NEW YORK!!!!

To be completely honest, New York kind of snuck up on me. “How can one of the biggest and most famous cities in the world sneak up on you?” I hear you ask. Well, firstly I was fairly engrossed in the movie that was being shown on the bus, and, secondly, it was raining, overcast and generally gloomy outside, all of which “hazed” our view from the bus. It was only when someone on the bus gasped at what must have been their first sighting that we looked out of the foggy windows to see the grey, New York City skyline. Our first real view of the city was a momentary sighting as we headed down towards the Lincoln Tunnel, which takes you under the Hudson River, and brings you out right in the city for about two blocks before the bus once again dives underground into the multi-story, underground bus terminal.

From the moment you step out of the bus terminal though, your senses are assaulted, and the visual, aural and olfactory bombardment doesn’t cease until you leave. Not once in the 6 days that we spent in New York did the noise subside, not once did the lights stop flickering and flashing, and not once did we cross a street, without seeing some guy selling either honey-roasted nuts and/or hot dogs, which filled the air immediately around him with, shall we say, 'interesting' odors. That was in addition to the non-stop chicory aromas permeating from the Starbucks that are located on virtually every corner. In fact, on our second or third day, we were going to have a contest to see who could spot the most Starbucks from the top of the open top bus tour, but as we were already up to 5 before we had even traveled two or three blocks towards the Uptown area, and had missed several points of interest being pointed out by our guide, we decided to halt the game. (For the record, I was winning though!)

It is true what they say; New York, literally, does not sleep. On every occasion that I got up in the night, to head the call of nature, there were always the sounds of people laughing and shouting, cars hooting, trucks unloading goods, and emergency vehicles blaring their sirens.

We were fortunate enough to get accommodation right in the centre of Manhattan, which meant we were only a few blocks up from Times Square, only a few blocks down from Central Park and only a few blocks west of 5th Avenue. In fact, our apartment was in a building that is on the corner of W 53 Street and Broadway. The Tonight Show, with David Letterman, is recorded in a studio that takes up most of the one side of the building that we stayed in. And no, we didn’t see David!

I could go on and on about New York and the myriad of things to see and do. In the 6 days we spent there we were on the go all day every day, and most nights, and only scratched the surface. For the sake of brevity then, I have made a [short?] list of the things that stood out for me. I have also included a few of the over 400 photos I took while in NYC. (Thank goodness for digital cameras! Are you hearing me BCB?)

1. Times Square at night.
2. Times Square in the day. (Times Square is just really cool all the time. Except perhaps on New Year’s Eve, when you need to share it with about a million other people all hoping to catch a glimpse of the giant electronic bauble, which descends to mark the New Year slower than a scene from Titanic. In fact it probably takes longer to drop than the Titanic itself took to sink.
3. Starbucks lattes and Starbucks hot chocolate when it was cold!
4. Our guide telling anyone on board our open top bus with scruples to look left, while showing us the only “clothing optional yoga studio” on the right. They must have been on a break though, as there was nobody inside!
5. Pizza at Angelo’s on Broadway!
6. Greenwich Village. Home to odd people, delicious delis and interesting architecture. It is the one place in NYC that I would definitely visit again. The restaurants are original, affordable and serve good food. Well the one Mexican Restaurant we went to was.
7. The Empire State Building – from the outside. Getting to the top is a minor mission. Unless of course you are Spiderman. Even the supposedly “fast-track” lanes can still take you over an hour.
8. “Top of the Rock” observatory at the very top of the Rockefeller Building. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! It takes you 20 minutes from entering the building to getting out of the elevator onto the deck at the top. And it cost half of what you pay to go up the Empire State Building. The views in my opinion were better, the service outstanding and the building itself was spectacular.
9. Grand Central Station!
10. The unexpected jewel of a discovery; the fresh produce market at Grand Central Station.
11. Central Park in any way you want to look at it. Except of course from the smelly back seat of one of the horse drawn carriages that circle the lower east corner of the park in an unending sausage machine cycle. The 20 minute ride costs a small fortune and its flippin’ freezing. But on the other hand, when you are only likely to be in NYC once, I guess it’s worth it.
12. Chinchins Chinese restaurant and the crazy dancing waiters, as well as Jimmy the awesome owner, manager and host.
13. The 'free' Staten Island Ferry at sunset with views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline.
14. Seeing a show on Broadway! Okay, so the production of Hairspray, that we watched wasn’t much better than your average high school musical, but it was a fun evening non-the-less.
15. The “H2O” exhibit, the “Dinosaurs” IMAX film and the “Cosmic Collision” show in the planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.