New York, New York

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We stayed right in the heart of New York City for two nights. The Hotel Carter was just a block from Times Square and we got a great discount by booking through EasyClick. We were a bit wary about going there because of the feedback on various websites. Would you go to a place which had been reviewed as follows:

"The worst hotel we have stayed in. You just don't expect to see blood stains on your comforter." "Why haven't they been shut down?!" "I wouldn't bother staying at Hotel Carter even if you paid me." "Unbelievably AWFUL" "If you are broke, seriously broke, stay here. Otherwise start running while you still can." "It has been ranked the dirtiest hotel in America four years running." "On August 31, 2007, a housekeeper found the body of Kristine Yitref, 32, wrapped in plastic garbage bags and hidden under a bed in a room on the sixth floor."

We decided to give it a go because it worked out at £62 ($100) a night for a double room and you just can't get that sort of price anywhere in New York! In the end we were pleasantly surprised. We found no bodies, human or otherwise, no bloodstains, and quite enjoyed our stay. Maybe we were lucky and room 814 is the one to ask for. It was clean, comfortable and everything worked. We really don't know what everyone has been complaining about. There was even free wi-fi in the lobby.

So, having settled down in our far-more-salubrious-then-expected room, we made our way up to Central Park in the hopes of seeing a free performance by the New York Philharmonic. Doh! We were wrong and it was the previous night with that night's concert being held in Queens!! We consoled ourselves in the Carnegie Deli with a monstrous pastrami sandwich which was just toooooooooooooooooooooo BIG!! We still had room for their amazing cheesecake though. Times Square by night was a small diversion on our way back to the hotel.

The next day was a bit hazy but we decided to pay our money and journey up to the top of the Rockefeller Building. The "Top of the Rock" gave amazing views over Manhattan and Central Park. It was fantastic to see the Empire State Building from on high and probably justified not going up that skyscraper. In the shopping centre below the Rockefeller we saw the strange sight of a row of shoe shine men inside a barber's shop.

From there we took the D line subway all the way out to Brighton Beach. That's the Little Odessa district of New York City and it was quite bizarre to suddenly be surrounded by a foreign language and Cyrillic script. Trish did very well in a restaurant for lunch and we got the borscht and xarcho that we craved. It was delicious. We then bought some Russian snacks to take down to the seafront with us and sat eating them watching some of the locals play chess.

The boardwalk took us down to Coney Island Beach. The ferris wheel there is huge but we didn't go on. The beach was packed but then the heavens opened! We did get a bit wet but luckily we dived under cover just in time. On our way back to the station we passed the famous Nathan's hot dog stall where they host the annual hot dog eating competition.

After returning to our hotel for a siesta (see, it WAS comfortable), we headed back down to Battery Park to take the Statten Island ferry at dusk. It's a free service and we got excellent views of the Statue of Liberty as the sun set. We then found ourselves with just over half an hour to kill at the Statten Island ferry terminal before our return to Manhatten. We got a prime location on the ferry and saw the lights of Manhattan gradually come on as the sky turned dark. It was beautiful. Back in Manhattan we went to Chinatown. There we found a great Vietnamese restaurant. It was wonderful, although they were very keen to close at 10pm!

Before checking out of the Carter the next day we had a walk around looking up at various buildings. The Empire State Building is impressive but it's better from a couple of blocks away as you can hardly see it when you get close! On our wanderings we called in at Grand Central Station, it's market and the nearby street market. On our way back we came across a line of statues all done out in very fashionable designs. Then it was back on the subway with our rucksacks to travel up to Harlem.

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Photos

Getting Picked Up!
As we paused to see ourselves on the projected image, this giant woman came along and picked us up - on screen of course!

Comments

[mouhamed alsaqati]

nice pics
good pics russ hope u ve engoyed it