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| Can you find Kyle? |
Now, what did we get up to? I could blather on about what we did in order and, to be honest, I did start writing it that way... but it was BORING... so instead, I'll stick to my penchant for lists and use the Lonely Planet for guidance because I'm essentially bone lazy.
So here you go, here's our countdown of the top 10 things about New York as experienced by us:
10. Famous addresses
Madison Avenue, 5th Avenue, Trump Tower, the New York Times, Radio City Music Hall, Grand Central station, Wall Street, Harry Winston's, the studio where they tape Letterman... They're all here.
9. Living out quasi-Top Gun dreams
New York has an aircraft carrier that's a museum... The USS Intrepid. It's rather large, as evidenced by the approximately 42 planes parked on top, including an F-14 Tomcat. Sadly, Iceman appeared to have the day off. Boo.
Also parked on top was a space shuttle (the Enterprise - all hail Star Trek nerds!) and moored off the back is a submarine from the Cold War. It wins the award for best name ever.
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| And the staff get prizes for having senses of humour too. |
8. The High Line
The High Line was great - a former railway line for the transportation paraphernalia about the industrial part of town, now redundant, the locals had campaigned for years to get it torn down. Instead, some enterprising individual came up with the idea of turning the ugly old tracks into a park. So now it's replanted with flowers, shrubs and trees and dotted with sculptures and other art. Our fav piece was a giant nose placed delicately in a wheelbarrow.
Better than that was all the attention to detail, the little railway-related things dotted about all over the place. Not just the running rails still visible between the plants, but the deck chairs running on wheels along the rails that people were lying on to read their books and the sprinkler system that soaked the soles of your feet on a beautiful 30 degree plus day. Fab idea.
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| See! Rails! |
7. Brooklyn Bridge
The stroll over Brooklyn Bridge was lovely. Busy, but lovely. It gave a different perspective of the East River and a close up view of the iconic bridge itself. Once on the other side, we explored Brooklyn Heights a little and stopped for lunch (more meat).
Afterward, we caught the water taxi back to Manhattan, which provided good views of my fav hunk of metal, the Chrysler Building.
6. Central Park and Times Square
We stayed in an apartment 5 mins walk from Central Park, so we headed there on our first morning. Not only is it huge (I didn't quite appreciate it's size before we got in there) but it's jam packed with sculptures, buskers, runners and more. We found the memorial to John Lennon in Strawberry Fields and sculptures dedicated to literary greats.
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| Chillin' with Hans Christian Andersen |
After a decent walk through over half the park, we ditched the greenery and hit the streets. Eventually, we made our way to Times Square. It had all the hustle and bustle we'd been promised. We got sold some tickets to a comedy show in the comedy hole where Seinfeld did his stand up bits in the show... the comedy was bad but the drinks were strong... A fair to middling compromise.
5. Sporting Events
We took in two sporting events in our week in NYC.
The first, the US Open. We had the good fortune to see Serena Williams completely obliterate her quarter final opposition (she wasn't on the court long enough for us to learn anything other than that she's Spanish) and Andy Murray defeat his round of 16 opponent (his final win for the tournament). Great atmosphere and fun, plus, Boris Becker walked right past us! I was a bit too starstruck to think to ask for a photo though. Pathetic.
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| Hey Boris, we saved you a seat! |
The second was evening taking in America's favourite passtime. Baseball. At Yankee Stadium.
We got tickets to see the ultimate grudge match. The New York Yankees vs. The Boston Red Sox, recently freed from the curse that struck when they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees back when photos were still black and white.
As someone who grew up on baseball movies (it was Robert Redford and Glenn Close who forced my parents to tell me about the birds and the bees) this was magic. We saw foul balls, stolen and loaded bases and home runs. The only thing that could have made it better would have been for the announcer to yell out "Goodbyyyyyyyye, Miiiiiister Spaaaalding" or a home run that smashed out the floodlights.
The Yankees didn't win that night, although they gave it a good nudge in a thrilling 7th inning which forced some overtime. But at one point it really was bottom of the ninth and the scores were tied... Regardless, baseball gained two new fans that night.
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| Take me out to the ball game.... |
4. Statue of Liberty, by day and night
The Statue of Liberty was something we were both really looking forward to seeing. Our first look was via the Staten Island Ferry, which we caught with some guy called Bill de Blasio. Later, we found out that he's tipped to win the next NYC mayoral election. Good luck, Bill! Anyway, yet another beautiful New York afternoon, Lady Liberty was resplendent. No one played any Jackie Wilson though, so she stayed put.
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| Your love keeps lifting me... |
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| That's Lady Liberty in the back, honest. |
My god, when I think of all we ate on this trip... the number one most amazing thing has to be the Philly Cheesesteak we had at Yankee Stadium, of all places. If I never have another one in my life I'll be quite disappointed... Kind of spiced sliced steak in a hot dog bun with cheese sauce and onions - it's deliciousness wrapped in goodness soaked in happiness. I WANT MORE!
We also stopped in at Spice Market after we'd finished walking the High Line. Upmarket south east asian street food, this place was divine. We sat inside and sipped cocktails while we cooled down after our walk in the sun. Highly recommend the pork buns and the shrimp with sun dried pineapple. Om nom nom.
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| Pork Bun of awesomeness |
Another stop worth mentioning is Katz Deli. I had about five different people tell me we had to go there. Then, one of them said it's where they filmed the "I'll have what she's having" scene in When Harry Met Sally. Sold! Sure enough, there's a sign above the relevant table. More importantly, perhaps, they sell pastrami and brisket sandwiches fatter than your fist and served with their own delicious pickles. Kyle and I shared the brisket but, if we go back, I'm going to go completely starving and have a crack at the pastrami on my own. Protein requirements = sorted.
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| Tucking in with gusto. And a pickle. |
We also sampled other traditional American fare like buffalo wings, ribs, bagels (good, but lox is disgusting... seriously, what the hell is up with that stuff????), brisket, sweet potato with brown sugar (sounds good, but isn't) and, of course, New York style pizza. Oh and gelato. Of course.
2. Skyscrapers, old, new and remembered
Of course everyone goes on about the Empire State Building. We went up to the Top of the Rock (the top of the Rockefeller Center) to see it in amongst the NYC skyline. We spent a good few hours up there watching the sun go down and the lights on all the buildings come up. Not bad at all.
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| Night falls on Manhattan |
My personal favourite, however, and the first one we saw on arrival, is the Chrysler Building. It's gorgeous. Day or night.
The obvious new addition to the NYC skyline is the almost complete so-called Freedom Tower. Rising up above ground zero, it's a giant monolith standing 1776 feet high (the year of Independence...) and is best viewed either from a schooner (as above) or from the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial. We overheard a guide saying they're having trouble selling the office space above the 40th floor. No one seemed particularly surprised.
The 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial next door is, naturally, a very sombre visit. Recently opened, there are two reflecting pools, each built on what were the footprints of the Two Towers. The names of those lost, at ground zero, the Pentagon and from Flight 93, are carved into the sides of the pools and on those people's birthdays, the volunteers place a single white rose inside the carving of the name. Seeing the names of each loved one lost made it all so much more real than just a number. Very moving and very sad. The only uplifting thing about the site is the tree that survived the attack, which has been nurtured back into life and replanted within the memorial.
1. Catching up with good mates after more than 18 months
The best thing was catching up with Jayden and Caz from back home. We hadn't seen these guys in over 18 months, so that was truly excellent. It took us all of about 12 minutes to slip back into the usual routine. Brilliant. Miss you guys already!!!
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| Cazzy. Keeping it serious. |
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| The gang all together again. |
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| And still juvenile. |
Pretty bloody epic, but our American odyssey isn't done yet... From NYC we caught a train to Washington DC. But more on that next time.
Until then, I leave you with this classic ear worm.
Good night everybody!
M&K
