New York, New York, business and a lot of pleasure...

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So I got the chance to go to New York on Business in November which was nice! I had work commitments on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday but when I looked at the flights it was costing £1500 to fly out Monday and back Thursday night, so when I looked at flying out on the Friday, giving me Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and Monday to myself the same flights were £412. My work agreed to pay for the extra nights hotel as it was still much cheaper than the original work related flights and off I went.

I've been to Las Vegas, Houston and Chicago on business before and had travelled through California with Fiona when we went travelling in 2004 and all over Florida with my family when I was younger but this was my first time in New York City and I was really excited about the trip.

I was staying in midtown, on 8th Avenue just up from 34th Street which was a great location for me, the place I was working at was a fair distance away (2nd and 47th) but I didn't care about that. When I was on my own sightseeing and going out at night (mainly to Madison Square Garden and bars around there) it was perfect.

On my first night I was pretty tired from travelling all day but wanted to stay up late local time so I could get on the right body clock. I landed got to the hotet, dumped my bags then headed up towards Times Square. It was crazy busy, a Friday night so full of tourists and weekend visitors here for a great night, I frequented a couple of Irish bars (I think I counted one million, four hundred thousand and twenty nine Irish bars in Manhattan) and wandered around to get my bearings finally giving in to tiredness bout 10pm local time, which was a solid 20 hours after I left home to travel here.

I woke up early the next morning and set off sightseeing about 6am, it was pitch black and I left like I was walking through Gotham City, it was incredible. One thing I will say is that I felt 100% safe every minute I spent in NYC, from walking about at 6am sightseeing that Saturday to riding the subway later on that night when I got lost downtown, to staggering home about 3am on Monday after a Kicks game and post Marathon party I ended up at, all the time I felt completely comfortable walking about on my own.

Back to that morning walking about, it wasn't without incident, which is par for the course for me, I got stopped by the Police for trying to open and looking in the doors of the Empire State building, ended up behind a security cordon at the UN building and made friends with a homeless guy who insisted on buying me breakfast. Just a standard day day out really.

I had seen most of the big building I wanted to see in midtown and uptown and vistited Central Park by 10am so I then found an Irish bar that was showing the Celtic V Dundee United game so popped in for a couple of pints, the game started at 10am local time and I was half cut by lunchtime, United should have won but Celtic scored in the last minute to draw 1-1 by the way. I got chatting to a Geordie who lived in New York and supported United (Dundee and Newcastle) so went with him to go and watch some English football in nearby sports bar. What a day that was, I had tickets for the ice hockey at night so staggered home about 3pm to get a feed and some sleep before I headed out again about 7pm.

Madison Square Garden was only a block away from my hotel so I grabbed a couple of pints then headed to the New York Rangers game, I really enjoyed it and got chatting to the natives who enjoyed my half pissed Scottish banter, one guy kept buying the beers which was nice as I bought one when I got it and it was $10.50!

I headed home after the game and got a decent sleep but was still up early the next morning, I decided to make another early start sightseeing downtown on what was also the day of the New York Marathon. I had a great day Sunday, I walked around Broadway then got a subway down to City Hall and walked through the financial district down to the pier where I caught the Staten Island ferry for a great trip across the river past the Statue of Liberty and Governors s Island. I have always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, for some reason it's what I have always though about when I think of New York and when I seen it in the flesh I was really quite taken a back, humbled or emotional or something, I don't know but I couldn't stop staring at it. I didn't stay in Staten Island so hopped on the ferry back as I wanted to get across the Brooklyn Bridge before the Marathon started.

After Brooklyn I walked all the way back to my hotel (7 miles) via the cool parts of Manhattan, through Greenwich Village, Tribeca, Chelsea and the High Line up to the Garment District.

It was around 3pm and I was shattered so headed back for a lie down to watch some NFL, I fell asleep and woke up about 6pm and quickly grabbed a burger and a couple of beers at a diner next to my hotel before heading to my favourite Irish bar (Blarney Rock) next to MSG for a pint before the Knicks game. In the bar I got in company with a few Canadian guys who had been at the Jets (NFL) game and downed a few shots before heading to the basketball game well oiled. Again I had a great night at the game and had a fine laugh with a few guys around me, the Knicks even worse Orange for the first time in years in my honour, it's a pity that they totally suck and got hammered.

After the game I asked a couple of guys to go back to the Blarney Rock and we ended up their until well after 3am, I assume it was a great night but I really can't remember and felt as rough as I have in years the next morning.

That Monday I got up around lunchtime and wandered the streets eating copious amounts of donuts and drank litres of black coffee, I visited all the other place that I had missed when sightseeing the other two days and crashed back in my hotel early that evening to prepare for work the next day.

Working was fine, long days followed by nights looking for nice souvenirs and buying my kids their Christmas presents and before I knew it it was Thursday night and time to come home.

I had a brilliant time in New York and look forward to heading back, hopefully with the family, someday soon.



PS - All my daytime sightseeing photos are on my camera, these are just phone photos from at night, if I remember I'll add more scenic ones when I get a chance.

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Photos

Hat trick
Boy scored a hat trick then all the fans chuck their hats on the ice, no for me.