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New York, the big apple! wow. This place is so busy, so much, so fast, so loud, so daunting, so ....everything!
For the first time during the trip, a listened to the little voice in my head (or as AR would say, my 'angel'), and actually took other people's advice - being NOT to take the cheaper option and stay in Harlem, but to stay in the more decent part of Manhatten. Apparently Harlem is as dangerous as it gets, with drive by shootings, and well ... really dodgy neighbourhoods.
So I stayed in Manhatten, just a few minutes on foot to Times Square. I got to the hostel and immediately befriended a fellow Aussie called Paul. It was his first time out of Oz. We decided to get tickets to anything on Broadway, and settled for a comedy show - a hypnotical comedy to be exact. I thought it would be fun to get hypnotised, I remember BF saying that she was once hypnotised, and wanted to try it. Long story short, the comedian succeeded in making us very sleepy, and I was completely aware of everything that I was doing, but didn't feel any inhibitions and felt
more confident to do some silly things: these included talking into our shoes,
Upon exiting the club, we watched how the NYPD arrested and forced the arrestee (?) onto the hood of the car. Yup - at the very latest that's when it hit home that I was in NY.
The buildings in NY are a mix of old and new. But one doesn't go to NY to see them - I visited Times Square, Rockafella Center, Madison Square, 5th Avenue (with it's many many Gucci, Prada, Tiffany's, Fendi .... not to forget Chanel No. 5). I even visited an M&M store which had 3 storeys!! Who would've thought a bunch of chocolates could have enough merchandise to fill 3 floors. I had to go into the Plaza Hotel (so many famous movies have been filmed there .... Pretty Woman I think), and there is even a K&K Demel inside (!!!). I visited the Wall Street and photographed the Stock Exchange, then Ground Zero (ex Twin Towers), Central Park (including the spot where John Lennon was shot dead), went up the Empire State building.
Ground Zero - this is definitely an experience that made me cry. My
heart felt heavy. Being there, you really sense the magnitude of this disaster, and what a huge impact it had on the city. It really is very very sad ... so many people died.
As I sat along the South Ferry esplanade, and saw Ms Liberty for the first time, eating my full fat muffin and giant raisin cookie, I watched the 'health' conscious NYers jog. They are obsessed with food! Everywhere there are food stalls. The contrast between fat and no fat is stupid. They indicate the amount of calories in EVERYTHING, making you guilty for everything you eat. But this is exactly where I learned that the problem lies - they are surrounded by food everywhere. The more you see food, the more you want it, the more you eat, the fatter you get. The fatter you get, the more you are obsessed, the more you count calories, and the more guilt you have - which leads to emotional eating, and back to getting fat. Sigh. What a joke. My theory is if they would limit the amount of food places, they wouldn't have this problem.
Another weird thing that I noticed is that the city
is filled with too many rules. ... I read that dogs aren't allowed to pee on the grass, because 'Dog urine kills plants' - oh really? At Battery Park, I met an ooooold scientist man called Nadav from Isreal, who insisted on talking to me for the whole afternoon.....
The next day I tried my luck again with the China Embassy, and they were so rude that I decided to wait for Tokyo. I went to South Ferry and took Andrea's brilliant suggestion to take the Ferry to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty on the way and the Manhatten Skyline. The skyline is magnificant, but the height of the twin towers is missed. A guy, Christian, next to me on the ferry explained that the black dirt on Ms Liberty's left side is from the September 11 fire. They won't clean her since it would require a scaffold (?). Afterwards I ran across the Brooklyn bridge as AR had done, for good luck. Across Manhatten are Brooklyn and Queens. I was glad to have visited Brooklyn ... it's much leafier and quieter and I photographed many of the buildings with the typical fire escapes on the
front (I like them). I waited for the sunset and nightfall to practice my photography on the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhatten.
Overall, New York is a place that one must visit. But when I saw a Rabi in a cafe drinking 'Low Fat Green Tea' ...... I knew it was time to get out of there .... this is one city I definitely don't need to live in.
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Nigel and Margie in Australia
non-member comment
travel fat
Some people have too much to eat; the more they eat the more they want... can that be the same with travellers? You sure are continuing to see and learn so much. Some food junkies hoard it all to themselves. Now this travel junkie, she shares it with all of us, and that's what's so nice about you Sylv! X