The Big Apple

By the time our vagabond shoes had found their way from Chinatown to the appropriate subway station, our little town blues had well and truly melted away. Manhattan (let alone the rest of New York) is a very big place! We were struck immediately by the busyness, vibrancy, and the sheer size of it all. We made our way to our hostel near Central Park - like everything else, it was big. It claims to be the biggest hostel in the world and I wasn't going to argue that point.

We woke up in the city that never sleeps and spent the day exploring Central Park and upper-middle Manhattan. The NYers were certainly out in force, running, biking and walking their dogs. The size of the park (big, of course) means that different areas are able to have their own character, but the overall effect is of an area where people can feel closer to nature while being surrounded at a distance by tall buildings on all sides - quite interesting!

Further downtown, the library was a beautiful building and has been recently restored, the intricate patterns and paintings on the ceilings were particularly noteworthy. Not only did they have some interesting exhibitions inside, but they let us sign up for a libary card and use their computers for free.

People complain that NYers are unfriendly and that it's not a nice place. Some have even said they would sooner spit in your face than say hello to you. Of course it is never going to have the character of a town or small city, but I should start spreading the news that our experiences were positive. People do not say hello to you in the street or make unnecessary eye contact in the subway (the same as any other large city) but they were quick with a smile or to talk once some sort of contact was made.

The next day we explored Lower Manhattan. We got on the subway near the back of the train, but part-way through our journey I noticed that in order to get off at our station we needed to be in one of the first five cars! At each of the next few stations we would burst out of the car as soon as the train had stopped and run forward one or two cars before the doors closed again! It was quite funny because we weren't the only ones doing it. We took a boat ride past the Statue of Liberty, walked along Wall St and checked out the site of the World Trade Center, past City Hall, over the Brooklyn Bridge and finally arrived at the Empire State Building. Here followed a 2 1/2 hour wait so we got quite sore feet. It was a cool experience, and I'd say it's worth $US 16 OR a 2 1/2 hour wait, but not both.

The next day was torrential rain and high winds (I'm not exaggerating - hundreds of flights from NY were cancelled but fortunately not ours) so we avoided being outside as much as possible. We did manage to make it to the Museum of Sex but I won't explicitly describe the exhibits here ;-) We also celebrated our last night in the US with a dinner out. We picked the closest restaurant to our hostel due to the foul weather but it turned out to be a good choice. Yummy food and a mariacha band!
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.