The big apple! It was plenty big enough for us. The first thing you notice when reching Manhattan is the absolute jungle of skyscrapers. It was difficult to pick out the Empire State Building because all the towers were almost as big.
We had no trouble getting to New York. We left the car behind in Washington with a used car parts dealer, I think Bec was a little sad to be leaving Sandy behind. It was a great little car, got us down and across North America for a total of about 9000km's.
Took the bus to New York although we hit peak hour traffic so it took an hour or so longer to get to the island but we were in no rush. A quick ride on the subway and we were at our hostel on the West End. It was in a pretty good place although a bit of a walk away from Times Square and a huge walk to Downtown. The area was sweet though, heaps of great restaraunt and little eateries along the street. The West End area has a lot of good music spots including some pretty cool jazz bars.
We had to squeeze a lot of sightseeing into just the 3 days that we had in New York so we spent the first day checking out Times Square and 42nd St. Its a little bit like Vegas there with the over the top billboards and massive neon lights. Times Square isn't really much aof a place to hang out and enjoy, just stare in awe at the billboards, take some photos then get out of there before the throngs of tourists run you over.
Second day we wondered to the Museum of Natural History to have a look. It was really cool even though it was probably aimed at the kids but we loved the displays and the dinosaurs. Some 5 hours later we exited and spent the rest of the day cruising along Broadway.
Our last day there and we still had so much that we wanted to see so it was flat out sightseeing mode. We took the subway to Downtown and wandered around Ground Zero, Wall St, Brooklyn Bridge and down to the park to get a look at the Statue of Liberty. We walked back to our hostel which might have been a mistake because it was around 12kms back and we only just got back in time to catch our shuttle to the airport.
New York was surprisingly fun. The people were nothing like what we had expected they were nice and friendly and always ready to point you in the direction of the nearest tourist trap. The city was a world apart from the rest of the US (barring maybe San Francisco) in that it seemed modern and vibrant. We'd both love to come back one day (with a lot more money) and spend a bit more time just enjoying the culture of the city that never sleeps.
