The Big, Big Apple
So how do I begin to explain 1 of the world's most famous, built up, awesome cities in the world!
After slugging it on a 6 hour flight from Cancun, without food or free alcohol (thanks again American Airlines), I rocked into JFK just before 7, it took me about an hour to handle customary procedures, I think that when they recruit these guys 1 of their interview questions must be 'can you be a complete arsehole for a atleast 8 hours per day?' Because that's pretty much all that I have encountered in the US so far, couldn't be arsed spending the next 2 hours on the train/subway so I opted for the very expensive $45 + tolls + tip (of course) taxi ride into Manhattan and onto the Upper West Side where I would be hanging with some cool couchsurfers named Alex and Elizabeth for a few nights.
On the drive into the city I could already feel the neck cramps coming along as my face was pointed nowhere but up, checking out the rows after rows of skyscrapers and other cool and interesting stuff. After a lecture from the taxi driver about how people in America tip well, I arrived in the Upper West Side which is more so a residential area of Manhattan, but looks like it has come straight out of a movie with fire escapes everywhere, canopies leading from front doors to the curb and doormen in every other building. Great spot the guys have got there though, 2 blocks from Central Park and in between 2 streets packed full of good restaurants, bars and cafes, just what I was looking for.
Now to start checking off Dave's 5 page list of things to do before time runs out.........
I showered up and headed out to meet Chana who had told me about this cool place called 'The Other Room' - funky little bar only selling wines and beers down in the Meat Packing District (old converted wharehouses and stuff), met up with her about midnight before doing a little pub crawl through Grenwich Village and the Lower East Side, finishing the night of with a Yiros & Sheesha in little Middle East. Home about 4 but up at 11 to stroll through Central park and just pretty much be blown away by the city time after time. I checked out JL's memorial in Strawberry fields before getting lost several times trying to find 'The Mall'. Headed from here south searching for a pie and a beer from a little Aussie run Tuck Shop, before cruisng through Time Square aka Billboard Central, and up 5th to check out the street stalls.
After a couple of kilometers under the feet, I jumped on the Metro and headed homeward bound for some R&R, headed out for dinner not so long after that (been a while since I have curried up) and headed back out for some more weekend shennanigans. Met up with Chana again and her friends at a Country Bar, where you throw all your peanut casings on the floor, met this jewish doctor (like 50% of most manhattians, well either that or a jewish lawyer) who offered to take us for a tour around in his convertible 67 Lincoln. We thought we were the bomb after everyone kept commenting on how cool we looked in the beast!
Headed back down to the lower east side to listen to some more 80's Disco beats (they love that stuff here - weird!), before heading home as soon as things started to quieten down. Spent the next day lunching with Alex, Elizabeth & crew before heading to Tribeca and SoHo to get some NYC shopping in, picked up some bargains and then headed China Town way to meet up with A&E for some rather excellent dumplings at the Excellent Dumpling House. Quiet night Sunday, just dumplings and bed, had to be prepared for the mammoth day I had planned for Monday - 5th anniversary of September 11.
Woke up relatively early for my much more than lazy behaviour of recent, and walked along the river, checking out New Jersey across the bay (a completely other state), up to 112th where I breakfasted in the famous Tom's Dinner, before shooting across to Brooklyn on the Metro (seems like a ghost town after the craziness of Manhattan) to walk back into town along the Brooklyn Bridge where great views were to be had of all Manhattan. I headed from there down to Ground Zero where the emotions were flowing like a busted fire hydrant, I did a lap of the block before i had to get out of there as my eyes started to swell and headed southbound for the freebie close up view of Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty from the Staten island Ferry. Don't get to dock on the island but get close enough for a few photos, all you really need anyway. Headed back across the river after having visted my second borough other than Manhattan, both for less than 10 minutes, and walked up to Wall Street to see how people were taking care of business in the Financial District.
Stomach was started to swing so I hit up the Peanut Butter & Co sandwich joint where I got to experience fluff (spreadable marshmellow - won't be going back there again) but also got myself an awesome PB, Banana & Honey toasted sandwich, definitely worth checking out next time your in town. A quick check of dave's long list and I realised I still had to suss out out this off-Broadway show called Ave Q (basically an R rated, musical Sesame St, with puppets and all) so I made my way back to time square to see if I could win some $20, front row lottery tickets. Must have been my lucky day - realising that I only had 1 1/2 hours before the show started and I still had to move my stuff from A&E's to Chana's which is 2 blocks down from the Empire State Building in the East Side, I headed straight for the metro, chucked my shit together, said some rather rampant goodbyes and lugged my poorly packed everything down the street for a taxi. Chana was waiting with a beer and some food, so we threw that down and then headed out for a night of shits and giggles as Ave Q kept us entertained for the next few hours.
Tuesday I just spent a bit of time walking around my favourite areas, a bit more shop shop, before heading up to the Rockefeller center for some amazing views of the cement fortress and Central Park, no lines, just straight up and start snapping away, some more walking and checking out the schiz and grabbed a movie before making my way home. Chana and I headed down to Trader Joe's to pick up some stuff for dinner, before cooking up a storm and chilling out with some wine in front of the tube. So good not to have to share common areas with 50 other dudes in your hostel!
Wednesday I hit up Maven's Bagels before I finally found Yellow Rat Bastard and got my last of Dave's list checked off, as well as sorting through some vintage stores where the only cool stuff I could find was worth more than new T-shirts, so I headed to the famous Katz's Jewish deli for a corned beef sandwich the size of my head before grabbing a 1 last Coopers & Boag's Primo before back to Chana's to try and re-store some order in backpack, only lasted as long my next stop anyway.
Another quiet evening at home, making the most of non communal living before waking earliesh the next morning as the plan was to go for a ride through Central Park, but the rain soon put an end to that so I laid on the Sofa finishing my massive book which I did not want to take to my next destination considering I had been carrying it around with me since the worst hostel in the world in Flores, Guatemala. I took Finn, Chana's dog, for a walk before getting my final things together and making my way to the subway and airport bound. I wanted to get there early to see if I could cancel my conecting flight that went from Madrid to Barcelona, because the coastal town I decided to hit up in Spain is like 3 hours closer to Madrid, but for some reason if I was to do that, I would lose my flights from Madrid to Lisbon, Lisbon to London & London to Australia, such a crappy system, so I spent the next 3 hours at the airport wandering around like a lost sole - boring!
Once I finally boarded however, I was pretty surprised to find myself sitting next to Tom Williams (Australian Actor - Great Outdoors & Dancing with the Stars), we had a pretty good chat and dosed in and out of sleep (at least food & wine was served this time) until we touched down in Madrid some 7 hours later. Quickly transferred to make my connection to Barcelona and then that's when the fun began...........
After slugging it on a 6 hour flight from Cancun, without food or free alcohol (thanks again American Airlines), I rocked into JFK just before 7, it took me about an hour to handle customary procedures, I think that when they recruit these guys 1 of their interview questions must be 'can you be a complete arsehole for a atleast 8 hours per day?' Because that's pretty much all that I have encountered in the US so far, couldn't be arsed spending the next 2 hours on the train/subway so I opted for the very expensive $45 + tolls + tip (of course) taxi ride into Manhattan and onto the Upper West Side where I would be hanging with some cool couchsurfers named Alex and Elizabeth for a few nights.
On the drive into the city I could already feel the neck cramps coming along as my face was pointed nowhere but up, checking out the rows after rows of skyscrapers and other cool and interesting stuff. After a lecture from the taxi driver about how people in America tip well, I arrived in the Upper West Side which is more so a residential area of Manhattan, but looks like it has come straight out of a movie with fire escapes everywhere, canopies leading from front doors to the curb and doormen in every other building. Great spot the guys have got there though, 2 blocks from Central Park and in between 2 streets packed full of good restaurants, bars and cafes, just what I was looking for.
Now to start checking off Dave's 5 page list of things to do before time runs out.........
I showered up and headed out to meet Chana who had told me about this cool place called 'The Other Room' - funky little bar only selling wines and beers down in the Meat Packing District (old converted wharehouses and stuff), met up with her about midnight before doing a little pub crawl through Grenwich Village and the Lower East Side, finishing the night of with a Yiros & Sheesha in little Middle East. Home about 4 but up at 11 to stroll through Central park and just pretty much be blown away by the city time after time. I checked out JL's memorial in Strawberry fields before getting lost several times trying to find 'The Mall'. Headed from here south searching for a pie and a beer from a little Aussie run Tuck Shop, before cruisng through Time Square aka Billboard Central, and up 5th to check out the street stalls.
After a couple of kilometers under the feet, I jumped on the Metro and headed homeward bound for some R&R, headed out for dinner not so long after that (been a while since I have curried up) and headed back out for some more weekend shennanigans. Met up with Chana again and her friends at a Country Bar, where you throw all your peanut casings on the floor, met this jewish doctor (like 50% of most manhattians, well either that or a jewish lawyer) who offered to take us for a tour around in his convertible 67 Lincoln. We thought we were the bomb after everyone kept commenting on how cool we looked in the beast!
Headed back down to the lower east side to listen to some more 80's Disco beats (they love that stuff here - weird!), before heading home as soon as things started to quieten down. Spent the next day lunching with Alex, Elizabeth & crew before heading to Tribeca and SoHo to get some NYC shopping in, picked up some bargains and then headed China Town way to meet up with A&E for some rather excellent dumplings at the Excellent Dumpling House. Quiet night Sunday, just dumplings and bed, had to be prepared for the mammoth day I had planned for Monday - 5th anniversary of September 11.
Woke up relatively early for my much more than lazy behaviour of recent, and walked along the river, checking out New Jersey across the bay (a completely other state), up to 112th where I breakfasted in the famous Tom's Dinner, before shooting across to Brooklyn on the Metro (seems like a ghost town after the craziness of Manhattan) to walk back into town along the Brooklyn Bridge where great views were to be had of all Manhattan. I headed from there down to Ground Zero where the emotions were flowing like a busted fire hydrant, I did a lap of the block before i had to get out of there as my eyes started to swell and headed southbound for the freebie close up view of Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty from the Staten island Ferry. Don't get to dock on the island but get close enough for a few photos, all you really need anyway. Headed back across the river after having visted my second borough other than Manhattan, both for less than 10 minutes, and walked up to Wall Street to see how people were taking care of business in the Financial District.
Stomach was started to swing so I hit up the Peanut Butter & Co sandwich joint where I got to experience fluff (spreadable marshmellow - won't be going back there again) but also got myself an awesome PB, Banana & Honey toasted sandwich, definitely worth checking out next time your in town. A quick check of dave's long list and I realised I still had to suss out out this off-Broadway show called Ave Q (basically an R rated, musical Sesame St, with puppets and all) so I made my way back to time square to see if I could win some $20, front row lottery tickets. Must have been my lucky day - realising that I only had 1 1/2 hours before the show started and I still had to move my stuff from A&E's to Chana's which is 2 blocks down from the Empire State Building in the East Side, I headed straight for the metro, chucked my shit together, said some rather rampant goodbyes and lugged my poorly packed everything down the street for a taxi. Chana was waiting with a beer and some food, so we threw that down and then headed out for a night of shits and giggles as Ave Q kept us entertained for the next few hours.
Tuesday I just spent a bit of time walking around my favourite areas, a bit more shop shop, before heading up to the Rockefeller center for some amazing views of the cement fortress and Central Park, no lines, just straight up and start snapping away, some more walking and checking out the schiz and grabbed a movie before making my way home. Chana and I headed down to Trader Joe's to pick up some stuff for dinner, before cooking up a storm and chilling out with some wine in front of the tube. So good not to have to share common areas with 50 other dudes in your hostel!
Wednesday I hit up Maven's Bagels before I finally found Yellow Rat Bastard and got my last of Dave's list checked off, as well as sorting through some vintage stores where the only cool stuff I could find was worth more than new T-shirts, so I headed to the famous Katz's Jewish deli for a corned beef sandwich the size of my head before grabbing a 1 last Coopers & Boag's Primo before back to Chana's to try and re-store some order in backpack, only lasted as long my next stop anyway.
Another quiet evening at home, making the most of non communal living before waking earliesh the next morning as the plan was to go for a ride through Central Park, but the rain soon put an end to that so I laid on the Sofa finishing my massive book which I did not want to take to my next destination considering I had been carrying it around with me since the worst hostel in the world in Flores, Guatemala. I took Finn, Chana's dog, for a walk before getting my final things together and making my way to the subway and airport bound. I wanted to get there early to see if I could cancel my conecting flight that went from Madrid to Barcelona, because the coastal town I decided to hit up in Spain is like 3 hours closer to Madrid, but for some reason if I was to do that, I would lose my flights from Madrid to Lisbon, Lisbon to London & London to Australia, such a crappy system, so I spent the next 3 hours at the airport wandering around like a lost sole - boring!
Once I finally boarded however, I was pretty surprised to find myself sitting next to Tom Williams (Australian Actor - Great Outdoors & Dancing with the Stars), we had a pretty good chat and dosed in and out of sleep (at least food & wine was served this time) until we touched down in Madrid some 7 hours later. Quickly transferred to make my connection to Barcelona and then that's when the fun began...........
posted by Sanchez at 5:52 PM
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