By the time we’d sat on the train all day we were wrecked by
the time we made New York late that night. Then the subway was all messed up
and it took a while to get to our accommodation. Boy did we need some sleep!
We spent the next few days doing what you do in New York –
just wandering around it. The city itself is the attraction and you can get a
lot out of it for free. The buildings are often fabulous and I’ll admit feeling
a bit choked up when I saw the Chrysler Building again (my favourite!). While
I’d been to New York before I hadn’t done it all so we went up the Empire State
building, wandered around the main buildings, looked in shops, watched a parade
for India Day and considered taking a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, but then
decided we weren’t really interested enough to warrant the time and expense. We
deliberately didn’t go to ground zero. Nick seemed to really enjoy visiting
Wall Street and we had a look at the Stock Exchange which they seem to have
tightened up now (last time I got tickets to go in and watch the trading but
they didn’t seem to be doing that anymore). We wandered through China town
looking for food but ended up in Little Italy and had pizza instead J
We also headed over to Brooklyn on the Subway. I wanted to
visit 328 Altantic Avenue. The story goes like this – my Great Great
Grandfather (Fritz/Frederick) ‘emigrated’ from Prussia to New Zealand in the
mid 1800’s. We have some letters from his sister, still in Danzig (now Gdansk)
to him, and to my great uncle Ernest. One mentions the address of one of Fritz’s brothers (I think) who had
emigrated to New York, and we have a photo of them there. So I wanted to check
out the address, which I found but the current building has only been there
since 1948. Still it was nice to go there, see the neighbourhood (and I found a
great wool shop!).
Which reminds me, New York is almost a city I could live in
– it’s a city in which trendy knitting shops exist and I found a trimmings and
buttons shop that is so huge I couldn’t believe it was real! So many
possibilitites. Also it’s so very multicultural that you hardly notice you’re
in the USA (not my most entirely favourite country). The bookshops are also
fantastic. The first Barnes and Noble I went into there was incredible, the
selection and variety of magazines for examply could keep me entertained for
years. They have an enquiries counter and I asked if I could move in but
apparently that would cause some problems with their insurance ;) They also
have lovely parks and I really like that in Bryant park there was a free
Reading Room, with loads of interesting books for people to read at tables
beneath the trees. I learned that there’s an American poet called Gwendolyn
Brooks! Read a bit of her stuff and it was quite thought provoking which I
guess is what poetry supposed to be!
On the last night we went to a comedy club just off Broadway
and had a few laughs (we thought they were having a laugh when they said there
was a two drink minimum – but they’re weren’t!). It was a good night but when
we emerged onto Times Square the lights were so bright and overwhelming that I
literally got a migraine!
After a bit of a panic about our flight being cancelled due
to industrial action (which was actually resolved before we even found out
about the cancellation) we took the subway to near the airport and then the air
train. It was an easy and pretty relaxed journey compared to London/Heathrow or
Gatwick with their ubiquitous chaos.
We flew back to the UK via Shannon, Ireland and were beyond
knackered by the time we got to Heathrow. We had time to kill before meeting up
with my old flatmate Reuben so we lugged our packs to the British Museum,
checked them in and spent a few rather dazed hours looking around there again.
We had a great night with Reuben, zoning out in front of movies. We went to the
Sainsbury’s nearby and got preprepared Indian meals for dinner to keep it
simple – but it wasn’t! Man, the timing and co-ordination required to get all
the different bits ready at the right times was beyond us! Next time we’ll
order in.
The next day we headed to London Victoria coach station and
got the bus back to Bristol to be reunited with Vinnie (a moment we’d both been
looking forward to a great deal). He was still there (yay!) but someone had
broked a wing mirror (boo!) and tagged him with a little bit of graffiti,
although I have to say it doesn’t look too bad – I almost like it! (yay and
boo!).
What we hadn’t anticipated was that all the boys in the
Bristol flat were going to be away that weekend – most at the Shambala Festival
(which we got tempted by but need a rest too much to go). We were going to
spend one night but Dan sent us a text to say we could stay as long as we like,
that no-one would be home over the weekend and we could look after the place
for them. So with desperately needing some quiet down time we decided to stay
for the weekend and wait for them to get home on Monday, and sleep…… and catch up on the blog....
