We left our hostel in Everett for Chinatown in Boston on a Beautiful Sunday morning to catch the Fung Wah bus as it only cost $15 each to get to NYC and then another $10.50 to get the train to NJ where Chris had agreed to pick us up at the train (This would save us about $25 each when compared with Greyhound and even more to Amtrak). Yes, as travellers we are beginning to find a bargain here and there!
We arrived at South Station, where the Fung Wah left from, at 12:01 and were quickly ushered onto the 12:00 bus by the waiting ticket people. Our thoughts were that our luck had changed, we would have had to wait another half hour or so because we were 1 minute after schedule ... awesome! Just over an hour into the ride Nat decides she'll start thinking about what would happen if the bus broke down ... 10 minutes later she didn't have to wonder as she was going to find out first hand. The Chinese driver told us in broken English that the next bus would be 1 and a half to 2 hours. So when the first bus behind us showed up 5 minutes later everyone else was either already off the bus or rushed to get the next one. We just missed it and were told the following bus would be another hour. When it arrived only 16 people could fit on. as we counted back Junior stood at 16 and of course Nat at 17. So being a gentleman Junior gave up his seat and agreed to meet Nat in NJ.
Had you going didn't I!! We both waited along with 3 other passengers for the 3rd and final bus to pick us up almost 2 hours behind our original schedule. Luckily we had enough time up our sleeve to make it in time to NJ to meet Chris.
We arrived in Chinatown, NYC, and made our way to the subway system only to find we'd walked the wrong direction and would now need 3 different trains to get to Penn Station to get the NJ Transit. As we ran through Penn Station lined up for our tickets and legged it to the terminal, our second last-second arrival for the day, we were finally on the train heading to NJ.
So, after 11 hours, 3 buses and 5 trains (and a lot of leg work) we had made our way from Boston to New Jersey. Probably harder than it should have been but we were lucky enough to be welcomed at Dover station by the delightful Dani and Chris. They took us back to their new pad, which we christened as their first Aussie visitors (which was so beautiful mind you) where we meet the “oh so friendly” Cooper (pet dog) and sat and caught up for a couple of hours, bliss!
They had stocked the house full of grub for us (which they shouldn’t have done) but it was really refreshing to get stuck in to some fresh fruit and salads, thanks once again guys!
The next day we did our washing, slept in, sat in the sun and parked our butts in front of the huge (yes it is huge Chris) TV and relaxed. We were treated to Dani’s magnificent cooking that night of BBQ’d meats, potatoes and carrots.
Poor old Dani was “unwell” the next day so decided that a bit of retail therapy and a day off school would make her better. She kindly drove Nat to the New Jersey Crossings (huge outlet mall) where Nat “let loose”. Nat figured that she was sick of “holding back” and not spending her money on clothes so pretty much bought a whole new wardrobe! She spent about 2 hours in Abercrombie and Fitch alone! It was wicked!! While the girls were out shopping the boys visited Chris’ camp then got stuck in to the play station…Junior I guess had been feeling a bit deprived and spent the remainder of the week playing it at any opportunity he had (much like the 3 days his older brother spent at Chris and Dani's old place) … I guess it was a blessing really as Nat didn’t have to do the usual entertaining!
Chris and Dani also had a treadmill which Nat was very pleased about. She managed to fit in a few sessions…ahhh finally some real exercise!
We jumped on the NJ transit train and headed for NYC bright and early. The fare was a bit cheaper than we thought (bonus!!) at around $18 bucks each rather than $20, so the day started off really well. Sat next to a guy (Rob) who was really interested in our travels and him and Junior talked "bike talk" the whole 1.5 hours so we seemed to fly in to NYC.
Once there we did have a bit of bad luck because we tried to ring and change our flights (which we had already done 2 days earlier) and the chick on the phone said this could not be done! We knew this was BS and decided to get on with our day and worry about it that night.
First stop was the world trade centre sight (June and I legged it from Penn station)...will write about this more in our journal. Next was viewing the statue of liberty, bit of a hot humid hazy day so the photo didn't turn out that great but battery park was nice. From here we were lucky enough to score David Letterman tickets so we had to go and pick these up, jumped on the subway (I love the subway system) and were there in a flash. I had the nerve to say that this was so far the "best day I'd had", Junior wasn't so impressed with my positive attitude as he thought that I had jinxed us yet again...but really it only got better!
We lined up and got our tickets for the show and who did we see in line???? The couple we were meant to meet up with somewhere in the USA! a Couple from Adelaide (Aims and Benny)!!! Who would have thought we'd bump in to them in the middle of New York going to see the same show (which I might add are very hard to get... people often wait 6-12 months for these tickets and are sometimes still unlucky). So we hung out with them before and after the show.
We then got on the train home and fixed up all our flights. The only bad
thing that happened that day was when we got home, I realised that my
permanent marker had leaked through my bag on to my new Abercrombie skirt, not happy but all in all a wonderful day!
We headed back into NY on Saturday to catch up with Aims and Benny again before they flew to London that night. We all went to the American Natural History Museum (if anyone has seen the movie “A night at the museum” with Ben Stiller and Robin Williams, you would know what we are talking about). It was fantastic! (see photos). We managed to get on a free “highlights tour” which was very interesting and informative. If Junior had his way he would have spent another few hours there, however we were getting peckish and Aims was yet to try a NY pizza so we ventured back to Time Square where we stumbled upon the greasiest pizza joint we could find (like that was hard! There are photo’s to prove this). After our enormous lunch we said our goodbyes to Aims and Benny L and jumped on the NJ transit back to Dover where Chris came and collected us (once again) our personal taxi was great value for the week.
The video is from Battery Park. Something we only stumbled on as Junior walked over the squares.
To Chris and Dani thank you so much for your hospitality, Nat didn't want to leave (she'd still be there if she had her way!!).
