Goodbye New York!

Friday

After a late night on Thursday, we decided to have a bit of a lie in. We got up, packed our bags so we’d be ready to leave that afternoon and then at about midday we headed uptown for the first time to visit a diner that’s special to both of us but for different reasons. For Laura it’s the place where Suzanne Vega wrote “Tom’s Diner” and for me it’s the building used for the exterior shots of “Monks” diner in Seinfeld.

The diner from Seinfeld, and also where Suzanne Vega wrote Tom's Diner.

The diner has been owned by the same family for 60 years and felt very traditional and authentic. They only take cash, so after checking my pocket to count how many dollars we had left we ordered (an omelette for Laura, strawberry pancakes for me and a strawberry “famous giant shake”). Everything was tasty.

We then walked off our food by walking back to our apartment via Central Park. Tom’s Restaurant is on 112^th Street and our apartment is on 74^th, so we walked a fair distance. The park is beautiful and it was amazing how quickly you lose the sounds of the city once you’re in it. We saw plenty of people out enjoying the park, playing softball, baseball, football.

At this time of year all the trees are just greening out and the blossoms are still in full bloom, so the view over the reservoir back towards the city was lovely.

Back at the aparment we gathered our stuff together, checked for mislaid socks, finished writing the blog and then said our goodbyes to the apartment we called home for 6 days and 5 nights. We got on the subway to Penn station and then waited for our train. It wasn’t a long wait though and the station had wi-fi so we were easily entertained.

The train was busy, but we got seats and settled in for the 80 minute journey back to Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia we got a really slooooowwwwww train to the airport and then proceeded to walk around a really complicated tour of odd corridors before finding where to check in and drop our bags for the flight. Terminal 5 this wasn’t.

Once through security we found a bar called Chickie & Pete’s and ordered a Philly cheesesteak, some wings and crab fries to share. Oh, and a couple of drinks. On the TV, the Mets game was on, and as we’re now fans of the Mets ;) we kept an eye on the score. We chilled here until it was time to go to our gate and board the plane.

The flight home wasn’t as exciting as the one 2 weeks ago, and we kept reminding each other that “this time last week we were….” or “last night we were in New York doing…”

We watched the silent film The Artist and then caught a few hours sleep before being woken up with tea and a muffin for breakfast.

At Terminal 5 we were allowed back into the UK (hurrah!), got the car back from the hotel and began the 2 hour drive home with the holiday blues kicking in!

At home, the cats were waiting for us and Liz had bought us some milk to we had tea and snuggles.

And that was the Awesome American Adventure – 2012.

THE END

Thursday

Today’s diner of choice for breakfast was a place downtown near Battery Park called “The Diner” (wonder how they came up with that name?)  Laura had pancakes and I had a waffle (with maple syrup, cream and fruit – I was trying to be healthy!)

We then walked down to Battery Park to get on a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and visit Ellis Island. For the first time on this trip our luck was out and we arrived to find a massive queue of people. We were able to skip the ticket line as we had our NY City Pass, but it still took about an hour to get through security and onto the dock. For almost everything else we’ve done on the holiday we’ve been lucky and the queue has always been short when we joined and long by the time we were finished. We’ve also seemed to have been really lucky with the people we’ve met, the places we’ve eaten and the timings of everything. Very strange!

Battery Park and World Trade Center Memorial (the globe is from the original WTC Plaza)

When the boat arrived, we sat on the top deck and had a great view of the Manhattan skyline as we sailed over to Ellis Island. The weather had turned a bit cloudy and it was cold upstairs, but we both enjoyed the view.

Lady Liberty

Manhattan skyline from the Ellis Island ferry

As the Statue of Liberty is currently closed for renovation, we stayed on the boat and went straight to Ellis Island. The immigration museum is fascinating and there are loads of stories to read and information to digest, but we had other things to do so we didn’t linger too long.

The great hall on Ellis Island

Back in Manhattan we went to Times Square and posed in front of the webcam with a silly sign. The HD webcam might not have been working though, so perhaps our sign was missed! Here it is in case you didn’t see it.

Posing for the webcam in Times Sqaure

We did plan to go back to Ellen’s Stardust Diner for dinner but there was a massive crowd of people forming a scrum to get in and we heard a rumour that there were some famous Broadway stars in there. We didn’t fancy queuing, so we went back to McGees again!

In McGees we shared some appetisers and a plate of sliders (mmmm, mini burgers) and I drank a ridiculously strong Cosmo. The couple at the table next to us, who turned out to be from California heard our accents and started talking to us, once again discussing the differences between the UK and America. The woman asked if everyone in England loved Kate, we didn’t know which Kate she meant straight away but we got into a conversation about how the royal family are in the news all the time in the US so we realised she meant Kate Middleton. We were enjoying a good conversation, sharing our travel stories and life stories when all of a sudden the husband received a text, they looked worried then started to have little digs at each other, we stopped talking to them, paid our bill and left them to it!

We then popped to Grand Central Terminal to marvel at the building and have a nosey around.

Grand Central Terminal

After that we went to the Rockefeller Center and got our timed slot to visit the Top of the Rock Observation Deck. The elevator ride to the top was a surprise as the elevator ceiling is see through, a film is projected onto it and the lift shaft is illuminated in blue as you zoom up. It was really cool.
From the observation deck the views over the Manhattan skyline were stunning. It almost didn’t seem real. Right at the very top on the 70^th floor you get a brilliant view as there’s no railing or fence to get in the way (it’s safe though as the floor is set back from the one below).

The view from the Top of the Rock

Me on the Top of the Rock

We soaked in the view and took lots of pictures. It was beautiful.

After the Top of the Rock we got the Subway downtown to the Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village where we had a reservation at 10pm. We both joked that we might be the only ones in there, but it turned out to be fully booked and people were queuing for reserve entry. We were allocated a table and stood in a queue with the few other people that had arrived early like us. We got chatting to a lovely couple visiting from Holland (although she was actually from Spain). We compared notes on New York City and it made the half hour pass really quickly.

When the 8pm people had left we all filed in. Much to our shock we were seated right next to the stage! Ooooh, rule 1 of comedy venues is don’t sit at the front if you don’t want to get picked on or quizzed!

We couldn't have been any closer to the stage

The room is underneath a bar and very small and intimate. I think the compere said it held 80 people. The toilets were stupidly small and held two people and required a complicated push me, pull you, shuffle here, shuffle there style of entry and exit.

The next 2 hours were brilliant. We were entertained by 6 comedians (plus the compere) and by the end my face hurt from laughing so much. Each comedian seemed to have been on loads of American TV shows or was a writer for some comedy and had solid gold acts. And we didn’t get picked on at all!

At the end of the show the waiting staff then give every table their bill (or “check” to use the American phrase) and we settled up. It’s very different to the UK where everything is paid in advance, I liked it though.

After the show we felt like staying out a bit longer (it was our last night after all), so we wandered around the street, but in the end we went to the bar upstairs from the Comedy Cellar as it seemed really nice. It was. In the bar were many of the comedians we’d just seen. We sat at the bar and chatted to the barman Maciej (he moved to the US from Poland when he was 4). We drank more beer and ended up having a great night. Behind the bar was a little TV monitor showing the comedians where were doing the midnight show. Amusingly, the bar’s only toilets were downstairs in the comedy club, so when we both needed to go we had to go down a “secret” staircase, shuffle past the comedians waiting to go on stage and then walk right through to the club, passed the stage to the tiny toilets in the corner. Crazy.

Derrick, drunk guy (John) and Laura - who both had the same calculator watch

We also met a comedian called Derrick in the bar and spent time chatting to him (he could do a fab impression of Obama). At about 3am we started saying our goodbyes to everyone we’d met and got the subway home. At home we facetimed Sam (who was at work) and Tina & Emma (who were also at work!). It was very weird to think that we were just going to bed, yet they’d just arrived at work. In the future. It was tomorrow. Clearly we’d drunk enough! And so we went to bed.

Wednesday

After a hectic few days, today was a little bit more laid back. We stayed in bed a little longer and so didn’t leave the apartment until 12pm. We headed down to the financial district and got a burger at Five Guys Burgers & Fries (a most unhealthy breakfast I’m sure you’ll agree). This was on the recommendation of one Gordon Greenland, so I was in high hopes that it would be good. We were a little flummoxed when ordering as we both asked for a “Little Cheeseburger” but the order taker then asked us what we wanted on them. “Er, cheese, relish, pickle” said Laura, thinking on her feet. After a few minutes we got out burgers and fries.

Despite sharing one regular fries, we had enough for at least three people easily. The fries were skin-on and very tasty indeed. The burger was just melt in the mouth good. All in all, very good. Thank you Mr Greenland.

Tasty fries

Yummy burger

We then walked a few blocks to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked over it. It was a very nice bridge, but currently undergoing some maintenance, so one side of it was all wrapped up and protected. Still, the other side was very nice. The views back to Manhattan were great. On the other side of the bridge we wandered down to Brooklyn Bridge Park and sat in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge as we gazed over at the skyline. At that moment the sun came out again and it felt lovely.

Our next stop was Coney Island, but we both needed a comfort break… so we walked up a few blocks to the DUMBO area and found a bar called rebar to pop into. We ordered a couple of cokes and sat at the bar. The place was converted from an old warehouse and had barrel vaulted ceilings, exposed brick and tons of character. At the back were artist studios and offices. All very hip and boho chic. The bartender (we’ll call him Jake) got chatting to us and we both mentioned how we wished there were a bar like this in Nottingham and how we could both happily live here with this being our regular. He laughed at this. When we came to settle the bill, he said “don’t worry ladies, these are on me”. And so we left with a smile on our face and another experience with a very friendly American.

At the bar in rebar

Rebar

Lots of beers

Studio / gallery space

We got on the Subway and headed down to Coney Island. The weather was cloudy with occasional sun and so both cold and warm. That annoying kind-of jumper on / jumper off weather. At Coney Island we played some skee ball, Laura got her fortune told by Zoltan (a-la Tom Hanks in Big) and we walked along the boardwalk.

Skee ball (didn't get a very high score on this one)

Zoltan!

The iconic Parachute Jump ride

The Coney Island Cyclone

Bizarrely, it must be some sort of Orthodox Jewish holiday as Coney Island (and New York in general) was packed today with people in their formal dress. I’d say it was equal numbers Orthodox Jew and the rest of us. Being a religion that isn’t very mainstream in the UK, it was difficult not to notice them. But none of the New Yorkers seemed to notice and the staff all knew to remind them to tuck in their “insert word for long black dressing gown thing” and to fasten down their “insert word for skull cap thing”.

Laura doesn’t like rides, but I rode on the Steeplechase - which was pretty scary! (a bit like Rita Queen Of Speed but sat on a horse). And I also got to ride the 85 year old Coney Island Cyclone (a very old wooden coaster). It was brilliant fun and very rickety.

After Coney Island we headed back up to Brooklyn and hunted out Barcade, which as the name suggests is a mixture between a Bar and an Arcade. It was really cool in there and they had lots of different beers and loads of classic video games (Paperboy, Tetris, Asteroids, Outrun, Ms Pac-man, Chosts n Goblins…) Me and Laura were like kids again. Laura got to play Paperboy for the first time in an arcade since she was 13 and in Woolacombe.

Games that we’d never played but discovered that we loved were Moon Patrol, Rolling Thunder and Timber. Timber in particular was lots of fun (er, nothing to do with the alcohol consumed…..) and is a two player game that has you competing to chop down the most trees and avoid being stung by bees (thrown by an evil bear!) A bonus round involves running on a log and battling to stay on. Seriously, it was brilliant.

Paperboy

Tetris

Timber!

The fact that a bar like this doesn’t exist in England makes us both very sad. It would totally be our regular. In fact… me and Laura did start discussing where in Nottingham we could set up our own version…

After spending far too many of our quarters, we got the ‘L’ train back to Manhattan and went to McGees for some dinner. We ate sliders and chicken wings and watched both Baseball and Basketball simulataneously (The Yankees drew, the Knicks just narrowly beat the Bucks with a 3-pointer a minute before the end).

Tuesday

One thing I haven’t written about in this blog is the inequality in America. In all of the big cities we’ve visited we’ve seen many homeless people, usually men and almost always quite old. We’ve seen them pushing shopping trolleys around, loaded with all their possessions, we’ve seen them rummaging through bins hunting for food or sometimes simply shaking a cup and begging for spare change. A few have been in wheelchairs with missing legs, and a lot have claimed to be veterans who can’t afford to buy food.

Before coming here I’d assumed this was something that was just a cliché from 80s films, but it’s not. And the thing that struck me yesterday as we ate a ridiculously large portion of food was that the inequality seemed awful. How can people finish a meal, stuffed so full it hurts and still leave gluttonous proportions of food on their plate while outside people starve. It just seems wrong. Maybe the homeless and the hungry are more hidden in the UK, but it certainly never appears to me to be as bad as this.

Anyway, enough of that. On to what we did on Tuesday. We started the day by getting the subway down to the Meatpacking district (which was a very nice area) and attending the Ground Zero Museum Workshop. This was a fantastic experience. The museum is only in one, small room and so we had to pre book a timeslot to visit (there are currently only 2 tours each day) and there are only 25 people allowed on each tour.

The museum (it's quite small)

Clock stopped at the moment the North Tower collapsed

Artefacts saved by Gary Suson

The room is full of photographs by Gary Suson (who was appointed the official photographer at Ground Zero after mayor Rudy Giuliani banned all photographers form the site) and is inspired by the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam. Gary documented the recovery at Ground Zero, 17 hours a day, six days a week for a 14 months. There are hundreds of photos and artefacts, many of which you are encouraged to hold and touch, all of which designed to bring you closer to the events and people who died that day.

The crosses and star were cut from the steel beams by recovery workers and given to relatives of the victims.

The tour is interactive, so as you look at a photo or an object, Gary Suson describes on your Tourmate (audio headset) what you are seeing. Luckily, a few of the objects are a bit more light-hearted as it can get quite heavy. It’s a brilliant museum and if you ever visit NYC I recommend you check it out.

We were there for 2 hours, and when we left we were both starving, so we headed to Little Italy for some food. As we wandered the streets looking at restaurants, two guys came out of a little place called La Mela saying “Oh my God, that was so good” “Best food ever!” or something like that, so we stopped them and asked what they had. It sounded good so we said to each other “Let’s go here” and we ate there.  It was laid back and the food was indeed tasty, so a good choice. (Laura: Natalie forgets to mention the fact that there was a ‘proper’ Italian fella on the door, looking like something out of The Sopranos, trying to encourage us to come in. He was all “whaddaya know, youse girls are gonna gedda surprise in here”. There were also lots of photos on the walls of famous people who had eaten there, so we figured it had to be good.)

Famous people on the wall

After that we popped over to Greenwich Village and had a nosey around. We had tea and a gigantic slice of Lemon Meringue Pie at Rocco’s while marvelling at the huge array of cakes and pastries.

We saw the building used for exterior shots of Rachel and Monica’s apartment in Friends.

Greenwich Village seemed like a very nice neighbourhood.

 

We then got on the subway to Flushing Meadow as it was time to get all sporty and watch a baseball game!

First, we wandered around the old World’s Fair Site and marvelled at the unisphere, which was massive.

Worlds Fair Park

If you look closely, you can just see me at the bottom left

At Citifield we somehow found ourselves in the memorabilia shop… so we’re both now kited out with Mets t-shirts, jumpers and hoodies. Whoops! Before taking our seats, I changed into mine so that I would look like more of a fan. What would have helped me more would have been PAYING ATTENTION to the game and not accidentally whooping when the opposing team almost got a home run… whoops again!

We had great seats (a bargain on Stubhub) and enjoyed every minute of the experience: the game, the spectacle, the adverts, the organ, the music, and the interludes between innings. It was great fun. I think if I lived in America I could become a real fan of baseball. The only downside was that it got really cold towards the end of the night. Oh, and the Mets lost (doh!). So at the bottom of the 8^th (get me with my fancy terminology!) we headed off and got the Subway home. Another fab day in New York City.