New York

On Monday 21st Dec we left LA and flew to New York. We were a bit concerned about the flight after hearing about all the snow that had landed on the city in the preceding days, but it wasn’t an issue. We got into NY late in the afternoon, and after dinner we walked into Times Square (we were staying in East Village at this point) to pick up bus passes and New York Passes (cards that once paid for in advance gave us access to different attractions in the city). We were both feeling a bit chilly as we were walking, to the point where our legs were going numb and tingly with the cold. The following night we were on a bus tour and it wasn’t quite as cold, but we found out that the temperature was -3 degrees, so we think it was at least -5 the first night we were in New York.

On our first full day in New York we went up the Empire State Building (which we both thought was a bit overrated, not to mention very cold on the outside observation deck), then went on some bus tours and a cruise around Manhattan. Probably the most interesting part of the day, though, was when we went to the Intrepid Sea and Space Museum; the majority of the exhibits were on an aircraft carrier named the Intrepid. There was also a nuclear submarine, which despite my reservations we went into. On the top deck of the ship were numerous aircraft and helicopters that were used in different wars, and upon reviewing my photos I think Trev must have taken a photo of every single one. We ran out of time by the time we got down to the second deck, which had displays of how the ship survived two kamikaze attacks by Japanese planes.

On our second day in New York we did a bus tour of Brooklyn, then moved our stuff from our East Village accommodation to a youth hostel on the Upper West Side, where we were joined by Trilby and her boyfriend Arndt for the rest of the week. We had dinner across the road at a pizza place. New York pi.zzas are huge! In the photos it looks like an optical effect, but the pizza really was massive! We went to the Rockefeller Center and saw the giant Christmas Tree (that apparently weighted 6 tonnes) then went to the Top of the Rock observation deck to see the ‘proper’ view of the Manhattan skyline – including the Empire State Building.

The next day (Thursday 24th) we went to the Museum of Natural History, and spent more time in the gift shop (the Dinostore) than we did looking at any of the exhibits. We had lunch (at 4pm) and Christmas-themed cocktails at the Hard Rock Café, then spent the rest of the evening at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. It was, as I suspected it would be, pretty creepy. Especially the ‘state-of-the-art’ 4D cinema, that blew air down your neck and sprayed water on you (I suppose that was the 4D part). We went to Planet Hollywood for more cocktails, then to an Irish bar where we waited for the clock to tick over midnight so it was Christmas Day.

We had a bit of a slow start on Christmas Day – we didn’t leave the hostel til after 12:30. We walked up the road and saw St John’s Cathedral (probably the first time I can say I went to church at Christmas), which is massive. The Statue of Liberty could stand up inside it apparently (But, that said, the Statue of Liberty is really not that big - quite disappointing really). After that we walked through Central Park, which took us nearly two hours. Everything was covered in snow and there were hardly any people around, so it was very serene and beautiful. On Christmas evening we went and saw a stand up comedy show, at which nearly half the audience was Australian.

The next day we caught the ferry over to Staten Island, but because the weather was so horrible we came almost straight back. Trev, Tril and Arndt slept for the whole trip on the ferry. After that we caught the subway to Brooklyn (we were going to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge but none of us felt like doing it in the howling wind and sleet) and went to Junior’s Restaurant for lunch. Junior’s is famous for it’s cheesecake, and for good reason! After lunch Trilby was eyeing off the cocktail list, and it was still raining outside, so we decided to stay for a drink. Trev and I were still trying to choose what we wanted when Tril asked Arndt what we has having. He replied that he wanted a Strawberry Daiquiri, to which Tril burst out laughing. After this Arndt decided to order the most masculine sounding drink on the menu, and ended up going with a Rusty Nail – a combination of Scotch and Drambuie. The rest of us couldn’t help but giggle at him struggling to finish (or even half-finish) his drink while I sipped on my Strawberry Daiquiri, Tril on her Pina Colada, and Trev on his Woo Woo (yes, Trev ordered a drink called a Woo Woo).

It was still raining when we left Brooklyn, so we abandoned our sightseeing plans and ended up seeing Chicago on Broadway instead. We got standing tickets for $26 – most of the seated tickets were $80 and up. Ashlee Simpson-Wentz was playing the role of Roxie, and despite our fears she managed to pull it off.

On our last day in New York we went Ice Skating at the Wollman Rink in Central Park. After that we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a few hours. In the evening we had tickets to see the New York Ballet Company’s production of the Nutcracker, which we were all looking forward to. As we were having dinner (our last New York pizza), I thought it would be a good idea to double-check the tickets. As Trev pulled out the tickets and handed them to me, my heart sank. 5pm? I was sure we’d bought tickets for the 8pm show, and the others were all adamant as well. It was now about 7:30. We discussed it and agreed to go to the Ballet Center and play dumb, in the hope that they’d take pity on us Stupid Australians (Arndt, who’s German, was to keep quiet at this stage) and let us see the performance. But, of course, when we got there it was deserted. The place was closed up, the lights were off and everybody had gone home. We stood around for a while laughing at our own stupidity and performing our own impromptu ballet, then decided to go back to the Jekyll and Hyde bar, where we’d stopped in for a drink earlier in the week.

The Jekyll and Hyde club is a themed bar and restaurant where people dressed up as certain characters (British Maid, Creepy Butler etc) come and harass you periodically. We finished off our week in New York with more cocktails, and Trev and I bought a round of Daiquiris for everyone – Strawberry for the boys and Pineapple for Tril and I. We were half way through our drinks when the British Maid stopped by our table and commented on how comfortable with their masculinity the boys must be to be drinking such big pink drinks. Trilby and I just sniggered into our cocktails.

Despite its size, I found New York to be a very liveable city, and I look forward to going there again one day. The subway system works well and was easy to get around, and apart from the consumer central of Times Square (which has so many electronic billboards my auto flash wouldn’t fire when I was taking photos one night) the city is quite beautiful. And we got our White Christmas, which capped off an amazing two weeks in America.