DAY 35-36 - NYC - 4-5th Jan 2008

Day 35 - 4th Jan

Went straight to Moma this morning. And although Moma had a fantastic collection especially the graphic design and product design sections one particular thing left a sour taste in my mouth. No eating in the museum, not in the foyer, not in the gardens, not ANYWHERE. But they only enforce the rule when you're on your last bite. But why have ubiquitous bins around in the statue garden if you're not allowed to eat? Do people discard a lot of paper in the statue garden? Am I not allowed to admire Henri Matisse whilst sitting on a chair in the middle of a pavement munching an apple?



Seriously, MOMA definitely wins on museum anal retentivity. I was so hungry I nearly managed to chomp down an exhibit.



Afterwards we met the rest of the Hau clan for a very late lunch at serendipity. Famous for its frozen hot chocolates and massive deserts. Writing this makes me insanely hungry. But not having had lunch I first woofed down a footlong hot dog, as massive as it sounds, it really wasn't all that filling. Then came the pinnacle of my time in the US. Peanut Butter Pie. I can't say I love it, but it was a definite memorable experience. I would liken it to eating a half jar of peanut butter along with 2 cookies. Absolutely sickening, yet a life experience.



I woke up today, and I was already tired and by Serendipity, I wanted nothing but a bed. So afterwards whilst the others all headed for MOMA's free friday night, I headed back to the hotel and ultimately crashed for about 4 hours. I've been running around NYC non-stop for about 8 days, and my body was just saying no.

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Day 36 - 5th Jan

Today was shopping and supplies day. I hit Century 21 first after sending off some postcards at the US postal office. Century 21 is NYC's answer to the factory outlet. It's a department store but has all the unwanted stuff from other department stores and top brands.

So essentially I went pretty crazy, well not that crazy cause I didn't have much room in my suitcase and I didn't want to be lugging extra shit around for the next 1.5 months. But I did leave with a red polo jumper and 2 pairs of nike sneakers. Oh if I had more room for sneakers I would have bought HEAPS. They were like 40 bucks for a pair which would go for around 160 in Aus. Note next time bring empty suitcase.

I hit Modells for some more thermals, and the pharmacy for some stuff. Then I settled down, ate a really shite burger meal and packed whilst watching Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves. Tonight was my last night in NYC and it was the only chance I'd get to see the Blue Man Group perform. I first heard of them through the Intel Ads and fell totally in love with the music they were making.

Going to NYC I definitely wanted to see 2 things, Avenue Q and Blue Man Group. So the first was done but the 2nd kept getting delayed longer and longer. So I rang them up to see if they had $26 student rush tickets on offer (they go on sale 1 hour before the show), the guy said very unlikely, so I asked if the 10pm show was possible (they had 3 shows a day on Friday but the 7pm didn't have student rush), he said yes definitely. I was elated because the original price of a ticket is $78. So it's a huge saving.

I get to the theatre at around 8:50. And it's a really small theatre. That's the thing with New York that really surprised me, most of the broadway theatres and this one (even though it's not actually on Broadway) are really quite small. The Avenue Q one is probably smaller than the Seymour and the BMG one was essentially a basement theatre.

So I got to the Ticket booth at 9pm, asked the chick. Are you selling student rush yet? She looks at me and goes, oh I dunno if we're selling student rush tonight. I looked at her like my soul has been crushed and went...but but...I phoned and the guy said you were. *pout*...she then looks at the guy across the room and he says something like yes and then she goes okay and i'm like OMFG< thank you for making my night. And yeah 26 bucks for front row. Sure it was right in the corner but still front row baby. To thank them I also bought a 25 buck t-shit, see when you're nice to students you actually end up earning money.

The show itself is just phenomenal. Part comedy, surrealism, music, music education, music humour and audience participation. And this is all done with the 3 blue guys never saying anything. I got sprayed with some banana gunk during the middle. Oh and did I mention the first 5 rows get ponchos? And on your ticket it actually says seating area...PONCHO...how friggin' awesome is that? In the end giant rolls of crepe paper were unravelled and passed down from the back of the theatre to the stage entangling the audience whilst strobe lighting cause you to see single frames of everything during a gigantic session of electronic. It was an experience, and bloody hell it was one of the best this entire trip. I came out and was like, omfg, I might have to go see them in Berlin, I don't care that I don't know any German. They are that good.

Funnily enough I got back to the hotel at about 12:30am and Megan's clan also arrived just as I was waiting for the lift, they'd just come back from Atlantic City and I was like...my night was so fricking awesome.

Day 32-34 - NYC - 1st-3rd Jan 2008

I'm running around 15 days behind right now. And my memory isn't to be relied upon at the moment so I'll give my best shot with the rest of NYC with the notes I currently have, which are running about 50 words a day. So depending on how much my photos tell me, these entries might be a bit short.

Here we go.

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Day 32 - 1st Jan '08

Ahoy we're finally into the new year and we started off by getting kicked out of our rooms and moving into new ones. Our new rooms were only slightly bigger than our old ones but now at least I had a bed. A shared bed, but a bed nonetheless. Settling into life in Tribeca (where supposedly Robert De Niro also lives) I basically lived off the 2 24 hour markets a block away from the hotel. Soup, pound food, bagels with cream cheese and of course all the general supplies, fruit and water. It's so brilliant having markets which never close. Craving something at 1am? No problems.

So after starting the day with some soup and bread I headed off to Bryant Park to skate in the early afternoon. I've probably mentioned it before but Bryant Park has free ice skating...like OMFG. I got there and there was hardly a line and I got in pretty quick, but problem is that it was packed to the rafters. Although you couldn't skate really fast because of the people, and despite the fact that all the people have made the ice very choppy, it was still nice dry ice, none of the wet crap in Sydney.

At 17:00 they cleared to ice to Zamboni it. 20min later I was one of the first people on and although I got told to slow down, my god was it cool. The feeling was absolutely sensational. Fresh ice, middle of New York, flying and then SCHhhhhh STOP. Skategasm.

When I had enough I went back to the hotel and was told that Megan would bring back dinner. So I waited hungrily for a long time and ended up with Pho, which is totally fine except for the fact that raw beef was put on top of noodles which were separate from the now warmish soup. Fine if I had a microwave but I didn't want to take my chances with the raw beef, especially when half of Megan's clan was sick with some viral crap. So a very soupy dinner was had along with a tv menu of Kill Bill 1 & 2 and the new Superman.

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Day 33 - 2nd Jan 2008

I went skating in the morning after a bagel with cream cheese...Mmmm. I'm going to get back to Sydney and totally be craving that. It was cold and about 10 people were on the ice which should have been fantastic except that after about 20min the blisters I received from last nights marathon session started playing up and I couldn't go for any longer. Which sucked. Anyhoo.



I trotted up to the Avenue Q box office and managed to get quite good discount tix to tomorrow nights show. Then I headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which was fantastic baring a few things.

- random exhibitions which closed early
- dickhead staff
- the sea of people

Museums really start sucking when there are way too many people, and there where way way too many people. But on the plus side I saw a lot of Picassos, Miros and Monets...Mmmmm awesome. And they have an entire Egyptian Temple rebuilt inside it. Like Whoa. They had an entire wing of Rembrandts but then I wasn't really a big fan so I passed through pretty quickly. Andy Warhol's huge portrait of Chairman Mao was however, brilliant.



Came back to the hotel and had expensive Japanese for dinner near the hotel.

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Day 34 - 3rd Jan 2008

Today was FREaking FReezing....-9C. I walked out with Megan's cousin Michelle and it was so cold we had to run most of the way through the city. It was so cold water froze from the fire hydants and I cold feel my thermal pants cracking when I walked. In other words, it was BLOODY COLD!!!.



So the day went like this, cream cheese bagel, nintendo world, get top of the Rock tix for later and then to the Natural History Museum.

The Museum was freaking awesome. Much more friendlier than the Met, cause largely it was aimed at kids. As a big kid myself I absolutely loved it. I went totally giddy at all the Dinosaur fossils and went around embarrassing myself shouting...OMFG STEGASAURUS...and the like for most of it. The other stuff was generally creepy dioramas but sure hell beats the Australian Museum which I think has like butterflies and that's it.



We met up with Megan and her Dad at the Top of the Rock at around sunset. Going up it doesn't seem that high but it is. And of course it was freezing. The good thing was that all the outside decks had perspex walls stopped some of the wind. It was nice cause we got to see the sunset and also NYC at night. And it was pretty bright.



Got back to the hotel via the Rockefeller and got some pretty bad pound food (it's like a buffet but you get what you want and then they weigh it and it's like 6 bucks a pound) from the market and then Megan, Tracey and I headed to Avenue Q on Broadway.

Since I've already seen the bootleg I new what was pretty much going to happen but it still didn't diminish the awesomeness of this musical. You will never look at puppets again and I also had a brief freakout moment when I realised by this time next yeah I'll just be like Princeton, 23, with an Arts degree and no purpose. ARRRGH.

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More photos are here http://picasaweb.google.com/LJK131/RestOfNYCLotsOfMuseums

DAY 31 - NYE in NYC - 31st Dec

This was my downtown manhattan escapade. I got up pretty early and walked to and over the brooklyn bridge. It was cold but pretty awesome. So I got on the other side to brooklyn and kind freaked out a little. I mean it was brooklyn. But I ended up have pancakes at a diner near the exit of the bridge. 3 huge pancakes, coffee and 2 sips of orange juice was supposedly $3.95 but add tips and tax it was quickly over $6. That's the problem with this country, sometimes things are deceptively cheap, it tends to fuck with my head.



I got the subway to the financial hub. It was pretty empty since everyone was off for NYE. However once I got to wall st, there were hordes of tourists doing the obligatory of visiting the New York Stock Exchange, I was no exception. But wall street is like any other financial center in the world, hideously dull, so taking a stroll past the harbour I went down to Battery Park.



The lines for the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferries stretched for an eternity. Obviously I was not going to get to either today, so I walked to the Staten Island ferries, which go to Staten Island obviously but other than that, they are free, and go straight past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

On the outside of the ferry, the wind chill added to an already chilly day, and it was absolutely FREEZING, but I managed to last long enough to see both sighs. The statue was kind of disappointing really, it's tiny, all the movies and pictures make it out to be this awesome sight right next to Manhattan, but rather it's this tiny thing way in the distance. You can hardly see it from Battery Park.



I got back and managed to make my way up to the Bull near Wall St. I wanted a picture with it, but poor thing was being harrassed by a horde of barbarian tourists whom were climbing on it and everything. So I decided to give it a reprieve of a few days till my fat arse lands on it.

Kept heading north and found the WTC sight. There wasn't much to see other than an obvious construction sight, but it was still a bit emotional standing there. I was in time for the sunset on the Hudson river which was glorious as sunsets always are.



After some soup and a bagel with cream cheese (which is shaping up to be one one of my fav foods ever) I had a nap in prep for NYE at times square. The clan headed to Chinatown for some shanghainese style dinner at around 8. We didn't actually make it to Times Square till about 10pm and thus were penned on 40th St facing the back of the Crystal Ball, meaning we couldn't see jack.



It was well that we only waited 2 hours cause the resulting crappiness had to seen to be believed...no countdown no nothing, 10 seconds worth of fireworks off one building and that was it, everyone either went home or to an after party. Perhaps it was my lack of inebriation but by god that was probably the most sucky NYE I've ever had. I think NYE in Sydney is probably the best in the world now.



We got back to the hotel and ended up watching the South Park movie on telly. I think that was the highlight of my night. I love that movie.

DAY 30 - Random NYC cont... - 30th Dec

I was going to go skating this morning but then decided to get up at 10:30, and the Knicks vs Bulls game at Madison Square Gardens I had tickets to, started at 12pm. I got off at Chelsea and took a nice little stroll up to the gardens with my bagel in tow, how very New Yorker of me.

The game kinda sucked, the knicks really sucked at the moment, especially with the entire crowd chanting .."fire isaiah"...Isaiah Thomas been the much useless and maligned coach of the current Knicks. But to be actually watching a live NBA match at the gardens when I'm a huge basketball fan...priceless.



Finally had my first NY hot dog after the game, tasted good but it was actually quite small. I'll have to demand all my hot dogs with sauerkraut now.



I had time to kill so I headed up to Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the upper west side. Supposedly it is the largest cathedral in the world. Part of it was destroyed in a fire a few years back so it is under heavy construction. On my way there I actually got lost and a couple of German backpackers asked me for directions and I directed them the wrong way. Funnlly enough I've been asked directions a lot, maybe I act like a true New Yorker ahaha, usually I'm actually pretty successful directing people.



When I got out of cathedral it started raining, pretty tired I did some fruit shopping before heading back to the hotel. I had a dinner of classic buffalo wings, ribs and seasoned fries with the the younger part of the Hau clan. Dinner was great only marred by the fuckwit service I received at Baskin Robbins after.

DAY 29 - Random NYC cont... - Dec 29

I had another late start to the day, sleeping on the floor hardly puts me in a good mood. However after having what could be considered lunch I headed to the ice rink and picked up my skates, lined up for about 30min and finally got in.

It was fantastic, skating in the open. I haven't done that since I was 10 in Beijing. But this was in between skyscrapers. Although it was so full you could hardly skate, and that I also had to break in my new skates, I couldn't do much, but the prevailing feeling was of utter sweetness. The rinks in Sydney could never compare, even when the surface is choppy the ice doesn't turn into slush and by the end of the sessions you're not swimming in a shallow pond. Did I also mention no actual session times? So you can literally skate from 8am to 12am, a whole 14 hours if you wanted. But I was pretty spent after an hour and desperately hungry too, so I decided it was time to leave.



I headed to the burger joint on 57th St which came highly recommended on several top burger lists. I bypassed it with really knowing a couple of days ago when I was near Carnegie hall. However the actual address directs you right into the Le Parker Meridian Hotel, the thing is that the Burger Joint is a hole in the wall place in the lobby of the hotel. No signs other than a neon burger directing the way, and both days there was a hefty line outside. So I join the back of the line.

35min I was finally inside. It was small 6 booths, 1 stool table and 2 normal tables, the kitchen resembled some of those floating stalls in Blade Runner and the Fifth Element. The food was quite expensive for the fare, $11.75 for a burger, fries and a drink. The burger was small compared to most, but the pattie was thick. It was tasty, but I can't help thinking I would have enjoyed the entire experience if I had lined up for less time and had more time to enjoy my food rather than scoffing it down because everyone behind you is giving you the death stare. Then I found out you could actually call in and order, I think I might do that next time, but still, I guess you'll loose the atmosphere, and the price is a tad too high for takeout burgers.



I digested in the lobby of Le Parker Meridian. New York nearly doesn't have enough resting spots, I think hotel lobby's are a fab replacement. Usually I guess in Sydney, I just bum on the UTS couches.

I headed down 5th Ave later, and squealed thoroughly over the NBA store, pity that it only sold adiddas stuff though. And there wasn't anything particularly old school to tempt me. Walking down 5th Ave I realised that New York fashion is so much more hip and heaps cooler than the west coast. Although San Fran had its indie moments, I just want to take all of NYC with me in my suitcase. Every clothing and shoe store I pass I'm like ohhhh, that's nice. Whereas in LA it was like, yeah that's nice if I'd like to go hang with my homies in south central.



The crowds around Rockefeller and Times Square were insane, shoulder to shoulder and to cross the road you had to shuffle. Through the rockefeller, I found something that I was looking for since I got to the city.



The nintendo store, 2 levels, full of Wiis and DSs for your pleasure....and pleasurable it was. I need to go back and get countless nerd T-shirts I've always wanted. But I could just spend days in there playing every single game they have. And they even had the Wii Raygun system setup too, *salivates*...heaven.



At night I had cheap roast duck wonton noodles which were cheap and totally fabulous and a wonder through chinatown and little italy. Maccas and Burger King both had signs in Chinese, like wtf? And little Italy was like a bright more neon sparkly version of Norton St, not very Godfather at all. I was a little disappointed.


times square at night