Hey again, just got some more interweb credits so back to update on the NYC leg of our trip....
We arrived here at 6am Xmas eve on a beautiful clear day. Was definately alot colder than sunny California, but not as cold as we had expected. We caught the bus into the city and walked a few blocks to find our hotel. Turns out we were booked right next to Times Square! The Night Hotel was incredible, we both loved the decor - check it out if you get a chance (www.nighthotelnyc.com). We dumped our bags and had a nap to catch up on the time difference after our flight, then ventured out to check out Times Square. We had breakfast at the Rockefeller centre, overlooking the ice skating rink and the massive Xmas tree which was pretty neat. After that we checked out was Toys-r-us - what a freakout that was! Xmas eve, so I think half the population of New York was in there doing their last minute xmas shopping. We literally couldn't move once we got in. Had to take baby steps to check out the whole store. Was wicked though, there's a big ferris wheel in the middle and they have a moving dinosaur and a lifesize barbie house inside!! Also checked out the three level Virgin megastore which was awesome and some other shops. The TV screens all down Times Square are unbelieveable. I swear you can almost feel the heat off them when you're walking down the street. Unreal. We checked out Planet Hollywood for dinner that night, then went back to the hotel to chill and sleep.
Xmas day we got some breakfast, went for a walk, then met Xtian's friend Steve and his wife Fee in the hotel lobby. We jumped on the subway and went to Wall Street first. Got a bunch of photos, then walked along the waters edge down to the bottom of Brooklyn Bridge. Got a great close up shot of a very friendly squirrel down in the park. He came right up and grabbed an acorn from a girls hand! So cute! We did the big walk accross Brooklyn Bridge just as the sun was coming down which was really beautiful, the city skyline looked amazing!! Walked around Brooklyn for a little while and had a drink at a great little bar. Being Xmas day, alot of other bars were closed, so we caught the subway back over to Manhattan and walked through little Italy and Chinatown until we found a bar to have another couple at. Steve and Fee left, but Xtian and I decided to stay for a few too many more. Waking up on Wednesday, both with killer hangovers, we were reminded of our last big night in LA and how we said we wouldn't go too crazy again because we end up wasting a day. Damn. So, most of yesterday was spent in our hotel. We did venture out in the afternoon though and had a snack over on Broadway and took a nice stroll to see all the lights. So all was not lost!
This morning we woke up and had to check out of the Night hotel :( Such a bumber, but it was just to expensive to have another two nights there. Fortunately for us, there is a hostel just accross the road! They had one spare private room for the next two nights so we were very lucky. We checked in, dropped our bags and went to the tour company we had chosen to book our tours for the next couple of days. Today we took the uptown and Harlem tour. It was a two hour bus trip around the top half of Manhattan. Harlem was pretty cool to see, especially places like the Apollo Theatre and rad statues like Duke Ellington. We jumped off at 'Museum Mile' and went to check out the Museum of the history of NYC. It wasn't actually the greatest so we didn't spend too long there. Next up was Guggenheim which was very impressive in structure inside. The exhibition they had on was of an artist we weren't to familiar with, but they have some Picasso in there which was neat to see in person. We didn't have time to do the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art or the Museum of Natural History unfortunately. Maybe we'll get to those in the next couple of days.... We ended our bus ride back up here in Times Square and just finished our classy restaurant dinner (Wendys, hehe). Were going to check out Hard Rock Cafe but the wait to be seated was 2 hours!!
Tomorrow we are heading up the Empire State, over to the Statue of Liberty and also taking another 2 hour tour of the down side of Manhattan. Probably jump off at the World Trade site also. Busy busy day!!
That's it! Next stop is Vegas after NYC, yeehar!!
J & X
