I flew from Nashville Monday morning to Chicago airport for a 2 hour stop over, just enough time to see Australia get beaten by those dirty Italians, well that's a bit harsh, but it was a shame to lose that game.
Any way got my transfer to the city, and caught a shuttle into the Hostel that I was staying at in NYC. I was staying 2 blocks from Central Park on 103rd st and Amsterdam. So I ditched my luggage in my room and headed straight down to the Park to check it out. I walked round for about an hour. Central Park is huge, so I didn't get to see all of it, but I got the general idea. There were open grassed areas, then there were baseball fields, lakes, and woodland areas, with creeks and bridges and so forth. Did not do much else that night, just got some dinner, and went to sleep.
The first stop for the next day was the American Museum of Natural History. Located in a 4 storey historic building, it was definately a highlight of my NYC visit. I started off with a visit to the planetarium, which is a huge dome inside a glass building. The next 3 levels were made up of different exhibits. Mostly stuffed animals behind glass windows, but also exhibits from different ancient cultures and a dinosaur exhibit. Now it may sound boring but it was really interesting and quite enjoyable. I definatley enjoyed the animal exhibits. Each one had amazing scenery painted behind the animal which really made it stand out. I spent about 4 hours there and would recommend it to anyone visiting New York.
That afertnoon it was off to the filming of the Letterman show. I was lucky to get a seat 3 rows from the front, and apparently I got some TV time in the shows introduction...for a few seconds. It was great being in the crowd, I'd give that nights show about 7/10, it was entertaining, but not the most awesome experience of my life. I was very lucky to have the opportunity to get on the show. After the filming I trekked round the city and saw a few sights including the United Nations Building, and the Rockefeller Center. There is an observation deck up the top, so I went and checked that out. I got an awesome view of the city at night time including the Empire State Building. After that I was exhausted from a big day so I went back to the hostel.
Day 3, Wednesday, started off with a cruise down the Hudson River. There were some fantastic views of the city from the ferry, but the highlight was definately cruising round the Statue of Liberty. It's not as big as I thought, but it was awesome to see one of the icons of America. Next was a walk down to the World Trade Center site. It was quite a solemn mood, as you realise the scale of the destruction from the 2 buildings. Next it was down Wall Street and then to Battery Park, the bottom point of Manhattan Island. Another great view of the Statue of Liberty. I rested there for 30 mins (actually fell asleep sitting up straight on a park bench), then headed off to Chinatown, and Little Italy. Chinatown was pretty dirty and ugly, but Little Italy, was beautiful, clean, and looked authentic.So I got some dinner in Chinatown and headed back up through Times Square to the new Apple Store on 5th Ave and 58 St. The outside is a glass cube with a glowing apple symbol in the middle and the store is actually underground. It was a cool, funky store, I'm actually thinking of "switching", the new macbooks' look great.
Final day in New York...or so I thought, was spent with a morning trip up the Empire State Building. The visibilty was limited to about 3 miles, but it was definatley worth the visit. Read some interesting history about New York, like a 1/4 of Manhattan Island was made out of landfill, and the Dutch bought the Island off the American Indians for about $24 and a bottle of Whiskey. Had a quick look through Macy's (largest department store in the world) then back to the hostel to get my shuttle to the aiport. While we were queing up to board the plane they announced that our flight was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to give up their seats for a flight the next day. Which was prefect for me cause I was going to have to wait all day for my sister to pick me up from the airport. As an incentive to give up your seat the airline was offering...
- Accomodation in a hotel,
- $500 worth of United Airlines Travel vouchers, and
- A business class upgrade on the flight the next night
So I had an awesome time in NYC. I didn't mention things like eating breakfast in a diner, or getting pizza, but I had the New York experience !!!
