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Fries with that?

Monday, February 07, 2005

I am sure this entry will be huge so make sure you have a nice cup of coffey before you start!

New York was wonderful - I had the best birthday. The place was everything I expected it to be and much more.

Our flight out was very comfortable and thanks to it being quiet Richard and I managed to sprawl out across a couple seats. It was also helped that our Virgin Atlantic 747 had top of the range media kit in it which meant we could watch any one of fifty movies and a host of other stuff when we wanted. Although the flight was around seven hours it didn't feel like it. (I managed to watch Dodge Ball, Hell Boy, Simpsons, Friends and text Richard during the flight!)

Now I have been to the USA I can profess to having my fingerprints taken (only my index fingers) - still not sure what use it is to the authorities but they have their reasons (don't worry this isn't special treatment this is standard practice for all visitors!).

Anyway I received a bit of a surprise when we came through the arrivals hall...

In my usual way I was thinking 100 steps ahead and was worrying about finding a train or a cab into Manhattan and missed the guy in front of us holding up a board with my name on it. It took a while for what was happening to sink in but we were lead out of JFK with this guy taking our luggage (Richard had a huge grin on his face). Once we got outside the guy disappeared to leave us in the snow only to return driving a huge black stretch limo. I was so shocked, I really did not see it coming. Needless to say our journey into Manhattan was very comfortable.

I felt lost in the back of the car but comfortable and very happy, I could not stop grinning! Neither could Richard for that matter.

We made our way through the busy evening traffic and saw a number of familiar sites and the sounds of NYC. Thankfully I was too stunned to realize just how reckless people drive there! LOL

Anyway we arrived at our hotel; the Hotel Metro feeling calm and relaxed. Our room was lovely and (so I have been told), typically American, big with two double beds.

The hotel was very comfortable but I was scared to find President Bush on every TV channel - trust us to arrive the night of the State of the Union Address!

After a bit of a relax we went for a walk around the block so that we could grab a bite and take in some sites. The time difference was starting to hit so the fresh crisp air was needed to keep us alert. After grabbing a coffey and some soup in a corner store we made our way to Times Square.

I was quite surprised by the scale of the place to be honest - it really is as big as I had imagined if not bigger. You can see why New York gets the title of "The City That Never Sleeps" as it really is busy all the time. After an hour or so of browsing we headed back to the hotel and got a good nights sleep...

Well it would have been a good nights sleep if both of us could have adjusted to the time difference better as we both admitted defeat at 4:30 and got up!

Day one

As we were up so early we made the most of our time and headed down to Battery Park first thing to get the ferry to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. On the way we past Ground Zero and it was kind of eery. Richard had been at the top a couple years ago so knew the scale of the buildings, I wasn't so sure of it's size but was amazed by the size of the building site at ground level, and the visible gap in the skyline. Still it's good to see that building is underway and that New York is moving on from the awful events of September 11th.

We took the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and spent an hour or so wondering around the island, taking in the views and checking out Lady Liberty. I must admit (as with most things like this), the statue is no where near as big as I had imagined. I guess it's because it's something I have seen so many times that my movie and TV preconceptions have blown it out of proportion. Still she was worth a visit, and worth visiting in February as the ferries were quiet and the crowds were minimal (it was also around 0 degrees so that might have had something to do with it!)

We then sailed across to Ellis Island and Richard and I spent several hours wandering around the various exhibits in the museum. We also spent some time tracing Richards' family and were surprised to see just how many people were listed who came from Devon and Cornwall. It was kind of surreal to be in New York and read placenames like "Newton Abbot", "Paignton" and "Tavistock" in a database.

I was very taken in by Ellis Island and was amazed at just how much history there is in one place and the fact that this island really does mark the big expansion of the American people. I learnt so much about the immigrants and cannot imagine what they had to endure to find themselves a new home.

Once back on Manhattan Island we found ourselves somewhere to eat and then headed off to every gay mans mecca in the USA - Abercrombie! LOL Surprisingly I didn't purchase very much, I just bought a couple of T shirts. In the freezing temperature the last thing I wanted to think about was summer clothing. It was good to finally step inside an Abercrombie store (usually only get the chance to browse online and have the catalogue shipped) but I wasn't completely blown away by the stock. I was rather taken by the cute guy behind the till though - even if he was a bit too camp for his own good! LOL

We managed to just drift around for the rest of the day and happened across Wall Street. Now this was a place that was much smaller than I had expected but very interesting. Especially when you consider the original buildings sandwiched between all the skyscrapers.

On the way back to the hotel we popped into one of the many electrical stores dotted around New York and Richard bought me a new digital camera for my birthday. He bought me a fab new Olympus Stylus Verve which is pretty cool. It's a 4 MP camera which also takes nice clear QuickTime movies (see JFK below). :)

For the evening we made our way to 3rd Avenue and had a typical American Diner experience at the Sunflower Diner. You can keep all your fancy restaurants and your tourists eateries. Nothing gets you inside New York like an evening in a typical diner. The Sunflower Diner was very good, it was fun to sit, watch and listen to all the native New Yorkers at rest. On the table opposite were two elderly couples who were definitely Jewish. The husbands were hen pecked and the women just did not stop talking the whole time. I swear according to one of the ladies everything was gooorgeouuus or faaaabuuuuuluss! ;0) (I am not mocking anyone I am simply making an observation and it's one I enjoyed).

Another reason to visit a diner is the value - I swear we have never had so much food for so little money. Each time I ate in New York I was beaten by the portions - New Yorkers certainly know how to pack it away!

Day two

We did not get up so early but 6:30 was managable - I think by now we had both got accustomed to the time difference. (Although I do remember spending the first night trying to work out what the time was back home!).

There were two agendas for today and we did manage to achieve both of them - just about!

The first was a trip to the Apple store which took much longer than it should of. Now don't get me wrong I love the underground and can find my way around with no problems but the New York subway is a nightmare! I lost count of how many trains zipped past the station we wanted to stop at - it took ages to get to Prince Street. Once inside I was a little disappointed that the store in New York is identical to the one in Regent Street London. My primary aim was to scope out a Mac Mini and an iPod Shuffle. I was very disappointed with the iPod Shuffle, it's too small, too plastic and the lack of screen makes it difficult to navigate. The Mac Mini however won us over and we were very close to buying one. We have however decided to consider what we would use it for and once we have a plan, we will be in London to get one - me thinks this will replace our current entertainment set up in the living room... (did some one say Media Centre?)

Looking at the map we got back onto the Subway and headed up to the Guggenheim. Sadly though the first station brought us out 30 blocks away and the second brought us out at the edge of Central Park! It didn't make too much difference though as Central Park was on our to do list, as was the skating rink. We didn't skate but did watch the skaters. I think they were all a damn site braver than us though as it was absolutely freezing down there. Central Park resembled the Artic North!

We walked the length of Central Park along Museum Mile to the Guggenheim where we flaked out and enjoyed a well deserved bowl of broccoli and cheese soup followed by a huge whipped strawberry and cream cup cake :)

I loved the Guggenheim it was very interesting. The building is just amazing and the permanent collection must be worth an absolute fortune. It is hard to believe it was all owned by one man!

I wasn't too struck on the current Inca exhibition but there were some interesting pieces.

I will confess that we were too knackered to walk back so we hailed a yellow cab and made our way back to the hotel and Herald Square.

Me in my new CK's (This is not me it's my stunt double!)

Me in my new CK's (This is not me it's my stunt double!)

Before heading back to the Metro we stopped by Macy's, had a coffey and a browse around the store. Thanks to the visitor card we made even bigger savings on our purchases in store. Richard and I seemed to buy an awful lot of undies in store and with good reason! I purchased a truck load of blue and white mesh Calvin Kleins and the Macy's price was about £8 each - they are £24 a pair in the UK!

Another night and another diner! This time the Hollywood Diner. It wasn't our first choice but the food was great, the service was excellent and the prices were amazing! It's also close to the Village so we got to sit in the window and observe the NYC Queens going about their business.

Once fat and full we headed back uptown and walked to Times Square so that I could get some photo's with my new camera. Friday was Red for Women day when national monuments are illuminated in red. The Empire State was the best illuminated building that night - it looked so cool bathed in brilliant red light.

Day three

This was our final day in New York and it was kind of sad to be wandering around Manhattan as I had become accustomed to the noise and the atmosphere, we'd even beaten the jet lag, but sadly we had to fly out late that night :(

This did not mean we had to take it easy though - we crammed as much into our final day as possible.

We started with the obligatory climb to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building to witness the spectacular views of New York City. Thankfully Saturday was the warmest day of our visit, the snow was melting rapidly and the sky was clear. It was still very windy at the top but when you are 86 floors up what do you expect?

It's only from the top of the Empire State that you realize just how big New York City is. It really is a vast sprawling metropolis and you can see where the additional 400,000 people spread out (that's 400,000 more occupants than London).

The rest of the day seemed to have been spent cramming in as much retail therapy as possible. I think I bought more in two hours on Saturday than I did the whole time I was in New York! This included several more pairs of Calvins at Macy's, a chi chi cord peak cap (which finished my Native New Yorker look!) and a couple nice spring sweaters. All that and I still managed to have spare cash!

We had a big yellow taxi take us back to JFK where we seemed to spend hours watching the Air Train coming and going before we could board. In fact I was so bored I took a couple movies on my Olympus, click here to take a look at Terminal 4 and my baby! (It's 7 Mb QTVR so give it a while!)

Now I don't want to sound critical but I thought the American's (sorry to generalize) stepped up their security post "9-11"? I did mention the finger printing on the way in right..? So why is exit security so bad? It seemed that the staff at Terminal 4 were only too happy to see us leave and were very rude. I was very pleased with the manner and the conduct of every one I had met in Manhattan but sadly this wasn't the case at JFK security! We had to do everything ourselves, remove our shoes, our belts and bags, get our own boxes and push the contents through the machine while the security staff watched on - there was no comment raised at the other end, no good byes, no "have a nice day", nothing! Very odd.

I am amazed to say this has to be the poorest security I have ever witnessed!

The flight home was OK - we didn't have all the flash gimmicks on the plane as we had coming in but it didn't matter. After we were served dinner, typically we hit a huge bought of turbulence so we decided to nap for the rest of the flight.

And the rest (as they say) is history!

I had a truly wonderful time, to quote the Jewish old ladies at the Sunflower Diner it was fabulous, New York was gorgeous! I will definitely be back with my baby.

And to my baby I have to say thank you for a truly amazing and unforgettable birthday - I love my baby so much xxXxx

There are more photo's online if you want to take a look. This link will take you to the main New York section and there are sub menus on the left. Why not rate some of my photo's or leave me some comments?

[iTunes: "Uptown" : Prince]


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