New York City

At the end of September 2000 I finally made it to the Big Apple. It was an amazing city and was a great place to explore. I pretty much just jumped on the subway and went exploring. It was a safe and busy city with many different people speaking many different languages and eating many different foods. I managed to drink many different beers, even if they were the same old Guinness, but you get the idea. Here are some photos I managed to snap along the way. I have pasted my journal entry about the weekend for recollections sake.....

That would be me.....on top of the World Trade Centre - the highest open air observatory in the world - Weeeeee!!

My weekend turned out to be somewhat interesting as I had so strangely anticipated. I ended up jumping on a plane and heading to a small Island off the mainland of America.....referred to cheerfully as  'New York F@ckin City' by the locals. It was a pretty amazing place to visit - that is for sure. Everything you have seen and heard about it is probably true, and it was a great place for me to explore on my own - although my neck is a little stiff from looking up at all those damn sky scrapers. I didn't get mugged or picked to be in a police line up, nor did I star in a small 'off Broadway' musical - but you don't need to do these things to experience the Big Apple.

A few of the 'Off Broadway' Theatres...The one on the left has Sebastian Bach of Skid Row fame starring....I didn't know they had bad 80's bands back then!!

After arriving at Newark, New Jersey I found a bus and got a ride straight to Times Square in the middle of Manhattan. MTV has a studio there that looks out over the square - they just happened to be filming while I arrived, and this was made painfully obvious due to the masses of screaming teenage girls with pathetic "I love you [insert stars name here]" signs. For a second I thought it may have been a cool band or something, but it turns out it was these jerk offs called 98 degrees. I am assuming it is degrees celsius because these boys have definitely gone off the boil (hardy har har). I am sure that there are many great debates in Girlfriend and Seventeen Magazine as to which of the boy bands are the best dancers and lip-synchers, but give me a frickin' break....music?? I don't think so -these guys should go back where they belong....yes, that is right - to tampon commercials.

The MTV studio on Times Square - People, people everywhere

One of the 'boys' from one of the 'boy bands' pretending he is into 'girls'

Another look around Times Square - Now I know how it feels to take part in marketing experiments.

This is a market somewhere - literally a sea of people. It seemed to go on forever - luckily I didn't have the time or energy to verify this hypothesis.

Following that wee distraction I decided I had better find somewhere to stay since I had turned up in a city of 15 million people without accommodation. After ringing 4 or 5 places the cupboard was looking bare and I was picturing myself forking out my life savings to stay in the last available room in the city. It would inevitably be a Park Ave suite and I would then not have enough cash to support a $500 a day crack habit, a crate of Dom Perignon and a couple of high class whores for good measure. Hang on, perhaps that was just a daydream, or a movie or something....forget about it. Anyway - I ended up finding a hostel at the top of central park (which is kind of in the middle - hence the name...)) it was OK and went for a lot less than a full suite + accessories, even if I did have to stay in a dorm full of foreign weirdos. Having a place to lay my sleepy head (actually it was not sleepy just then because it was the early afternoon -  but it would only be a matter of time) I was able to ditch my backpack and head out with my camera for some exploring. 

The Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre disappear into the misty sky  - or is this just a camera trick with a kit-kat and a cigarette?? You be the judge.

Back onto the subway and down to southern Manhattan...I checked out a few of the world trade centre buildings, but didn't go up to the top because it was way to cloudy. Then I wandered down to Wall Street and was ready for some hot commodity trading - if only it was not the weekend. Then onto the South Street  Seaport peir and a good look at the famous Brooklyn Bridge. I then stopped in for some NY Pizza and wandered up through Little Italy, SOHO, TriBeCa and into Greenwich Village. All very different but uniquely interesting neighbourhoods. I still can't decide which of all the places I went that I would most like to live....any of them would be great to start with I think.

Theodore the friendly tugboat waits to take some special children for a ride. The Brooklyn Bridge in the background waits to go anywhere.

The Land of the Free!! Just don't honk you Frickin' horn if you don't have a spare $350  - btw,  that is about NZ$875 at the current exchange rate (thanks Helen)

An expensive cemetery and a relatively affordable pole on Wall St. The sign says One Way.

 A little tired from walking and looking and taking pictures, I then caught the subway to the Upper West Side and did some quick shopping at Zabars before heading to the Museum of Natural History. Not a bad museum, loads of real life exhibits and some cool space ones too. I touched one big ass meteor that had the (mis)fortune of colliding with our planet - I hope I didn't catch some alien disease from it...I don't know if my shots protect me from ET Herpes or not?? It then became dark and so I pulled up a seat in an Irish bar just of Broadway and 79th Street. A couple of pints of Guinness and I was yarning with some locals...ended up sticking around until about 2am, a very pleasant evening.

THESE NEXT FEW ARE FROM THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Skeletor was forced to resort to a low carb diet to try and combat He-Mans silly muscles.

This exhibit was a tribute to the many years of bush pigs who attended Massey University. Here's to Hogging!!

This is a photo of a DNA hologram - explains it all really....those spacey Led Zep videos I mean, not life.

A Blue Whale.... Free Willy - Sit your butt down.

'I want my Polar Pop, Polar Pop.......'

The not-so Woolly Mammoth

   Another classic Dino...pity the little one is just made of one solid bone....guess he just kinda sat there

 A few more pints of Guinness and I was ready to depart, first calling my brother from a payphone to say hi, then jumping on the subway for the 10min ride back to the hostel. It was amazing just how safe the city is - I did not feel in danger at all in my whole trip, not even at 2am in the morning with a skinfull of ale....i guess that may have had something to do with it - but I made it back and I am writing this, so I guess I was right in the end...

The front of another aircraft carrier.....that big black thing is called a 'Blackbird' (not Black-Plane). It is a spy plane that goes three times the speed of sound (about the same as a 1977 Datsun 120Y)

The next day was a wee sleep in and then off to be a tourist. Starting with the Intrepid museum on the western marina. It was another big aircraft carrier used in Vietnam with loads of cool planes, a destroyer and a missile submarine. A few quick tours and I was fairly sick of it - I had my fill of AC Carriers in Corpus Christi. It did have a huge Blackbird spy plane that nails mach 3 while taking recon photos, the missile sub was also kind of interesting - the only one in the world that is open to the public. After that it was off to the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the highest buildings in NYC. They are not as high as the Sears tower, which I scaled in Chicago (well, OK I took the elevator - but it is almost the same thing), but they do have the highest outdoor observatory of any building on this planet - it is way, way up 112 floors. Sensational view of the whole area - you can make out the curvature of the earth on a clear day - but that is not particularly novel seeing as you can do that from a plane and everybody already knows that the world is round - duh? It also had electrified razor wire all around to stop people who lose money on Wall street from jumping off when their hot stock tips turn colder than a herring in the Southern Ocean. I can assure you that anyone who jumped would make one hell of a mess and be one hell of a dead person upon their return to earth.

View from the World Trade Centre over Manhattan. The tallest building you can make out is that of the Empire State

The Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, linking the islands.

Look - you can just see the lady from France on the far island!!!

After that I checked out the Museum of Modern Art. It was mildly interesting and had paintings by Picasso, Monet and Van Gough....plus other famous artists whose names escape me, but if you can think of them - then they were probably there. Except for Colin McCahon paintings because they upkeep on security and ludicrous wall space hike up the overheads a bit too much. Some of the paintings were very good. Some of them were very good if you are an Art Historian, and some of them were good if you are retarded - but that is why they call it 'Art', so retards can enjoy it too. Seriously though, it was pretty interesting and I only got told off once for using flash photography - throw me a frickin bone here....

Evening was now approaching and after a stroll along Madison and 5th Avenues, I went up the Empire State Building. Having built an entire 3D foam model of this beast in Indiana last year and then giving it to Katie for Christmas (Yes, Indy was boring, and no I didn't tell Katie that her present was second hand), I felt quite at home in its majestic innards. Once on the top of the observatory, I was surprised how small it was and wondered just how Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan ever managed to find each other on the top of it?? That's right....that annoying little brat of a kid fooled them both - that is why they all live in Seattle and not New York, because they are stupid, wet, lovey-dovey people who can't sleep properly because of annoying children. Anyway.... I stayed up on this amazing viewpoint for a couple of hours and watched the night engulf the magical city. It was very cool, and also quite chilly due to the wind - the first time in recent memory I had to put on a jacket (seriously it has been months).

This is another stunning photo of me - taken from the Empire State Building. You can see the twin towers of the world trade centre to my left (where I took the other photos from...duh)

Across the Hudson river lies New Jersey - 'but I'm taking a Greyhound on the Hudson river line.....'

It's getting dark - I'm scared

Here is a night time shot from the Empire State building....the Chrysler building is bright and shiny just like their cars. Luckily, it doesn't have Firestone tires.

Token phallus shot....my bad

 I took plenty more photos and then went and got some food and a beer before heading back to the hostel. I then had one more beer (although it was in a 1.2L bottle) and stayed up chatting with an Aussie and a pom until about 1am....They had both spent time in Central and South America - so I got a few good tips on certain areas. 

Before heading home the next day I managed to check out the Guggenheim museum on the upper East Side. It was mostly closed but had a lot of great paintings and an exhibit on a new museum they are proposing on the Manhattan water front. It looks like it will be quite spectacular, the same architect that designed the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain. It actually took me back to studying design at university for a brief moment - thankfully that passed and I got out of there though.  

The Guggenheim Museum....very original - if you have never seen BeeHive Matches!!! I smell a law suit.

No - I was not in Jail. This is part of central park....with a lake and bars and buildings....and stuff .

I then strolled about central park taking photos and watching people and squirrels for an hour - then it was time to return to Austin. All too soon, but it was a well worthwhile trip and I am really glad I managed to get there before I head back to NZ. I would really like to live there, but exactly where I would come across the two or three grand US a month to rent a one bedroom apartment escapes me at the moment....any ideas??? All I can say is - if you haven't been, then you are missing out - it is a unique city, go there.