NYC - Day One

These daily diary entries are a bit bitty, some are longer than others but I thought I would start to wade through the confusion and try and share with you a little of out New York adventure.

I will begin with photographic evidence as shown above. That there is the Chrysler Building, and the photo is taken from the top of the Empire State Building, which by the way, is much more stable than the Eiffel Tower. No shaking in time with the wind up there, no, just sheer terror at the how the cars are so very teeny tiny, all the way down the 86 floors you've just travelled up.

Anyway, that was later, this is supposed to be day one, and day one was all about getting there. We flew with Virgin Atlantic and had the smoothest check in ever thanks to their online check in service which you can use 12 hours before departure. We boarded the plane, avoiding the stairs up to the section marked 'not for the likes of you'. Glenn was VERY excited about the onflight entertainment and spent the first half an hour reading the film guide while I studied every last detail of the safety manual - 'TAKE OFF HEELED SHOES', 'EMERGENCY EXITS TO THE REAR AND CENTRE', 'OXYGEN MASKS WILL DROP FROM ABOVE', I had already sent messages to my nearest and dearest and was sat, seat belt fastened, ready to die.

Then we moved seats because my TV thingy didn't work, and that was fine because the strange too-old-to-be-a-goth-but-was-a-goth man next to Glenn kept talking to him and if there's anything Glenn doesn't appreciate, it's being talked to. So I repositioned myself, tightened the seat belt again and sat, ready to die.

And then I didn't die, which was surprising, instead I watched The Constant Gardner (brilliant), Prime (not so brilliant) and The Exorcism of Emily Rose (just really awful). The best part was being able to choose which variety of tasteless airline food I could have and THE FREE PRETZELS, that came in very tasteful american style packaging, which reliably informed us they were made in County Durham.

We arrived bang on time at JFK after some monster turbulance, watched the too-old-to-be-a-goth-but-was-a-goth get into an illegal, non-licensed taxi and said a little prayer for him. This was where my first preconception about New York was shattered - those chatty New York cabbies they have in the films? Don't exist. New York Cabbies are rather like London Cabbies, or Brummie Cabbies, that is to say they are mostly recent immigrants who don't speak very good English.

They do drive those yellow taxis though, and we drove into Manhatten past lots of clapboard houses in Queens, and through the Queensborough Tunnel (have you ever seen that Sylvester Stallone film 'Daylight'? I have, rubbish) . Manhatten is.... just... huge.... I have tried to think of other ways of describing it but tht's the perfect word, it's not big in length or width (steady...) but it stretches up into the sky... and then up some more... and then up some more... You can tell who the tourists are because they are the ones with bad necks from getting out of the cabs and just looking up into the sky. The architecture, the sheer height, that's where the action is.

Our hotel (The Intercontinental Barclay) was in midtown and was very, very posh. A bit too posh for me, I felt like if I was allowed to have a room in a hotel like this then I should jolly well be allowed up those stairs on the plane... and they even let us check in early because I am a priority club member (lets face it, there have to be some perks to staying away from home so much). Our room on the ninth floor had a coffee maker in it which I thought was da bomb until I realised that that was because there was no kettle, ie; no tea, just coffee, this was to become a problem when we got home a week later, just a little bit addicted to the caffeine now... As cool as the coffee maker was though, what was not so cool was the 'Break In Case Of Attack Glow Stick' that was in the bed side drawer next to the bible.

In the diary next I have written 'Battle with jet lag commenced! Walked to Central Park not far away, central park very big... and very central... saw Strawberry Fields, the Dakota building and the 'Imagine' memorial, also saw young couple crying over it, yes, I agree, very sad, but not like you knew him... saw lake'

Apparently I was not impressed by the lake, I thought I was but there you go.

We headed back to the hotel via Times Square which is very impressive at night, during the day some of the specialness is lacking, I think it must all be in the lights, all that neon.

Next I've written 'back to hotel past Radio City - NO SLEEP! NO!'

Our hotel was a bit posh, as I've already said, and the nearest hotel to ours was the Waldorf Astoria which was just round the corner, I'm not bragging, I'm just saying that to illustrate how completely impossible we discovered it was going to be to eat a nice meal for less than, oh I don't know, A MILLION DOLLARS. So we began our New York culinary experience in an Irish pub where I found out that if you order steak rare, they bring you a large cow, and you nibble on it's bottom for a bit before you have to give in.

Portion Sizes + America = HUGE x Glenn = Happiness.

We never went to that Irish pun again, not because we weren't happy with the service or food, but because we realised the next day that we hadn't tipped enough and if we were to ever go back they would mostly likely vomit on our food. Always tip 15-20% and they pretty much never automatically add gratuity to your bill like they do here, you have to add it yourself.

Back at the hotel we made it until 9pm, which our bodies thought was 2am, having been up since 6, so we went to sleep...