Monday
After a day spent buying reading material for the flight and a tourist guide of New York, we called it a day and called a cab to Heathrow Airport. An hour of so later we arrived at Heathrow Airport terminal 5.
Too early to check our bags in we spent hours reading on a cold bench inside terminal 5. A woman asked us to watch her bags as she went to the toilet and shops; as she walked off I imagined her left luggage exploding in a huge ball, spraying the remnants of our bodies across the terminal in a faint red mist, or being led away by customers offices to answer awkward questions about the large bags of heroin that we seemed to have in our possession, although the woman returned and read the Daily Mail she had just bought quietly while waiting for her departure desk to open.
We were finally able to check our bags in and head through security. The main departure area of Terminal 5 is an impressively modern looking building full of expensive eateries and designer outlets. We searched high and low for that stable of modern British life McDonalds but it seems the fast food joint hadn't quite made it into terminal 5 so we opted for noodles at Wagamamas followed by a tour of the stores that sold ipads, 200 pound pairs of jeans and other trinkets that we couldn't afford. I was tempted to cash in all of our holiday spending money on a new tax free telly and return home to spend the week playing X-box, sadly my girlfriend rejected this idea and we waited patiently for the flight.
We boarded the flight and I spent the next seven hours watching films. I saw Bridesmaids, Thor and Senna if your interested. The flight ended with the old women behind us kicking our seats and coughing loudly which ruined the end of Senna for me. Finally the Plane arrived at JFK and I disembarked while worrying about the contagions that I had been infected with.
After spending hours cueing for immigration, I was served by a surprisingly friendly immigration officer. I walked off in shock as the last time I tried to enter the US I was almost turned away for having sloppy hand writing and the time before that I was barely allowed to leave England after an alteration at security. Picking up our bags we quickly entered the main terminal to be greeted by my father and brother, they drove us across Brooklyn avoiding the two car crashes and the general madness exuded by the local road users who happily drove over verges and shouted loudly at each other at every available opportunity. We arrived safely at our hotel the Sleep Inn Brooklyn and checked in; we said goodbye to my father and brother and headed to the room.
The Sleep in Brooklynn is situated around a twenty minute metro ride from down town Manhattan in a Hispanic part of Brooklynn. The main problem is you have to walk under the Gowanuns Expressway, a large fly over that runs down the middle of Brooklynn, to get to the Subway station. The rooms weren't too clean, we found some random hairs in the hotel room that didn't belong to either of us, but they didn't live up to the horror stories of rats and bed bugs that we found on the internet shortly after booking the trip.
Tuesday
We woke up early so we could grab breakfast, my girlfriend ate an apple and I stuffed my face with a couple of doughnuts and toast. We then met my father who drove us to their nicer hotel. We spent time discussing what we were going to do with the rest of the day while taking panoramic pictures from the hotel roof, while the day quickly slipped away from us. Finally we left the hotel and headed for the subway and down town Manhattan.
Arriving at down town we left the company of my family after agreeing to met at Macy's at around three in the afternoon. Heading for the Ground Zero site we saw the new Trade Centre 1 building (freedom tower) being constructed as well as the memorial ribbons that had been tied to the fence around Saint Paul's Chapel two days before on the tenth anniversary of September the 11th. Next we wandered down to Castle Clinton, we looked at the small exhibition detailing the development of Clinton castle and surrounding Battery Park.
Castle Clinton was built as a coastal defence during the war of 1812 before becoming an immigration centre in the period before the Ellis Island facility opened. Afterwards it became an opera theatre and then an aquarium before falling into disrepair and ending up as a ticket booth for ferries to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Nearby stands the National Museum Of the American Indians contained inside the Alexander Hamilton US Custom house. We spent a few hours looking around the exhibition which give information about Indians across the whole of the Americas. The building itself has some magnificent architecture and murals depicting a ship crossing New York harbour. Outside are four statues that depict America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Finished down town for the day we headed to mid town and the Grand Central Terminal (Station). Inside we admired the huge amounts of marble used to construct the main concourse as well as the chandeliers that adorn the room and constellations painted on the ceiling. We had a quick walk through the Grand Central Terminal's market area and the mall that is situated nearby.
It was nearly three as we left Grand Central Terminal but I decided to try and make a quick trip to Times Square but as we neared Times Square we received an angry phone call wondering where we were and why we were not outside Macy's already. We quickly changed direction and headed for Macy's. Arriving at Macy's we spent a few minutes looking around for my family before finally spotting my dad alone on a table outside in Herald Square, everyone else had already left. We arranged to meet again at five thirty to see the Billy Elliot Musical, the least American of all plays, at the Imperial Theatre.
Heading off again we made a quick stop at the Empire State Building and toured around the local clothes shops. Before meeting up with my family we wandered through Times Square and saw the forest of neon lights that encircle the Square as well as the local legend the naked Cowboy. After a quick stop in the local information centre, which offers a few discounts on shows but very little else, we dodged the hustlers, who were trying to get us to see other shows, and headed to a nearby Gourmet Coffee Shop just outside Times Square and grabbed a coffee. I like the American style deli's which offer a vast array of food, drinks and shacks while opening for 24 hours a day.
Heading to the imperial theatre we watched Billy Elliot, the production was excellent although all of the actors struggled trying to approximate the Geordie accent. After the performance we headed to a local Mexican restaurant and I managed to drop my meal all over myself instead of eating it.
Wednesday
Another early morning my girlfriend and I quickly readied ourselves for the day and left the hotel sans breakfast doughnuts. We took the subway to near Clinton castle and after a long wait for my siblings we headed off to Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty stands. The statue is built on an iron frame with cooper cladding, the statue would have originally been reddish in colour but has turned green with age and most of the iron has now been replaced with steel. The statue was build by the French and donated to the US although the plinth it stands on was built and funded by the US. The statue face is modelled on Frederic Augustre's (the designer) mother but the body is based on his mistress which is kind of creepy.
Leaving Liberty Island we headed to Ellis Island a former immigration centre that was used between 1892 and 1954. We were exhausted by our trip to liberty island and didn't cover the whole of the immigration centre although it seemed that most tourists didn't even bother to stop at the island instead heading straight back to the main land. The emigration centre was the first stop for some twelve million immigrants during the time it was open a number far higher than was expected. Every immigrant received a medical check although the examiners only had six second per immigrant and those with obvious problems were held over for more thorough inspections.
When we arrived back at Manhattan we headed straight for the nearest Irish Pubs, one of the most common features of Manhattan, some blocks we walked past had as many of three choices of 'traditional' Irish Pub. The one we settled into had an authentic sounding Irish bar tender behind the bar so we settled in to have a snack and a few drinks. Even my nineteen year old brother managed to be served a few bottles of Corona before we left stuffed from the plates of 'traditional' Irish nachos with red, white and green chips, fries, onion rings and salad that we split between the four of us.
Finishing our snack we headed off for dinner as it was already getting late in the day and we had spent most of the day touring the islands. Deciding to walk off the snack we walked upwards the Italian restaurant we had agreed to meet at. We walked past the Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall street, the place where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the Untied States of America, and up towards little Italy a fairly long walk away. On the way we stopped to take a picture of my sister posing by a fire engine, although sadly not in the arms of a fighter fighter as she would have liked.
The restaurant we had settled on was called Peasant, which caused my dad to text 'We're at peasant, where are the peasants', when he arrived before us fairly drunk from a day eating tapas and looking at art. We ate in the basement as upstairs couldn't accommodate groups of six. The restaurant was decorated rustically with large coarse wood tables and benches to sit on, the lighting was dark and for some reason they played early nineties Brit pop classics for the duration of our stay. The food was expensive although I didn't eat a lot as I was still stuffed from my snack. Finishing the meal we headed back to the hotel exhausted.
Thursday
Thursday morning we headed off for an early morning ferry ride to Staten Island and scenic vistas of the Manhattan sky line and Brooklynn Bridge as we crossed the harbour. Arriving on Staten Island we quickly ran around to catch the next ferry back to Manhattan as Staten Island offered little of interest to me although my Girlfriend was interested in taking a tour of the island.
We headed uptown to the Tenement Museum which gives insight into how poor New Yorkers lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The building is very run down as it has been left empty from 1935 until it was opened as a museum in the 1980's, although the basement was open as a shop during that time, the museum has left large areas as they found the building when they took over although some rooms have been redecorated to reflect how they would have looked at different time periods.
After the Tenement Museum we tried to visit the Japan Society but no exhibitions were on the day we arrived so we walked around the corner to the UN building and international territory. We took a tour of the building and saw the temporary security council chamber where an Iranian man argued about the severity of sanctions that had been placed on his country. We saw an exhibition on the millennium goals laid out by the organisation, although we couldn’t read much of exhibit as we only had an hour to look around, another argument took place over the UN act banning land mines as China signed the act but not the United States. We ended the tour in relative peace inside the UN general assembly.
Leaving the UN building we headed back to Brooklynn and my parents hotel and from there to a nearby Italian restaurant called Al di la. It's a tiny restaurant that serves great food and I managed to pack away three courses of raw beef, capers and anchovies, squid ink pasta and pear cake for desert. The restaurant was painted in a warm red on the walls with interesting modern art and I preferred the food there to what we were served in Peasant the night before. Exhausted and full we headed back to the hotel.
Friday
Having spent most of our week in and around the mid and down town area of Manhattan we decided to head up town towards central park and the uptown museums that line the park. Walking through the park we saw a few of the bronze statues that litter the park including a large statue dedicated to Alice in Wonderland. We stopped by conservatory water for bagels and coffee and were mobbed by so many birds it felt as though we were in the Alfred Hitchcock film.
Heading further uptown we entered the New York Metropolitan Museum, New York's answer to the British Museum in London. The museum is a huge neoclassical build with sections dedicated to different parts of the world. We took in the Oriental, American, Greek and briefly the Egyptian sections. Most of the American section is filled with furniture that is heavily influenced by Roman, Greek and Regency styles and whilst my Girlfriend loved it I found it too ornate for my tastes. The rest of the museum was amazing with rooms decorated like Egyptian temples and Chinese gardens, the sense of space in amazing.
After leaving the Metropolitan Museum of Art we grabbed a hot dog and walked up to the Solomon R Guggenheim museum. The Guggenheim is a interesting looking spiral building that stands out from the other architecture in New York. We paid for a tour, you get a free audio guide when you arrive, and walked around the spiral building making our way slowly to the top floor. Most of the exhibition space had been handed over to a Korean conceptual artist called Lee Ufan. While there were other exhibits (the Hugo Boss Prize winner Hans-Peter Feldmann, an expressionist exhibition and a collection of Kandinsky's) by the end of the museum I had become bored of various collection on Japanese rocks placed in and around steel plates and glass, and paintings of fading points and lines. Lee Ufan's philosophy that had been quoted by the audio tour became overwhelmingly pretentious by the end of the display and I was disappointed that there had not been the same range of work on show that there had been when I first visited the museum back in 2000.
Finished at the museum we decided to eat at a Chinese in little China and hopefully have Kurt Russell style trouble, sadly the film referenced in this sentence was set in LA not New York so we had to settle for a Chinese style noodle bowl. On the way down to China town we headed for the subway where a number of street performers were doing break dancing. I recorded a short video for which I was forced to pay five dollars for by one of the performers, I felt hustled as my Girlfriend had already donated five dollars. We headed to Super Taste a small Chinese noodle bar near Manhattan Bridge which was recommend by the Time Out Guide of New York. The restaurant was crowed with Chinese people and shortly after we arrived a white girl arrived with her Chinese friend looking shocked as she entered. Big Taste is a tiny slither of a restaurant which looks quite run down with cheap MDF style tables that serves Ramen style noodle soups in large plastic bowls; although the food was cheap, filling and tasty. I asked for the toilet, something the restaurant seemed to lack, only to be directed straight to the back of the kitchen. After super taste we headed home for the night.
Saturday
On Saturday we planned to take in the Finance Museum on Wall Street but sadly it was closed for the day, I'm guessing this had something to do with protesters trying to occupy Wall Street to protest big businesses hold on the American political system. We decided not to join the protest and instead headed up town to indulge our love of capitalism and buy gifts for my girlfriend's family. After loading up with trinkets we headed back to our hotel to disencumber ourselves.
I had located a curry restaurant in Queens in our guide book and we decided to head up there for dinner. Walking around the Queens neighbour dubbed little India we became a little lost as I had stupidly left the guide book at the hotel. We final managed to find the restaurant Jackson Diner. The curry was sadly pretty poor, my Lamb Rogan Josh had no flavour other than that of the lamb, although it was quite spicy. Jackson Diner is a large restaurant with high ceiling that is decked out with Hindu references. We left the restaurant full but disappointed and took a long cab ride back on the busy New York streets to the hotel.
Sunday
Saturday morning we headed down to Coney Island, a beach area in southern Brooklyn. I have always wanted to visit Coney Island but have never made it in my last two visits to New York. The area use to be a popular resort in world war two but has fallen into disrepair since, although recently
some redevelopment has taken place. It has been referenced in films as diverse as the Warriors and Requiem For a Dream and influenced musicians such as Lou Reed. I rode the Wonder Wheel, now a US national monument, with my Girlfriend who was terrified by the gentle ride, I also took in the Cyclone, a roller-coaster built in 1926 and also a protected US monument, and a ride called soar like a eagle, a more modern roller-coaster, both of which my girlfriend declined to ride with me.
We walked along the board walk was hustled out of another ten dollars by the side show attraction and grabbed a chilli dog from Nathan's famous hot dogs a chain that was opened in 1916 and decided to head back to tour the area near our hotel. The restaurant holds an annual hot dog eating competition every year on the 4th of July the current record holder managed to polish off sixty two hot-dogs in ten minutes.
Near our hotel, away from the 24 hour porno shop with preview booths, is Green-Wood Cemetery which is a national monument and prototype for Central Park, honestly. The place isn't very peaceful as it is infested with Monk Parakeets who spent most of the day squawking at each other. We checked out the main gates, a large Gothic looking structure and main chapel designed by Warren & Wetmore the same firm who designed Grand Central Terminal. The cemetery contains the grave of Bill the Butcher, the man portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York. The park has a tourist information stand near the entrance and tour buses that give driven tours of the cemetery.
From the Cemetery we walked up to nearby Liberty Park a large rustic park nearby. Before we went too far around the park tired we stopped and decided to head for a local cinema to watch The Rise Of The Planet of the Apes. Before the film we spent an hour or so in a nearby pub where we ate omelettes and sapped down pints of beer. After the film we headed straight for mid-town and the Empire State Building. Reaching the top after an agonisingly long wait we got panoramic views of the New York skyline at night above from the 86th floor of New York's current highest building, while jostling with the hoard of other tourists who inhabited the viewing platform with us.
We finished the night eating burgers at Wendy's, an American burger chain that sells square shaped burger patty's, before heading back to the hotel. That night we heard the raving of an ex-con blast his lover with threats of violence and death from the next room. Shaken we secured our room as best we could, I was tired and feel quickly to sleep in between rants while my girlfriend had a sleepless night.
Monday
We woke up early the next morning, My girlfriend was still shaken from the night before. I went downstairs and grabbed some bagels for breakfast headed back to the room and got ready for our final day in New York.
We took the subway to mid-town and took the 11am tour of the New York Public Library. New York Public Library is another impressive neoclassical building. It was built by Carrere and Hastings a small firm who designed everything in the build down to the light fittings and bins. The Library is filled with long wooden tables, murals and other ornate decorations. One odd admission is the lack of any books on display anywhere but a few select locations within the library. The majority of the Library’s collection is kept away in a six floors of 'stacks' that total seventy five miles of shelving where the public can't go. Only a small part of the collection is visible through a small window near the back of the library’s ground floor.
Finishing the tour we looked around the rare book exhibit on the bottom floor that is part of the museums centenary (the library opened in 1911). Inside the exhibit we saw a first edition of Erasmus Darwin, a hand written draft of the declaration of interdependence and Hitler's copy of Mein Kampf.
After the public library we tried to head up town for a final tour of the Natural History Museum but a large number of train lines running to up town were out of duty as a water pipe had burst. The remaining line going uptown was packed and we headed for the AIA Center for Architecture, after spending most of the rest of our money on a large amount of candy, there was one display on for the tenth anniversary of 9/11. We looked round and read the stories of how New Yorkers found out about the tragedy surrounded by pictures of New York with the trade towers conspicuously absent.
After more aimless wandering we headed back to the hotel collected our bags and took a taxi to the airport. We arrived and an American Airlines official took our bags and checked us in quickly although for his trouble, basically doing his job, he demanded a five dollar tip which I felt was a bit cheeky. We headed through airport security grabbed some McDonalds, toured the shops and waited for our flight home.
Posts
