Some tales from New York

I'm not convinced anyone actually reads these things but it helps me remember what we've been up to. In this spirit, I'm going to attempt to summarise our 5 days in New York City for posterity. The first thing that struck me getting off the plane at JFK was how humid it was. The last time I was in New York was about the same time of year so it should have been no surprise. It's the first time I've arrived by air though. We did the obligatory yellow cab to the hotel, which gave us some good entered views approaching Manhattan. I was surprised how near the airport was and wondered why it takes up to an hour to get to Midtown. I realised why when we Manhattan and had Jimi's Crosstown Traffic stuck in my head for the next 20 minutes or so.
The hotel was the Affinia Manhattan, chosen using the old 'look through Tripadvisor ratings to find the highest rated one that you can afford in the right area' technique. It was a very swanky lobby and I felt quite scruffy after a long flight and rather hot cab journey. This didn't bother the receptionist who checked us in and upgraded us to a suite. Yay. He was really confused why we weren't going to see Coldplay that night at Madison Square Garden (which was just across the road), especially as we were English. I restrained myself from launching into a tirade against dullness. The room was not the most modern but it was comfortable, well equipped (kitchen, lounge, bedroom and 2 bathrooms) and best of all with a view of the Empire State Building (ESB to those in the know...).
We were determined to not go to sleep until as late as possible so went out to find the world's largest camera shop. It was completely bewildering inside - like a technologically-advanced Argos with entirely Jewish staff and the most gadgets I've ever seen. Got a nifty camera bag in the end. We had a bit of a wander round and a nosy round the old ESB which was handily scaffolded and covered up at the bottom. Found a rubbish shopping centre before paying our one and only visit to Sbarro. I think we did quite well. And we managed to stay up past 10pm. What jetlag?
Day 2 started promisingly as we didn't get up till 9am. Wish it was that easy to recover from jetlag in the opposite direction. Plus I was excited that we were going to get to see Pearl Jam that evening. We decided on this trip we should try to do the things we didn't get to do last time and top of that list was a good nosy round the Rockefeller Center. Those of you who don't know what it is, see the link, but it's a marvel of Art Deco town planning. Beautiful buildings with loads of steel and murals. They've done up the top of the GE building so you can once again visit it. 'The Top of the Rock' apparently. We went up and needless to say, I am definitely still not keen on heights. Impressive views from up there though. The sun was blazing as well and it was nice to have a sit down up there and think just how far away from work I was!

We took a self-guided walking tour of the Rockefeller Center, taking in the sights of St Patrick's cathedral, Radio City Music Hall and some of the buildings on the Avenue of the Americas. I think I was starting to be obsessed by the end of this so we headed over to the International Center for Photography which had some interesting exhibitions from Japan and the USA. Then it was time to pick up the Pearl Jam tickets and buy a pizza that was unfeasibly large. It was supposedly a small but I've never seen one so large over here. I've gone into a lot of detail in previous posts about the shows so I direct you to those. I had a pretzel the size of my head on the way back to the hotel. It was sad to see so many homeless people sleeping rough as I think it's something you don't see so often over here these days. I think New York is still very much a city of a thousand contrasts and the USA feels like such a different place to the UK, even though we speak the same language. Actually, I doubt that after constantly asking for people to repeat themselves and people keeping thinking I was Australian.

Day 3 was a good start to the morning knowing that I would be off to see the greatest live band in the world again that night. We called in to Macy's on the way to the subway. The New York Subway is cheap and relatively useful, but also insanely hot and humid so we headed for the cool climes of the American Museum of Natural History. It's enormous and the main entrance hall has two dinosaurs in it (I think they were a brachiosaur and an allosaurus but I've slept since then). As it was so massive, we decided to tag onto a tour of the highlights of the museum. We saw dinosaur fossils, gemstones and minerals and proper retro-looking diorama featuring bison and other animals. We finished off our visit with the planetarium (I will always get 'Sanitarium' by Metallica in my head at this point) in the Rose Center's nifty planetarium. More steamy Subway travel, a quick visit to Times Square and the world's largest toy store (disappointingly i's a Toys R Us but it has a huge, mechanical T-Rex in it) then off for another great show at Madison Square Garden.
Day 4 and the time's going for too quickly. We went off to Grand Central Terminal to see the impressive vaulted ceiling and decorations. Had a knish in the food court underneath, set out like a train carriage, then nearly had a divorce over a wiped memory card upstairs in the concourse. Brian K Vaughan (writer of comics/graphic novels) was doing a signing at a comic store near Grand Central and I'd promised the long-suffering other half that we could go. Plus, I finally got to go inside the Chrysler Building and coo over some more stainless steel and art deco. The geek line, I mean comic queue, wasn't too long, but I had time to have a wander off and stumble on a completely vegetarian burger bar, Zen Burger, which I earmarked for having tea in. Other half met BKV, I sulked that I didn't get to meet Pearl Jam and we fed our faces with burgers. Went back to the hotel and checked out the cocktail bar in the hotel, Niles. I had a cocktail and it was lovely. Then I had another one. Then we got one for free. Then I went to bed.
Day 5 had a slightly postponed start due to the sophoritic effects of 3 cocktails on a complete lightweight. We were booked on a river cruise from the South St Seaport to see some great views of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and Olafur Eliasson's Waterfalls. It was the hottest it had been that week I think but nice to get a breeze off the river. I was glad I hadn't had 4 cocktails though as I don't think I'd have appreciated being on a boat. On Friday nights, the Museum of Modern Art is free. We thought it would be a goodidea to visit then, not realising that everyone else would have the same idea. It was busy and so we didn't get to see all of Olafur Eliasson's installation, but saw some impressive works nonetheless including Warhol's soup cans, lots of Mondriaan, Klee and of course a load of old Pollocks. Sorry about that. The photography exhibitions were impressive too. We called at the Rockefeller Center again on the way too to re-take some of the photos I thought I had lost, including Chris Burden's public art project, 'What My Dad Gave Me' - a 6-storey skyscraper made out of 1930s replica toy parts. We finally got to go to Franchia as well, a Korean vegetarian restaurant on Park Avenue. It was a lovely place and really tasty, though I am pleased to report that Manchester's own Koreana does a nicer bibimbap.
Day 6 meant a whistle stop trip to Central Park for a geocache near the Dakota building and a little wander round. I decided to attempt some shopping in the Time Warner Building but ended up with an Owly book and a Napoleon Dynamite board game. Very useful. A quick shower at the hotel, final trip to Macy's and it was time to get in our yellow cab back to the airport. A slightly disappointing duty free session (no beer and not the right perfume) and it was time to get on the plane. Sadly not time to take off though as the thunderstorm that had been threatening the whole week decided to show up. It's not much fun sitting on the tarmac for 2 hours in a thunderstorm but I guess it's less fun flying in it.
And that was that. I think I could keep going back and still never see everything. A busy place but not in a tiring way. Of course, Pearl Jam and cheap flights are always a good combination and excuse.