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Published: March 6th 2007
meatempire
Me up the Empire StateWow, what a weekend! This was not just any trip to New York, but THE trip to New York.
Before getting to this crazy city, I was quite nervous....I mean what should you expect when you are going to visit the bussiest city in the world? Especially as we are two young travellers on our own, obviously looking like rich-surrey boy-tourists. My thoughts of New York was that people didnt care about anyone but themselves, it would be so busy you couldn't do anything, and that i was going to get mugged...probably on the subway. Why was I thinking any of this? I really don't know. Its probably down to TV and films, but kids, forget it, New York is flipping fantastic.
After a pretty stressfull day of trying to actually get to New York, we were both tired and just wanted to get of the train and into our hotel (yes people, i said Hotel...not hostel). While planning this part of the trip, me and Andy thought long and hard about whether we should stay in a hostel or hotel...because there really is a big difference, especially in New York. We found a nice hotel that wasn't too
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Empire State Building....its quite big far away from places like 'Madison Square Garden', 'Empire State Building' and 'Time Square', but we didn't find any hostels near that part of town. So after lots of debating, we decided to stay at 'Hotel 31', on 31st Street and Park Avenue.
So once we arrived at busy Penn station, we had to make our way through the streets of NY to find our hotel. We were greeted in real New York fasion, as it was dark, but it was still totally alive. It took us 15 minutes or so to get to our hotel, but it was worth the wait. There were no smelly hostelers (except for us!), and there was a nice reception, with someone who knew what he was doing! We started checking in, and he said "Im afraid we are going to have to upgrade your room for just tonight...would that be ok?". Me and Andy found that very amusing...we gladly accepted!
We got the lift (yes there was a lift) up to to the 4th floor and there was our room --- two nice big beds --- space ---- our own bathroom ---- CABLE TV!!! Lets just say we were happy.
We
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Empire State Building....on the 86th floor! settled in, started watching some sport (there is so much sport on tv over here), then decided to go look around and find some food. We walked a few blocks, and didnt seem to find anything that was suitable, but just as we were about to give up, I saw this nice lookin Deli place across the road. Luck would have it that it was a great place, with good cheap(ish) food. We made sure our stomachs were happy, then slowly walked back to the hotel, trying to take in as much on New York night time as possible. More sport...then our first night of good sleep in a good 4 days!
--Day 1--
We both woke up feeling alot better for the good nights sleep, had nice showers, and got out of the hotel to try and experience the Big Apple. We went back to that deli for breakfast as we knew we could get some good bagels there. It was great sitting in a real New York deli, eating a bagel and drinking tropicana ("how do you like your eggs in the morning!"). This put us in a good mood, and we decided that we wanted
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Nice picture to try and get New York Knicks (the basketball team) tickets for that night. We had tried on the internet, but they had all sold out, so we wernt expecting anything.
We got to Madison Square Garden where they play, rushed to reception, put on our cuttest English accents and asked if there were any tickets left. She said she didnt have any seats together, but had two seperate seats, both in good locations...we didnt have to think long and we snapped them up straight away!
This put us in an even better mood, New York off to a fantastic start, so we decided to go up the Empire State building. We got there and saw the huge line outside, and thought how lucky we were that we had already bought tickets, but were crushed when the woman said the line was for everyone..grr. So we cued...and cued.....and cued....for a good hour or so, and after what seemed like hours of waiting, and countless lift journeys, we got to the 86th floor and the top of the Empire State building. We got outside, and wow! We went on the perfect day, as it was sunny, there wasnt a
Moi
"Hey look....its good ol' Manhattan!" cloud in the sky, and we could see for miles. You have this fantastic panoramic view around the whole of New York City. Downtown Manhattan was beautiful, and it really stuck out in the city (in a good way). The one problem was that there was a lot of wind, and on the North side of the building, the wind was actually blowing us backwards....we found it quite fun.
After this, we jumped on the subway, which wasn't as scary as i thought it would be, and went to see Brooklyn Bridge. We got a fantastic view from the waters edge, and got some lovely pictures of the bridge. We then walked through the Wall Street district, which seemed like a different part of NY completely. The buildings were so much higher up than the rest of the city, it felt slightly claustrophobic actually. We saw the Golden Bull, which was quite fun. Then we did one of the obvious things in NY by going and seing the Statue of Liberty. We caught the free ferry to Staton Island, as going to the Statue was just to expensive for us. But the ferry passes the statue and we
Me and Andy
The likely lads liking the view! got got some great views without having to pay the big bucks. It looked really great from where I was....maybe a bit overrated though!
We passed ground zero where the twin towers used to be, and it was touching as it was such a big thing to Americans, and really affected the country. We then got the subway to Time Square, which was crazy! I have never seen anything like it, as it had such a buzz. The place, the people, the traffic...all of it was alive and it took my breathe away. We got ourselves a present for our second day in NY (which I will say when I get to it), and we then headed back to Madison Square Garden for a fantastic night.
It really was amazing, the atmosphere was brilliant, and I found myself screaming for the Knicks before I knew what i was doing. The game was deffinately intense, and guess what...it came right down to the buzzer! I thought that was just a cliche, that basketball always ended on the buzzer, but obviously not. It was close throughout the game, but the Millawakee Bucks took the lead in the last quarter, but
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Apparently its quite a long bridge... the Knicks fought back, and they won it right on the buzzer. Me and Andy had a fantastic night, and New York was just getting better and better for us as we went along.
--Day 2--
After sleeping very well, we got up and headed straight out, grabbing a quick breakfast, and straight onto the subway up to Central Park. I really didnt know what to expect, I couldnt imagine the busiest city in the world having such a beautiful park as well. But the park is truley spectacular, as you step out of the busyness of New York streets, into this tranquill setting, and after a few minutes of walking, you cant hear the traffic, just the birds. It really was special for me, as I didn't know what to expect from it all. We spent a lot of time there, walking, chatting, listening to buskers, taking in the surrounding, writting diaries etc. I really enjoyed having that time of relaxation away from the crazy lifestyle of New York.
After this we went back to central NY, and did all the shopping we wanted. It was quite fun going into all they huge stores such as Maceys,
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No similarity! but we were glad that we didnt spend that long there.....maybe next time with Amy! We then packed all our bags, and walked off to Time Square. This time it was even better than the night before, as it was a saturday more people were there, and we loved how thriving it was. We found our way to Broadway and saw this real New Yorker restaurant. One of the things we both wanted to do, was eat a real NY strip steak. This we fufilled, with great pleasure and fullness.
The cherry on the top of this trip was our final evening, and it was particularly special to me! You might be able to guess as we were in Broadway, but we went to see Les Miserables!!!! It was so amazing, as the theatre was so small and intimate, and our seats had a fantastic view of the stage. The cast were stunning, and their voices even better. Seing that really made me want to go on stage.
We didnt get back to our hotel till 10.45ish, and we had to try and get as much sleep as possible.....as our flight we had to leave our hotel
at 4.15am to get to the airport. It was hard getting up that early without much sleep, but I was used to it thanks to working at the theatre. We got to the airport just before 5am with lots of time to spare, both of us looking forward to getting to Calgary. But we were greeted with the biggest bummer of our trip yet......our plane was delayed by over 4hours! Ouch!
We were gutted that we were at the airport, but our plane didnt leave for another 6 1/2 hours. Luckily, Andy's special Air Canada card, got us into the special lounge again, so we had free food, and comfortable chairs to sit in for the next 5 hours or so. It was boring, but we eventually made it, and i finished my first book of the trip (half of it in that one morning!). We finally made it onto the plane, and we were happy to see that we had our own TV monitors.
We finally made it to Calgary! We both loved New York, and it was totally different to the other places we have visited. It was a new experience for me, and I embraced
the city life, and enjoyed ever minute of it. I was glad to leave though.....
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Stacey
non-member comment
It's amazing!!!
Veira!!! I'm so sorry I haven't been in touch, I have had a look at your pics and they are amazing, very jealous. Can't believe you've seen more of the US than me and I'm a citizen!!!! Best of luck for the rest of the trip. Loads of hugs etc to you both!!!! Stacey x