Exploring the city that never sleeps

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Day 2 - Saturday 21st February 2015 New York

So it’s now 7am on my first morning in New York. Yesterday I got the AirTrain from JFK to Jamaica, then the E line (hip hop street dancers got on the train car and started swinging from all the poles, it was interesting to watch) to 42^nd street then the 159 to 37^th street then walked 3mins to get to my hostel, very straight forward. I’m staying in Explore Hotel and Hostel.

My hostel is lovely, it’s only open 3weeks, so everything is fresh and new….if a little empty. There is no kitchen only a tiny room with a table and 2 chairs, a fridge and a microwave and also no common room, but there is a TV on the wall in the reception so maybe this is the common area? But my room is lovely, I have one girl in the room who seem friendly and easy going. She is from Belgium, and has great English. I think she is working with the United Nations. The room is small, with only 1 bunk bed in it, but we have a private bathroom with is nice. Yesterday, there was works done on the water systems so there was going to be no water between 5pm and 11pm, but the management were very quick to ensure every floor had big buckets of water, so toilets could still be used etc…

By the time I got to the hostel and unpacked a little bit, I was really tired, so I went out for a short walk, got some food and went back to the hostel to plan my time here. It’s really cold, but the paths are all cleared of snow and there is not icy bits left so there is no fear of slipping/falling. It’s a different type of cold, maybe because it’s not wet, but you really need to wear a hat scarf and gloves. My roommate has told me about this mini bus that is quicker and cheaper to bring you into Times Square, which is cool so I’m going to walk to 32^nd street to find it. Look at me I sound like I know the streets already! It’s only a 6minute walk from 38^th street to 32^nd street, just turn left.

So it’s 10.30pm now, I had a very interesting freezing cold, snowy day. I got the mini bus to Times Square and wandered around there for a little bit, I met lots of people including Olaf, Elmo, the cookie monster. I them went into a HUGE toy shop that contained a working Ferris wheel inside the shop that customers could ride on, I wandered around Times Square a little bit more, said hello to Puss in Boots, then I collected my New York pass and started my sightseeing off on the down town bus tour. I got off at the empire state building. I enjoyed this very much, on the ground floor there was a small exhibit about how they made the building more energy efficient, then the elevator brought me up to the 80^th floor, which is special because originally a single elevator could not go higher that 80 floors, on this floor there is an exhibit about the construction of the building. After this exhibit, it’s on to the 86^th floor for the observatory, now I opted for the stairs as it was only 6 floors, how bad could it be, well maybe if you’re really fit, or well used to climbing steep flights of stairs, it’s not too bad, I was glad there wasn’t another flight as I needed a break but didn’t want to stop on the stairs to take one.

The views from up here are amazing, everything is so tiny down below, it’s scary to think that this building, built during the Depression, so before Health and Safety, during construction the riveters’, and steel workers would be walking on steel girders, in the strong cold wind 86 floors and higher above the ground. It started to snow as I was walking around outside, so I got the elevator back down to the 80^th floor, then another down to the 2^nd. On this floor I went on the NY Skyride, at $42 (though included in my New York pass so it felt free to me) I was expecting a lot, I was ultimately disappointed as the video, was very blurry, the helicopter that had taken the footage was in more than a couple of the shots, (maybe this was supposed to be that we were in the helicopter), Even though there was a lap belt and the seats moved and rocked from side to side, never did I feel like I was in the sky, this attraction was not for me. L

So I left the attraction and re-joined the Downtown bus tour, which was both enjoyable and informative, with a live guide narrating the whole time, (2hrs) the snow was falling heavier now so some of the views were hidden in the white misty snowfall. I got off the bus at the Rockefeller centre ad saw the ice skating rink, it was smaller than it looked like on TV. After lunch, in a little Italian restaurant, and as its was still snowing heavily, so the visibility was poor, I decided to do some indoor exhibits, I decided on Discovery Times Square, where I became a probationary agent of SHEILD, before I could enter the exhibit and test my strength, speed and reflexes against Capt. America, my DNA was exposed to Gamma irradiation (but I didn’t turn into the Hulk!) and my head was optimised for an Ironman suit like Tony Stark. Even though this exhibit is aimed at children, there were plenty of movie facts and references to read as well as competing against an Avengers, which is just cool! Afterwards I went to Madam Tussauds which was nice, as I got hang out with the stars, (well as close as I’ll ever get to them anyway), at the end of the exhibit there was another 4D style film, this one was much better, we were squirted with water when water was splashing on the screen, we got blasted by warm air and lasers during the battles, as well as the seats rocking and jerking. All in all much more enjoyable than the skyride I had go on earlier.



And this ended my long, interesting freezing cold day.

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