American Adventure: Part 1

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Three girls, two weeks, two cities, six states, a car and the open road. How about that for an American roadtrip?

Part 1: New York City.

Rosie, Becky and I arrived at our hostel in Brooklyn, pleased to put our feet on the ground after the taxi driver had taken us on a rather convoluted route through Queens, and then warned us that we were staying in a rough area, and that he wouldn't want to be walking round there. However, with bright murals decorating a lot of the brickwork, and student-types sitting on steps and smoking, the atmosphere was more bohemian than terrifying. The hostel itself was lovely, with huge rooms, simply but nicely furnished. It was about 6 p.m. and after dumping our luggage, we got directions to the nearby subway and headed into Manhattan. We wandered around the Union Square area for a bit, but without maps or guidebooks, and still working on British time, 5 hours ahead, after a while, we decided just to get dinner and call it a night. We stumbled upon a pretty Vietnamese restaurant, where the service was quick and the food was good, just what we needed at that moment.

The next day, however, we set out early to explore New York properly. And we did. We must have walked miles - our feet were swollen and aching badly by the end of the day - but exploring Manhattan on foot is the best way to do it. We started off at our centrepoint, Union Square, and headed north. We passed the Flatiron Building, then headed up 5th Avenue, past the Empire State Building, and on towards Times Square. We stopped to take lots of photos along the way, and to delve into tourist shops, buying random items with New York emblems on. At Planet Hollywood in Times Square, we collected our New York City passes, which cost £70 and meant we got into all the attractions and were able to jump the queues. It meant we could do everything without worrying about the cost. After gawping at Times Square for a bit - taking in the fact that we were actually here and it was all real, and having a photo with an NYPD cop - we walked east to Grand Central Station, surely the most beautiful train station in the world, and then to the UN building. We stopped briefly for lunch, but then hit the streets again, losing and then finding the Chrysler building (we were standing right beneath it - oh the shame!), admiring the Lipstick building, and finally reaching the southern edge of Central Park. Here, we sat down with ice creams for a while, resting our poor feet. Remember we had started at Union Square? Well, that's on 14th Street. Central Park starts on about 60th. That doesn't even take into account the East-West blocks we'd walked. But we hadn't finished. We decided to wander back down 5th Ave, and spent a happy couple of hours window-shopping and pretending to be rich in Saks. Finally, we were back at the Empire State Building. Darkness had fallen on the city and we were going up to see it in all its glory.

We were whisked up to the 82nd floor at the speed of light, and first sat through the 'skyride', a very cheesy, very American virtual tour of the city. But soon that was over and we were able to go and experience the real thing. As we went outside, all we could hear was people saying: 'Oh wow', and pretty soon, we were saying the same thing. It is just... Wow. The whole of New York City spread out beneath you, twinkling with a million lights in the darkness, Times Square pulsing with light far down below. It makes for one amazing sight. We tried to capture it with photos, but they just don't do it justice. It is something everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. The end of our Empire State Building experience was bizarre; first one of the attendants quit his job very vocally, and in front of everyone queueing to go back down, and then we had to walk down the stairs to the 65th floor because of some problem between there and the 82nd. At some point later, we were in Planet Hollywood, almost catatonic with exhaustion and barely speaking to each other, watching whatever was on the giant TV screens in some kind of trance. But the next morning, after a restorative sleep, we agreed it had been an incredible day.

We still had plenty more to see, and we decided to focus on downtown Manhattan - the Statue of Liberty and the harbour area. We began with a visit to the World Trade Centre site and remembrance centre. Obviously I can remember the day it happened, but it had never felt as profound and real to me as it did that day. It was a deeply humbling and humanising experience. The pictures and names of those who had died which covered the walls of the remembrance centre were hard to look at, but it was impossible not to. But what impressed and touched me most about the place was the last room of the centre, which was filled with drawings and messages from people all over the world, filled not with messages of hate and war, but with messages for peace, friendship and understanding. I thought the whole thing was a powerfully but sensitively presented memorial, the only thing that disturbed me was the gift shop at the end, people trying to sell leaflets and posters outside, and the people snapping away with cameras. It just felt wrong that people were trying to capitalise on the devastation.

Feeling somewhat sombre after that, we had a stroll along the harbour and through Battery park, collecting our thoughts and sort of paying our respects, I suppose. But life does have to go on, and our next stop was that most famous monument of freedom, the Statue of Liberty. We got the ferry across to Liberty Island, and I was more or less transfixed the whole time; it was a surreal experience to see the monument I had seen in films and photos with my own eyes. She is pretty awesome up close. We wandered round the island, taking photos and eating ice-cream before heading back to Manhattan in the late afternoon. Just in case we hadn't been quite spoiled enough with views of New York, we ascended the Rockefeller centre just as the sun was setting. Watching the sun go down and the lights come on was perhaps even more awe-inspiring than the views we had from the Empire State Building, not least because now that was the centrepiece of the view. We stayed there until it was dark, and I had a nice chat with a total stranger standing on a narrow ledge, gazing out over NYC. It was quite an experience.

Returning back to street level, we met up with Becky's friend Jason, a Manhattan resident, and he took us all over town. We hopped in and out of taxis and in and out of bars, had some drinks with his friends, and generally had a whirlwind Manhattan night!

Needing a more chilled out day, the next morning we walked along the Brooklyn Bridge and then through Chinatown, then took the subway to Central Park, where we sunbathed and blissfully did pretty much nothing for a couple of hours. Then, rousing ourselves, we visited the Metropolitan Museum, which exceed my expectations with an incredible Egyptian display, medieval art and sculpture (my personal area of intellectual obsession as you may recall!) and other artefacts from across the globe. It is a vast museum and crammed with things to see.

Afterwards, we had an all-American meal of burgers and fries at a diner just of Times Square, then bought rubbish at the M&Ms store - a truly mind-boggling place! We escaped the E-numbers and garish colours, ending up in Barnes and Noble with a cinnamon dolce latte aand a selection of magazines. In that moment I felt utterly content. New York is my kind of city.

Our last day in New York was relaxed, we had seen most of what we wanted to see, so we just chatted and read in Central Park and did a bit of shopping. We wanted our last evening to be special, so we got dressed up and went for dinner at a hotel restaurant near Madison Avenue. We sat outside in the balmy evening air, surrounded by twinkling fairy lights which adorned the trees, eating good food and drinking good wine. It was the perfect end to our stay in New York. All that was left was to go back and pack, and get a good night's sleep before we hit the road.

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Photos

Ready to go!
Cowboy hats? check. Heart-shaped sunglasses? check.

We're here!
Our first view of the Empire State Building

View from the Empire State Building
Does not do the view justice!

View from the Ferry
on the way to Liberty Island, looking back at Manhattan