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Our first sight of NY
Kim struggling with her rucksack...again. Yes that is central Park. Woohoo, we made it to New York!! Just……..
Christ! What a start to our travels. After a smooth flight across the Atlantic we touched down at JFK airport on time and were amazed at the size of it! It was so large that it took us an hour and 3 circuits around the ‘AirTrain’ (the train around the terminals) to get out of the airport and find how to get onto the subway towards Manhattan.
All this confusion and jetlag lead to our first argument - Kim couldn’t decided if she preferred to carry her rucksack on her back or pull it along the floor, either way seemed to cause her a lot of pain (woman). As James matched off towards the train station at the speed of light, he noticed that Kim wasn’t behind him and therefore had to backtrack to find her sitting red faced on her rucksack in an almighty huff.
Once we sorted this problem, we boarded the subway with the intention of heading updown to our hostel. After 30 mins we started to have our suspicions that something was wrong as the Manhattan skyline seemed to be getting further and further away and we
were heading into a slightly dodgy area (Kim was convinced it was the Bronx, but James reassured her that as we hadn’t been mugged yet it couldn’t have been).
To say we ‘stood out’ on the subway would be an under-statement….Two young white honkeys with massive rucksacks, surrounded by what looked like the whole crew of D12 (Black Gangster Rappers for the parents) staring at them. We finally plucked up enough courage to ask someone if we were going in the right direction for Central Park and the whole carriage starting laughing at us and said that we were going in the opposite direct and we were 1.5 hours away!!!! Hahaha
There would be more photos of this little incident but we were scared for our lives at the time, never mind the camera.
After switching trains we finally made it into NYC and for the first time it actually sank in that we were travelling when we came out of the subway station to be presented with dozens of yellow cabs and Central Park opposite us. We checked in, dumped our bags and went to get some food.
As we were shattered from our little adventure we
Breakfast Time!!!
This breakfast included free juice...then your choice of either pancakes or french toast plus a plate of sausages and fried eggs! decided to have an early night (10pm local time, 3am UK time).
Our Hostel is very nice, it is called Jazz on the City and is located on the Upper West side of Central Park.
After our first night in the dorm there were a few things that we have realised:
James:
• Sleeping naked is a big no, no! It gets you some mucky looks from your fellow room buddies.
• Even though your girlfriend puts up with your uncontrollable farting in bed, it doesn’t mean other people will.
• Is not so conscious about his little beer belly anymore. Haven’t these people heard of salads?
Kim:
• Oh god, how I miss my home comforts!!!
• Micro towels - what a waste of money. Do they work…..errr No!
• Do not wear bracelets when loading on your backpack.
• 2 in 1 Shampoo & Conditioner is the next best thing (sorry James that I didn’t listen to you)
• It really is true that you only need to order one portion between two.
• Combination locks are better than locks with keys.
Our First Day in New York
We woke
up very early (because of the jet lag) and decided to go for a walk through central park and get some breakfast. It seemed kind of surreal strolling through the park hand in hand. You always see it on TV and movies but you can not appreciate how amazing it actually is until you have been here, especially when Kim did the phoebe run upon entering the park!!!
After taking lots of photos and avoiding the endless amount of joggers and dog walkers (seriously, there are thousands of them!!) we found a nice little place on the Upper East Side and had a traditional USA breakfast - Strawberry Pancakes, French Toast, Eggs and Sausages all drenched in maple syrup…..yum yum. Our idea of losing weight is quickly disappearing!!!
We then walked to The American Museum of Natural History which Kim has been excited about since we booked our flight. It took us the majority of the day to work our way through the entire museum so we have listed some of our highlights below:
James’s number one highlight was seeing a statue from the Pacific People section, for those of you that have seen the movie ‘Night at
the Museum’ you will know him as “Dum Dum wants Gum Gum” which James repeatedly said throughout the day along with the 4 year old behind him!!! We both had a photo taken with a tree trunk which dated back to 1600 years ago, and was bloody massive.
Kim touched a meteorite which weighed in at an impressive 130 tonnes! The skeleton of the T-Rex was also pretty awesome, we keep on thinking it would come alive any moment and attack us Jurassic Park style. Ha
Kim was hoping to see the Egyptian section which was shown on “Night at the Museum”…but unbeknown to her the Egyptian section is at The Met Art Museum which Kim is dragging James too tomorrow….we will write about that shortly.
We also added some special extras to our package including the “Collisions in outer space” which was shown in a massive 360 degrees planetarium which made us feel a little motion sick (if that is possible) and a movie called “Sea Monsters” which James feel asleep in. The food court contained some Oreo Muffins but didn’t reach Kims tummy as when she went back to get one they were all gone!
As we had spent quite a lot of money throughout the day we set ourselves a budget of $8 per meal…we ended up walking around 4 blocks of the neighbourhood looking for a cheap / decent place, but as it was so hard to find anywhere we gave in and dined at a Chinese place for $10 (last of the big spenders!). At this point we are thinking that Asia will be coming a lot sooner so we can eat like Kings and Queens!!! We ended the night at Dunkin Doughnuts with some munchkins (mini doughnuts)…the minimum offer was 25 munchkins for $6 dollars…but after a massive meal we were so full that we haggled down the prices for 12 munchkins for $2……Bargain! We then proceeded to sit on our rooftop with a few beer and chill out for an hour before bed.
Tomorrow we have a very busy day ahead of us sight seeing…….Until then, Night.
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Hui
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awwww.. i miss NYC!!!!