New York New york

Trip Start Apr 11, 2009

Trip End Apr 30, 2009

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Flag of United States Manhattan, New York, United States
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Have had a hectic one and a half days rushing round New York like the penultimate tourist. I am in the Garment district, which for those TV junkies who watch Project Runway is where the Parson's School of Design is and to add to the world's most useless information apparently the world's largest button. This button is not only useless info but useles as a practical piece of clothing so is mounted as street art. The garment district is relatively close to Times Square which is leon lit, big bold and brash, bustly and noisy and where all us tourists seem to end up.

Times Square

The Naked Cowboy

I found the half price ticket booth for shows and managed to get myself tickets for Chicago on the first night which was fun and sassy. As I was heading there bumped into Paul, K's Uncle and her Cousins Grenville and Jo and her partener Andy. They were off to the show too and were only 2 seats down from me in the same row. Small world I managed to swap seats with the 2 people btween us so we all sat together and went out for a lovely Italian meal later.

I had to laugh about the restuarant. It offered El fresco dining on a patio so as it was an extremely hot day and warm evening we piled out. We were on the 2nd floor and kinda surrounded by four walls going straight up. Jo figured this was outside dining NY style. At the end they waitress generously pointed out we didn't have to tip as the tip had been included in the total. I still haven't figured it out but either the drinks were really expensive or the tip added on our behalf was very generous, lol, I suspect the latter.

Technological savvy NYC

Anyway back to the start of day one. We all travelled in on the train to Grand Central and split from there. I managed to completetely lose the lovely Japanese ladies and didn't manage to say bye bye so Sumi if you are reading "Arigatou, gomen ne, mata aimashou"

Got to my hotel which is at the cheaper end of hotels in NY and I know why! The room is very small and has no airconditioning, The traffic noise is huge and no double glazing! I did try to close the windows the first night but it had those huge sash windows and I was standing on the window sill lit up like a New York neon I had visions of CSI New York investigating my body on the sidewalk and coming up with absolutely no intrique whatsoever so decided as I wouldn't make good airtime, got down and decided to put up with the noise and pop a sleeping tablet the next night. I have a shared bath room but that is actually fine, very clean and no probs there. The phone out of the room is blocked and I had no internet access. But you know after all this whinging the upside is it sure as hell gets me out of the room and I was pretty much out from sparrows fart to midnight each night! Plus get to do my blog in this lovely spring park.

Grabbed a three day ticket for those open air buses and did a big loop to down town, through Wall street, past groud zero, and all the rest. That was cool as it got me orientated and gave me places to go the next day.
After Chicago and the lovely if somewhat overtipped meal I walked home. Got totally lost and was wandering around the streets of NY thinking I might end up sleeping in a doorway. Luckily heaps of delis open all hours so finally got directions only to find I had walked pat the damn place at least twice. Once there I had to buzz to get in and had absolutely no luck getting anyone to answer. A slightly panicky 6 minutes of buzzing followed by a trip over to the slighty more classy Marriot and asked them to ring them my dosshouse and again no luck, no answer. Popped back over and finally someone buzzed me in, Whew! Wasn't sure if I could claim a night at the Marriot on my insurance?

Central Park

Day two took the hop on, hop off bus down and around Central Park. Got off outside the Guggenheimer Museum and wandered around the park. Checked out Strawberry Feilds the memorial to John Lennon. The Dakota Appartments where he and Yoko lived is across the road and where he was assasinated. Lots of people were there laying flowers an dpaying respects. I sat relaxed and people watched while listeningto some John Lennon classics on my Ipod.

Strawberry Feilds

From there headed to Ground Zero. While the site itself is now a great huge hole in the ground with heaps of construction going on, the nearby Saint Pauls Chapel is well worth a visit. It's story is amazing and there is a collection of really poigent pictures and memorials to thse who perished and those who were involved with the rescue and support crews. It deserves its own page.

Veiw from Ferry

After this I headed for the Straten Island ferry. It is a free service which does the round trip to Straten Island in just over an hour. You get great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the skyline of NY from the city. It was great just to take a load off my feet and sit back and enjoy the ride.

The evening, off to another show! Anyone would think we were starved for them in NZ! Saw The Phantom of the Opera which was superb. The staging and costumes never cease to amaze me in production like these. A fine end to a fabulous holiday! Off to NZ tomorrow via LA.