The Fairytale of New York
A couple of weeks after my Helsinki and Tallinn trip, I took another trip away. This time I went to New York with my lovely girlfriend. We had both been there before but wanted to go there together and see more of the sights. The original plan to go to Miami was shelved as it was hurricane season and New York seemed the more sensible option - two weeks before it was hit by Hurricane Sandy...
Fortunately, the weather when we visited was fantastic - fairly warm and dry for the six days we were there. As might be expected with a journey to the US, the flight over was mostly horrible. Bad service, rudeness, Vanessa's meal didn't arrive - just another trip on American Airlines.
Our hotel was not cheap and we were cramped into a small shoebox, but it was very central and very convenient,. We were based around the 'Hell's Kitchen' area. We managed to find some pretty good Chinese and Thai food around that area, far better than in Chinatown as we found out later in the week.
We started our sightseeing by going down to the south tip of Manhattan island, for a walk around the bay area. Then we jumped on the Staten Island ferry (free!) for a view of the Statue of Liberty. As we'd both done the trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island previously, we didn't feel the necessity to pay for it again. So we took lots of pictures from the ferry, arrived at Staten Island, went into the arrivals hall, continued walking round the departure area and straight onto the next ferry back. Not much to do in SI according to the guide book.
We went for a look round the new Freedom Tower and World Trade Center (Centre?!) memorial. The memorial is really nicely done - all the names of the victims of 9-11 (11-9?!) and the earlier bombing inscribed on two large square surrounds around two seemingly bottomless pits into which water was cascading. These were the foundations of the original Twin Towers. There were computer screens beside the site where you could look up anyone who was killed in these terrorist attacks and see a pen picture and an actual picture of them and find out where their name was inscribed on the fountains.
We managed to get to all five boroughs of the city during our trip. The airport is in Queen's, we were staying in Manhattan, we had our five minute stay in Staten Island. So there was only Brooklyn and the Bronx to go. To cross Brooklyn off the list, we took a trip to the beach. We caught the subway down to Coney Island beach and took a walk along the boardwalk. I had a world famous Nathan's hot dog down by the beach. Sadly we were at the wrong time of year to partake in (or spectate) the hot dog eating contest.
We made two trips to the Bronx. We had tickets for a baseball game - the Yankees against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game fell on the one miserable day of weather we'd had. It had rained all day and was pretty windy, but as the evening approached the skies seemed to be brightening. We never even considered that the game might not be on. We arrived at a reasonable time to get our tickets, wander round the stadium and take our seats. We did wonder then why the stadium had shutters on it and why they were so few fans there. We'd nearly gone the whole way round the outside before we could find someone to ask. It turned out the match was rescheduled for lunchtime the following day. That was fine with us, but we imagined that most fans who had jobs would find it difficult to make the game at that time. That proved to be the case, the ground was fairly empty when we returned to the Bronx the next day. Our tickets were right at the top of the furthest stand - in the 'bleachers', but we quickly moved forward to closer seats in the same stand. After the sixth inning, I grabbed a beer and a hot dog and we sat in the middle tier, nobody seemed to mind. As for the game itself, it was quite interesting and I generally enjoyed it. However, I'm not going to become a major baseball watcher as it's nowhere near as exciting and varied as cricket. The Yankees did win, fairly easily it appeared. Toronto were a bit disappointing. I must have looked like a proper fan, wearing my Yankees baseball cap with my beer and Italian hot sausage. Or maybe not, as I didn't know any of the players and took lots of photos. We weren't the only tourists there though, the club shop was full of them!
I have a good friend who lives in Princeton, and he came to visit us in NYC on one day. He showed us a sight that isn't quite on the tourist trail as yet - the converted elevated train line. There is an old track on the West side of Manhattan which lay abandoned for a number of years. It has now been converted into a lovely walkway and park. From there we went to the meatpacking district and Chelsea village, and then for a more touristy walk across Brooklyn bridge. After our highly disappointing Chinese meal in Chinatown we had a drink in Bryant Park behind the library.
We had a couple of nice runs in Central Park during our trips - joining the locals! (Although we may have been running the wrong way round the reservoir, everyone else seemed to be going the other way.)
We did other touristy things too, saw the naked cowboy in Times Square, went to Macy's for a bit of shopping, wandered the streets of Manhattan, had some nice food. We finished our trip with a free! walking tour of Grand Central Terminal (not Grand Central Station, as the guide told us regularly). He was a very eccentric guide. The tour took two and a half hours, which was getting a bit of a struggle towards the end, but it was very informative and interesting.
It was a great trip, but I suffered some of the worst jetlag I can remember when I returned. A restless Sunday night meant that the Monday at work was a particularly long day.
Fortunately, the weather when we visited was fantastic - fairly warm and dry for the six days we were there. As might be expected with a journey to the US, the flight over was mostly horrible. Bad service, rudeness, Vanessa's meal didn't arrive - just another trip on American Airlines.
Our hotel was not cheap and we were cramped into a small shoebox, but it was very central and very convenient,. We were based around the 'Hell's Kitchen' area. We managed to find some pretty good Chinese and Thai food around that area, far better than in Chinatown as we found out later in the week.
We started our sightseeing by going down to the south tip of Manhattan island, for a walk around the bay area. Then we jumped on the Staten Island ferry (free!) for a view of the Statue of Liberty. As we'd both done the trip to Liberty Island and Ellis Island previously, we didn't feel the necessity to pay for it again. So we took lots of pictures from the ferry, arrived at Staten Island, went into the arrivals hall, continued walking round the departure area and straight onto the next ferry back. Not much to do in SI according to the guide book.
We made two trips to the Bronx. We had tickets for a baseball game - the Yankees against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game fell on the one miserable day of weather we'd had. It had rained all day and was pretty windy, but as the evening approached the skies seemed to be brightening. We never even considered that the game might not be on. We arrived at a reasonable time to get our tickets, wander round the stadium and take our seats. We did wonder then why the stadium had shutters on it and why they were so few fans there. We'd nearly gone the whole way round the outside before we could find someone to ask. It turned out the match was rescheduled for lunchtime the following day. That was fine with us, but we imagined that most fans who had jobs would find it difficult to make the game at that time. That proved to be the case, the ground was fairly empty when we returned to the Bronx the next day. Our tickets were right at the top of the furthest stand - in the 'bleachers', but we quickly moved forward to closer seats in the same stand. After the sixth inning, I grabbed a beer and a hot dog and we sat in the middle tier, nobody seemed to mind. As for the game itself, it was quite interesting and I generally enjoyed it. However, I'm not going to become a major baseball watcher as it's nowhere near as exciting and varied as cricket. The Yankees did win, fairly easily it appeared. Toronto were a bit disappointing. I must have looked like a proper fan, wearing my Yankees baseball cap with my beer and Italian hot sausage. Or maybe not, as I didn't know any of the players and took lots of photos. We weren't the only tourists there though, the club shop was full of them!
We had a couple of nice runs in Central Park during our trips - joining the locals! (Although we may have been running the wrong way round the reservoir, everyone else seemed to be going the other way.)
We did other touristy things too, saw the naked cowboy in Times Square, went to Macy's for a bit of shopping, wandered the streets of Manhattan, had some nice food. We finished our trip with a free! walking tour of Grand Central Terminal (not Grand Central Station, as the guide told us regularly). He was a very eccentric guide. The tour took two and a half hours, which was getting a bit of a struggle towards the end, but it was very informative and interesting.
It was a great trip, but I suffered some of the worst jetlag I can remember when I returned. A restless Sunday night meant that the Monday at work was a particularly long day.
posted by Unknown at 2:24 pm
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