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A city so fine they named it twice. Well not really, it's the city of the state. Catching the train was a really scenic ride. We passed through a lot of small suburban townships that looked very American. Green grass, white picket fences and an American flag flying from the house. It seemed like these places are where people just get on with their lives within the town and have no need to leave because they are too far from major cities.
The food on the train was atrocious and over priced, but we still payed for it and ate it so we can only blame ourselves. As we started to leave the dense woodlands, we could see a city skyline in the distance. I had no idea which direction we were coming from so it was impossible to work out my bearings. As we got closer and closer the city started to become more recognisable. We spotted certain buildings and bridges and the excitement really started to build to the point where we were pressed up against the window looking out. That was offcourse until we went underground.
The train passed through the outskirts of NYC and we disappeared into the subway system at which point the conductor called out "Next stop, Penn Station, New York City". With big grins and anticipation we gathered our luggage and waited for the train to stop. This was our moment, this was our chance to explore the famous city, and this was going to be so good!
This was chaos.
We failed to realise that our arrival time into NYC would also perfectly align with peak hour commuters. It seemed like all our previous travel was training for this point. There were mass currents of people moving in all directions and if you weren't careful, you would be swept away. There was some definite confusion and disorientation between the four of us as we tried to find our connecting train and platform.
We left the regional station and walked toward the subway still clutching at our luggage and trying to fit like sardines on the trains. Fortunately we only had a few stops and as we exited the subway up to street level, we took in our first glimpse of NYC. Breathed in it's polluted air and walked along it's dirty sidewalks to our apartment in Bleeker Street where the owners were there to greet us and give us the grand tour. The apartment itself wasn't anything amazing, but our bedrooms did look over the city. Really it was a great spot to have as our base from which we would explore.
There is a bit of a back-story on our apartment - we used websites like airbnb.com to find a place that we loved. It had a garden, our own rooftop and was nicely finished. Unfortunately while we were in the middle of Texas, Georgia received an email saying that the apartment was changing hands and all bookings had been cancelled. We were 2 weeks away from arriving in NYC and had nowhere to stay. So after some emergency accommodation searching and we found this place just south of midtown. Maybe we were trying to look at it from a positive light, but once we arrived in our place, we realised that the room wasn't important at all.
Now instead of running through a week of NYC day by day, I thought I would mention a bunch of highlights and 'must do's' while in town.
The night leading up to Anita's birthday we researched some local bars, got dressed up and went out for a few classy drinks and some sophisticated tapas'. Then at midnight, bam! Georgia and Sav struck again and organised a happy birthday surprise for Anita. This involved singing loudly and having some complimentary Tequila shots from the bar - which the waiter also joined in on. One thing I did learn on this trip was having a belly full of food makes it quite hard to keep drinking.
One of our day trips included making our way over to Chelsea where they have converted and old elevated rail line into a garden walk above the city. The Highline is a pretty cool contrast with all the buildings around you whilst being surrounded by greenery. After that Anita and I walked north to the meat-packing district and found somewhere for lunch. I think that's what I enjoyed most about NYC, was just walking aimlessly in a general direction. You never stop discovering new places and you can almost be guaranteed to never walk the same route twice.
Everyday was just jam packed with doing different things and attempting to see as much of the city as possible. We hired bikes in Central Park and did a lap. We got to the top of the park near Harlem and stopped to have a break. While we were relaxing, a guide came over to us and starting telling us about the history of the park and what they've done to it since and answered all our questions. No tipping required, he was paid to be there to chat to the tourists and tell them fun facts such as - did you know that in 2013 the Central Park precinct had a crime free day where not a single crime was reported. Central Park was also where we had a picnic for Anita's birthday. We stopped in at a supermarket and bought a few things to eat then found a grassy spot and enjoyed the afternoon sun, took in the sights and reminded ourselves that we were in New York City.
The 911 museum was unbelievable; I don't even know where to start with that. It had only been open for a week but was set up so well. It is built under where the WTC's once stood. Above ground there are memorial fountains for each building, then you head underground to see the exhibits. It is set out so you move through at your own pace and is done minute by minute of whole event. You can see the burnt out fire trucks and ambulances, uniforms of firemen that died. You can listen to farewell phone calls from passengers on the hijacked planes, or watch footage of people jumping out of the towers. It is really designed to be a tearjerker - I mean they didn't have to try hard because it was such a sad event but people in the museum were a mess. There were tissue stations where people could sit and cry and stewards walking around and comforting those overwhelmed by it all. After taking it all in, it really made you feel sick to the stomach about what happened right where you are standing. One thing that did surprise me was watching the film of George W Bush recounting the day as he remembered it, you could see him actually choking up as he told his story.
Outside the site is number 10 Fire Station, these guys were the first responders to the initial attack. Every one of them on shift died and there is a memorial at the station for them. Next to that is a smaller museum set up by the families who lost loved ones. This is where all the missing person posters are as well as a perfectly clean firemen's jacket which we later found out that it belonged to one of the guys that died and due to the vacuum force of the building collapsing, it ripped is whole uniform clean off his body. That was such a sad day.
Anita's birthday evening was a show then dinner. Once again we got all dressed up and went to Broadway to watch Chicago in New York…make sense? The show was great although the theatre was smaller than I thought it would be considering it was right in Times Square. After Chicago we caught the subway to Little Italy for our 11:30pm dinner reservation at a place called Beauty and Essex. A waiter in Miami recommended us this place so we were really looking forward to it. We followed the directions until we got to this seedy party of town with a dodgy sign that was a pawnshop…….
Out front of this pawnshop was a security guard in a suit with a clipboard, so we went up and told him we allegedly had a reservation here. He checked and opened the door and led us through this shop full of crap to the back where there was another door. More people were there to greet us and escorted us through to where this incredible bar and restaurant was hidden. It was such a bizarre contrast between the shop and actual venue. It was really classy place; the girls were served champagne in the bathrooms, which sounds disgusting now I think about it.
Even though it was close to midnight, it was still really busy and by 12:40am we were sitting down ordering our meals. The style of dinner was like a menu sampler where you try a selection of everything and then throw it all back up again when you see the bill.
Another highlight of New York was going up to the top of the Rockefeller building. There is a famous old photo of a group of builders sitting on a beam pole high above New York eating lunch. Well that is the Rockefeller building under construction. Inside are the NBC studios where several of your favourite TV shows are filmed. I would have loved to have taken the tour but that had stopped for 6 months while they rebuilt the studios. Up the top of the building, the view is just stupidly amazing. I've never seen a view like that where the city goes as far as the eye can see. To the north you have the Bronx in the distance then in front of you is central park, which looks bigger than Brisbane's CBD. To the south is the new World Trade Centre and in the far distance you can see the Statue of Liberty. I took so many pictures of that view and never get tired of how amazing it is.
We did manage to venture further north and south of the city. We all headed north to the Bronx to catch a Yankees game at the Yankees stadium. Cheap NY hats were bought and disgustingly fatty foods were consumed, it was great being at the excitement of a baseball game plus they handed out free ice cream at the end.
For our southern adventure, Anita and I caught the train to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Part of the plan was to go to a cool barbershop and get me a slick haircut. We did find one and it served free beer, however my barber legitimately had a full body twitch. To fight the anxiety, I took strong gulps of my beer to get me through - especially the part where he got the cutthroat razor out! It wasn't until after we left that Anita had noticed he did nick the back of my neck. I spose it could have been a lot worse. For lunch that day we went to the meatball shop. It's a famous food chain where you select your meal by ticking boxes and handing the menu card in. After lunch we headed further south to Coney Island. This is where the famous amusement park (Luna) was built back in 1903. We wandered around and rode the rickety old Ferris wheel. After that we walked along the boardwalk on the beach and had a hotdog from Nathan's. Why? Because that's where the hotdog was invented!
That was a big day, I was all tuckered out after my haircut and theme park so I slept for the whole 45min train ride back to our apartment.
I think that covers the majority of our time in NY - we did do lots of other little things such as: Ate food from street vendors, ordered take out Chinese food, dropped into Grand Central Station, shopped on 5th Avenue. Speaking of shopping, Anita and I bought each other a really nice watch each and we had the back of them engraved (cute right?).
Looking back on the trip so far, NY was my favourite and I'm not sure how to explain it. I think it's because the sheer size of the city and how there is something for everyone. When I get back to the states, I will spend more time in New York.
Catching the airport transfer made it official that we were leaving NY. It was so depressing watching the city disappear. We had one last domestic flight to catch and one final night on our 6-week blast across the USA. Our flight was a 6hr cross-country flight where we would spend one more night back in LA before we began our journey home.
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