iHEARTNY

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Concrete jungle where dreams are made of

America; the land of the free and home of the brave let me in. Yes yes, that's right. Pauly is in the USofA... hooray!

So from where we last left off, I left Frankfurt on Tuesday afternoon heading for New York via Reykjavik. The flights to NY where pretty quick considering (9 and a bit hours), and on both flights I had the entire row of seats where I was sat, all to myself. Weird thing about Icelandair though is that you have to pay for your food and for your headsets to watch the TV monitor in your chair. Considering you have paid for an international flight I would think normal practice would be that they would be free. BUT NO. Anyways on the plus side you are allowed 2 bags of 23kgs which not many airlines provide for anymore so I can't complain tooo much.

We landed at JFK around 7pm local time on Tuesday night and the immigration lines where remarkably quick. It was quite cool temperature wise, and I had to wait about half an hour for my shuttle bus to arrive once I was let into the country (woot wooo!). Eventually it came and the shuttle bus driver made a few stops at the other terminals to pick up other passengers to get a full bus. From here he decided to drive like a madman and it seemed he was keen on driving over every pothole on the Fwy headed to Manhattan. But there were very friendly people on the bus - a VERY talkative San Franciscan lady, a guy from Vienna, a mother and daughter from the Philippines, some girls shopping for wedding outfits from the Netherlands and a guy from Melbourne (Australians are everywhere!). The bus driver wasn't particularly friendly as he was very abrupt which I just assumed was a New Yorker thing but he dropped the poor Vienna guy off 2 blocks from where he said he wanted to go because 'he gave the driver the wrong address'. Everyone in the bus looked at each other with a "oh sh!t! please drop me off where I want to go!?" look of panic.

But I eventually made it to my hotel on the Upper West Side (Park 79 Hotel) and I unpacked, had dinner and then crashed. I was still on EU time so I woke early Wednesday morning at 4.30am. Yeeesh. I eventually made it out in the city and walked from Central Park down Broadway and along my travels I was accosted by a poor man "can you help a brotha out with some change?" (sorry but no), saw the lincoln centre which I remembered from the Black Swan movie and then saw the Ed Sullivan theatre where David Letterman films his show. Originally I had lodged a request via the show website for tickets (they are free) but had no response so I asked the girl at the door of the theatre if tickets were available. The show is on a lottery basis and I was told there was 50/50 chance of scoring tickets. So I applied within and was 'auditioned' by a guy called Jon for the show and he gave me a number to call within half an hour to see if I got a ticket. Oh and by auditioned I mean interviewed....just so we are clear.

I headed to Times Square after some touristy type shopping and saw the bright lights of New Yorks biggest tourist mecca and then grabbed some late breakfast whilst I called the Letterman show number Jon had given me. After waiting a minute on line I was told I had scored a free ticket!! wooo! the show films from 4.30pm but I had to be at the theatre between 2-3 so I headed to Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Centre in the meantime which has an observation deck at the top of the 70 odd floor building that supposedly surpasses the Empire State Building for views of New York. Pretty good views (below) hey?

So I then went and booked my tour for today (sex and the city site tour - thanks to my sister Lisa, you convinced me) and then schlepped it up from 37th St up to 54th and Broadway for the Letterman taping. We were moved around like cattle; in this door, out the other and back again for at least 2 hours and eventually we made it into the theatre after some riling up by the Late Show staff. The show was good and Chaz Bono was the guest - although the 20 min interview about transexualism was pretty serious and I could see people in the audience squirming in the audience a bit (they are americans afterall and probably unusual for them to hear about at length) and Dave made some stupid comments/ jokes just for a laugh factor but it was a great experience and now one that I can tick off my bucket list!

I left the theatre around 5.30pm, made it back to the hotel about an hour later and after a brief snack I crashed again around 7.30 and woke this morning at 4.30 on the dot! grrrr!!!! anyways I'm off to do the SATC tour today and then the Statue of Liberty/ Ellis Island Tour with a ermm....spot of shopping this arvo thrown in and maybe I'll be able to stay up late this evening so I can wake up at a decent hour.

Having heaps of fun here - everyone is friendly and polite (so far), the weather is mixed but not too hot or cold and the liveliness of the city is palpable.

New York feels like another city I could see myself living in (besides London and Paris).....New York....I heart you.

Anyways so much to do but I will blog again in the next couple of days about the rest of my stay in the Big Apple of NY xx

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Photos

Goose Bay/ Canada from above
looks like I'm lookin down from Space!

Ziegfeld Theatre. Funny laaaaady.
For you mum!

Weee I'm falling!
Stupid but hey....dat me.

American Museum of Natural History
Theodore Roosevelt Park

Comments

[Glenda Realisan]

I heart NY :)
Love the NY blog Pauly! Now convinced my next trip will be NY. Cant wait to hear about the SATC tour! Take care darl!