Day 4 - Midtown

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It's 22.06 on Friday the 13th, and our fifth night in the Pacific Loft Apartments. The last 24 hours has done little to give us any more faith in the flat, but I'll get on to that later. We woke relatively late this morning - at around 9 - and I headed over to the park for a morning skip. It was clear and cold this morning, and remained that was the rest of the day. When I returned I was told by a cowering Rosie that Kate needed help in our bedroom, where she was sitting holding a Margherita cup to the wall. Under it, I was told, was a large centipede type bug that took Matt, Kate and I about 15 minutes to pluck up the courage to actually trap and get rid of. I realise now we should have taken someone who doesn't mind bugs on the trip. Meanwhile Rosie was sitting against the wall in the kitchen and making small yelping noises every now and then.
We decided to get the metro in today as we were to explore Midtown Manhattan so we walked up to High Street Station by Brooklyn Bridge and took the subway all the way to Port Authority Bus Terminal (where we'll be getting the bus to Boston on Tuesday) and surfaced to crowded streets full of huge, electronic billboards and towering, glass fronted buildings. First thing to do was to get a bite to eat, so we stopped off at 5 Guys for their famous burgers and fries. The food was certainly fantastic, but Matt and I realised with mingled horror and amusement that the meal we had just eaten contained all of 2300 calories.
Next stop was Times Square, popping into the occasional shop along the way. Times Square itself was a modest sized paved island in the middle of countless, taxis, adverts, shops, hawkers, costumed performers and of course the ever present towering, monolithic buildings.
The next few hours we spent wandering down 42nd street, stopping off to see the Public Library, Grand Central Train Terminal and the Chrysler Building. The buildings were all well worth the visit, and we were kept on good form by regular visits to the Starbucks' that seemed to be on every block.
Once we'd seen all there was to see on 42nd, we retraced our footsteps and headed down 5th to see the Empire State Building up close, and pop into Macy's. I wasn't too impressed with Macy's. This was probably because I'm not in the position financially to be able to make the most of the outlets it boasted (Dior, Michael Kors, Chanel etc.), but also because the toilets were in some obscure corner on the top floor, I was dying to use them, and the signing in the building was probably the worst I'd ever seen.
By the time I'd found them it was 7pm we were ready to head home. It was a short walk to station and soon we were back in Brooklyn, our home away from home. It was to the shop to grab some dinner then back to the apartment for the usual evening routine.
Ah yes, the apartment. Well, there was the bug incident that didn't help raise our opinion of it, but that is hardly the owner's fault. Last night however I was sitting up a little while longer and Rosie came through to pop to the toilet, which turned out to be overflowing. After turning off the water supply, bailing the excess water out and trying to plunge out the blockage we admitted defeat and have resigned to using shop toilets on our outings. Thing is the toilet was blocked before we got here, but nothing was done about it. As well as that, the oven shows no intention of even pretending it's going to work, the microwave has stopped working this evening, the beds squeak at the slightest movement and the walls are so thin that the neighbours coming up and down the stairs for frequent fags out front sounds like a buffalo stampede. This doesn't detract from how much we are loving New York - I adore the city - but we won't be sad to leave this place. The general shoddiness of the place has left people in fairly low spirits this evening, but I'm sure by the morning we'll be back to our usual selves.
The plan tomorrow is a little different as it has been so far, as I think we're all sight-seeinged out. We plan to rise latish, find a laundrette and a sandwich shop and then head into the city in the evening for a meal at the Hard Rock Café then walk home through NYC in the night-time. I can't wait.

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Comments

[Dr John HW]

Time to move on...
Welcome to big city life in accommodation probably rather reminiscent of substandard student accommodation in most cities. Blocked toilets are a pain and a nuisance and cause far more problems than one would anticipate in theory. Centipedes aren't very nice either - most have a rather hostile gingery red colour which usually spells trouble of one sort or another. Nonetheless, it sounds like you have had a good week, although understand why you also feel it is time to move on. Cold here, a biting wind and grey skies - not a bit like early spring (or perhaps it is!)