USA

Ok, so before I start on this blog about NY, we did go to Springfield, Massachusetts to go the six flags close-by, before we went to NY. It was an amazing park, some really awesome rollercoasters and not that expensive to get into, well not as expensive as I thought it would be, only $49 to get in.

 I guess I should start with a few general things.

New York is MASSIVE, I mean I knew it was a big city, but I guess until you are there, experiencing the never ending city streets, masses of people, busy streets etc, a maccas on every block, it doesn’t really hit you until then.

I could never drive here. The drivers are crazy, honking horns, merging whenever they want, stopping whenever they want, speeding down streets, through narrow gaps between cars. It’s organised insanity!

You need to know what you want and where you are going. Stopping and taking a long time to decide or holding people up in the streets, frustrates people, shop keepers and you are going to get angry looks.

The police like to stand around and look important. Yet they don’t seem to do that much. But there are a lot of them.

But wow, New York, was amazing, possibly, the best week of my life. If you have to chance to go there. Go. Don’t think about costs etc. Just go. Have I mentioned that you should go there yet? Anyways, on to my experiences.

DAY  1 28/6

Got to Newburgh, where we are leaving Betsy. Quickly stopped off at a Diner, and got some awesome Diner food! Parked the RV, and packed for the week. Caught a train into the city. The train went into Grand Central Station, it was amazing, gold, marble, chandeliers and well, rather grand really. Our hotel, which was close on the other side of the block from Times Square, was close enough for us to think we would be able to walk it. Walking was interesting, especially dragging along our suitcases, there are lots of people and to successfully make your own way through you kind of have to just walk with intent and hold your path, if you don’t youll just be dodging people all the time!

We made it to the hotel, the Milford Plaza. It was a nice enough hotel, a bit old, and the room was very small, but it was clean and very central and an excellent price so we couldn’t really complain! The girls were also in NY so we made plans to meet up with them!

We stopped off for dinner at TGI Friday, which was crap. The service was below average, and the food was overpriced and very small portions (even to Australian standards) especially Kyle’s meal, mine was a bit better! Never go there!

We went to the girls hotel, and had a few drinks there. We then went up to the bar on the hotel roof. It was pretty cool, though it was rather pricy for drinks and not very entertaining, except for the view, so we made our way to Chelsea / Meat packing district. We went to one pub, but it was quiet so we went to a club nearby. It was a pretty up-market, more exclusive club, where we had to be on the list, or pay a hefty entrance fee. One of the options was to get our own table plus a bottle of vodka for $350. As there was 5 of us, it was decided we go for that. So we skipped the line, like the VIPs we are, and got shown to our table. It was pretty cool having our own little table. The 5 of us polished off the litre bottle of 42 below in about an hour. The music was pretty good, well for club music, and it was PACKED! There were also skimpily dressed girls dancing on the bars, as well as some Jamaican looking guy playing a drum along to the music.  Overall a nice little club, and nothing like anything you could find back in Perth.

The girls decided to leave at about 230 am. Conveniently just before the girls decided to leave, J & K decided to go for a walk of the place. I had a look for them, but the place was packed, and I couldn’t find them. One of the girls decided she needed to go back to her hotel straight away, while the other girl, (who btw for loyal readers is the same girl I climbed the toilet stall for in LA)  was adamant about getting her belly button pierced. I accompanied her to the piercing place. Yes, if you want to get a tattoo or piercing at 230am on a Wednesday morning in NY, you can. I know that would’ve been my preferred time, to get the piercings done, but unfortunately piercing places operate normal trading hours in Perth. Stupid small city! Anyways, off we went to the piercing place. It was a clean enough looking place, and after deciding on the jewellery she wanted, we were escorted to their other store a little bit down the road. They were obviously the McDonalds of piercing shops.  We met some, interesting and entertaining people, who were also getting piercing stuffed pierced. It’s good to talk to some locals I guess :P.  So after holding her hand while some Jamaican guy (I resisted the urge to ask him if he was ever part of the Jamaican bob-sled team just like in Cool Runnings) stuck a needle through her, we departed at about 3am. I took her back to her hotel, and ensured she got up to her room ok, where we found the other girl, had left a trail of her belongings to her bed and had well and truly passed out on her bed. Anyways, caught a taxi back to my hotel, coz I didn’t feel like walking the streets alone.

When I got back, at about 315am, I found only James had come back. He had been separated from Kyle in the club, and had no idea where he was. Kind of worrying, but there really was nothing we could do about it, so we went to sleep.

Woke up sporadically throughout the night, and the morning and there was still no sign of Kyle.

DAY 2 29/6

So at 10am when me and James were both awake, still no Kyle. So we decided to get ready etc and go from there. At 11am, just when we were going to the girls hotel as planned and leave him a note, in strolls in Kyle. Like the prodigal son returning, except he isn’t our son, and to be honest I’m not sure what prodigal exactly means, but he isn’t that either. Turns out, he had met a girl, an Irish girl, just like James in Chicago (is there something about Irish girls, they must love Aussie guys, or love ...) Anyways, he went and got another room for them to use for the night. Good for him.

So the 3 reunited, off we went to the girls hotel room. I felt pretty good, and so did James, but Kyle was pretty tired. Anyways, we got there, and the girl who had gone back by herself was still, well essentially, dead. Well not really dead, by very hungover. It was decided that we would go watch a movie. So the girl who was still alive, even after her late night piercing, and us boys went to watch Green Lantern. Pretty cool movie, but nothing to rave about. Halfway through the movie someone screamed at another person the shutup, which was funny.

After the movie, we decided to go to one of the cheap outlets. One of them was a shoe outlet, had some pretty cool shoes, at some pretty good prices. I found a pair of nice dress shoes that were only $30, would’ve been well over a hundred back home, so I got them. I also got a new wallet to replace the one I had lost/stolen from me before I came to the USA. Kyle left after a little while of looking at shoes, but James, piercing girl and I carried on, eager for a bargain! Checked out a couple more shops, with good prices, but didn’t really find anything I liked. I also saw the flatitron building, which was pretty cool to see. After getting some dinner, we headed back to our respective hotels, where upon lying down, the night before hit me, and I fell asleep.

DAY 3 30/6

Today the girls were doing the Sex & the City tour and we were going to meet up with them after that. Today was there last day in NY! Got a bagel for breakfast, and I also tried Snapple. I saw a little girl drink Snapple in the diner before we came to NY, and I really wanted to try it. And OMAF IT’S DELICIOUS!!!! I had lemon tea flavour. Just. Delicious. I’m tempted to throw out all my clothes and just take Snapple back home in my suitcase, might not get it through customs though, plus they are glass bottles, and would probably break. So I found a new drink I love, and I still wanted to try Apple Snapple though. (which will happen later.)

After my bagel and drink revelation, we looked at some cool shops around Times Square. Like Toys ‘R’ Us, which has a ferris wheel in the store. And  if a ride on the ferris wheel isn’t exciting enough, there is a massive T-Rex in there as well. There were also some toys, well a lot of toys, I really wish this Toys ‘R’ Us existed back home when I was a kid, especially as they had a massive Hot Wheels section, and I loved playing with those toy cars when I was a kid. Anyways, reminiscing aside, we then checked out the Hersheys store. They sold bulk boxes of Reese’s Cups, for $12.50, have to come back for them. Across the road there was an M&Ms store. It had 3 levels! 3! I was imagining 3 levels of M&Ms with M&Ms falling from the sky, and lakes of M&Ms you could just dive into!! However, I was let down, there were no M&Ms falling from the sky, nor could I go swimming in M&Ms. It’s just 3 levels of overpriced M&M merchandise. Well, there was a wall, not even a full wall, but a wall with every colour of M&M you could imagine, as well as all the flavours. Which included, chocolate, dark chocolate, peanut, almond, peanut butter, pretzel and the all new coconut M&M. I didn’t buy any though coz you can just buy it from the shops, and cheaper as well.

We then went to the Discovery Channel museum thing in Times Square. They had a Pompeii and Harry Potter exhibition on. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any photos, coz both exhibits were rather cool. We went to the Pompeii one first. They had it set up so that you saw life before the eruption, then the aftermath. There were artefacts from there, as well as some recreations. They also had moulds taken from the shells of people that the ash had formed around the people and stayed in shape and the position the people were in, while the bodies rotted away. All very interesting.

The Harry Potter exhibit was also really cool. They had uniforms and clothes they wore from most of the characters, including Harry, Ron and Hermione. They also had wands, books, the tri-wizard cup, letters and so much more! It was really awesome.

Afterwards, we met up with the girls and got lunch at Bubba Gumps. For those who don’t know, Bubba Gumps is a restaurant based on the movie Forest Gump. They have one in Bali too apparently. The girls wanted to see a Broadway show before they left, I think they wanted to see Wicked, but couldn’t get tickets in time. So instead, we got tickets to Rock of Ages for that night, which the nice man gave to us for a cheaper price as well. After getting the tickets, we joined them in going to another discount department store. When we got there were SWAT police outside, as well as police bikes and cars all set up for an escort of some person. The person came out, and I had no idea who they were, someone important obviously. Anyways, the store was massive and had some good clothes and really cheap prices, but I once again didn’t really see anything in what I looked at, apart from this 1 jacket but they didn’t have it in my size, so I ended up getting nothing.

After that we made it back to get ready for Rock of Ages. I didn’t really know what to expect out of Rock of Ages. However it was pretty good, some good music, and it was rather funny and the performances by the actors were faultless. They are also making it into a movie, which will star Tom Cruise.

Afterwards the girls wanted to see if Madam Tussads was open, and I wanted to go as well. James and Kyle went to a bar that we got a voucher for earlier on. Unfortunately Madam Tussads was not open, so we went and joined J & K at the bar, after doing some gift shopping.

At the bar, the girls had a drink with us, as they had an early flight the next morning. This is the last time we will be in the same place as them in the USA, which is disappointing as they are pretty awesome people to hang around with. (I didn’t just say that coz I know you are reading this either :P) The voucher entitled us to many great deals like buy one jug (or pitcher in American) get one free etc. There were a lot of drinks to be had. I only had a couple though and then went back to the hotel by myself, as I was tired. James came in a little while after me, but Kyle stayed on by himself.

Day 4 1/7

This morning I woke up early to walk down to the Gershwin Theatre to  get tickets to Wicked for James and I. I was able to get some really good seats for the performance tonight, better than any I could get over the weekend. They were about 10 rows back from the stage, and in the middle. I was pretty stoked to be able to get such good tickets for the night I bought them.

Kyle had come back at 6am, so he was still sleeping. James and I decided to check out some sights. First off we went to a Best Buy, and checked out that, saw some cool stuff at good prices. We then went to Central Park, which is big. It’s amazing that inside a city that’s full of humans and so MASSIVE, there’s a massive park. It’s a beautiful park, with lakes, a lots of statues and old buildings. We walked from the southern side to the northern side, along the west side of the park. It was a long  yet beautiful walk. We also saw Strawberry Fields and where Lennon lived and was shot. We were pretty tired, and thought we should go and see if Kyle wanted to do anything.

When we got back, Kyle was just chillaxing in bed and didn’t really want to do anything at the moment. As he didn’t want to go to Wicked with us, he decided he was going to watch a movie while we were there.

James and I looked at some places to eat that were recommended in our travel book. We chose a diner that was on the way to the theatre. The diner itself looked awesome, pretty old style classy, which was pretty cool. It also had a old signed poster from a musical Julie Andrews was part of on broadway (for those who don’t know Julie Andrews is one of, if not, my favourite actress) it was very tempting just to take it down, but I had to settle for a photo. Apart from the cool decor and posters, the food was so good, very tasty and reasonably priced. We also stopped off at a cool record store which had some awesome records.

We then went to Wicked, which was in a cool theatre (the Girshwin), bigger and better than the one Rock of Ages was in. It was also the Hall of Fame for theatre actors and actresses. We bought a dirnk coz it came in a wicked cup which you could keep and  settled in our good seats for the show. It was, awesome. Words cannot describe how good it was. I know it’s showing in Perth at the moment, and even if it’s half as good as the Broadway show, see it. I cannot recommend it enough! The storyline, which improves The Wizard of Oz movie itself, the singing, the acting, just amazing! Go see it in Perth, I personally guarantee that you will enjoy it! I can now see why it has been on Broadway for 7 years and still selling full priced tickets and filling out the theatre, which is a big one.

So after our awesome evening at the theatre, we made our way back. Kyle came back shortly after us, but was hungry and  wanted to get food. Having eaten already James and I passed and Kyle went to the bar across the road from our hotel. James and I went to bed as we were tired.

DAY 5 2/7

Today, we had a lot of sightseeing planned. First off we went to ground zero. They are still rebuilding the area. Where the twin towers were and the hole in the ground they left they are putting in two waterfalls, with the names of the people that died in the attacks lining it, as well as the ones from the plane the hit the Pentagon and the other plane that crashed in a field and the victims of the 1993 bombings of the towers. They are also building a memorial garden and museum. Office wise, they are building one large building which will be slightly taller than the old towers as well as a few other new buildings. First, we went to the memorial museum, which was set up and run by, survivors and family and friends of the victims of the attacks. The museum had lots of stuff from the buildings, and some stuff from the planes. As well as recordings of the firemans radios, the real voices of people who died trying to save people, as well as how the evacuation and everything went out. It also had a bit of how working in the towers was like and memorials and stuff from around the world. It was all pretty sobering, and made me think about life and how you never know when it’s going to end for you. After the museum, we had a tour of around the site, which explained which way the planes came in, other buildings that were affected by the attacks, like a bank that was destroyed by the collapse of the towers as well as a hotel etc. Our guide also worked in one of the towers, and was in there when the attacks occurred. He told us about life in the towers how basically you would live in the complex, getting food in the towers or nearby, concerts held in the courtyard between the two towers, how it would sway in the wind, sometimes so much a pencil would roll off your desk. He then talked about the morning the attacks occurred. His office was in tower two, which was the first tower hit, and 10 floors below from where the plane hit. He was saying how sometimes he would sit and look out the window, but fortunately wasn’t that day as he would’ve seen the plane coming for him, and he doesn’t know how he would’ve responded, and still been ok if he had seen it. He then talked about being evacuated, lying down and crawling to where he thought the stairs were, and making sure his colleagues were with him. How a fireman called them to the stairs by saying ‘come to my voice.’ Making his way down the stairs, down 80+ flights of stairs, and firemen running past him to go up, full of gear and equipment and he was tired just walking down. Eventually making it down, and went to the underground mezzanine below both the buildings, and when he was about the middle of the two buildings the first tower collapsed. He felt a massive gust of wind, and just knew he had to grab onto something, so he grabbed onto a pillar and held on for dear life as the building collapsed, he was being pummelled by winds and debris. His colleagues had somehow got themselves low enough onto the ground to be able to stay there, by some luck. When it was over, he was covered in dirt etc, and he looked back and could see or imagine I can’t remember, but all the people that were under there as well, and weren’t able to hold onto something had been smashed into the cafe behind him under all the debris, and were obviously dead. He then talked about how he with his co-workers and others slowly made it through the dark and towards another firemans voice. When he made it there, he said the fireman was telling him to go one way, up some escalators, but he saw another way with light at the end and decided to run that way. He eventually made it out and just kept running, then a few minutes later when he was not the far away, the other tower collapsed, the one he worked in. He choked up towards the end, understandably. It was a moving, and sad story, and something that you could only experience by being told in person by someone who was there.

So after leaving there a bit sombre, we planned to walk down to the ferries that took you to the Statue of Liberty. We walked through Battery City Park which was a nice stroll we made it down there. We had decided just to catch the Staten Island Ferry, which is free and goes right past the stature anyways. The line to go to the statue was stupidly long. It would been hour if not hours worth of wait! So we caught the free ferry, that took us past the Statue. It was pretty cool to see, not as big as I thought it would be, though I guess it would feel bigger right next to it. After the ferry we were walking to the financial district to check out the golden bull there, and we strolled past a hotdog cart that sold....... APPLE SNAPLE!! So I had to try it. It was THE BEST THING I EVER TASTED!! Well maybe thats a bit extreme, but it tasted SO GOOD!! It was drinking an apple. Literally. I love the stuff! Anyways so after my mouth-gasm thanks to the apple snapple, we went to the bull. We had plans to take some cool photos, but there were way too many people to even take a clear photo of the bull. Kyle went off to get some money out and we somehow lost each other. So James and I made it back to our hotel on our own. When we got back there we organised to go to the comedy club we got tickets for, earlier on from a street salesman.

So we went to the comedy club, named Dangerfields. All the comics were pretty funny, and it was a pretty good show, even though the drinks were ridiculously expensive and you had to buy 2.

Afterwards we made our way to another bar. It was a bit quiet to start with buy kept getting busier. I met this cool college guy, who was from Mexico originally and we hung out with him and his friend for a while. James and Kyle went off to another pub, but I stayed on at this pub. I got home at 330am, and James was home buy Kyle was not. I promptly went to sleep, it was a long and awesome day.

Day 6 3/7

We were all pretty tired today, and for some reason it had started raining. After a late start, we made our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Funnily enough the travel book said to avoid the place on a rainy Sunday if we didn’t want to have crowds. Well we didn’t have much of a choice. We saw many cool artefacts from Egypt, Rome, Greek, old armour, guns, old paintings, there was so much!! It was a huge museum, great for a rainy day, and we didn’t even really properly see everything. Kyle got tired and left before James and I were finished exploring, so he went back to the hotel.

When James and I had finished, we went to Tiffany’s because I promised to get something for my sister from there. It was big, very fancy, and very expensive (my sister better be appreciative!) We even saw a lady that had her little dog in the store! After that we went to Bloomingdales, another very expensive store as James’ mother wanted a bag from there. After getting that and having a look around at the very expensive clothes we also went back to the hotel.

Last night, Kyle met some girls from Washington, and we organised to have dinner with them and go to the top of the Empire State Building at night. We met them at their hotel and eventually made it to a bar for dinner. Just after we ordered our food, a suspicious looking bag was found nearby so we had to be evacuated and the street was shutdown. It was pretty exciting and we had a chat with our waiter around the corner. After about 10 minutes we were allowed back in. After dinner and some drinks, we went to the Empire State Building. It would of been very pretty, unfortunately a cloud had moved over the building, and you could see anything except white cloud. That itself was pretty cool, to be in a cloud pretty much, but not really the view we wanted. Though if you stuck your head through the fence and looked down you could see something!

After chilling there for a while we made our way back to the bar opposite our hotel. After a couple of drinks, I was pretty tired, so I went back to the room (at about 2am) and went to sleep. Tomorrow is the fourth of July!!

Day 7 4/7

Had another late morning today. We went and got some lunch from a place called The Goodburger. It was a goodburger! James went back to the hotel and Kyle and I went to the Brooklyn Bridge. Wr drove across it first, well the taxi did, then we walked back across. As we were walking across some lady was walking in the bike part of the path, and a cyclist yelled out at her “move bitch, I’m circumcised!” LOL. Moving on, it was a pretty cool bridge and good to do some more exercising and walking. We then caught the subway to Central Park, as Kyle hadn’t seen it yet and he wanted to check it out. On the subway these two people were playing music with a guitar and one singing, and then tried to sell their CDs and promote themselves, was kinda cool. We walked through a different part of the Park then James and I did, through the zoo, (though we didn’t go into the zoo, we could see the Polar bears from a distance.) On another note, I thought there were lions and giraffes  and Zebras in the Central Park Zoo, mainly coz of Madagascar, but there weren’t any! Anyways, we made our way through the park and to the big fountain in there which was pretty cool. We then made our way back to the hotel.

We chilled for a little bit, then went and got dinner at this Mexican restaurant. It was pretty nice, though the service was pretty poor. (If you are wondering why I keep commenting on service, basically, as you know we have to tip the waiters, but they do have to work for it and most of the ones we have experience are really good and definitely earned a good tip, some others.. not so much) Anyways, by then the fireworks had started, they were pretty awesome and we could see most of them through the buildings.

We then made our way to the bar that McLarens from How I Met Your Mother is based on. It looks nothing like it, but it is a nice pub. It got fairly busy especially after the fireworks. We also met a nice lady from Utah whose daughter was in town for a dancing competition. We had a really nice chat with her, and it was awesome speaking to another American about stuff. Kyle left to go to another bar, while James and I stayed on. Eventually we made our way to our hotel and we had to leave early in the morning to check out and make our way back to Betsy.

Day 8 5/7

A sad day, the day we left New York. We were making our way to New Jersey, where we were going to stay the night with some family friends of Kyles. So we checked out, made our way back to Grand Central, caught the train to Betsy. We then made our way to Jersey. It wasn’t a very long drive about 4 hours, a little under, and we got there safely.

~

The people were eldery, and it was kind of awkward as I didn’t know them at all, but they were very nice people who made us feel welcome. Two of their children (who are grown up with kids of their own) and their partners came over and we had a nice dinner with them. We then stayed at their house for the night, and chilled for some of the day. We were going to go to the beach but it started to rain, so we just did some shopping and were driven around the area. It was a vey nice and expensive area, he used to be a lawyer and seemed to have a fair amount of money. It was a pretty big storm, with some crazy lightening that brought some trees down. We eventually said our goodbyes, as we had to keep on going down and drove down to Washington DC.

So overall it was an awesome week, in the big apple. I would have loved to stay there longer, but unfortunately we had to move on, we still have many places to go and just under a month left to do it! It’s going to be a full on month, but I cant wait. Well done on reading this much, it has taken me hours to type this and prob took you ages to read. I hope you enjoyed it!