New York

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Thursday 12th august

- What a start to the day....we were upgraded on our flights to traveller plus. sitting right behind business class and with the staff bay infront of us which meant heaps more leg room, i.e we could put our feet up and almost lie flat. lovely jubbly! The flight passed quick but we came back down to earth with a bump as our bags didnt make the connection at Terminal 5. We were promised the bags back by 5pm.

2 airtrains and one subway train later we arrived at broadway on 35th. our hostel was on 31st so we spent the half an hour looking for the hostel whilst pinching ourselves that we were actually here. The hostel is lovely and better than we expected as they have just newly refurbished the place and we were first to try out a newly built room. All good so far but where are our bags?!?!

We spent our first afternoon evening walking up and down broadway and 5th avenue with our jaws open as we couldn't believe what we were seeing. Times square and Broadway is awash with bright lights, neon and lcd screens as big as the skyscrapers themselves. We walked to an irish bar for a pint to calm the nerves and walked to central park and back down 5th avenue homewards. You would not believe the buildings and skyscrapers that they have here. trump tower, united nations tower, rockerfella, empire state, chrysler tower and lots more. there are so many ive lost count now. It was a bit to much to take in so by 8pm we were back in the hostel sleeping. no sign of our bags!! starting to panic a little as we both smell like proper backpackers now.

Friday the 13th august!!

- the bags arriving at 12pm.! the weather is really hot and clear skies meant it was baking hot. we picked up tickets for helicopter ride and bus pass's for the next couple of days. the bags arrived at 1pm. thank god for that. we showered and set off to do two bus tours of the city. places visited were uptown and downtown, Soho, little Italy, Korea town, central park, Harlem, Hudson river, ground zero financial district and wall street. The after noon trip was totally brilliant as we drove past the many houses that line central park and our tour guide pointed out where the stars lived and who lived where...Madonnas house looks a bit of a dump!! We stopped and were shown where John Lennon was shot. Yoko Ono still lives there. starting price for two bedroom apartment is about 3 million pounds up to 40-50-60 million pounds for penthouses and suites and there are a few famous people that own whole floors and whole buildings. Donald trump has 3 towers in Manhattan but is not considered to be in top 10 wealthiest in new york!! seriously over the top stuff and money is no object it seems. apparently the mayor of new york is worth 62 billion and only takes a $1 a year salary as he is so generous to charities and good causes and is the main reason that new york is clean and safe nowadays. We saw large parts of central park and it covers a larger area of ground than i thought. The bus took us to Harlem and up around Hudson river. No time to stop we jump onto the next bus trip which was the night tour one which actually took us over the Manhattan bridge to the other side into Brooklyn. its actually very nice and we saw many characters lined along the streets, it was a bit like Starksy and hutch in places! there are still patches of run down areas going through major redevelopment here. all in all its not a rough area anymore as drugs and gangs ruined this area for decades and its been turned around for the good. we took a twenty minute stop on the river bank looking back at Manhattan island as the sun was dropping. to be fair it wasn't dark enough to truly experience the night views but nevertheless it was breathtaking. We stopped off for a beer on the way home and had an early night.

saturday 14th august. -

got up early and headed for soho for some retail therapy. Tried some pancakes, bacon and maple syrup for the first time and i suffered for it so lesson learned. the shops dont open till 11am here and the high end designer shops open at 12pm so we spent most of the morning walking in the blazing hot sunshine walking past art galleries and shops. its very much like convent gardens here. very arty farty and lots of stalls line the street with budding artists showing there work aswell as graffiti artists selling t shirts and music cds. i couldnt help myself and ended up with about $500 worth of clothes and trainers but to be fair it would have cost double back home in the uk and plus i really needed some tee shirts and trainers so i mustnt grumble. Jill bought a nice pair of shoes but as it got to 2 pm it was pandemonium in the streets as it was very very busy.
We grabbed a cab and headed back to the hostel to drop off the shopping and get freshened up for our helicopter ride at 4pm. nothing like last minute panic. being Saturday we neglected to think of traffic jams as we got stuck on a bus heading for the pier and heli port. we made it mind you but the heat and frantic walking/running got the adrenalin going so we were well ready for the helicopter ride. The helicopter ride was very exciting and the views over the city were fantastic as we fly over liberty statue then onto the city passing ground zero and central park. A quick u turn and we then flew back down Hudson river over Statten island and then touch down back at the helipad. The sweat was dripping off my head as the helicopter was rather hot as obviously you cant roll down the windows! We were both buzzing when we got off and it took an hour before my heart got back to normality.
So we headed off into the financial district and wall street. Lots of nice buildings here and a lot of historical stuff too related to wall street and the exchange street, some of the roads here are pedestrian only as there are some very old building in between modern day ones which is bizarre but attractive nevertheless. Yet another trump tower!! We were debating whether to head to ground zero but we did walk aroundd two sides of it and its overwhelming to say the least. You can imagine the sheer size of the thing when it was standing in its pride and the devastation that followed on 9/11. There are memorials being built in its place and there are 7 new towers being built in the original grounds of the twin towers and one of them is already on its way to 900 ft high. Theres a big hoo haa about the mosque that is being built nearby as most of the USA are against it but obama has passed it through so its going ahead. apparently some rich gay man has applied for rights to build a gay bar right next to the mosque as a challenge against the government to say if equal rights are for muslims to build here then surely the same applies to gay rights. nice argument, welcome to the US of A.!!

Anyway we jumped on a subway and headed for a few drinks before our night out in the clubs. well that was the plan but we were to tired and didnt bother.

We head to Philadelphia tomorrow so maybe its time to da da darrah dah, da da darrah dah 'start spreading the news....we're leaving tomorrow...i want tooo beeeee a part of it....new york, newwwww yorrrrkkk!!'

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Comments

[Richard Stewart]

nice!!
nice photos, that camera was well worth the purchase and very descriptive writing skills judith chalmers watch out!!! Right im bored..........................................! lol

[Jill T]

WOW!!!!!!!
Hey girly missing you at work!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow can't believe you are both there, looks awsome as the yanks would say! hope you are both having a great time, keep in touch, the blogs are good almost feel as if i'm there, take care, but most of all live the dream and go for it, luv's ya missy!! Jill T x