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Published: August 27th 2008
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Panoramic View: Goodbye New York The Last Full Day
It was now our last day in New York and our last proper day of our trip. Although there was still loads we wanted to do in New York, it obviously had to be condensed for our last day. We'll be back sometime, this city is great.
It started off with the usual 96th Street Subway journey, although this time we got off at Canal Street to have a nosy about Chinatown. Outside of China, Chinatown in New York has the largest Chinese population in the world. Walking down Canal Street was an experience, with so many small shops selling much of the same merchandise that we experienced in so many of the Chinatowns around the world. Every time we visit a Chinatown, it's always still pretty unique.
There were a lot of touts on the street, trying to get us to buy their wares, many of them of questionable legality. As we visted shops, we headed down towards the Lower East Side area and soon found ourselves on the borders of Chinatown and standing where the infamous Five Points neighbourhood used to be. Time has for once been
kind to this area, and it's completely unrecognisable as the apparant worse slum in the world from the 19th century.
We had a quick bagel stop at Starbucks (it's surprisingly decent bagels there) and had another wander, after which we eventually ended up in a Chinatown bag store. This was more Emma's thing so I let her browse about, while I feigned interest. One of the woman suddenly asked if we wanted to see more bags. This was a bit strange and suddenly a hidden wall opened in the bag of the shop, leading to a small room with more bags. These ones looked a more upmarket fake though and we felt pretty cool to be honest, getting taken into a back room. Emma inevitably ended up buying a nice bag and we headed out, up towards Mulberry Steet in Little Italy.
Little Italy is sadly a lot smaller than it used to be. Italian immigration is now very low and this has resulted in Chinatown growing ever bigger and Little Italy shrinking. Still, Mulberry Street still has its roots firmly Italian as the shops, restaurants and people affirmed. Deciding we were thirsty, we headed into Mulberry Bar
Grease
Post-performance. to get liquid refreshment. This proved to be a couple of pints of Brooklyn Lager. Frank Sinatra was bellowing out a tune when we entered and we soon discovered this was actually his local. Judging by the pictures on the wall, it wasn't just him that paid visits to here as Marilyn Monroe right through to the filming of The Sopranos were on the wall. Donnie Brascoe too. Quite strange, considering it was such a small pub. Afterwards, we hit the Bowery area for a wander, although there wasn't too much here so we headed back to the subway.
As it was our last day in New York and our last chance to grab any last minute bargains, we headed back to 5th Avenue and Times Square to browse the sales. Again we pretty much walked through the full shopping compliment of 5th Avenue and due to taste differences in shops, we split up for a short while to browse. This was a slight problem as neither of us had US mobile sims. It was fine though, Emma hadn't even moved shop by the time I'd returned.
Pondering over our options for the last evening, we ended up
going to the TKTS counter, which sells last minute cheap Broadway tickets. Emma was really wanting to see Grease and we managed to pick these up for a bargain really. It started pretty soon after so we headed to a place called Virgils Barebeque for our dinner. Turned out to be a good choice as it offered all sorts of different style barbequed food from various southern US states. Cheap too. Afterwards, we headed to the theatre.
Emma loved Grease and due to the smaller scale theatre, compared to that of The Phantom of the Opera, we had great seats with a fantastic view of the stage. The performance was great and really enjoyble, and although the props were well done, they were not quite as dramatic as the ones we had previously seen, however we suspect that was due to the differences in budget.
Brooklyn Bridge at Night
Following the performance, the night was still young so we decided to head over the Brooklyn Bridge for a night view of Manhattan. Arriving in Brooklyn we asked a local businessman where we could go to get a great view of the bridge and the city skyline. Following
Five Points
Without Daniel Day Lewis pantomime act. the directions given from this very friendly man, we ended up down at the waterside in an area called DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass), with the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridge to each lights of side of us and the lights of Manhattan. It was exactly what we were looking for and for anyone who has seen Once Upon A Time In America, we were basically at the exact place the cover photo of that film was taken and where a lot of the film is set.
We stayed for about half an hour, grabbing some photos and drinking in the views, before heading back to the subway for our hostel. Exhausted yet again, we flopped in our beds. Also, it had appeared that the bed bugs hadn't followed us across the country.
Home, Sweet Home
Awakening early, we packed our stuff as best we could but our suitcases were pretty swollen. We had in fact been forced to buy an extra overnight bag in Chinatown the day before due to our extravagance. Our flight wasn't until later on, but due to check out times, we had to leave the hostel. Storing our bags, we headed towards
New York Tenements
With external fire escapes. This is down at the Five Points and was built in the late nineteenth century. Central Park for our last goodbye. It wasn't a nice day, but it's always a nice walk. Emma had decided to break in some new shoes however, so her feet weren't too comfortable.
It was then time to leave New York and we heaved our (extremely heavy) bags up and did the 3 train journey to JFK airport. Our last issue here was with duty free as they wouldn't sell liquids to us due to our connecting flight to Glasgow. Ridiculous, as we weren't even leaving the terminal at Heathrow. After boarding the plane, we spoke to an air steward who we instead bought the booze off as they offered sealed bags for them. Upon arriving in London, it turned out the security couldn't care less anyway and we soon discovered that the booze was even a lot cheaper in Heathrow's (in)famous Terminal 5.
As we boarded our final connecting flight, we realised this was truly the end. No more backpacks, no more hostels, no more Lonely Planet...it was quite sad but at the same time, we were finally going to be able to relax for at least a short while. The plane was quick and we were
soon stepping out in the bright rain at Glasgow airport and greeting our parents...
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Rouken
non-member comment
Awesome
Just awesome! :-) New York is so beautiful! I've never been there before but I'm gonna fly next year! NY I'm coming...