Once again an uneventful journey to New York from Vancouver, after our bus ride back from Whistler and one night stay before flying out. We finally arrived at our hostel at about midnight after becoming acquainted with the new york transit system again (we were allowed a free ride from the airport terminal to Penn Station by using our ignorance and not paying for a ticket on the way on to the initial train). As with our late arrival the first night, the hostel we stayed at had no curfew, not a lot of sleep was had with people coming in and out of the room at all hours of the night. The roof was dripping and the lovely vinyl flooring had obviously had its day as patches of it had been ripped up. Nat noticed that sleeping bags were allowed (all other hostels we had previously stayed at banned the sleeping bag as it was a great carrier for the dreaded bed bugs!)and was very hesitant when jumping in her bed...all was well in the morning but we both felt a tad itchy for the rest of the stay.
We met with Bolts and Erin the first day and headed to see the Yankees play the Indians at Yankee Stadium. No bags or drink bottles were allowed in the gates and after a quick body check we were headed for the cheap seats in the outer behind the fence. The girls quickly became bored and left us to go shopping and we organised to meet at a bar later on where we expected to meet Claire, a friend of Nat's from camp. The Yankees were down 5 - 2 after the 8th inning and were soon down 6 - 2 as the Indians took advantage of some ordinary pitching. The Yankees then hit 2 Home Runs and a massive one courtesy of the "A-Rod" (Alex Rodriguez) almost came to where we were sitting. An amazing finish to a somewhat boring game, other than the last inning, with the Yankees getting in 6 runs all with 2 outs to win 8 - 6.
Well what a disappointment for Adam and Junior to find out this news, from the bar where the girls were supposed to meet them at 5, after they had left the game at the end of the 8th inning. The girls of course didn't show up until 8, but what was funnier was the 1 eyed Yankee fan that left at the same time they did after chastising the only Indians fan in our section all day.
Nat ended up bumping into Claire when on her shopping expedition (who does that in New York?!?!?) and finalised plans to meet for a couple of drinks that night (as they had been texting all day). Poor Claire couldn't make it in the end because she had encountered bed bugs and was coming up in welts all over! She had to spend her last night in NYC doing her laundry so we organised to catch up for lunch the next day. It was great to see/meet her and reminisce and catch up on a few years.
We did the Times Square thing both night time and during the day as we looked to get Letterman tickets (to no avail as it was a Friday and he only tapes Monday to Thursday). We also both walked through Central Park for the first time, what a great place to ride a bike in the busy city - really good set up they have for joggers/walkers and cyclists.
On our last night we saw a comedy show. Remembering that nothing is free in the states we bought tickets for $5 each only to find out that it was a 2 drink MINIMUM per person at $8 per drink. So all up it cost us about $30 each for the show, which was pretty good value before we headed out to meet up with Erin and Bolts for a night on the town. We had a late one but not too big as we were heading off by Amtrak the following morning to Niagara Falls at 5.30am. So after 2 hours sleep we had revenge on our roommates by interrupting their sleep as we packed our stuff and checked out at 5am. All in all New York wasn't the experience we'd hoped for, we will venture back on day trips on our way south to see the statue of Liberty and visit the museums.
