New Year's Eve
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2007
1
181
188
Trip End
Jan 08, 2008
New York City,
New York,
United States
Monday, December 31, 2007
All of this meant that none of us had an outfit for the night, because Ness had been bringing one for me (remember I said that I didn't think I would need black tie, in the very first entry? Turns out I was wrong...) This meant, that instead of doing some of the tourist stuff, we were forced to contend with the massive crowds down on Fifth to try and procure said garments, with the proviso that we could always return them if by some miracle the luggage arrived. It didn't.
We did manage a little sightseeing on our way into town, as we decided to walk in just to guage the distance. We wandered through Central Park, down Fifth Avenue, all the way along past the zoo and the Met, and into FAO Shwartz to see the masses of overpriced toys and gadgets for sale, including a giant stuffed dragon costing over $2000, which evidently, someone, somewhere has both the inclination and the money to purchase. The best of these toys (yes I admit it, some of them were quite fetching) was the lifesize Iorek Byrnison, the Armoured Bear King from Philip Pullman's Northern Lights. We couldn't stay in the toy wonderland for long though, we had only a limited amount of time to get sorted for the party tonight. To be totally honest, I was not all that impressed with Fifth Ave, it felt nothing more than superficial to me, and as though it only had time for those who were super rich, which, considering the majority of the shops that line it, is probably a fair assessment.
We stopped briefly at Tiffany's, which we had been told had an exceptional Ladies Room, though in truth, it was nothing particularly special. Marble faced walls with heavy wooden doors and neat sinks. It was much the same as some of the ones that are standard in the Hong Kong Malls. Needless to say, i did not really understand the fuss about the 'bathroom' facilities. I had been expecting at least a Swarovski encrusted chandelier - perhaps it was being polished. Iwas not alone in my assessment, my friend was equally disappointed by the ordinary nature of the supposedly extraordinary bathroom, and her boyfriend, being excluded by way of gender, just had to take our word for it.
After this, we set off in search of Macy's, passing the Rockerfeller Centre on the way, as well as a pit of pennies, which called for a change for the better in the name of 'Common Cents.' I thought it was a very clever piece of public art and charity. Eventually we found the Behemoth flagship store, famous for its window displays at Christmas, and they were very good, but we did not spend much time outside because we still ahd much shopping to do, and we realised as soon as we were confronted with Macy's that the task would not be an easy one. The decor inside the store was equally fantastic, though the jumble of clothes, that had obviously been well picked over, did not leave us much time to appreciate them. By the time we got to the shoe department we realised that we were not going to do anything quickly. The department looked like a whirlwind had blasted through it, and nothing was where it should have been - no fault of the assistants, just the general after-Christmas rush of women to sale shoes. By the time we had managed to get something that worked, the store was closing and only two of us had outfits. Nick was not happy, epsecially as by the time we got back to the hostel, it was clear that their luggage still had not arrived.
Fortunately, one of my room mates came to the rescue, and offered to loan Nick some clothes for the night, though it took a while for all of us to get ready and go, as he was still frustrated at fact that his clothing had not yet made the short trip from La Guardia to the city. With all the roads closed off for New Year's though, there was little the courier company could do about it. Bythe time that we made it into the centre it was difficult to get through the streets to our venue, as most were cordoned off around Times Square, but we did manage to get in and take advantage of the free bar for an hour before it was shut four hours earlier than advertised. Needless to say, that did not impress, but we did manage, eventually, to blag a bottle of vodka for free, so we were cheered by that. In the end, I decided just to not care about the semi-fiasco that the evening had offered, as far as I am concerned, New York is much the same as London, that is to say, that it is very much a rip-off. It was more important to me in the end, that we were all there, my room mate included, who had managed to get in after the ball dropped.
We left at about 2.30am, because I was hungry and the advertised buffet had also been non-existant, which meant that I had survived the day on three blueberry pancakes and a slice of cheesecake. Not the best or most balanced set of meals, I think you will agree. Unfortunately, the only thing that we found open was a Dunkin' Donuts on Broadway, which was not particularly helpful as it was far too sweet. Still, it took the edge off my hunger.
In all, I actually had an excellent night, despite the almost no-go start, and Iwas glad that everyone was there. It made New Year, to share it with friends, so much better than it would have been had I been on my own. Even though we did not see the ball drop (my watch was five minutes slow) we had a very good night.
