go and see the
Guggenheim Museum. Central Park, as LP so eloquently puts it, is a monument to foresight and urban planning. Built at what was then the northern end of Manhattan development and now completely surrounded it makes the borough a much more enjoyable place, an island of green surrounded by a sea of skyscrapers. It was full of kids playing sport and
Skating
People ice skating in Bryant Park people having fun in the autumn sun. Unfortunately when we got to the Guggenheim it was undergoing extensive renovations both exterior and interior so that its famous design is covered in scaffolding and only about 1/4 of its art is on display. Check out the exterior
here. We decided not to pay but stood in the lobby and took some photos of the magnificent white spiral interior. It is truly stunning and in my opinion is much more impressive than the art that it holds. Then it was time to go on to the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Once again the architecture of the MoMA is incredible and definitely forms a part of the overall experience of the visit. In my opinion most of MoMA is a waste of time, individually some of the pieces are very interesting but when combined together on 6 floors they all become rather repetitive, dull and slightly pointless, especially when combined with the waffling rubbish that the audio guides spill forth about a painting where the artist has just thrown some paint at the canvas. The highlight of MoMA was undoubtedly the photography section. Some very clever and captivating images capturing moments in
time, I enjoy photos so much more than paintings and sculptures. They seem to mean something, recording brief segments of time; a picture really is worth a thousand words, probably a lot more.
After this Matt and Nick headed back to the hostel but I decided to go and have a look at the
World Trade Center site. The site itself is a little underwhelming as at the moment it is effectively a massive construction site with not much to see. This is not helped by the fact that there is no decent observation deck to get a good view of the area. Give it a few years though and you should be able to see the skeleton of the new Freedom Tower beginning to climb upwards. There is a photo memorial along the main fence with some very good pictures and a timeline showing how the events of the day unfolded, both towers fell within 29 minutes of each other. It is quite a sobering experience remembering all the people who died on that day. It is rather sad in another way that this is, in my opinion, where the world changed for the worse. The world has
become a more dangerous and volatile place with right-wing extremists on both sides flaming the fires of conflict which hurt and destroy so many people’s lives.
After having a walk all the way around the site I went back to the hostel and all three of us headed out to China Town for a cheap feed. One average Chinese meal and a couple of beers later we took a walk out over the
Manhattan Bridge into
Brooklyn and then got the subway home.
Day Three: Going up, Getting the Ferry and the Marathon We were up early with the plan to go to the top of the
Empire State Building. With our first 2 days in NY being beautiful, sunny, cloudless days it was inevitable that today was slightly overcast and hazy. We went up anyway and didn’t have to wait too long in the queue. The Empire State Building is once again the highest building in NY and it offers some amazing views across Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. The view towards downtown is particularly good as is the view up town; with glimpses of Central Park in all shades of orange. If you are going to
Little Michael
This little guy was dancing to Thriller by Michael Jackson. The Subway stations were always full of people entertaining for some cash, whether it be dancing, singing or playing some instrument. Never a dull moment on the subway. go try and go on a cloudless day and rock up early to beat the queues, expect to wait longer than what the sign out the front says.
After grabbing a bite to eat we headed down to the Financial district to get on the Ferry to
Staten Island, while waiting I quickly nipped off to see the
Wall Street Bull. Quite a nifty little statue with really big balls, it faces directly into oncoming traffic. Unfortunately it is surrounded by inane and idiot tourists jumping all over it, a bit of a wait for a decent shot. I also resisted the urge to take a photo of its balls, maybe I am maturing, then again maybe not😊
If you are travelling on a budget and want to save the pennies wherever possible the Staten Island Ferry is the perfect place to do that. It is free and goes within a few hundred metres of the
Statue of Liberty, which is fine since you can’t go up it anymore since September 11th. On the way back it also offers some brilliant views of the Financial District and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges from out on the water. Well
worth the 50 min round trip.
We decided to do a little shopping on 5th Ave where all the designers stores are, we were completely out of place at the majority of places but it was fun looking at things you can’t afford. The 5th of November was the
New York City Marathon that starts way out on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and ends 26 and a bit miles later in Central Park. We walked over to the final straight and cheered on the stragglers coming in at 5 and a half hours after the start. There was one guy who had lost both legs just below his knees running with artificial legs, pretty inspirational. After watching for a little we headed back to the hostel got a last dinner and then settled back into the bus for the 9 hour ride back to Montreal.
What a great w/e. I found the city an intoxicating mix of the old and the new, it was busy, crowded and was always something happening, truly deserving of the title, “the city that never sleeps.” I found New Yorkers to be friendly, kind and always willing to point you to the nearest
subway station. There is so much to do in this city that it is impossible to do everything that you want in 3 days. Sights look familiar, streets names roll off the tongue as though you have been saying them your whole life and you feel as though you have seen it all before on film, which you probably have. It is the kind of place everyone should live in once just to experience it for themselves. It is a city that you almost feel that you have been to before such is the nature of the entire place.
Really go there at least once.
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Nancy
non-member comment
A Helluva Town
Found your Journal while linking to a friend's. Being a New Yorker I wanted to see your impressions of the City I love. I'm glad you had a good time. Your views of the City were marvelous and right on target. You got what it's all about and I'm impressed by how much you guys did in your weekend jaunt. I can tell you'll be back!