NYE in NYC + a goodbye

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Firstly I think I should explain the bed situation in NY at New Years and the complete lack of planning and blind/stupid optimism me and Jacqui had before leaving on our trip. Every single bed in NY is occupied on the 31st of December without exception, we only had the faintest hope of a whiff of a chance of a place to stay, but smiling and optimistic we both jumped on the China Town bus from Boston and arrived in the Big Apple mid afternoon. Not only did we only have a hope of a whiff of a chance of a place to stay but both me and Jacqui had rather big bags to drag around with us. Put it simply if our "accommodation" for the night fell through we were up a certain creek without a paddle.

So happy and smiling we stepped off the bus. I swear New York seemed different, it was definitely busier than last time I was here, see Play it a Little Louder Frank, and somehow there was anticipation in the air, as though the city was gearing up for something big. It didn't disappoint.

So our "maybe accommodation" was a friend of a friend who was arriving in the city later that day and hadn't even landed when we stepped off the bus. Me and Jacqui were meeting up with Nick and Liam, two friends from Montreal and then we were meeting their friend Beattie who was getting in from LA that day. So all sorted on the characters, good, onwards. Despite the witty prose above and writing that seemed to suggest that there was some type of hilarious travel tale to follow, there's not. To put it simply Nick asked Beattie if we could sleep on his floor and he said it was fine.

Now by hotel room in New York what I actually mean is glorified cupboard in New York. Seriously this room would have been small for a couple of dwarves and here we were squeezing five fully grown people into a space where the single bed took up half the room. After looking around the room and at each other rather awkwardly knowing that the sleeping arrangements that night would leave alot to be desired we settled as best we could and then formed a cunning plan. Unfortunately I was still not 21 and due to the USA's stupid, stupid, stupid, archaic drinking laws it meant I would have to resort to that oh so clever and subtle technique, getting someone older to buy my liquor😊 Takes me back to being 16. So as the 5 of us sat in a tiny room in the most exciting city on earth on the day when everyone wants to party we formulated our great New Years Eve plan. In the short term it involved drinking more vodka and in the medium term the choice was either Times Square to watch the ball drop or somewhere else. After more vodka to lubricate the thought process we all agreed that the short term plan was a complete success, it was so successful that it also morphed into a significant part of our medium term plan. After finally getting our act together and once we were satisfyingly boozed we wandered out onto the streets of NYC.

With no significant plan we made our way over towards Times Square; as we got closer the crowds of revellers grew and grew. NYC is a truly astonishing place on NYE, there is a vibe in the air that I have never felt before, it may be something to do with the truly huge number of people that spill out onto the streets, everyone seems ready to have a great night, everyone is friendly and happy and out to have a great time. With Times Square barricaded off and NYC's finest guarding the short dash to the crowds on the other side we walked north towards Central Park. As it got closer to New Years I could feel a slight panic sweeping through the throngs who were still wandering around, "I have to be somewhere special, got to be somewhere memorable for my NYE in NYC." We got to South Central Park about 5 to midnight and found a spot with hundreds of other people where we could look down 7th Avenue and see one of the huge screens in Times Square, it looked the size of a postage stamp but we could still see the metre high numbers slowing regressing towards zero. It was truly incredible to hear thousands of people counting down towards the New Year and will be something I remember for a long time.

After the midnight celebrations we walked down to Times Square and managed to sneak into the bar of this plush hotel which brilliantly didn't check our ID, HA take that stupid American drinking laws, so after a few more drinks we stumbled back to our hotel and fell asleep on the floor. It was a great New Years and one that deftly sidestepped the often inevitable let down that NYE often is. What a city! Everyone should try and spend at least one NYE in NYC, it is an incredible experience.

American Natural History Museum
There is alot of stuff in the ANHM, seriously alot. It is almost completely impossible to see everything in 1 day let alone read all the little tags that explain what wonder of the ancient world is standing in front of you. That is why we had to narrow down our interests to some of the

cooler

exhibits. Being a guy who was and still is a little boy at heart the dinosaurs were a must, as was the hall of African mammals.

The Hall of African Mammals consists of the most astonishingly brilliant dioramas depicting the incredibly varied habitats, regions and terrain that comprises the African continent and the birds and animals which live there. I was amazed at how good the animals are they seem completely lifelike as though the subjects were merely taking a deep breath before continuing on with their lives. The best ones I thought were the scenes of Southern Africa depicting various creatures that I had seen during my youth. Especially amazing was the elephant herd in the middle of the room, if I closed my eyes I could imagine the noise and smell of the elephant herds of Kruger as they melted away into the bush. It bought back so many awesome memories of my childhood in Africa that for me this was the highlight of the museum.

Having said that though the dinosaur display was super cool. To think that these were the skeletons of creatures that lived so long ago as to be beyond imagining is a very humbling experience. I felt like a little kid seeing all the dinosaurs that you memorised as a kid; brontosaurus, stegosaurus, velociraptor and the mighty T-rex. It was really cool. Dinosaurs’ rock.

After this we went to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge as it was an amazingly beautiful day and New York looked like a postcard in the afternoon sun.

Really at this stage we were killing time, I was leaving on a bus back to Montreal and Jacqui was flying out to Europe. I was very lucky to find someone like her with which to spend my time during my 1st semester in Montreal and it was definitely very hard to say goodbye.

After a crappy bus journey I got back to Montreal, had about 4 hrs sleep and then chucked my remaining clean clothes in a bag and set off, I was going road trippin' with some friends. No rest for the wicked.

Next time Road Trippin' USA Style



Note on the photos: It was about this stage that my camera began to suffer from a syndrome I like to call Doesn't-work-properly-unless-in-direct-sunlight-and-in-optimum-conditions-for-photographs syndrome. Due to this debilitating (debilitating for the camera as I felt like throwing against the wall) condition almost all the photos are crappy and blurry. Sorry. I have since got a new camera; HA take that you crappy piece of shit.

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Photos

Hall of African Mammals
You can't see it in the photo but the background is incredibly detailed making the entire scene look many times bigger than it actually was.

Nick with New York's Finest
Nick tried to put his arm around the cop on his left but he wouldn't let him:)

Junk
Times Square was completely covered in plastic crap

Diorama I
Diorama outside of Macy's Department store

Dinosaur
In the lobby of the ANHM

Comments

[deleted_15735]

Witty Prose Indeed
Yeah my camera suffered from the same syndrome, it must be something in that Arctic water. Except my "new" camera was an old brick my parents sent over... use yours wisely young padawan.

[baz]

well done
well done dan on sticking it to the man and his stupid drinking laws. new years sounded intense. nice. catcha mate

[sashi]

dodgy photos
and no explanation? tsk tsk. sounds like an awesome new years.. sigh.. you're going to be the last travel man standing soon so keep the blogs coming