Monday, September 6, 2010

New York, New York!!!

So onto the second part of the last week…….

Leigh and Nicky were leaving at 8am the next morning (wed) for a bus to Canada to get their visa stamped. Check out was 11am and it literally took us all morning to pack and get ourselves ready, all feeling very green we dragged our bags down the 100 flights of stairs and checked out, we were able to store our bags at the hostel which was good. After my bag getting quite heavy I decided I needed to ditch some things…. After trying to decide for a while I came to the decision that it would be my Walmart sneakers, so with those tied to my bag we headed in the search of food we had lots of little cafes to choose from and we ended up at Macca’s!

We sat there for about 2 hours talking about the antics of the night before and surviving the waves of nausea. Decided that beautiful park in downtown Boston was our next port of call (and the best place to find a homeless person to give my shoes too!). On the train and we arrived at the park, it was a beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze. Found ourselves a nice shady spot under the trees lied down and watched the world go by – bliss! After a little snooze I could smell what stunk like off dog poo?? I looked up and heading towards us was a homeless man shaking a cup asking for money, ‘perfect’ so I asked him if he fancied a new pair of shoes…….. in no uncertain terms told me all he wanted was money “GOT IT LADY”, ‘fine don’t have my great shoes, but I’m not giving you any money either phhh get a real job!’

Right enough lazing, Verena and I went for a walk further into the park and it was huge, there has a huge shallow pool with heaps of little kids wading around, guys playing soccer, we walked further and crossed the road into the 2nd part of the park and that was even better immaculate gardens and really pretty flowers – took lots of pics and they had really cute statues in the gardens I like the ones of a mother duck and all her little baby ducklings all in another line. I found a lady that was sitting on the edge of the park in a deck chair under an umbrella, she had a sign up asking for money. She was dressed in dirty clothes and was wearing a beanie with bird feathers sticking out of it, She had no teeth and was mumbling to herself, the best way to describe her and what she sounded like was, as Hol put it a girl version of Mr T. The prime candidate for my shoes, I started talking to her and offered her my shoes, after saying no thanks and thinking I was playing a joke on her she accepted and I was free of more weight in my bag!

Back on the train and back to the hostel by 5pm, walked past reception like we were still staying there and into the TV room. Hol snuck down to her bags and got her shower stuff and crept into the shower. I stuck my head under and washed my hair which was nice and refreshing after lying in the park for most of the afternoon. We still had until 12pm to catch our ‘Mega Bus’ to New York – more time to waste. At 6 we headed back to ‘McGreevy’s’ the Irish for, my favourite Trivia! We were the ‘international nuns’ and we had no idea, about 96% of the questions we didn’t know but at least we didn’t get last place. We had dinner and I had the best Sheppard’s pie it was delicious. Time to head back to the hostel to get our bags and make our way to south station bus terminal – guess how we got there…..yep the train!

I swear my bags keep getting heavier, onto the bus that costs us $5 (bargain) and now I know why it was $5 there is not even enough room to sneeze comfortably let alone sit for a 4 1/2 hour bus ride, but on the up side the bus wasn’t full so we got 2 seats each which was good. I don’t know if it was because I was uncomfy or if it was because I was excited that I was going to the big apple – whoo hoo!!!

Finally getting into the city I looked around and realised we were in Harlem oooo just like the movies all the shops with their roller doors down and on every corner there was a deli/quickie mart. Dropped off in the middle of Manhattan at 4.30am in the morning may seem a little daunting but it was all very thrilling we were in ‘New York, New York’. Hailed a cab (well it was already waiting by the bus stop) lucky it was a 4wd cab so all our bags fit in the back – just! The Marriott downtown here we come. Checked in at 4.45am and just by luck our room was already ready so we headed up to the 22 floor and into a room of luxury! 2 doubles with clean sheets and doonas a private bathroom that you can close the door and carpet… real carpet! Into bed and we were asleep in no time, got up around 11ish and headed out for a walk.


We walked to the water and rounded the corner, off in the distance I saw her……….the great ‘Lady Liberty’ herself! So awesome just like the movies, our hotel was in the downtown district so not very residential just lots of tall office buildings and workers. After walking along the waters edge for a while we decided to catch the subway into Times Square. Bought our ticket and down we went – ohhh this is so surreal it looks exactly like Speed, Die hard, Taking of Pelham and every other American based movie! Lots of under ground tunnels and walk ways a bit hard to know were you are going but its all colour coded so that made it easier. It was cleaner than I thought to no graffiti or rubbish the only off putting thing was the giant rat we saw running over the tracks! The train itself is a bit unusual as you sit facing each other and there are some weirdo’s on there.

Times Square – we popped out of the subway into the amazing hustle and bustle that is the epitome of New York City! It was fabulous, so many people, so many bright lights and colours, it’s like an assault on your eyes, and even the police station has neon flashing lights along with Macdonald’s and every shop imaginable. Our first stop was right in the middle of Times Square where you could see where they drop the ball for New Years Eve. Feeling hungry we headed for the ‘Hard Rock Café’ I had the veggie burger and it was delicious. More walking around, I was under the impression that Times Square was literally a square! Ha well its not - it’s a really long section along Broadway with restaurants, shops and just a huge advertising Mecca. We went into the biggest forever 21 shop it had 6 levels of just clothes shoes and accessories – bliss! The M&M shop with was 3 levels and had chocolate every where. Saw lots of other stuff too and took lots of pics, saw the ‘Naked Cow Girl’ just a girl version of the ‘Naked Cow Boy’ but instead of being young cute and fit she was 70yrs old, wrinkly and had furry star nipple covers aarrggghh!!

We bought tickets for the blue sight seeing bus, it was $86 dollars and went for 3 days, so we decided we would start the sight seeing the next day. I bought myself a Pandora bracelet and have decided that ill fill it with charms from the all the different places I have been. For NYC I bought a taxi which is quite fitting because very 2nd car is a yellow taxi! They are pretty cool, you can spot them anywhere and there is no problem flagging one down. More walking around and we then caught the subway back to the area in which we thought was the hotel, instead we found ‘Centaury 21’ which is a massive department store with big name brands at cheap prices. We had a look but there weren’t any great deals, in fact the clothes were all pretty hideous so instead we just had fun trying on the ugliest clothes we could find and then taking pictures!

Walking back to the hotel we got slightly lost but eventually made it back safe and sound. Got into bed watched some telly and fell asleep ready for the next day in the big apple.

We got up early (only Hol, Verena and I went) and left at 7.30am grabbed a starbucks and headed down the road to the bottom of Manhattan Island and got our ticket for a cruise on the Hudson River. We boarded and watched as the statue of liberty came closer and closer. From the shore she seems big but getting closer she is huge! We hopped off on ‘Liberty Island’ and walked around to the front of the statue, took 100’s of pics and even gimpy got in there and had her pic taken! We caught the first ferry across so there were less people which was good. The day before when we walked past at 11am the line for the ferry was at least a km long!

They have only just opened up the crown for people to go up into but the day we went there were no people allowed up but the view from the island looking back at Manhattan is still pretty spectacular – even if it is a bit smoggy!. From ‘Liberty Island’ we got back on the ferry and went across to ‘Ellis Island’. This is where all the migrants came first to be processed before being allowed into the country. Its now a national park and they have a museum dedicated to the migrants. It was interesting and they also had a section on international ‘Barbie’s” the Aussie one was so funny looked like something out of Texas with a cowboy hat, boots and a western outfit! And according to ‘Barbie’ the official language of Ireland is ‘Irish’ – who would have known?

Back on the ferry and back to Manhattan, we got off at ‘Battery Park’ which is where they have a monument to 9/11. It is actually a big sculpture that was originally out the front of the world trade towers and was amazingly hardly damaged. It is now in the park with a flame and a plaque. Walking a little further up the street we were getting closer to ‘Wall street’. We found the big bull and lined up for our picture – both ends! Down Wall Street, saw the NY stock exchange and a big statue of George Washington. A little further down we saw the Trump Towers and Tiffany’s. We had to have a browse, looked around it was beautiful so many sparkly diamonds!! Way out of our price range though – just a tad!

More walking uptown to the city hall where we met Ola and jumped on the sight seeing bus, which took us back through down town and gave us commentary about the area. Past the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges we were in china town. We thought it would be a cheap lunch so we jumped off and walked some more down ‘Mott’ street looking around I felt miles away from NY, more like China or Cabramatta! Decided where to eat was the hard part, in almost all of the shop windows was dead animals hanging upside down looking fairly rank! ‘So let’s go somewhere that doesn’t have the food hanging form the roof’.

We decided on a place with nothing in the windows, walked in and it was packed – must be good. Waited for a table and realised we were the only non Asians in the place, and the table the took us too was big and round, already had 4 people sitting on one side with a rolled up table cloth down the middle separating each side hahah. Getting the menu most of it was in Chinese so we just pointed to the pics. It arrived in 3 mins and it was delicious and cheap 6 bucks each!

More walking, pasted ‘Little Italy’ and back to the bus. Heading up to times square we went past the ‘East Village’, the ‘United Nations’ –which was in session as we went past because we could see all the flags of each nation flying out the front. Past the Waldorf Astoria (which if you ever need it, has its own private train station underground that you can use to dock your private train…..FOUB??) past the Rockefeller Centre where the big Christmas tree is erected in the winter along with the big ice skating rink.

Off in Times Square, more looking around and we decided we would start to head back as it was about 4ish and we were meeting Kelly and her parents for dinner. Following Ola’s directions we headed about 6 blocks in the wrong direction ehhh!! Just what we needed more walking, so back up the street and to Times Square jumped on the bus headed down town. Through the theatre district we saw all the theatres and shows that were on, the massive flagship Macy’s store, past the huge ‘Empire State’ building, the ‘Flatiron’ building which is cool (Google a pic of it, it looks like an iron, the only one like it in NY) through the fashion district, Soho, Greenwich village and off near our hotel, more walking to get back and then straight into the shower to get ready.

Only Verena, Hol and I went as Ola said she didn’t have enough $. Caught a yellow cab (what other colour is there?) to ‘Smith & Wollensky’ on 47th and 3rd, a high end steak house. Very flashy – meet Mr & Mrs Singleton and Tracey, Kel’s older sister. The meals were massive so Hol and I shared, we ordered the chicken and it was latterly a whole chicken! We had sides of mash and veggies to all share it was so GOOD to have nice food. Mr Singleton paid for the whole thing which was so so nice of him! Thanks Mr Singleton!!!

It was funny, we hadn’t seen Kel for 2/3 days and it felt like so much longer. They all went home and the 3 of us decided it was too early to go to bed so we walked down to 9th Ave where there are lots of bars. Found an Irish one we liked called ‘The Snug’ in the ‘Hell’s kitchen’ area (named because back in the days it was a huge druggie area that was really bad and notorious for crime). The bar tender was funny when we walked in he did a double take and looked at us funny, after ordering our drinks he said to me “I’m really sorry for starring at you but you look exactly like me ex girlfriend!” haha ok then. Next thing you know he’s out from behind the bar and asking to take a picture with him!

Taking the pic with him must of worked, while we were sitting down one of the workers brought over 3 pineapple shots for us “With compliments form the bar tender” whoo hoo free drinks! The bar had 2 happy hours one from 4-7pm and another 11pm-1am it was 11.30pm so the drinks were only $4 – bargain. We ordered another round and low and behold another free shot! After a 3rd round we where exhausted, all the walking we had done that day and then the alcohol we were nearly asleep on the table so cab back to the hotel at 1am and the whole night in NYC cost us under $20!

Ola got up early and left for the Brooklyn tour on the bus which we weren’t too fussed on and we were still in bed! We caught the bus to Times Square and then up to the edge of ‘Central park’, walked past the illustrious ‘Plaza’ hotel (the one in ‘Bride wars’ were they both want to get married) walked up the renowned 5th Ave and met Kel for lunch, ate at ‘Europa’ café – yummy!. Walked down 5th Ave past Gucci, Luis Viton, Prada and Armani just to name a few. Went onto ‘Saks on 5th’ and bought some make up, walked further down to the big ‘Best Buy’ (like JB Hi-Fi) and used the free internet.

Left Kel and walked from 5th Ave down to 12th Ave which is basically half of the Island! 12th is right on the water and we thought it would be a good idea to do the night boat tour round Manhattan. Just in time we hopped on the boat and headed off, it was a great view at night and it went from one side to the other side of the Island past Brooklyn and Queens.

Off the boat and we decided that tonight was the night for ‘Empire State’. We lined up and waited for one of the local buses (not the NY tour bus) but we needed coins argh of course we only had notes so it was walking AGAIN! ‘Nah lets cab it’. Out at Empire State, which was included in our bus ticket. It was about 9.30pm and the wait was about 1 ½ hours so we decided to do the only thing we could……. head to a bar and wait it out. The last elevator up to the observation deck was at 12.45am so we had plenty of time!

Into ‘Legends’ and we parked it at the bar, several dozen $7 cocktails later, we knew the bar tender was from Cork Ireland, had lived for 2 years in Coogee, was now working in NY and was giving us free shots! Oh 12.30am time to head to Empire state. Walked straight in, no line and straight up to the 86th floor. Up on the deck it was so, so, so windy. The view is so spectacular and pretty, it was cloudy and the sky was a pinky peach colour which looked really eerie. We took lots of pics and having the few cocktails on board we had a fab time, so did Gimpy she was hanging out the top and having pics with the guards.

Got some great pics and it was so much fun! They made an announcement that they would be closing and we had to leave, we wanted to be the last people their so we hid in the bathroom until security came and knocked and told us we had to get out. ‘fine fine, we’re leaving’ so we walked as slow as we could and caught the lift down with all the workers to the 80th level where you have to walk across to the lift to the bottom of the building. We were escorted by the head of security through some doors into a corridor which had signed pictures of all different famous people that had been up the top. “cool we are going down in the VIP lift, how exciting is this-bet not everyone gets in here!” Out into the lobby we were boasting about the VIP lift when one of the guards whispered “that’s not a VIP lift it’s for prams and the disabled” opps haha right not so VIP now! There was another couple in the lobby loitering the same as were trying to be the last to leave. We stopped to let them leave first but they would go, so after waiting for a bit we all held hands and walked out together!

Back to Legends bar, more cocktails and this time we met the manager a Turkish guy that order pizza for the staff and gave us some – sweet free drinks and food this place is great! The bar closed at 4am and Hol who had quite a few on board was ready to keep partying at the next club but me and Verena had, had enough so we started walking back and on the way we spied a hotdog stand……

We hadn’t yet had a NY ‘Hawt Dawg’ so what better time than at 4.30am so Verena and I tried hard to get it for $1 but no luck even with our international smiles! ‘No you pay $2.50’ ok ok $2.50 it is. The hot dogs in America are really small not what I would have thought, imagine a hot dog you can buy from ‘Wendy’s’ at home and then cut it in half! We have a normal beef hotdog (not that I think its actually beef!) with mustard, ketchup, pickles and sauerkraut – Verena pipes up “hope this doesn’t give us diarrhoea”. Caught a cab back home and into bed by 5am, what a day.

Next morning my hotdog had a little surprise in store for me, and kept on giving and giving – not fun, but I have a pill for that so not to worry! All fixed and ready to face the day despite that fact that we didn’t get up till midday. It was a miserable day overcast and raining so we decided to stay indoors. Ola went to met her friend so it was just the 3 of us. At about 3ish when it was only drizzling we walked up the street to ‘Steve’s’ pizza and bought a salad and a slice of pizza, walked back to the hotel, put on out pj’s, hopped into bed and ate lunch and watched telly. It was so nice not to be doing anything and so relaxing. We watched ‘Keeping up the Kardashian’s’ and I’m addicted to it! We watched all afternoon till 9pm when I had to leave for the bus to Canada.

It had been perfect weather up until Sunday the day I happened to be leaving. As we got down to the lobby I realised just how hard it was raining, no not raining – Pouring! Great so with my massive pack my smaller back pack and my handbag I ran out into the rain and practically belly dived into the taxi and headed to pen station. Trying to get out of the cab was a whole other story I had to squirm out with the pack trying to pull me back into the cab. As I stepped into the curb (with jeans on) it was flooded with water that came up to my shins – fantastic!

Waiting for a bus on the street with no markings or signs where I’m meant to be, packed with 100’s of people in the pouring rain, with soaking jeans and the heaviest bag you can imagine-does it get any more dismal?

Finally the 10pm bus arrived at 10.40pm and we loaded up, the bus was full so I sat next to a big young Asian guy who was from Toronto and had came to NY for the weekend. Settling down the lights were dimmed and people were trying to sleep. There was 2 girls sitting next to each other about 2 seats back that decided that seeing as though they had just met they would tell each other their whole life story at the top of their lungs. No I don’t want to know about your half German parents, or the fact that you lived in India for 6 months or that your ex boyfriend cheated on you – BORING with a capital B and I’m trying to sleep!! I had my eye mask on and my ipod on loud and I could still here them. Other people were getting annoyed, making comments about how loud they were being. I was just about to ask them to be quite when all of a sudden……….nothing, quite, finally they had shut up!

Dozing on and off but not really sleeping we stopped at a road house at about 3am and went to the loo, got some snacks to eat and kept going. We arrived at the Canadian border at 7ish all hopped off took all our luggage, lined up and waited to be called to the desk. All they did was look at my passport, ask me where I was staying and then stamped the page – easy as. All back on the bus and more driving, we finally got to Toronto at 10am – Not having slept much and not having any clue about Toronto I jumped in a cab and asked him to take me to ‘Clarence Castle Hostel’ ok he says but what’s the address??? Oh right an address ‘crap’ I don’t know I didn’t write it down – how dumb am I? ‘ummm well do you know where there is a starbucks that you can drop me off at so I can jump out use the free wi-fi get the address and jump back in?’ sure, so I jumped out at starbucks taking my 2 little bags with me, constantly looking out the window paranoid the cab would drive off with my big bag! Got the address then back into the cab, using the GPS he had it still felt like we were going to circles.

Arrived at the hostel and it was opposite a really nice park, and from the outside looked like cute old apartment. Got inside and it was 10.30am check in was not till1pm so I dumped my bags, got changed and used the net. I was getting peckish so headed off outside. The view from the hostel was great, looked straight onto the CN tower (the main attraction in Toronto, like centre point). It was a bit chilly I had jeans, and a cardigan on and a scarf – felt like autumn. Went to a coffee shop called ‘Second cup’ had a lovely coffee and a sandwich and sat for 4 hours people watching and using the net. Walked back and got the keys to my room – 6 bed female dorm with our own bathroom. It is the nicest hostel I have been in. The bunks all looked new, the beds were so comfy and the down stairs living room and kitchen was beautiful.

Having not much to do I did all my washing and drying and made my bed. There was already 2 Asian chicks in the room and their hair was all over the bathroom which made me feel like I was going to puke. Another new girl, Katie, came in and she was 19 from England and had been working at a summer camp that was 1 ½ hours from our camp. She was in Toronto for a week and said the only reason she was there was so that she could have a drink! Whoa and I think us girls were bad! She said she had just been walking around for an hour and a half looking for maccas??? Was she serious there were lots of nice cafés and bars around instead of maaca’s.

I was headed out for dinner so asked if she wanted to come along. So we set off and found ‘Elephant & Castle’ an English bar and got Katie a drink! I had meatloaf – don’t ask me why I ordered it but it was lovely! (nothing like that time grandma made us meatloaf – ewww) Walked back to the hostel – its in such a great place just a 5 min walk to the tower, the baseball stadium, bars, clubs and restaurants.

Leigh was arriving from Quebec the next day Tuesday morning, I got up at 7am and met her down in the lobby. She and Nicky had enjoyed Montreal and then when Nicky went back to NY to met her friend Michal Leigh headed up to Quebec. She said it was a beautiful city, she caught the bus overnight to Toronto and didn’t sleep much so she was really tired. We walked down the street for some breakfast and found ‘Tim Horton’s’ a coffee chain had some brekkie and walked to the CN tower, didn’t go up it just looked around and headed to the harbour. On the way we walked through a park that, FOUB you would have liked, it had all these different old trains like steam train and the Canadian Pacific with a museum I think, got some pics anyways.

Back to the hostel we went to bed and had a snooze, got up and decided we would go to the baseball – Toronto Blue Jays vs. the Yankees. Walked to the stadium and had a look but decided that we should just go to a bar and watch it. Off to the ‘Loose Moose’ and had dinner and watched the game – Blue Jays won! Met a man that was in town for the Gynaecologists Convention who offered us a job in Brisbane at the new office for ‘Cook Medical’. Next bar – Jack Astor’s there was a fair crowd considering it was a Tuesday night. Gimpy made an appearance and we ended up meeting a group of guys from a town about 2 hours from Toronto who were in town for the game.

We stuck with them and headed back to the Loose Moose, then after a few more drinks they decided it was time to go to the strip club, somehow Leigh and I ended up in a cab with them! Free entry into the club which we are told is one of the most prestigious strip clubs in the whole of Canada. So ushered in, Leigh took a pic of me and one of the guys at the bar and she was pounced on by one of the bouncers who made her delete it even though it was only of us and no one else. Sitting down we weren’t the only girls there (not including the chicks that worked there) then this old Japanese man dressed up in a tweed suit, with a long white beard and a orange marigold flower behind his ear with a little press hat on who looked like Mr Miargy (from the karate kid) came up to Leigh and wanted her to “sit” with him she was quick to say no thanks so instead he gave her his flower!

Some of the guys decided that they had had enough so we went with them. So 5 of us squeezed into a taxi, I managed to end up with my head behind the guy in the middle and my legs sticking up the air! Back to the Loose Moose and it was closed  so we started walking back to the hostel when we saw these 2 racoons running through the street and up the side of the princess theatre (They were like a cross between a cat and a rat and a skunk) we dropped the boys off along the way and ended up at another hotdog stand so we thought it only appropriate to sample a Canadian hotdog – just to check if they are any different. So this time it was big, like a normal size hot dog. And it was so cute they had a little salad bar of things you could top your dog with like onion, sauerkraut, bacon bits, pickles, relish, olives or spicy peppers. This was the best hotdog yet, gimpy even like the hotdog and got us a backstage pass into the hotdog stand while some random took pics of us!

While eating our hotdog this Indian dude popped up out of no where are asked us if we wanted to go back to his place for a 3some??? Is this guy serious?? Needless to say we high tailed it outta there and told him to get a life. More walking and we were closer to the hostel when we bumped into 2 guys from Sweden. We ended up stopping and chatting to them for ages and gimpy had her fair shares of pics. Next thing you know one of the guys is kissing me! Haha we said goodbye and headed to the hostel, got into bed at 4am.


Still more to come……

Love that everyone is liking the blog hopefully I can catch up enough to put it up every few days!

Missing everyone lots but having a ball!

Cheerio xox

No comments:

Post a Comment