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Published: August 27th 2008
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Late Night Arrival
Our flight left San Francisco a wee bit later than we had wanted to and the journey over was mainly spent playing the in flight Trivia game on the screens. Aside from the ridiculously tricky aviation questions, it was a lot of fun and both myself and Emma won different rounds. We eventually landed in JFK airport, New York City and by the time we got our bags, it was half past eleven in the night. We were tired and still had a long way to go to our hostel. Being cheapskate travellers, we took the lengthy route of getting the subway from the airport to the hostel, which took another 2 hours and 3 different trains. The hardest part was carting around our heavy luggage and fitting through the subway barriers.
After a bit of confusion at our hostel with our booking, we eventually got into our beds. The hostel wasn't the nicest, but it tried hard. Due to the ridiculous New York occupation rates, this was the most expensive hostel we had stayed at, yet still one of the cheapest in New York. Good times.
Midtown, New York. The Glitz & Glamour
So,
Rockefeller Center
And Radio City Music Hall. here we were: New York City or NYC as it is sometimes trendily (that probably isn't a real word) called. One of the busiest cities on our travels and definitely the most famous city in the world. It was going to be our figurative oyster as we had a good 5 and half days to explore it. The grand finale of our travels, the culmination of our trip, the final farewell of our voyage and any other cliches you could care to think of. This is a city that meets and exceeds a lot of people's high expectations and we hoped we would be included in that statement. We were physically and mentally exhausted by the trip at this point but the next few days were going to be our final push.
So, we awoke on Wednesday hungry to explore the city around us. Our hostel was in the affluent area of the Upper West Side (our hostel itself wasn't so affluent though) of Manhattan and really wasn't too far by transport (which is excellent in this city) to the main hubs. We were also food hungry too so we ate at a chain that was actually made for
Donald Trump
It's where the US Apprentice is filmed. this city: Subway. The $5 footlong deal was on so that was the main reason to be honest as well as the fact it was just up the road from our hostel. Our hostel was located on 94th & Lexington and just saying that address with the American grid system made us feel like we had truly arrived.
We purchased week long Subway cards (the underground, not the sandwich place) and hopped onto the busy rail network. Although it didn't have the efficiency or cleanliness of the Hong Kong or Singapore transportation, it was still a well maintained service, although the labyrinthine network of different lines took a bit of getting used to. The train we had to catch every day is also the same train that is hijacked in the 70s film The Taking Of Pelham, 1, 2, 3, film fans. The Subway system is exceptionally warm, although the trains are well air conditioned but you feel yourself breaking out in sweat constantly. It isn't helped too much by the fact that the above ground city was also sweltering due to it being bang in the middle of the summer.
We actually didn't have too clear an
Emma Shopping
"That there is Times Square!" idea of our plans for the day so it was a spur of the moment decision that led to us to jump off in the Times Square area. We wandered about this garish, neon and crowded area for a while, soaking it all in. Although a lot has changed since the 70s and Taxi Driver, the area still has undertones of sleaze and it doesn't take too much of a walk before the McDonalds, Hard Rock Cafes and the brand clothing shops merge with seedy strip joints. Another famous aspect of this area is the Broadway shows as the Broadway street nicely intersects the area, although most theatre's aren't located on Broadway itself, although some of the Off-Broadway shows are. Confusing.
Browsing through the self-proclaimed largest DVD selection in the world at the Virgin Megastore, it was completely appropriate for Frank Sinatra to suddenly blare over the shop speakers singing New York, New York. It was also odd as there was a sudden upturn in the mood of the customers too who were noticably singing along and a couple even dancing. After this extravaganza, we headed next door into the Information Centre which has link ups to record free
Broadway Show
Shame the scaffolding ruins the shot. videos and postcards to send over email, which we had to do obviously. We felt it would be rude to come to Times Square and not catch a Broadway show, so after some consideration we booked ourselves into see The Phantom Of The Opera at the Majestic Theater (sic) later on in the evening.
For the rest of the day, we wandered up to the Rockefeller Centre and admired the huge plaza and shopping malls before heading up the legendary 5th Avenue all the way to Central Park. This street is lined with expensive boutique fashion stores and many chains have now moved in, which has actually caused some of the more elite shopping venues to hop over a block to Madison Avenue instead. Although we browsed the area and went in a few places, we left purchase free and we passed famous New York institutions such as Tiffanys (you can't get breakfast here Mr Capote), the Trump Towers, and Saks. Macy's, Bloomingdales and Barneys are all located elsewhere, which are the 3 most prominent New York shopping locations. Not that you can really go wrong with the stores on 5th Avenue, as it caters to pretty much any taste.
We soon reached the greenery of Central Park, which marks the end of the constant shops and the beginnings of the biggest mansion townhouses in the city. It also veers closer to our hostel as this comes under the Upper West Side neighbourhood. Instead of heading further up, we wandered about the park entrance and turned around to see a sight we instantly recognised from Home Alone 2. The Plaza Hotel, New York's most exciting hotel experience. You can still get rooms here but a lot of it has now been turned into Condos. Rooms though were a snip at around $1000 a night. As I said earlier, New York is ridiculous, the average hotel (read 2-3 stars) has rates of $220 a night. After bing satisfied with the park, we headed back down 5th Avenue and had a spot of dinner (don't ask where we ate, it's a Scottish name that starts with M and ends with S) before heading to the Majestic Theater on 44th Street to take in the performance of The Phantom Of The Opera.
It's the longest running musical on Broadway and perhaps the most famous. Although I'd seen it before, Emma had not and she went into it knowing very little about it beforehand. The theatrics were second to none and it was an enjoyable performance. Afterwards, we were pretty tired and decided to catch the Subway home to our hostel, where we discovered we had new roommates and flopped into our bunks. Had we brought the bed bugs with us? Only time and skin would tell...
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