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!!