New York, New York

I am so sorry it’s taking me so long to post something! There are just not enough hours in a day but I’m trying hard to find wifi, post and then write some more! My goal is twice weekly but I think at the moment it’s barely once a week! Also not helpful that a couple of nights ago I was eating a chocolate with liquor in the middle and the liquor spilled onto my keyboard and seeped underneath the keys before my very eyes! Typing has become a small challenge as my ‘n’ and ‘h’ keys are a little choicy as to when they decide to work! If anyone knows how to clean it or has ANY helpful solutions please feel free to share!

So here’s an exciting city – New York!!! It started off with a bang after my luggage was first out of the baggage carousel. Honestly, what are the chances?! It wasn’t even small flight, it was a decent sized flight! So I got to my hostel at about 11pm. I took an airport shuttle and I was the last to be dropped off so I got to see a lot of the city (and Ben Stiller filming a movie!!) but my driver was INSANE! In Perth the drivers need to look up ‘merge’ in the dictionary. In Melbourne they need to learn that beeping does not make the traffic go faster or the cars in front of you disappear into thin air. In Thailand, at first the driving is crazy but after a couple of days you realise that everyone is beeping to warn eachother of where they are and the motorbikes and cars and buses and tuktuks and whatever else you will find on the street, work together in perfect harmony and it’s the unexperienced tourists who cause the accidents. In New York, mayhem. Not organised, I think the only reason pedestrians are not run over is because the drivers know that they will go to jail. And the pedestrians know this and cross the road like they own it. They drive on the lines, without indicating to get around cars, cut eachother off, stop randomly in traffic (taxis) and on the crosswalk at traffic lights. Needless to say, I did not risk my life in any cars for the rest of my New York trip except for a short taxi ride to the airport which I will tell you about later!

So that first night I explored the hostel and then went into the lounge with my only friend, Mr Laptop. Exploring was fun as there was a lounge, a theatre room, HUGE kitchen, dining room with booths etc and an outside courtyard which would be fantastic in summer, not so much in winter. After talking to Kathy about how in my first three hours I hadn’t made any friends and filled with worry, I went to bed.

The next day I met Sarah. She had come in late that night as well and in her tired state had put her luggage in the room next to ours, fair enough as the doors down the hallway all looked the same. Still humorous.  After finding her bad, we went to get some lunch. Our walk brought us to this diner.

Your eyes are not deceiving you and yes it was amazing. The inside is different but the outside is the shot used in the tv show and on the inside where signed posters everywhere of the cast.

We explored a little bit around our hostel and then headed back to the hostel because I had a hostel organised tour at 2pm. The hostel was really good for organising free tours everyday. I went on the ‘Midtown Tour’ and it was a long walk where we saw the Lincoln Centre, 



The Met

The Trump Tower

Julliard

the Plaza Hotel, Central Park, the fountain where the opening of Friends was filmed,

The David Koch Theatre!

 

Rockafella Plaza

 

Grand Central Station


Empire State Building, Bryant Park and many other places such as the Theatre District on Broadway and Tiffany’s on 5^th Avenue. Alas, I have no photo of the Friends fountain because I was not listening to the guide when he said what it was and I stood there like an idiot wondering why everyone was taking photos of a fountain, and only found out when we were already moving on.



Times Square by night

Central Park was lovely! I didn't have time to actually enjoy the park by having a picnic or going ice skating but I did get a photo of a squirrel.





Ice skating in Central Park

We also got to walk down 5th Avenue as there was the Veteran's Day Parade that day! Our tour guide was like, "I have lived in New York for twenty years and have never walked down 5th Avenue!

                              

After all this I was exhausted! I met Sarah back at the hostel and we had some dinner at a Japanese place. It was really good and I even had miso soup which I actually enjoyed!



Ice skating at Rockafella Plaza



Cleaning the ice at Rockafella Plaza