I met my roomie Emma during the night. After chatting we realised that we were doing the same Intrepid tour. We woke to a New York sky full of rain and as girls do debated at lengths on whether or not to wear a jacket. We did which with the rain being the tail ned of Hurricane Irene it turned out to be a wise decision - the rain was relentless. I wanted to check out the Statue of Liberty just to see if I wasn't cheated the last time I came to this city and was truly disappointed. My aim? To get closer.
Emma who by now thanks to having a one-to-one tour with a guy she met whilst biking in Central Park was a New York Metro expert. Or so I thought when I followed her down the street until she stopped and confessed that we had gone past the station. I recognised the street we were on from my previous visit so suggested that we go to Port Terminal the nearest station to where we were. Again I followed Emma and hopped onto the train happily behind her. The train carried on past 59th street where Emma smiled and said, 'that's where we should have got on.' Wait a minute? Didn't we walk past that stop? It dawned on me that we were heading North and not South.
'Emma we're going the wrong way.' She smiles after a moments thought and nods!
Because the train is an express one the next stop is somehwere in Harlem - 125th Street. We get off and after a few minutes of longing for the 'simple' London UNderground with an older couple who had done the exact same thing, we head on a train that is going to the right destination.
The rain is now heavy has we book tickets for the New York water taxi - the Circle Ferry seems to be closed. We wait with coffee - Emma is a huge fan or is that a fellow addict of caffeine?
It's choppy on the water and somehow it seems there is more water on the water taxi than in the Hudson, however we brave the elements and head out on the deck happily snapping away with the tourist equivalent to the swiss-army knife for a survival expert - our cameras!
'Come and stand over here,' Emma waves me under a ledge. Again, I follow her instructions, do as I am told and suddenly my left leg as been drowned by a gush of water. I move from under the ledge.
'Emma you're standing under a waterfall,' I tell her as a huge gush of water falls over the ledge. We laugh even though we are both drenched.
The Statue of Liberty looms up from out of the mist. I am closer and she looks everything that she supposed to. The moment however is slightly spoiled as one of the water taxi staff tries to get that perfect touristy snap - yes the one where the tourist looks like they're holding the famous landmark - the photo proves that he had failed!
We took the metro back (no worries this time) and wandered to a miserable looking Times Square. Emma wanted tickets for The Lion King show, asked a man who was selling them but he rambled on and on before she could tell him that she only wanted one of the tickets. He got really angry and started to shout at us. We exited the light show of Times Square his words of fury behind us. We did not look back!
Before heading back to the hostel - mainly for dry clothing - I took Emma to see the Empire State Building. We went shopping for yes you've guessed it - coffee and when we got back to the hostel, we had a new roomie, Sophie, who looked bewildered after her long flight to the states. It turned out that Sophie too was doing our tour.
Emma and I cooked pizza and sat in the lounge where a girl, Sarah motioned for us that there was space near her on the sofa. Sarah, with a confident and chilled persona chatted to us and was really interested in what we were doing and our lives. And when she said that she was also on our tour I just knew that I would get on well with her. Everybody I had met have been so nice and I couldn't wait for the adventure on the road to begin and to share some memoriable experiences with them.
