New York, New York – 2nd Leg

We had an exciting full few days in New York, and managed to see most of the major tourist sights in Manhattan.
We snapped away, and took a heap more photos that can be seen here.

Our NY adventure started when we touched down in JFK airport after a 6 hour flight from San Francisco and proceeded to wait another 30 minutes on the tarmac because JFK is crazy disorganised.

My Dad’s cousin; Noreen and her husband Joe were kind enough to put us up for the 4 nights we were staying at their large house on Long Island. Noreen and Joe run a catholic charity called the MAN Foundation from out of their home along with Noreen’s brother, Bob and daughter in law Lauren. It so happened that they had just flown in from a holiday in the Caribbean, and so were waiting for us when we got off the plane. After our bags arrived (which was another 30 minute wait), they showed us to their car: their very own personal limousine. Very swanky.

For our first day in New York, Noreen had organised their driver, Hugh, to show us around Manhattan in their limo. The roads from Long Island were so busy that it took us a couple of hours before we got over Brooklyn Bridge. We saw some of the major sights such us Ground Zero, Central Park, Times Square, Town Hall, Broadway and the Fashion District. Before the traffic got really bad, Hugh took us back towards Long Island, but not before stopping off at a major New York cemetery (used in the Godfather) that he used to look after. It was surprisingly serene after the hustle bustle of the city.

The next day, we decided to brave the trains and subway and headed into the city with map in hand. We started at a stop called ‘Hicksville’, no really! I even took a photo to prove it. The train and subway system was really good. Very easy and not too pricy to get around.
After nearly an hour on the train, we emerged in Manhattan near the Empire State Building, now the highest building in New York again, so we had to head on up. It was a little expensive, but the views are fantastic.

Next stop was the New York Public Library (yes the one in Ghostbusters II), then visited the Rockefeller Centre, then through Times Square where I let my guard down and got hustled by a rapper called Artillery. He handed me one of his albums which I thought was free at first, then he signed it and put my name on the CD. So it was hard to turn back when he said it was $20. Oh well, I got a photo with him as well…

After that was over, we headed for Central Park and walked part way through the very large park.

We went out that night with Noreen and Joe to an excellent Italian restaurant, and we also met two of her sons; Chris and Sean, as well as Jacquie: Chris’ fiancee (they should be married by the time you read this). They were really nice and friendly people, although Chris and Sean were nursing hangovers from Chris’ bachelor party the night before. Joe kept everyone entertained with his excellent joke telling.

For our last day in New York, we planned to head downtown to get a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, which also included a trip to Ellis Island (the old US immigration point) then get back to Manhattan to try some New York pizza.
So we made our way downtown to Battery Park where the ferries left from. The line for the ferry was huge. It took us at least 40 minutes to get to the security checkpoint where we were rudely treated like cattle and herded into a ferry. After a short trip we arrived at a heavily populated Liberty Island. The statue was pretty fantastic, but we couldn’t go inside because all tickets for the day had been pre-sold. After 20 minutes we’d seen everything we could on the island, so queued up in another huge queue for another 40 minutes to get off the island.
When we eventually got to Ellis Island, we were considering staying on the boat to get back quicker for the pizza. We got off anyway, and we’re so glad we did. The main immigration building on the island has been converted into a 3 storey museum. It’s full of interesting exhibts and was nowhere near as crowded as Liberty Island. We got back to Manhattan a bit too late for pizza, so we headed back so we wouldn’t miss dinner.

For our last meal Noreen and Joe took us to another restaurant to meet their grandson Justin and his friend Jackie who are both off to college soon. We had a nice meal, and even got to have some New York pizza (finally).

The next morning, we said our goodbyes, hopped in the limo and headed off to the airport. JFK is the worst airport I have ever been to. After getting our tickets, we had to take our luggage into a roped off area ourselves and leave it there, hoping it would not be stolen. Next we went through security where Tanya and I got pulled aside for a random security check (bags and person searched for explosives – we think). They were rude and didn’t explain what they were doing. Not a nice experience.

After all that we got on the plane to London, England! Hurrah!

1st leg of our journey – San Francisco

We’re just settling down for our last night in San Francisco – we’ve spent the last 2 and a half days here, and I really like the city.

After landing after a 12 hour flight we found US customs to be slow, but lacking in some of the horrific aspects I’d heard about. But I’m not disappointed about being passed over for a strip search!

We’re staying at the Carlton Hotel which is pretty central, comfortable and reasonably priced with bonus free wine tasting every night. The staff are real nice, and it has a phenomenal Arabic Fusion restaurant too.

We’ve visited a lot of the main tourist attractions in San Francisco, and took many many photos along the way. I’ve uploaded them all to Picasa and they can be viewed here.

The people here are surprisingly polite, and it’s not as much of a culture shock as I thought it would be. Having said that, here’s some of things that threw us a bit:

• Apart from taxis, cars always seem to give way to pedestrians, even if they stand in the middle of the street to take photos.
• Prices displayed on items exclude tax.
• I know you have to tip here, but exactly where and when still confuses me.
• There’s more homeless people here than I thought there would be. Each block seems to have a few.
• The fire engines don’t seem to try to be quiet at night like in NZ. A wailing siren is one of the worst things to hear at 2:30am.

Since our legs and feet are tired from traversing all those hills, I’d better leave it at that and get some rest.

Tomorrow, New York!