Week 53- Part 2 The Big Apple

Thursday 19th July, when I woke I discovered that Joey’s place literally looked down on the 9/11 memorial. I had some cereal and then headed to the roof of his building to take in the views. I could see the empire state building and decided I would head for that. I stopped by the 9/11 memorial. It was phenomenal to see how big it was. I continued my journey north, through downtown Manhattan.

The city is terrifying but also brilliant. The buildings go on forever, nothing stands still (apart from the traffic) and it is never quiet. There is a constant stream of car horns. There are all sorts of noxious smells too. I had a slight detour around 5th avenue as it was cornered off by police and firemen with many people in Haz-Mat suits running around- it turned out a steam pipe had exploded. I wandered into the world’s largest Macy’s promptly left and eventually made it to Times Square (It was surprisingly far away). I enjoyed the area for a little while before I got a bagel and doughnuts for lunch.

I tried to get into the empire state building but I couldn’t get passed security. I also tried to get into the background of Jimmy Kimmel live filming but I think it was just a trial run. My next stop was central park and central park zoo. The park itself was huge so I didn’t get too deep in before I had to turn for home. The walk took me over 1.5 hours but I did stop by an outdoor store to investigate rain jackets for Iceland.

When Joey, Caoimhe (Joey’s girlfriend) and I were back at his place we left for grand central on the subway to get food. The station was also huge. We had a burger each and a huge thing of chips though we were a little disappointed with the service. We nipped upstairs to the rooftop bar to promptly leave after a photo or two. We passed the Chrysler building and then we were back on the subway, though it took longer due to a signal fault.

Friday 20th July, I slept better and spent the start of the day writing postcards which I then went to send before queuing to get cheap theater tickets. Caoimhe joined me and we managed to get tickets to sit with the orchestra for $80 each to see Chicago. From there I tried to find the start of the Brooklyn bridge to walk across it. In my efforts to walk with my head up I walked into a fire hydrant. Eventually I managed to walk the bridge before heading to the ferry terminal to catch the free ferry to Staten island.

I got the ferry as it gave great views of the Statue of Liberty from the water. I got off the ferry, bought a pretzel, immediately regretted it (as it was incredibly salty) and waited for the return journey while I read my book. I took a second stab at finding a rain jacket and managed to stumble upon the New York stock exchange in the process. I found a jacket and decided to buy a women’s large as it saved me $90. To celebrate my saving I bought a rain cover for my pack and a couple of dry bags too, ready for Iceland. On my way one guy asked if I was a jew (I think because of my hat) and another animal welfare guy asked if ‘I wanted a pint of the black stuff in D4’ -I hope my accent hasn’t gotten that bad. I spent the afternoon reading, writing and preparing a meal plan for Iceland.

Soon it was time to go see Chicago. Despite planning to take the subway, I walked and I was glad of it. I saw some homeless guys hustling tourists at chess and also saw 1 man jump over 5 other men. I find the small people who dress up as super heroes to have their photo taken with tourists hilarious. There was also a topless woman wandering around for a while too. I got a couple of slices of pizza for dinner and got to the theater before Joey and Caoimhe. The usher who showed me to the seats was very odd, tall and awkward.

I felt the show wasn’t really my cup of tea, I think I just didn’t find myself attracted to the main characters. The orchestra was good, however. We took the subway back (trying to walk in a crowd is a nightmare) and then Joey discovered he had to change his bus tickets to go to D.C.

Saturday 21st July, I didn’t hear Joey and Caoimhe leave and woke around 09:00. I got ready to go and headed off to hunt for tickets. I took the subway to times square and the first place was not selling tickets to wicked or the Book of Mormon and the second was $145 so I kept going. There was a huge street market going on which was fun, along with the usual street performers. I managed to get a rush ticket for Book of Mormon for $39 (As it was supposedly the worst seat in the house) and then tried my luck at a raffle for Wicked. I met a group from Utah while I waited. Sadly I didn’t win but they managed to get 4 tickets! I then got a rush ticket for School of Rock for $45 also for the matinee. While I waited I checked out the street performers and bought a corn dog. I don’t really like American food. I also found myself baffled by the concept of a block as a unit of measurement as the actual distance of a block varies greatly, particularly if going N-S vs E-W.

The School of Rock was very fun and once I accepted that the main character was not Jack Black, I actually thought he did a better job. The kids in it were also fabulous so I felt much better after watching it. My seat was also in the 3rd row. I chatted to one of the snack guys for a while before the show but when he realised I wasn’t buying he was quick to move on. After the show I headed for central park once more. It’s quite incredible that people pay $3-4 a minute for a ride on a bike taxi. I also thought some of the horses looked a little weak to be pulling huge carts. As I continued my exploration I found all the lakes quite dirty and there weren’t many flowers to speak of but there were vast green spaces with hundreds of people hanging out, playing frisbee/spikeball/soccer/generally have a good time, which made me happy. I watched some softball for a while but it didn’t strike me as a particularly fun game. I did my rehab , ran the length of the park and headed back towards the theaters.

On the way I saw some drummers, bought some $1 pizza and had one of the topless women ask me what the weather was going to do. Before long I was heading in to watch the Book of Mormon. The woman who sold me the ticket was right when she said it was the worst seat in the house as I was sat right beside the sound desk so it obscured part of the stage but I was given about 6 cushions and I sat on my bag so I could see everything. I also got to see some of what went on at the sound desk and chatted to the guy at the interval. When I first sat down I discovered that I was sitting next to thee Irish couples from south Dublin! I thought the show itself was fantastic! Funny, catchy songs, good singing, dancing, acting. What more could you want? When it was over it had started to rain outside so I was thankful I packed my new coat. Catching the subway home I found myself giving subway advice to two separate people, having little clue myself. Once at Joey’s I grabbed some food, hung out clothes and went to sleep.

Sunday 22nd July, I set an early alarm so I had time to pack before heading for the bus. I was glad I gave plenty of time as it was surprisingly hard to find where my bus was leaving. While I waited I saw a man get arrested. The bus took about an hour and 45min and my friend Lexi was there to collect me at 11:15. Lexi is one of my friends from my Tetrathlon trip to Australia. Once at her house I met her parents, Chip & Dale, (seriously) and her brother Eric. We made a bit of a mad salad for lunch before going to throw the frisbee and go for a walk. Eric and Chip are big into their frisbees and have different weights and toughness. Eric has a good arm for it. The walk was up into the forestry behind their house. Chip had made a record of most of the trails and he and Eric had made some new ones. All of which Eric had named. As we walked we spotted a whole load of bright orange salamanders on the ground. It was good fun catching up with Lexi. Eric wasn’t super keen to talk at first but eventually I got him talking all about his games and dinosaurs- both of which he is passionate about. It was pretty humid and I was bitten by a few mosquitoes along with a couple of ticks on my socks so I was happy to be back inside. They have two huge Malamute dogs, Edward and Luna, and when I first arrived I was nearly bowled over by Luna as she gave me a few scratches. We played a game called Array, which involves matching colours, before dinner. Eric won and I came second by a point. Both Dale and Lexi are great cooks so we had a delicious fish dish with rice and sprouts before munching on some mini meringues. We had time to run out and play some more frisbee, this time with my frisbee which I think they enjoyed. When the light ran out I put my shoes on the shoe dryer and had a shower. We finished our game and then Lexi and I hung out and chatted before bed.

Monday 23rd July, We were asleep late so didn’t wake until around 09:00. While Lexi set to work making blueberry pancakes I checked in for my flight. The pancakes were almost good enough to rival Sabine’s! After breakfast I did something I hadn’t done in over a year, went riding! Amazingly I was able to squeeze into a pair of Lexi’s britches and we found a big helmet and chaps that went over my hiking boots. I thought I’d be quite apprehensive but it worked out fine and I felt quite comfortable. I felt the horses both went well for me (we swapped) and overall I was delighted to have ridden. It was a wet day so we just went in the indoor. As we were waiting for the Pizza dough to be ready we took Luna for a walk before lunch. This time down the road and then along the river. She was pretty strong at first but soon calmed. At one stage the mosquitoes got quite bad so I was glad when the heavens opened. Lexi and I mainly talked about our respective exchanges and the people she met in Switzerland. Back at the house we spread the dough and topped them with figs, goats cheese, honey, arugula, brussel sprouts and balsamic vinegar. While we waited for it to be cooked we played bananagrams, which Lexi won. Dale made some delicious crab cakes without any crab as a starter. The pizza turned out remarkably well (It was also 16:00 while having lunch so that helped). Sadly this meant once I packed I had to leave. I said my goodbyes and Lexi dropped me back to the bus. The bus took me to NYC and then I took the subway and train to the airport. On the way I bumped into 3 frisbee players from Russia who played in the mixed division at world clubs. Such a small world. Once my bag was checked I had a slight issue at passport control because my boarding pass said I was a woman. It was seemingly sorted, I paid through the nose for a banana and soon boarded the plane to leave. I wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom right away because they couldn’t flush?! I tried to sleep but couldn’t due to needing to pee so as soon as the seat belt light was turned off I climbed over the emergency exit row in front of me and went . When I returned I didn’t want to wake my neighbour so I sat in the exit row. This meant that he got the full row to himself and slept like a baby. The arms don’t go up in the emergency exit which meant I just had the space in front. I slept about an hour sitting and then decided to move to the floor. I drifted off to sleep and while I was asleep the fasten seat belt sign came on and a steward decided they needed to wake me. They apologised and said I could go back once the light was off. No sooner then when my bum was in the seat the light went off. I managed to drift off again but woke often, each time it seemed someone new joined me on the floor. With 2 hours to go of the 6 hour flight I gave up on sleep and just listened to music.