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Published: August 29th 2008
From DC we headed further up the eastern coast to New York City.
First stop had to be Central Park - we spent our first afternoon watching New Yorkers playing tennis and jogging around the reservoir whilst we decided what to do with our 4 days in this crazy city. The park is huge and we only saw a small section of it, but what we saw we found to be very busy yet relaxing at the same time. Throughout the park there are lots of places to sit and rest and there are plenty of optional tours to take such as horse and trap or tuk-tuk!
For our first full day in the city we decided to jump right in at the deep end and hit Times Square. The sights and smells of this chaotic area are things we will never forget! The constant flow of people heading in every direction and their lack of spacial awareness, combined with the smell of tramps and the sight of them begging on every street corner came as quite a shock to us. It's difficult to say what we expected of Times Square but it was definitely an eye-opener!
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the time we had queued and purchased our tickets on Broadway for The Little Mermaid for the following night, we decided to head away from the hustle and bustle and take in some more of the city sights.
5th Avenue was an amazing place with a mixture of expensive shops and modern hotels and then all of a sudden, up pops a quaint stone church- St Patrick's on 5th Ave! We spent a nice afternoon window shopping and people watching - we could have been anywhere in the world but we were in NYC!
New York was the most expensive city we came across on the East coast, so we grasped the opportunity to save a few pennies when we heard that rather than paying $20 each to go to Liberty Island, we could get the Staten Island Ferry for free. This took us out past Liberty Island and gave us some great views of the Manhattan skyline and some amazing pictures of Liberty herself. We just jumped off at Staten Island and jumped straight back on the next ferry, so we got to see it all twice.
The South Seaport and the surrounding wharfs that lead
us past Wall Street, through the financial district to Ground Zero, were a pleasant contrast to the chaotic sidewalks of the mid-town area. Ground Zero was under construction but we got the chance to take a look at the pictures of the new design which is due for completion in 2012. It was nice to see that the new buildings will not be built on the same footprint but a memorial garden with waterfalls and pools will be built where the original World Trade Centres stood. Due to the construction work, there is currently no standing memorial but looking at a bill board showing a timescale of events from 9/11 to today was a stark reminder of just where we were standing. Just looking at the narrow surrounding streets and the sheer amount of high rise buildings surrounding the area, you can't even begin to imagine the horror and destruction caused on that fateful day in 2001.
When we looked at how many shows were on Broadway, we didn't know where to begin. Steph had recommended The Little Mermaid so that's where we headed, it was AMAZING!!!!! Chris wasn't so enthralled by the idea but he enjoyed it in
the end (not that he's admitting that!) The set was phenomenal and with so much projection and realistic choreography, we both found ourselves being carried "under the sea"! I would definitely recommend seeing this show if you get the opportunity, it's not just for kids....honest!
Our next stop was the Empire State building. We'd been advised to go up on a clear day so seeing as the sky was bright, cloudless and blue, we decided to go up. By the time we had queued for 1 and 3/4 hours to get to the 86th floor it was raining...typical! However, as there was no time limit on how long we could stay up there, we sheltered inside for a while and once the rain had cleared, we got some fabulous views and pictures of Manhattan. It was certainly worth waiting for.
Once we had seen enough from the top of the Empire State Building, we darted around a few other tourist sites to take a few snaps, these included Madison Square Garden (a large arena where the New York Rangers play Ice Hockey and concerts are played) Grand Central Station, The Chrysler Building and the Flatiron Building.
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full days of sight seeing and trying to master the most complicated and illogical subway system in the world, had really taken it out of us, so we decided to spend our last full day in N.Y.C in Central Park. We played card games and watched the world go by. It was a great way to wind down from such a hectic city experience.
New York is certainly a unique city with it's high rise buildings and the electric lights of Times Square. For us, 3 days would have been enough, the vast amount of people was too much to contend with combined with the humidity. We are obviously glad we experienced New York, it was an awesome place but I don't imagine it to be a place we would go out of our way to visit again.
You're probably wondering what 'Tea for free up in NYC' has to do with all this. We forgot to tell this story, so here goes: we went out looking for some tea and found a little Chinese fast food eat-in restaurant. We checked out the menu and liked what we saw so decided to go in and order some
grub. Once we had ordered we got given a ticket and as we went to pay, the guy serving us told Chris to "Move out the way so I can serve the next guy" (in what seems to be the typical unpolite American manner) So we did as we were told and waited for our food. Whilst waiting we looked around to see whether other people were paying as they ordered or once they had eaten. Everyone seemed to pay as they ordered like we had tried to. We mulled over our conscience as we ate and decided that if the guy had been nice to us, we might have wanted to pay him, as he was rude and was too interested in serving the next person, we ate the food and waited for him to come and collect the payment, which never happened! Despite our actions, we slept very soundly and did not feel the slightest twinge of guilt - mainly because we felt like we were getting one back on the American food service sector and there disgusting attitude. The customer is never right in America- in fact an employee elsewhere called the customer in line in front
of us a 'retard' just as they turned there back to walk away. They clearly heard her and we'd be surprised if she still has a job!
Hope you like the update. Catch ya'll soon x
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Dad_Martin!
non-member comment
NY NY -fantastic!
Well you guys certainly sound like you're having an absolute ball. What an experience this whole thing is turning out to be and I'm proud of you both. Keep sending these great blogs with super pictures. Well done and look affter yourselves. Love, Dad.