A Busy Few Days In New York City

After constantly being in transit for several days and not really getting to see much of anything in the cities we visited I was really looking forward to arriving in New York. The universe knew this and was conspiring against me because our flight was delayed once we boarded because the runway required snow removal. Why this hadn’t been done ahead of time I’m not sure, I mean it’s not like it was a surprise that we were supposed to depart at the time but hey what do I know?

After what felt like forever and a day sitting at the terminal we were finally on our way. It was the first flight of trip with entertainment and I quickly learned that I spend far too much time watching movies because they had a rather large selection and I had already seen the majority of the films. I managed to keep myself occupied for the duration of the flight, even watched some old-school TV shows like Ducktales and Goof Troop, I really enjoyed the blast from the past.

Since we were delayed in Helsinki we ended up having to circle the area a few times before being given the go-ahead to land, which was absolute torture. My ears and airplanes do not like each other. I always have a sucker to suck on during landing and normally that helps to ease the pressure in my ears but not this time. I was in agony and it just kept going on and on until we finally landed.

I thought the worst was over but then I saw the length of the queue for border control. I have only ever crossed the border into the states by land in the past so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was hoping there would be a line for US and Canadian citizens, and a line for all other passport holders but there wasn’t. Obviously the Americans had their own line but I was grouped in with the riffraff from all over the world and spent well over an hour stood in that line. The border agent didn’t even say a single word to me. Just looked at my passport briefly before stamping it and I was on my way.

The journey to the hostel wasn’t much better. It took 3.5 hours to get from the plane to our hostel, a new record I’m sure. I had originally hoped to start exploring that night and maybe check out a musical but instead I just crashed. Not a completely horrible thing because it means I was up early the next day, ready to explore.

Dom and I both woke up ridiculously early, I opted to toss and turn for several hours, and he decided to go for a wander. When he came back we decided to set off. First stop: Times Square.

We probably spent far more time than necessary in Times Square but there were just so many fun things to check out. I read online that the Toys-R-Us there had a ferris wheel in the basement; I figured it was just a rumor but I still needed to go check it out. It was not a rumor; there was one kick ass ferris wheel in that store and every car was designed based around a popular toy or movie. The epicness of the store didn’t stop there either! There was a Willy Wonka section full of candy, and it was designed to look like part of the chocolate factory. It was pretty neat. There was also a Lego Empire State building, Lego Hulk, and a gigantic dinosaur.

 I probably could have spent the whole day just in that store but there was so much more to see. Next we visited the Disney store, the M&Ms store, and the Hershey store. All of them were nice but none of them even came close to measuring up to the coolest Toys-R-Us ever.

From Times Square we made a quick stop at the Empire State Building for some pictures then moved on to Chelsea Markets, home of the Food Network. I love the Food Network, a little odd considering I’m such a picky eater but I love watching that channel. While I was interested in checking out the markets themselves I was under the impression that you could see the entrance to the Food Network studios. I was wrong, and I’m going to blame ‘The Next Food Network Star’ for putting such silly thoughts in my head. How was I going to meet Bobby Flay and Alton Brown just meandering through the markets? I needed to lurk outside the studio dammit but I couldn’t! On our way out I saw a sign for their delivery bay so I took a picture of that but it wasn’t quite what I had dreamed of.

From there we moved on to the High Line. The High Line is a beautiful park/walkway that was built on an abandoned train track, offering beautiful views of the city. A pretty innovative idea I think. In a city of this size it would be easy to become a concrete jungle with no hints of nature anywhere but a lot of thought and effort has gone into maintaining from what I can see is a pretty good number of parks.

A few months ago I called my grandma from Blackpool and she asked me if the flowers were in bloom and I told her I had no idea and that I couldn’t even remember the last time I saw grass. It’s sad really.  Blackpool has so much unused space but it is all paved. New York on the other hand could use every extra inch of space it can get its hands on but it still has parks and greenery all over the city.

After walking the High Line from one end to the other we headed back to Times Square to line up at TKTS to buy discounted tickets to a Broadway show. The line was heaps longer than the one at the airport the day before but once the booth opened it probably only took 15-20 minutes to get served and we ended up with orchestra seats to our first choice show!

Once we had acquired our prime tickets for the theatre we were both pretty beat so we headed back to the hostel for a rest and some food before going to the show. It was only a short rest then we were off to see Avenue Q, a hilarious show with a cast of puppets and people. It was once described to me as Sesame Street for adults and now that I have seen it I would say that is pretty accurate. I also preformed on Broadway last night. It was pretty magical. There is video evidence of this fact unfortunately Dom (my videographer) didn’t want to be seen with me at the time so the video is sideways and you can’t hear me singing at all so I wont post it but know that I have sang and danced live on Broadway. What have you done with your life lately?

I passed out seconds after walking through the door from an exciting night out so I was up at the crack of dawn again this morning. First stop: Statue of Liberty. Elis Island and the statue itself are both closed at the moment due to damage from Hurricane Sandy but there was still an option to get a little closer to the statue, and it saved me a lot of money so I wasn’t going to complain. I took the train to Battery Park, which also appears to have taken a beating during the hurricane, and then took the ferry to Staten Island. A free ride that took me much closer to the statue than I was at the park, and in my opinion a much better option than the $25 cruise to the island that didn’t even stop to let you off the boat.

From there it was a quick walk around Wall Street and a bit of a wander around Grand Central Terminal, neither of which were overly exciting, before heading to Central Park. I spent an hour or two walking in the park with the occasional break to people watch. The park was beautiful although a lot of the open areas were closed for the season, which I found to be a little disappointing.

It took me a while to find a subway station after leaving the park but I eventually managed and it was off to Rockefeller Centre. I’m far too cheap to pay to go to the top, I just wanted to see the Christmas tree that was set up outside. It was a lovely tree but the area was far too crowded for my liking so I didn’t stick around for very long.

I was pretty exhausted by this point so I headed back to the hostel for a bit of a rest. I ended up bumping into Dom and after resting my legs for a bit and putting some food in my tummy the two of us set off. It was time to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. I kind of wished I had found the motivation to walk it while the sun was still up but Dom walked it earlier today and said it was definitely better at night so maybe its for the best I decided to take a break.

On our way back to the hostel we decided to stop by the former site of the World Trade Centre, which now appears to be a construction zone. There is a memorial set up and we talked about registering for a timeslot to check it out tomorrow but I feel like the news of yesterday’s shooting has broken my heart enough for the time being and I don’t need to relive another tragedy.

I’m now cozy in my hostel bed winding down from my action packed day. I feel like I may have done more than I have mentioned but can’t think of what I may have left out and this is already a novel.

Tomorrow we are off to Washington DC, another day spent mostly in transit so I should go get some rest because I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be exhausting. Have a good night boys and girls, If you actually made it this far thanks for reading the whole thing, I’ll try to keep it brief next time.