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Published: August 22nd 2010
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Another blistering hot day today in NYC! We started early as we wanted to be on the first ferry out to Liberty Island. We arrived at Battery Park at 8am and just got onto the first boat as it was already busy. It's good to be on the first boat across as the island isn't overly crowded and you can take photos without too many people in the way. I enjoyed the boat ride back via Ellis Island as there were heaps of good shots of the Manhattan skyline.
Our next stop for the day was the Empire State Building which was only 2 blocks from our hotel. It costs $20 for entry up to the 86th floor observation deck. Before we got there we had to queue up 4 times. Turned a 15 minute sight seeing session into a 90 minute ordeal. But the views were spectacular and well worth the wait - you really get an appreciation on how big NYC actually is from that high vantage point. Apparently they get 3.5 million visitors a year, at a minmum of $20 each - that's 70 million dollars annually!
Next we trekked over to Grand Central Terminal which
is a marvellous looking old rail station. I have seen Union Station in Los Angeles, Union Station in Washington DC and now Grand Central here in NYC and they have all been great buildings. Had lunch at the station food court and its a pretty good public food court - plenty of variety and pretty clean surroundings too. Even the restrooms were clean which is pretty tough to pull off at a public train interchange.
After lunch trekked to the UN building just to tick it off the things to see list. Went back and did some shopping for the rest of the afternoon - I ventured out to 5th Ave to have a look at the expensive designer stores but didn't buy anything. Found the NBA mega store which was pretty cool and bought a souvenir t-shirt from there.
Went back to Old Navy and bought a few more cheap shirts to get me through the trip without having to wash any clothes. They got decent stuff considering the bargain basement prices! Will definitely need extra luggage as my backpack can't handle all the shopping I've done.
Talking about shopping, the 5 girls from Sydney that
I know spent a day at Woodbury outlets and bought enough clothes, shoes and bags to fill up their room. They will be in trouble with luggage and credit cards by the end the weekend when they leave NYC.
We met up with them in Little Italy for dinner. On the way there, Lou and myself discovered just how big Chinatown was as we had only touched the sides the other day when we went past and had lunch. The girls had picked a restaurant called Sofia's and they were just waiting for us. It was Julie, Lillian, Mimi, Rachel and Thao - we struggle to catch up in Sydney yet we can manage to do it on the other side of the world. Defies logic really, for us it was just like old times and conversation was real easy. Lou had not met them yet and found them friendly and funny. Considering I've known them since like 1995, we weren't afraid to put shit on each other. Dinner was pretty ordinary Italian fare and quite pricey. I believe we get better in Sydney at say Criniti's or Candelori.
We then went back on the subway and the
girls checked out Grand Central before we walked to Times Square where they shopped at anything still open. We hung for awhile before bidding them farewell until Vegas on Sunday.
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