Central Park, New York, Sun 25 May 2008

After two very long days of walking I decided my last day in New York City should be as relaxing as possible, so I decided to spend it in central park. The weather was incredible so it was a good day for relaxing in the sun. I took the subway up to the top of the park so I could make my way down through the middle (not quite realising just how long it is...). I stopped off at a little grass hill for awhile enjoying the sun and watching the bikes and joggers go past. The park is absolutely stunning and you can really forget you're in the middle of the city.

I really loved Central Park. On a beautiful day in New York it really is the best place to be.

There was a large reservoir in the middle which was beautiful to walk around. It was a favourite with runners and your supposed to walk anti-clockwise but I defied the rules and walked the other way because it's much more fun people watching that way. No one seem too bothered by it. I don't mind looking like a complete tourist sometimes ;)

Once in the middle of the park I found the Great lawn which was a great spot to lie in the sun, so that's exactly what I did (and I might have even dozed off for a little while...). Emily and Dom got a hold of me by this point and joined me which was awesome to have some company. We stayed there for quite awhile before deciding to head off to the Central Park zoo (I didn't even know there was one!) On our way to find the zoo we came across a roller disco! Right in the middle of the park, lots of people in old skool roller skates dancing away to a DJ. Was great fun to watch. I have a video too but not sure if I can upload it here... I tried but it took far too long so gave up.

At the zoo I got to see seals, penguins and a polar bear! So cute. It was a really hot day so the polar bears were pretty lazed out trying to keep cool but the penguins were a bit more active. It looked like it was mating season because they were all paired off with nests. I love watching penguins. The zoo also had a kea from NZ! Pretty cool.

I left Emily & Dom in the late afternoon to head back out to the airport. I was incredibly lucky to be able to spend the weekend in New York.

Midtown Manhattan, New York, Sat 24 May 2008

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!

Downtown Manhattan, New York, Fri 23 May 2008

I went for a walk in the morning to check out the Soho area, which turned out to be one of my favourite areas of NY. Pretty cobble stone streets, quaint little coffee shops and fashion stores dominated Soho. There were also gorgeous art shops including an animation art shop which had some of the coolest paintings of various cartoon characters. Even though I was walking around the area till about 10:30am none of the clothing shops were open, it seems people sleep in late in Soho :). But it was enjoyable just strolling the streets. I stumbled across Bloomingdales too which was open so I had to check it out. I don't think it was the flagship store but it was still 5 stories with plenty of unaffordable clothes and shoes.

Sadly I needed to get back to my hostel to check out (I couldn't find a hostel to cover all 3 nights) so couldn't stay around Soho waiting for the shops to open. In fact I hardly did any shopping in New York, too much other stuff to do. Maybe I'll get a chance to go back another time for a shopping trip.

After I dropped my gear off at Hostel number 2 (on the west side, top of Chelsea), I headed to downtown Manhattan. I took the free Statton Island ferry that transports commuters and tourists and has great views of the Statue of Liberty. I didn't think there was much point going to Liberty island since you can't go up the Statue anymore so I settled for the free ferry. I really enjoyed it too because it was a beautiful day and I could enjoy the sun while looking back over at the views of Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge. Manhattan is full of helicopters! It is rare to see the sky without one or two of them flying around. On the ferry you could see one of their landing pads down on the waterfront and watch them constantly landing and taking off.

Back on land I strolled through Battery Park which is right at the bottom of Manhattan. I hoped for a lie down in the sun but not a lot of grass so settled for a seat overlooking a pier. There were a lot of performers in the park too. While walking away from the park I noticed a lot of traffic controllers around and it wasn't long before I found out why, a hue row of police cars with their lights going headed around the corner.. and they kept on coming. There must have been about 15-20 of them. And then a few minutes later another lot. No idea what it was for or why but it was fun to watch.

Next stop was the sight of the World Trade Center, also known as Ground Zero. Not much to see, the whole area was blocked off with high fences for construction but they did have one mural depicting the events and the names of many who lost their lives. The mural had flowers and notes under it and the mood was a sad one. Around the corner was Ladder 10, the first fire station on the scene. Many of that company never made it and they had a memorial permanently stationed there for them.

I walked back east and visited Trinity Church, a very old and popular church in New York. It was beautiful inside with a huge stain glass window and was incredibly peaceful so I stayed awhile. The church sits opposite Wall Street so that was my next destination. There really isn't much to say about Wall Street, its a business district so it's not that exciting. I walked past the New York stock exchange and came across a Tiffany & Co which looked so fancy I didn't have the guts to go inside... :)

The last thing I wanted to do downtown was walk along Brooklyn Bridge. Looking at my map I headed up the east side of Manhattan until I realised that the bridge was quite far above me! I had to walk back inland for quite awhile to find the start of the bridge, the maps I had didn't indicate this at all so I ended up walking so much further than I needed to. The bridge was worth the wait tho as it had spectacular views back over manhattan and on towards Brooklyn. I walked the whole bridge there and back which was no small feat considering how much I'd already walked and how long the bridge is. I just googled and the bridge is about 1.8 kms in length. I knew it felt like a long bridge walk!

Deciding I'd had enough of walking I decided on Little Italy for a good meal and a well deserved rest. I expected Little Italy to simply be a street with a few italian restaurants. Man was I wrong! It was quite a few blocks of a closed off ave filled with carnival style stalls including games, icecream and sweets and decorations. It was filled with people wondering around and the street was lined with restaurant after restaurant with the most delicious sounding menus. I finally settled on one that had a small cosy feel to it, a friendly italian owner (the owners are out on the street trying to get you to eat at their place), a small table overlooking the street and home made Sangria. The table made for great people watching, the Sangria was delicious and the food even more so! I had a home made lasagna which was just incredibly tasty, and of course I couldn't resist dessert, deciding on a lemon sorbet which came out inside a hollowed frozen lemon. Extra points for the cool presentation! The owner and waiters were very friendly and took pity on my sitting on my own so would come and chat to me often. There was a guy and girl who had arrived during my dessert and sat next to me, and when one of the waiters mentioned something about New Zealand the guy struck up a conversation because he had always wanted to go.

Their names were Dominic and Emily (and they're no doubt reading this so I better be nice... ;) ... just kidding guys.. oh and sorry about the bad photo!), and they were so friendly. They were both local New Yorkers (yay some locals!) and worked together as fashion buyers, which took awhile for them to explain to me what that was. It was great chatting to some locals and they were fascinated by my travels so far. We got along so well I ended up ordering another Sangria and chatted to them through their dinner too. We all left the restaurant together and headed back to Soho for a drink and ended up in a margarita bar. It was a great night and it was so nice to have some company. We exchanged numbers with the promise of catching up again later on in the weekend.

We all headed down to the subway station after our drink to head home and we spotted some workers on the track. I started to get worried but Emily pointed out this was normal and they just stand in this slight indentation in the wall when the train goes past. I couldn't believe it! The space is so small, you really wouldn't want a big pot belly with that job!

Manhattan, New York, Thurs 22 May 2008

I took the train into NY on Thursday afternoon after the work meeting was finished. Arriving at the hostel after my first subway experience (not too bad just not as easy to navigate as the London tube), I was confronted by a sign on the door saying the building had been vacated because.. and I quote.. "conditions in this premises are imminently perilous to life". I started panicking because I had no idea how I would find another hostel at such short notice but the guy behind the desk came running out in order to clarify that only 'some' of the rooms had been vacated.. oh well I guess if that's the case we're fine... right? Actually it turned out great. My room was the only one on the floor that was open so it was nice and quiet and we had two bathrooms for just 6 of us. The room had it's own lockers, the bathroom was spotless and it turned out the closure to half the hostel was due to a lack of fire escapes, so with less people there wasn't anything to worry about.

Went for a walk in the afternoon and strolled through Washington Square Park near my hostel in the East Village. Most of it was sadly under construction but the little part that was open was filled with locals enjoying the sun and a couple of really good guitar players. The weather in NY was incredible, I enjoyed three beautiful sunny days, so it was lovely relaxing in the park in the sun.

Made my way up to Times Square and Broadway. Times Square was insane, there were lights and signs and people everywhere. It was just a Thursday and I couldn't believe the amount of people around. To be totally honest it was quite overwhelming and not the sort of place I could handle for long. There were broadway show advertisements everywhere so I decided to head to the ticket discount stand to see what I could get and I ended up picking a show called Avenue Q. I had to no idea what to expect, it was a musical with puppets but I was pleasantly surprised. It was hilarious! The show was about a group of humans and puppets living in Q Ave in New York (East Village so not too far from where I was staying). It was very politically incorrect and included a puppet called Lucy the Slut, a monster obsessed with Internet porn and a gay puppet not yet out of the closet and in love with his flatmate. The songs were great to including 'If you were gay', 'Everyone's a little bit racist' and 'The internet is for porn'. If you're easily offended then this musical isn't for you but I laughed the whole way through.

When I came out of the show I noticed a whole heap of cop cars with their sirens going lining the streets and I was trying to work out what was going on. Walking past all the cops were freaky because they were all decked out with big guns and everything. I also spotted a few fire engines so I started to worry but then I noticed the firemen had a huge group of people around them and I realised they were allowing people to come have photos with them. And once I spotted the kids on the truck having a great time I realised there couldn't be too big an emergency going on if the firemen had time to take photos with the crowd :)

New York, New York, Tues 20 May 2008

My bank holiday weekend trip to Belfast had to be postponed because my work needed me in New York to meet with a business unit of one of our UK clients and I decided to stay on after for a few days to look around.

I found out on the Friday that I was flying out on the Monday so it was pretty last minute. I flew over with two guys from the company - Bernard & Matt who I got along with well. We were actually working in Norwalk, Connecticut which is about an hour north of Manhattan. Not much to say about the three days working as I was confined to a conference room but we did head out on the Tuesday night for dinner. We took the train into Manhattan and went to a restaurant called Rosa Mexicana. It was a delicious mexican place which made fresh guacamole at your table! Yum. The restaurant had the most delicious food and great margaritas too. Taking the train in was fun because we arrived in at Grand Central Station which is huge! And quite gorgeous inside. Our train arrived at platform 113. That's how massive it is.

Then on the Wednesday night we headed into South Norwalk for dinner at a local restaurant, which had surprisingly tasty food.