The Sat was a very long day in New York. I walked for hours! My feet were very sore by the end of the day. I started the morning with a walk through Chelsea, south of my hostel and across to Union Square where a lot of people were relaxing and enjoying the sun. I came across a group of people giving away "free hugs". I'd seen them before on you tube and think it's a crack up. I watched them for awhile for a bit of a laugh and got talking to one of the girls, apparently most of them had been roped into it that day. So after a bit of light entertainment I got my hug and went on my way :) .
I headed further up Manhattan to the Flat Iron Building. I've always been intrigued by this building when shown on tv shows and I quite liked seeing it in person. The weird triangle shape is so unique. Apparently its more famous for the way it was built (some sort of Iron structure hence the name) but I just like the look of it. There was a park opposite - Madison Square - which I walked through and there was a dog park in there. There were so many dogs of all shapes and sizes and it was all enclosed so they could run around making friends or whatever. I'm such a softie when it comes to dogs, I just couldn't help myself and had to sit and watch them for awhile.
Kept on walking North, past the Empire State Building, and the public library. Spotted the Chrysler Building not too far off but decided would be a bit of detour to head east to see it. Stopped when I reached the Rockefeller Center and Square (and the Radio City music hall across the road) to have a look around. Not a lot there really, you can go up the building but I was going up the Empire State Building that night so decided against it. St Pauls Cathedral was over the road and although I love walking through cathedrals this one was so packed with tourists it really took all the pleasure out of it. I really didn't pick the best weekend to be in New York, it was a long weekend so it was packed with out of town Americans.
Finally made my way as north as I was going to go that day - to Carnegie Hall and then around the corner to Carnegie Deli. I wanted to walk through the hall (it's where they play mainly classical concerts) but you only can through organised tours and they didn't seem to have any going when I was there. The deli was recommended by a friend because it's one of the most famous in NY. Now as most people know I'm not a big meat eater so it was disturbing to find that the sandwiches they served at this deli were essentially a pile of meat (usually corn beef or pastrami) with a tiny slice of bread on top. I couldn't believe it. It looked really disgusting. I was already seated though so I just ordered a little chicken bagel which turned out not too bad. I took a photo of the sandwich of the guy sitting opposite me so you can see why I decided not to order one of the normal ones (and that's just half of it!).Heading back down towards the hostel I stopped in once again at Times Square to check out M&M world (every type of M&M you can possibly buy) and a huge Toys R Us with a ferris wheel inside the shop. Also checked out Macy's - the largest department store in NY. It's a whole city block and some crazy amount of stories high. Shopping not so easy in there on a long weekend so I gave up on ideas of buying some nice new clothes.
All up I walked from 30th street down to 14th, up to like 57th and back down to 30th. So that's about 86 blocks! Not to mention the going west to east and back again. I think I was crazy.
That night was dedicated to visiting the Empire State Building, and it did end up taking the whole night! I couldn't believe the amount of people there were - again not a good idea to visit the biggest NY attraction on a Saturday of the long weekend! The queues were incredible. There was a queue to get in the building, a queue for security, a queue for tickets, a queue for tourist photo (weird I know), then finally a queue for the elevator. And then!.... once on the elevator I got all excited only for it to open on the 80th floor to see another queue for a second elevator to take us the last 6 floors! What the?! Very disappointing moment. Thankfully a security guy opened up the stairwell (which you're not usually allowed to use) and let some of us walk the finally stories to the viewing platform. I didn't mind that so much, made it a bit more worthwhile walking the final league. All up it took me 2 hours to finally reach the top (crazy huh!).
The views were great though. I had hoped to see the sunset from the top but I didn't make it in time but the lights were beautiful. I did my best to capture it with my camera but night shots are a little tricky. It was freezing at the top too. The wind had picked up and with no sun it felt like the middle of winter. I had to keep going back inside to warm up again. There were a lot of people at the top which made it hard to get a good spot... very far from the Sleepless in Seattle romantic feeling ;) but I did find a little seat on the concrete wall which I sat on for awhile till the security guard told me to get off. hehe. The worst thing was it took me another hour to get back down again cause... wait for it... more queues! For the downstairs elevator! Sheesh. What a night. Finally got home about midnight, exhausted and ready for a good nights sleep. Thank goodness for ear plugs!
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