America… F&*k Yeah! Part 1
Day 71
Well as mentioned Day 71 was
spent in transit and knowing that we had a very tight turn around in order to
enable us to attend the New Era Pinstripe
Bowl (brought to us by New Era, they love their sponsorships!). Navigating
the infamous border protection at JFK was surprisingly easy, a finger print
scan, a friendly officer chat about our extravagant honeymoon and we were in!
Onto the Long Island Light Rail
(LIRR) to Penn Station and a very convenient 2 block walk to W32nd and the
Stanford Hotel. Great location, nothing flash but clean and recommended (at New
Year time, accommodation in NYC is highway robbery!). We were pushing it time
wise so it was into a yellow cab to Yankee stadium and our first (of many)
encounters with a New York stereotype. Our lovely female African American cab
driver asked us where to, Yankee Stadium we replied. “Yaaaankeeeeee stadium, there ain’t! no baseball on!, what the
heeeeeell! you want to go to Yaaaankeee stadium for!” Well there’s a
football game on out there… “Football! At
Yaaannkeee stadium! I ain’t never
heard of no! football at Yaaankeee stadium! and I used to live in the Bronx!”.
This along with a conversation about why we’d come to New York for New Years
and we weren’t spending it in Times Square “everybody
comes to Times Square, you tellin me you come all the way to New York, and you
ain’t even gonna go to Times Square on New Years! Damn!” immediately
endeared this city to us. GOLD!!!!!!
On to the game itself, amazing!
We missed the first quarter but it was only 7-3 and still plenty of game to go!
The College Football post season is a series of ‘bowl’ games that have various
traditional rivals or fixed ranked teams playing each other. The Pinstripe
isn’t the most glamourous by a long way, but Yankee stadium (even the new one)
is pretty special and the spectacle of the game is worth it. Rutgers ended up
in front beating Iowa State 27 to 13, although it was closer 17 – 13 going into
the 4th quarter. Katrina particularly enjoyed the two marching bands
who had ‘band offs’ throughout the game with Iowa state (the pride of Iowa
state apparently) performing a pretty intricate routine at half time!
American’s can definitely do sport!
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| Katrina admiring her fellow flag twirlers... |
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| Iowa state QB releases from deep in the pocket |
After the game it was a short
train ride back into mid-town and a look at Times Square. Even on New Years Eve
Eve (think about it!) it was crazy, with a large area already set up for the
media contingent and rumours of Gaga there for a rehearsal (hard to believe).
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| Wow, look at the lights!! |
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| Some things can you make you smile anywhere in the world! |
Day 72
Next morning it was down to
Ground Zero to visit the 9/11 site. We didn’t realise that due to the on-going
construction of ‘freedom tower’ you require a pass to get down to the memorial.
Demand was crazy and we were unable to get our hands on one for the whole
duration of out stay in New York. We did have a look at the ‘museum’ which was
pretty emotional. The model of the finished freedom tower complex looks like
its going to be impressive, and the personal stories that are contained there
are moving to say the absolute least. The construction site itself holds
banners with the nationality of all the workers who are currently on site and
there in pride of place is Sydney!
Next up the Staten Island Ferry,
which is free and takes you out past Ellis Island (processing site of all the
emigrants who came to New York back in the day) and Liberty Island home to the
330 foot lady (“This giant women will
devour us all!” for the Simpsons fans out there!). Can highly recommend it
rather than queuing for hours, and having to pay, on the Liberty Island tours.
You also get a great city skyline view on both legs of the tour for free! Oh
hang on its all free…
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| The giant lady did not devour us all... |
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| Us on the ferry, NYC blur in the background |
Back to Manhatten and a work up
past wall street, closed being new years eve and a Saturday. A late lunch of
yum cha (good solid food to party on) in Chinatown and a stroll through little
Italy, up past the ‘iron’ shaped building in SoHo. Then it was a rest before
our new years eve really began!
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| Print it, put it on your wall, i'll sign it if you like! |
Our club of choice was the Bryant
Park Grill located at the New York State Library, in Bryant Park funnily
enough. A few blocks back from Times Square we were hoping for less crowds and
a good party. By pure co-incidence Pete Duncan and his girlfriend Alex were in
New York as well and managed to get tickets to the same event. Katrina and I
got the VIP treatment on arrivial, quickly discovered that American open bars
free pour (STRONG!) and then met up with Alex and Pete.
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| The last sober moment of the night |
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| The party crew!... drunk... |
Maybe you can ask this guy? Hang
on… who is this guy?
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| We have no idea who this guy is... |
Day 73
The hang over form hell. New
years day is always a killer, but when you have limited time in New York and
force yourself to do stuff its even worse. First I had the pleasure of
explaining to Katrina how she left without telling anyone, without any id or
money and then proceeded to lock me out of our hotel room! After Pete, Alex and
I had searched the club for her for over an hour!
First stop was Grant Central
Terminal. American’s appear to love trains as well as sport! A magnificent
building, cool acoustic whispering dome thing, great mural on the ceiling, and
the scene of countless rom coms!
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| Grand Central! |
Central Park to stretch the legs
an attempt to cure the hang over. A bit drab in Winter without snow, no leaves
on trees, no fountains etc (for fear of freezing I guess) but still impressive.
Great Vision by that guy who planned it into the city layout. Ticked off the
boat house, again rom coms, sex in the city etc, and then finished our wander
back through 5th Avenue.
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| The boat house... beware of thin ice? beware of no ice? |
And that was all we could manage,
back to the room for take away chinese, from little Korea, and an early night!
Day 74
Hang over almost gone, it was
straight up the Empire State in the morning, conveniently located on the back
side of the block we were staying. We did both the viewing levels but probably
could of done just the main observation deck, (also the scene of many romantic
dramas). Then off to Rockafella Centre to go the NBC store and buy Panthers
(Friday Night Lights) merchandise. Oh yeah we checked out some Xmas tree and
ice rink whilst there…
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| View towards freedom tower from the Empire state |
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| Friday night lights y'all! |
Back to Times Square for dinner
and a show. Dinner the most massive steak house meal I’ve ever seen! We shared
a plate that was for one, and it was out of control. The show we could get
tickets to was Chicago. Going to admit it, not a fan of musicals, wasn’t so
much Chicago itself was more just musicals in general. Katrina may have
something to add…
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| Shopping much? |
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| Some Americans need to learn not to eat things bigger than their heads! that is a meal for one... |
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| Katrina before the show |
Chicago was amazing. The set
along with the dance and singing quality was inspiring. We had great seats and
it is such a pity Mark doesn’t appreciate the arts….:)
Day 75
Back on the LIRR, back to JFK,
back on a plane… no snakes on the plane…
To be continued…
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