31 March 2009

16:07 EST (21:00 BST)

Firstly, I (Steve) would like to defend my actions last night, seeing as Mez wrote the second half of last nights post without me. Sean Avery is a great player, which I only really realised watching him last night, but that still doesn't mean that I like him!!! And as for the whole hating the Rangers thing, I admit that the atmosphere got to me slightly!

Right, i have taken charge of the laptop and will therefore get us started on today's activities. Today was the visit to claim back what is rightfully ours (it has our name on it so must be ours) CONEY ISLAND. So we grabbed some breakfast in the local area from a little dinner, S had ham and pancakes and M had eggs and corned beef hash (superb as a breakfast) and we headed to the Subway. We have used the Subway a lot whilst here but this was our best value trip as the cost is a flat rate of $2 no matter how far you go and our trip to Coney Island took an hour through Brooklyn.


Coney Island is an area of Brooklyn made famous by its theme/amusment park which isn't open yet but there is still a lovely Boardwalk along the edge of the sandy beech and is also home to NY Aquarium which we decided would be suitable entertainment as nothing else was open and it would have seemed a wasted (very long!) trip otherwise.

fter exploring the aquarium we also went to the 4-D ocean adventure (included in the entry fee for the Aquarium) which was a 3D cinema showing of one of the BBC Blue Planet episodes complete with rubbling, vibration, sea breezes, bubbles and water sprays, well worth the visit if a little short.

We then headed back along the Broadwalk to Nathan's, home of the original Coney Dog (which was also the first hotdog) and the national hotdog eating contest, please now block your, urm, eyes, if you don't want to know what disgustingly calorific food we ate, we each had a chili cheese dog and shared a portion of cheese and bacon fries (actually chunky crinkle cut fresh chips) all of which was fairly challenging to eat but really quite yummy! We then headed along the front of the Amusement park, past the Coney Island Museum and had a go at one of the basketball stands (S was rubbish, M was a lot less rubbish so the guy gave us an Easter prize for good measure) and had a look at
the 75yr old wooden rollercoster before heading back on the Subway to Manhattan. The whole area is very like Verona Beach in the Romeo and Juliet film. (and yes, we did buy a t-shirt, in fact we brought one each)

We are now writing this in the basement of the Y while we do our laundry.

23:50 EST (04:50 BST)

Having finished doing our laundry we suddenly realised that if we wanted to have anything to eat before the evenings entertainment, then we would have to rush out and grab something quickly! The plan for this evening was to have something to eat before heading off down Broadway to the Majestic Theatre to see The Phantom of the Opera. As it turned out we ended up getting to the the right street off Broadway before turning the wrong way and ending up 2 blocks in the opposite direction from our destination. By the time we realised our mistake we only had enough time to grab a slice of pizza each whilst watching the queue mounting by the second about 100yards round the corner from the theatre. This didn't turn out to be such of a problem and we soon joined the queue and made our way inside.

The sow itself was pretty spectacular. There were lots of pyrotechnics and impressive set movements/destructions along the way. We both throughly enjoyed it, although the audience around us seemed to be a bit overenthusiastic about everything! There was clapping and whooping at every possible opportunity (including when the curtain went up at the beginning!) and much hilarity at even the smallest joke. After the performance we purchased a bit of self indulgent souvenir and made our way outside to find somewhere to have dinner.

At the recommendation of the all knowing guidebook, we made our way back up Broadway to "Ruby Foo's" Chinese restaurant, which despite the rather appaling sounding name turned out to be very nice indeed. S had crab cakes for starter followed by roast chicken with Chinese vegetables and strawberry and rhubarb upside down cake for dessert. M had an unknown concoction of rice, avocado with yellowfin (a fish maybe?) and a quail yoke on top for starter followed by seared prawns with noodle/stirfry/salad (notice how M pays so much attention to what she orders!) and finished off with coconut and pineapple sorbets for pud.

After this feast we made our way back to the Y where we are now sitting in bed writing up the days activities and picking which photo's to put into this installment!

30 Mar 2009

14:00 EST (19:00 BST)

Well last night turned out to be more stressful than we had anticipated! Finding somewhere to eat in a city with god knows how many thousands of restaurants ended up being a serious mission. Having set out to make our way to the Rockefeller Centre to take in a view of the New York skyline at night, we realised as we were standing in the ticket office that we had forgotten to bring the camera, which kind of defeated the point. So having failed at our first attempt to find something to do, we decided to find somewhere to eat in the local area. After about 30mins of random wanderings (and quite a bit of moaning from Mez who developed a blister on her foot) and looking at menus that looked good, but were far too expensive (or vice-versa) we settled on a diner-type restaurant just off Broadway. S had a meatball pizza (which looked big, but felt even bigger when finished) and M had a half roast chicken which was equally huge...looked more like a turkey!

Having completely stuffed ourselves we staggered across the street to "M&M's World" which is pretty much what it says on the tin...3 floors of overpriced m&m's merchandise and some rather huge DIY m&m's bags. We both picked up a small bag each, but still managed to spend a silly amount of money (not realising how heavy a pound is) and made our way back to the Y for some well earned rest.

Day 2

We awoke at a very bright and early 07:00 and had a leisurely coffee whilst planning the day ahead. As the weather looked nice and bright we decided to head to the Empire State Building for a trip to the 86th floor. We set off and stopped about 5 blocks south of the Y for breakfast (S had a scallion (spring onion) cream cheese on a cinnamon and raisin bagel and M had a cheese, egg and bacon wrap) and a bucket of coffee before heading down to 33rd St to the Empire State, stopping off for a quick photo session round Times Square.

Upon arrival we were ushered into a queue for the security check (everywhere seems to have airport style security here) and then had about a 10-15min queue for the lift up to the 80th floor. Amazingly this took less than a minute and before we knew we were once again in another queue for the lift to the 86th floor observatory.

When we finally made it up to the observatory, we went out onto the outside balcony and were greeted with what can only be described as gale force winds! However, this didn't spoil what was an extraordinary view. I'll let the photos do the talking at this point!!




After we'd finished looking at the stunning skyline we made our way to the bottom of the building (which must have taken us about 20min queuing for lifts) and decided to head to Madison Square Garden to pick up our tickets for this evenings entertainment of the New York Rangers vs New Jersey Devils ice hockey. After a brief look around we then headed down 34th St past Macy's and on to Grand Central Station where we planned to have lunch.


After about a 30min walk we arrived at quite possibly the most impressive looking train station I've ever seen. The exterior slowly appeared as we approached from about 3 blocks away and when walked in the main entrance we were greeted by a huge interior foyer. Following a few moment gawping at the ceiling we found our way to the dining concourse which must have had about 20 different food stands selling a variety of different cuisines from Mexican and Jamaican to seafood and pretzels. We eventually settled on Mexican with S having a Texan Chain Gang chili burrito and M a Numero Uno chili platter. Both were pretty amazing and like all the food we've had so far extremely filling. We did however manage to save a pudding corner and shared a small cherry pie. it haws taken until this point for us to order something with confidence , firstly you have to know what you want as soon as you get there and secondly you have to be able to answer the long string of additinal questions about the food in question if you have not already specified, for example M ordered an Ice Tea in Starbucks, the questions asked were,
Size?
Black, Green or Pomegranate?
lemonade?
sweetened?
Ice?
FYI, i ended up going for Small, Green, lemonade, unsweetened with ice, and i will try and remember this for ordering next time.



Once again feeling the need to walk off some calories we set off east and walked along the imaginatively name UN walk to (you guessed it!) the UN headquarters.

All this eating and walking had taken it's toll on Mez and so we took the easy route (cab) back to the Y where M had a snooze to prepare us for the evening ahead! In my defense we did discover that 20 blocks is a mile and we have had no issue about walking more than that lots of times over the last two days, good job considering the calorie intake!

p.s. Steve is writing this as Mez is soundly sleeping and snoring away (I do not snore!)!!

23:00 EST (4:00AM BST)

Just got back from this evening's entertainment courtesy of The New York Rangers. Firstly some background, the new york rangers were playing at home (Madison Square Gardens) against The New Jersey Devils, and when asked just prior to the start of the game which team we were supporting S was very quick to say the Devils as he cannot stand the Rangers (for being like Chelsea and just buying expensive players) and in particular their Assistant Captain, Sean Avery. Well the stadium is amazing and HUGE, as was the Hot Dog S ordered and it was clear from the start that 99.9% of the fans there were there to see the Rangers, i think if you just listened to a recording of the voice over guy you would not know the name of the opposition so we quickly realised that it would be best to go with the overwhelming majority and support the Rangers, which turned out to be the better option as they won three nil with plenty of near and actual fights to spice things up a little.


Watching Hockey in the US is quite different from the UK and not just for the technical reasons like smaller rink and better quicker players, two of the most significant differences are all of the commercial breaks which completely stop all activity for a couple of minutes nearly every time there is a stop in play, even if the last stop was only minutes previously and during this time the ice is swept and cleaned which never happens in the UK, the other big difference is the food sellers who continuously circle the concourses selling hot dogs, drinks, ice creams and 'cotton candy'.

All in all an amazing game, amazing atmosphere and a brilliant experience all of which made S say, and i quote "Rangers may now be my favourite team in the Eastern Conference" and "Sean Avery is a brilliant player" and which made M decide she may continue to support the Pittsburgh Penguins, but after seeing Henrik Ljundqvist on the big screen, she may also support him too!!

Day 1 Sunday 29 March 2009

29 Mar 2009 13:48BST, 09:49EST

Greetings All!

Landed at JFK International at about 5:30 local time and after an uneventful flight (barring some turbulence and a bit of a rough landing (according to Steve that is who obviously hasn't experienced a BAD landing before!)). After having our finger prints and photographs taken by an immigration official who thought it was very funny that Steve looks like Harry Potter in his passport photo we headed for a yellow cab straight to the West Side Y! (note, not YMCA, just The Y) to find we had a free upgrade to having a private bathroom and double bed!

Quickly dumped our stuff did a quick freshen up and headed out to Broadway baby!!

We opted for walking straight down Broadway to Times Square which is pretty phenomenal really, I had know idea it was quite so light! This journey included walking past the Lincoln Centre, Trump Tower and several other classic New York sights such as the Subway grates smoking away (Steve was particularly disturbed to find that the grates he had been walking over were directly over the Subway...you can actually see the line below!!).

Once at Times Square we had a good look around at all the MASSIVE buildings around and then decided to try and grab something to eat (it was about 8pm by this time or midnight by our bodyclocks) and headed up a random side street to be confronted by the Empire State Building to our right. We then realised that it was fast approaching 8.30 and the Earth Hour so we stopped at the first busy food place we found, we had obviously be subconsciously guided by Rachel (Mez's Cousin) as it turned out to be a Chipolte's so we ordered our first proper Burritos and a Root Beer. Burritos 10 out of 10, Root Beer – NEVER again, but i think i wont get a cough for the next year having drunk that much cough syrup.

After that we had a wander back to Times Square just in time to see that all the big TV screens had been turned off (not really the big eco-friendly message I had expected...everything else was still blindly bright), but quite impressively both the Empire State building and Chrysler building were almost unrecognisable without the pools of light surrounding them.

By this time we were feeling the hour and beginning to flag rapidly so decided to head back home, stopping to buy some supplies and also heading into the NHL shop which we just (genuinely) happened to be passing and buying a coffee from their in-house Starbucks (which Mez insisted we go into...as some people may already know Steve said he would never go into one here, but was pleasantly surprised).

We then headed straight back to The Y and almost immediately to bed (9.30 local time, 1.30 on the bodyclock) for a nice nights sleep... until 8.30 bodyclock time, or 4.30AM local time...such are the joys of jet lag.

Day 1 Proper

We finally decided it was ok to get up at about 7.30 and i had a slightly off cold shower (good water pressure tho you will be pleased to know) and we headed for H&H bagels as recommended in the guide book, however when we got there it turned out to be right next to Zabar's (highly recommended in the guide and by the Parents) so we got ourselves some Nova Bagels (Nova Scotia Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese and Chives) and a coffee and grabbed a couple of stools, the best bagel i have ever had!!

We then decided to walk to the Guggenheim via Central Park, which is a really amazing place actually, i can easily see why New Yorkers are so proud of it. Having walked through almost empty streets to get there (is was 9.30 on a Sunday and raining) the park was bustling with runners, walkers, dog walkers and chatting friends, queue some stunning scenes of wet woods with sky scrappers peeping through the fog and general quite and stillness.

All of which takes us to the Guggenheim where we are currently having a coffee and writing this whilst waiting for it to open!

06:25 EST

So the Guggenheim – really bloody good actually, and both of us think that too!

We took the advice of many and started at the top working our way down and also doing the annex galleries off to the side and they were the best bit i think. One was the winner of the 2009 Hugo Boss award (whatever that means (well seeing as they are a big sponsor of the gallery, not much!!)). It was all bits and pieces owned by a Palestinian living in Rome who was assassinated by Mossad. The other was quite different, it started with asking you to take off your shoes and you then went into two rooms with 'stuff' hanging from or attached to the walls lit strongly in pink and blue while the rest of the room was dark with some very intense music/noise/sound. Very bizarre but interesting.

We then headed to The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and did a quick tour of the Greek, Roman, Native American, and Modern American Art Galleries before stopping for a refreshment break at the Balcony cafe (S had coffee, M had ice t (very nice) and shared a chocolate cup cake (amazing!!!) before heading to the Egyptian galleries.

By this time we were both famished and decided to find somewhere to have lunch. The intention was to have something substantial, but not too filling as we planned to do some walking in the afternoon. We found a cafe/restaurant a couple of blocks (getting with the lingo :) )away from the Met that did what seemed like light lunches (burgers, sandwiches etc.). S decided to go for the heavy option with a “Deluxe Cheeseburger with Feta Cheese” and like a stupid English person looked very confused when asked how he wanted it done (in the end getting the drift and going for rare). M went for the “Reuben” which turned out to be a Pizza style open sandwich with sauerkraut and pastrami and melted swiss cheese. The burger turned out to be more blue than rare, but was excellent none the less and the Reuben was very nice, but M couldn't finish it (!!!!) as it was just HUGE!

Feeling particularly full and realising how far it was we opted for the Subway to Battery Park and boarded the last ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The view was a little hampered by the low cloud but none the less stunning, the statue of liberty on the other hand was actually a little smaller than expected so we opted to stay on the ferry and go straight to Ellis Island and the Immigration Museum which was fascinating.

We got the last ferry back to NYC and headed for the Subway via the NY Stock Exchange which was an anticlimax, now back at base to recuperate before dinner.

Getting Started

Ok so I have decided to start a blog, mostly because it will be good to do one whilst on holiday over the next three weeks but also with the intention of keeping it up. Humm I am not sure it will really work may be another 'good in theory' type exercises like Facebook and Twitter but we shall see!