Two Australians in NYC

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November 5th 2015

Published: November 6th 2015

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GeoffandJudy

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A must do when in NYC

As the ship pulled into Cape Liberty we overheard a young girl saying "you can smell the dirty of New York City" and she was very right...but there is something special about this city that brings us back here time and time again.

The people, the places, the stories, the sights and the lives of New Yorkers make this a place that million of tourists flock to every year. You can't help but wonder as you watch the New Yorkers on the trains - what it must be like to live and work in this concrete jungle - where space is strictly limited and patches of grass, trees and gardens are only to be found at big parks - Central Park and the likes. Imagine raising a family, or even having a large dog here when you live in an apartment the size of a postage stamp.

No matter whether you love or hate this city you have to give the New Yorkers credit for surviving this city and still managing to put in a smile and mostly always being helpful to those millions of annoying tourists that get lost every day.

We made our way to our

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102 floors high

basement apartment at 314 W137 Street quite easily. We are staying 5 nights here and this self contained apartment suited our needs just fine. Total price for the apartment was $527 - much cheaper than any hotel downtown. The subway is literally 1 minutes walk away and the area is very safe. The apartment has a washing machine, cooking equipment, tv, wi-fi, a pull out style day bed and is clean - what more could you want.

After dropping off our bags we grabbed a taxi and headed to the 1st baptist Corinthian Church to catch the 11.30am service. I have always wanted to attend one of these church services and I can highly recommend it. It is free to attend but make sure you have a couple of hours spare as it does go for a while. The gospel singing was totally amazing - the sound filled the church and the people of the church really got into the rhythm of the music. The preacher did a powerful sermon too - the whole experience was very very moving. The majority of the church going crowd were African American - all dressed in their Sunday bests - just like

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The view

it was when I went to church as a kid! What a way to start our visit! By the way Harlem area has free wi-fi widely available throughout the streets - extra bonus for us tourists!

After the gospel church experience we were on the train headed for Canal Street to visit One World Tower. We had tickets for 3pm and we expected there to be a huge crowd but as it turned out it was quiet so we were st right in - no standing in any lines. The elevator ride up was super - as you ride up the walls are lined with images of outside at that level - very well done..at the top you can feel it sway. The views are magnificent - you really can see Manhattan - the whole island! We spent a couple of hours up there. We would say it was the best view - much better than the Empire State Building. Ticket prices are $32 adult.

By the time we finished at the world trade centre we decided to pop over to Century 21 for a spot of shopping. The store was relatively quiet (which is a rarity) and

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The famous Empire State building

we wandered around all levels but really didn't buy much - just a few bits and pieces. Had a quick burger at Maccas before heading home to Harlem to settle in.

Next morning saw us up early and out on the train by 8.30am. First we had to go down to 36th street to see about getting repairs done to one of Geoffs camera lenses - turned out to be a waste of time - back on the train and uptown to 81st Street to the Natural History Museum. Now there is a suggested admission of $21 per person but it is only a suggested amount. I asked if I could pay $10 each and it was no problem. Have to say I felt a bit weird asking but I thought I would test it out and it worked so that left us extra dollars to purchase souvenirs at the museum.

The museum is 5 levels of exhibitions. We were there for a total of 5 hours - we didn't see it all by we saw an awful lot. Although the museum is huge we both felt that the Chicago Field Museum was larger and more elaborate. Still

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Me at the top

we really enjoyed the experience. Tip of the day - don't eat at the food court or cafe here - the prices are ridiculous - cross the road and buy lunch from the food carts outside of Central park for a at better deal.Our next stop was exactly that's- right across the road from the museum is the park.

Central Park is amazing at any time of the year but right now the fall colours make a visit to the park that extra special. We wandered around for a good few hours - snapping photos at every opportunity. Precious memories of a North America fall forever embedded in our memories.

Finished off the day with a walk down 5th Avenue where you will find all the high end retailers - then we had dinner at the Rockefellar centre and watched the ice skating before taking our weary bodies home for the night.

Day 3 in NYC and we were off down to the SOHO (South of Houston) area to explore, shop and eat. We found an Aussie favourite store T2 in Spring street. It was cool to chat to the staff who was from our home town

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In thr elevator

of Brisbane. He won a green card on the Lottery and is now able to spend 10 years here in the USA. We purchased a few packs of tea and headed off for lunch at the Peanut Butter and Co. Store which was in walking distance away.

There are plenty of high end trendy boutiques lining the cobblestone streets. It was a pleasant walk and I'm sure we walked numerous miles. That's the good thing about Manhattan - you walk a million miles everyday without even realising it until your legs won't work any more!

We visited a couple of tattoo studios in this part of the city. "love and hate" was the first stop where the guy at the front counter recognised us from a visit to another store "Miami Ink" in Florida where we had visited in January of this year...how good is that. He directed us to a studio called "invisible ink" about a 20 minute walk from this studio where Geoff could find "Chris Garver" - well known artist from the "Miami Ink" TV series.

It's great to be on "our time" where you can just relax and take time to wander. On

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Always a somber sight

the way to "invisible ink" we looked through a store called "evolution" - a taxidermist store where they sold foetus skeletons, new born baby skeltons, and had a wide range of taxidermist items including a two headed Calf. Of course all these items came with hefty price tags.

We found "Invisible Ink" where we looked at some of the artists work and Geoff asked if Chris Garver was in. After a 10-15 minute wait Chris came out from his private room where Geoff had a brief chat to him and I grabbed a couple of photos of him with Geoff. On the bucket list is obtaining some work from this guy.

We grabbed a bite to eat from "prosperity dumpling' - a well known store which sells some of the best and cheapest dumplings in NYC. $1.25 will get you 4 pork dumplings - hot and very tasty well worth the walk. We sat on a park bench watching the peak hour traffic pass by on the Manhattan bridge.

This evening we planned on catching a Broadway show. We were hoping to get last minute half price tickets from TKTS at the Times Square ticket office for

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Our basement apartment in Harlem

The Phantom of the Opera. Show started at 7pm at the Majestic theatre and we ended up making it to the ticket office just after 6pm and picking up orchestra seats Row D for $73 each! We were more than happy with this - 5 rows from the front! The show was amazing - all 2 and a half hours of it -so glad we took the time to do this experience.

The Majestic theatre was spectacular and just like how I remember theatres were when I was a kid. If you make it to Manhattan make sure you do a Broadway show. Whatever you see I'm sure you will love the experience. The other good thing is that you can dress up if you want or just wander in in your jeans and t shirt type look. Everything is acceptable which is great when you traveling.

After the show we did a bit of a walk around Times Square mainly to pick up another couple of M&M coffee cups from the M&M store. Times Square is not my favourite place to be - it's one of those artificial type places that really doesn't reflect the true America.

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The bed with a pull out

In any case a walk around the square is kind of compulsory if your in the area.

Exhaustion had set in after arriving back in Harlem after midnight. We had a sleep in the next morning then took time to repack our bags ready for our flight to LAX on Thursday morning. It's one of those jobs you really never want to do but it has to be done. After this job was done we decided to spend the afternoon exploring a bit of Brooklyn.

Took the train down town once again taking in the sights and sounds of everyday life here in Mid Town Manhattan. While here we picked up some lunch from Duane Read (A drug store that sells everything).We then took the Q train to Brooklyn stopping at Prospect Park. It's a very different feel getting off the subway in Brooklyn and walking up from the underground station to a unfamiliar part of town. Our first impressions were that we didn't feel that safe but we marched forward into Prospect Park - trying to get a vibe for the place.

As we were sitting on a park bench eating our lunch a local New

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One room apartment

Yorker who was sat close by started to chat to us. It was great timing as we were really not sure about how safe this area was. Her name was Jackie - a born and bred New Yorker - she walked around the park with us pointing out the sights and explaining to us the history of this area. She then walked us back to the train station. You certainly meet some great people travelling around this country.

The rest of the evening we spent around the Herald Square area window shopping and people watching. This was our last night in Manhattan. Tomorrow morning we head off to Los Angeles where will spend a day and a half before heading back home to Australia.

We have managed to keep our checked luggage to 1 each which is great as you have to pay on the airlines for each checked bag. We are flying Virgin America JFK to LAX. Baggage charges are $25 per bag.

My final words about Manhattan are that you have to come here to experience it. There's no other place like it. Will we return? Most probably yes - getting a fix of NYC