Tourist traps

8^th September 2011 – 5pm

It was nice to see the sun this morning after putting up with drizzle all day yesterday. But this afternoon the heat has really stopped us in our tracks. The barometer says 21° but it has to be BS, it feels more like 35°. Seriously. The subway even on a cool day is stinking hot, the “air” down there is thick with steam, fumes and body heat making it pretty hard to breathe. 

DIRTY SUBWAY!

We tried to get a Subway breaky today and the dude thought we were retarded for even asking. The one thing that’s amazing about here is that you can find any type of restaurant you are looking for. On the block you’re on. Case in point: We’ll go to Maccas then, a quick scan of the block and 3.9 seconds later, you can see one. A breaky McMuffin doesn’t come on an English muffin, rather 2 muffin sized pancakes. With Maple syrup in the middle. We get about half way through every meal when we say something like “THIS IS TOO MUCH” and that McMuffin was no different.

We are currently in the hotel room resting for a bit before we hit Broadway tonight to see the Lion King… Hopefully. Matt’s on hold right now trying to get tickets.

Today we walked the length of Wall Street and saw the entrance to the New York Stock Exchange. It was a 50/50 mix of tourists and tourist-tired brokers. After that we hot footed it to the World Trade Centre/Ground Zero. It was pretty difficult to imagine the scale of the buildings that used to be there, but not hard to imagine how terrifying it would have been to be in that area on the 10 years ago. I felt a bit uneasy being there but it was good to see it all. The memorial isn’t open right now so we couldn’t go in there. It’s open to the families of those who were killed, and on the anniversary I think it opens to the public, and then you need to buy tickets to get in…

WALL STREET

When the sun came out we ditched our plans to see the South of Manhattan to go to the Empire State Building… just in case the clouds came back. I think we may have been ripped off there. Some guy selling tickets said there was a 2 hour wait and he could get us in in 15 minutes. Seemed like a good idea (albeit expensive) so we handed over $130 bucks for a pass to the top and a “bonus” SKYRIDE EXPERIENCE which was a shitty simulated helicopter ride over the city. It was the biggest bunch of Yank Wank we’ve ever witnessed and both of us were left shaking our heads. 

VIEW FROM THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

When we finally got to the deck (we climbed 6 flights of stairs to skip the elevator queue) the view was spectacular but it was pretty crowded so we took our photos and got the hell outta there! Then we joined the queue to get back down again!!! Was it worth the money? Yes, but only because we’d be ripped to shreds when we get home if we didn’t do it!

We got the subway to Greenwich Village and walked to SoHo, but to be honest we were too tired and hot to fully enjoy it. The shops are all upmarket, but nothing out of the ordinary for New York i.e. they are pretty much the chain stores you see on every corner here. The vibe was really cool though. The residential neighbourhood of Greenwich Village was nice, it would be an awesome spot to live. Lots of terrace type houses covered in vines and a beautiful park, Washington Square (I think).

A SQUIRREL IN THE PARK AT GREENWICH

I have a feeling that by the time we leave on Saturday morning we will be happy to be heading to somewhere a little quieter, because this place is so full on!  We are both feeling pretty sore, my back pain is like 10 consecutive Big Days Out so believe it or not I am quietly excited about the 9 hour train ride to Niagara on Saturday.

This just in… Matt’s off the phone with the theatre, nearly 300 bucks to see Lion King, so instead, we’ll be off to see MARY POPPINS in the cheap seats tomorrow night. Hardcore!

Amy.