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Dinner with the Sinisis
At Vincent's in Little Italy with Nick, Joe Sr, Me and Cathy. Well, after listening to the above song flying into NY, I managed to add many more to the repertoire including ´Manhattan´, ´New York, New York´ etc. Whilst I was getting some accompaniment on the above, I was on my own singing Darren Hanlon´s (Aussie singer/songwriter) Brooklyn Bridge. .
I arrived at Newark and was greeted by my personal tour guide for my stay, Joe Sinisi Sr. With a commentary filled with more names of architects and engineers than I could possible remember, not to mention dates, we spent my first afternoon in NY driving around Manhattan, taking in all the sights and giving me a good grounding with regard to geography for future days. Had lunch at Katz´s - deli famous for the ´When Harry met Sally´”I´ll have what she´s having scene”. Not as much horn honking through the streets as I expected. May have something to do with the $350 fine. Double-parking, on the otherhand, was much greater than I could ever have imagined.
We drove to Flushing, Queens late in the afternoon where we were staying with Joe Sr´s Uncle Nick and Aunt Cathy. Once again, great people.
The Empire State
Me on the observation deck with Wall Street behind me. That evening, we all went to Little Italy for dinner.
Day 2 was Manhattan on foot. Times Square, including picking up tickets for ´The Odd Couple´ with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, Rockerfeller Centre, UN building, City Hall, lunch in the Oyster Bar at Grand Central station (Lex Luther´s lair in Superman) - it really is a movie-based trip! By the way, “The Odd Couple” was great.
Day 3 was the day to tick off all the big ones - Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. After that, jumped on the subway to the Bronx where Yankee Stadium awaited. We had tickets for game 2 of the NY Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox. This is currently the greatest rivalry in the game. Well, as you would imagine, the crowd was 80% or more Yankee fans. Calls of ´Bawstun Sux´were very frequent. The Yankees won the game. There were plenty of home runs and plenty of lip from the crowd. Not unlike AFL crowds really, including a few punch ups.
Final day was spent driving through Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights (Joe´s old neighbourhoods), having hhot dogs at Nathan´s on Coney Island and seeing a bit
Yankee Stadium
NY Yankees versus Boston Red Sox. Yankees won Game 2 7-3 more of New Jersey, including Princeton, very cool. That was it!
Overall, I really enjoyed my stay in NY and the US in general and staying with local people made the experience all the better. The one thing I am pleased to leave behind in the US is the fear factor. I was well and truly sick of the excessive airport security - being ´randomly´selected each and every time for an additional search - having my backpack checked at the theatre, the ferry to Ellis Island and having to ´check´my backpack at Yankee Stadium because no backpacks allowed. I could have had the world´s biggest tote bag bit not a backpack. Go figure.
Europe here I come!
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random selection
I'm glad it's not just me ... I get picked at EVERY airport for drug/explosives checks and they tell me it's random! I think it has to do with carrying a back pack. if you just had a handbag, they'd leave you alone. I flew to Perth the other day and ducked back through security to go to the chemist and then got randomly selected a second time on my way back through :)