NYC - Day Two

By the way, before I start this, can I greatly recommend Picasa, a photo editing application that I believe is made by the fine people at Google. It is free to download and the easiest thing to use ever, especially when cutting up photo's and injecting them with the daylight that was missing on the day the photo was taken. A lot of my favourite New York photo's now look like we went on a beautiful spring day rather than the PISSING FREEZING WINTER.

Anyway....

The second day of our holiday was the first full day we were there and we were determined to make the most of it. We decided to view the sight seeing as a kind of working arrangement so we were out the hotel every day by 8.30, back by about 6 and then out again at 7 for the evening. This was exhausting by the end of the week especially with all the walking you have to do to get around the city, but I honestly think it was the best way of doing things, I certainly never went to bed thinking I could have done anything more in the day, and that meant I went home happy.
We had won the batle with the jet lag and discovered that our local subway station was Grand Central Station, which was very cool. Turns out GCS is a lot smaller than you'd expect and not a great tourist spot as it's in the middle of a huge office filled area so is very much a working train station not best equipped for camera happy tourists. Very pretty though, the light shines through the crescent windows into the main area in the middle just like in the black and white images you used to be able to buy in Athena. I miss Athena.

The subway was horrible, really, it's cramped, smelly and the trains are really old. They don't seem to be far enough underground either, you can walk over grates in the pavement above ground and see the tracks through them, very disconcerting when the train shoots by underneath your feet... We navigated our way through the ticket buying system with the help of a lovely American man, don't worry, he did work there, I wasn't just randomly targeting American men for help... We bought a 7 day 'Fun' pass, which allows you unlimited subway travel for 7 days and proves that American's do in fact understand irony. As the train departed it lurched forward and a little old man shouted "SHIT!" so I began to inwardly panic, as you would do, that kind of oh sweet lord I'm going to die on the subway in New York sort of panic, but luckily another man shouted "Hey! Dude! Get your fuckin' ass outta my fuckin' way!" and I realised that actually, this behaviour was clearly pretty normal and would probably not result in death by underground rail system.

It seemed like we were travelling the world one Starbucks at a time when we emerged, alive, from the subway and found the nearest place that sold hot, strong coffee. What's odd is that there seems to be no other coffee house establishment over there, you can buy drinks from various deli places but there is no Starbucks equivalent like Costa or anywhere similar, Starbucks - officially taking over the world...

I asked Glenn to get me tea and he, confused by the different teas available asked for a medium cup of 'earl grey awake chai', the lady behind the counter was so confused and I was desperate not to laugh as I said "sweetheart, it's like a menu system? Just the 'awake' kind please..."

We sat next to two girls who looked suspiciously student like but were betraying their intelligence by perfecting their Paris Hilton impressions, I listened to their conversation and silently vowed never to litter my vocabulary with unnecessary 'like's ever again. Glenn looked at me, leaned forward and whispered "if I had a gun right now...".

We were in the financial district, the subway stops either right next to Ground Zero or one stop before it, at City Hall. We decided to get off at City Hall and have a look at that (big. old. City Hall like) and then have aforementioned earl grey awake chai before we made the final decision as to whether or not to visit Ground Zero. The truth is, if you're in that part of town, you can't really avoid it, New York is not that big and the financial destrict is just one part of it and the World Trade Centre was a huge part of that so how ever you end up near there you can't miss it. It's a huge, huge hole, no news footage or photographs I have ever seen had captured the sheer size of the footprint the terror attacks left in the city. We didn't take photo's, I couldn't justify that, after all, what are you taking a photo of if you do? We went into St Paul's Chapel which is one of the oldest pre-civil war buildings in the city and remarkably survived the attacks despite it's close proximity to the site. The chapel became a refuge for rescue workers during the aftermath and now has a tribute display to those who died and those who worked through it. I think that helped for me, you can't help but get emotional when you see the footage again, especially when you're standing where it happened but the tribute in the chapel really emphasises how people in the city came together in the following days and pays tribute to the strength of the human spirit. The fences that surround the site have placards telling you what happened on September 11th, they have included the names of the people who died on the aeroplanes that crashed and in the Pentagon. I'm not being dramatic when I say the feeling around the world trade centre site (that's what New Yorkers prefer that you call it, they find 'ground zero' offensive) is different from anywhere else, it's much quieter and I wasn't comfortable staying for long.

So we trekked to Battery Park after buying me a stupid woolley hat from Century 21 and went to the Jewish History Museum. There really isn't much I can say about that, you are either interested in the history of the Jews or you aren't. It's a very big and very expensive looking museum that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Jewish history, the Jewish faith and culture, and the Holocaust. I have been fascinated by Judaism since I read 'My name is Asher Lev' by Chaim Potok for a module I took at Uni called American Jewish Fiction, so for me it was great but you know, if you've never given a toss then don't go. The Jewish History Museum - Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Side Bar - My sister asked me to buy her a 'I heart NY' T.Shirt, the museum had one that said it in Yiddish, I soooo wanted to buy her that.... The look on her face would have been worth anything it cost. Glenn wouldn't let me. Because he is a grumpus.

Favourite part of Glenn's day so far - The hot dog at the cafe in the Jewish museum that overlooked the Stature of Liberty and Ellis Island, and let me make that clear, his favourite part of that was the hot dog, not the view.

We took some advice then and instead of queuing up for the ferry to Liberty Island (Wow! $15 so I can freeze my arse off walking around the Statue of Liberty? Oh Goody!) we took the FREE ferry to Staten Island which passes very, very close to the Statue and best of all, HAS A ROOF! I sent Glenn outside to take photo's (which is probably why my mum has given him a new nickname; 'Poor Glenn') and we watched Manhatten Island get smaller and smaller. When the ferry got to Staten Island we were at a bit of a loss, I mean, what's on Staten Island? So we got off the ferry, walked across the harbour and then I said, for I believe the first time, something which was to become my catchphrase throughout the holiday; "Where the FUCK are we going? Because it is TOO BLOODY COLD to be just walking around AIMLESSLY, I am just. fucking. FREEZING!", so Glenn made an excellent judgement and we got back on the ferry to Manhatten. I think he bases these judgements largely on how wide I open my eyes when I am shouting at him, when the veins begin to bulge it's time to move on.

Manhatten looked amazing on the way back though, the skyline is like every movie set in New York you've ever seen, only better.

The next thing I've written in the diary is - 'back to hotel, freshen up, go to Madison Square Garden to watch New York Knicks vs. Atlanta.... something.....'.

The Atlanta Hawks! We went to Richard and Catherine's apartment on Madison Avenue (so. incredibly. jealous.) and then headed to the garden (as they call it in NYC, oh yeah), it was so cool! I was a total arse! Screaming and yelling and basketball is soooooo much better than football, I mean I know I hate football (more with every passing match of the fucking day, and that's false advertising by the way, it's not one match, it's like 15 or something, I will grow old and die while match of the day is on) but it's better, it's faster, they score every couple of minutes and every time they do the whole stadium goes wild! I have never seen a basketball game in my life before and I hold no allegance to any team but for that night I was a Knicks fan, as I was in New York, and I went mental. Each basket (not penalty) is worth 3 points and the final score was something like Knicks 111, Hawks 108 after three lots of extra time so it was really nerve racking and when the Knicks won, I nearly lost my head I was so happy.

I have also decided that when I grow up I want to be a cheer leader because they are AWESOME, the Knicks have the Knicks City Dancers. And I love them. Half time entertainment was Biddy Ball, where 2 teams of under 10's played a very short match, which must be such a thrill for them, in a packed Madison Square Garden for goodness sake! and there was a proposal on the big screen and people dancing in front of the camera's. They just really know how to entertain, it was a really, really good night.

By the way, America, Land of the Free, is also Land of the Commercial. The game was brought to us by a Multiple Sclerosis charity and Biddy Ball was brought to us by Malaria.

Glenn let us get a cab back to the hotel, which he hardly ever did all week because we had our 'Fun' passes and "why should we pay twice to get somewhere?", so that's a whole other reason why the 'Fun' passes WERE NOT FUN AT ALL, but I have to say, hailing a cab on Madison Avenue? Oh My God, just the biggest dream come true.