That Big New York Trip (part 3 of 5)

Spending 10 days in the city was a wonderful experience.  It meant I had time to see all of the city, as well as have having a few days off just to chill on the beaches or just relax in the local parks.

I was worried that I'd see everything in less time and then have nothing left to do for the rest of the trip, but NYC is just a never ending dynamic city which never gets boring! Every day I went home and checked off my NYC bucket list items I'd do a few Google searches and find a whole plethora of items to see or experience!

With only about half my trip left, I decided it was time to see the more famous parts of the city starting with Joe's Pizza.

Not only is Joe's rated one of the best pizza slices in the city, but it is also frequented by celebrities as well as making an appearance in the Spiderman movie.

I was saving my NY pizza experience for a special place so I decided breakfast pizza at Joe's was the perfect time.

Day 6 - Wall Street, the 9/11 Memorial, Ghostbusters, Friends, Trinity Church and Brooklyn Bridge

From the outside you wouldn't suspect this is one of the city's most famous pizzerias. 

Once inside though, it becomes quickly apparent when you notice the collages of celeb photos lining the walls

This might not look like much but it was definitely one of the most amazing pizzas I've ever tasted - not to mention the slice was about as big as my head!  An interesting thing in NY is that all pizza seems to be served by the slice instead of the mini or personal pizzas we have in England and also in South Africa.  I've seen the single slices in some parts of London before but it seems that it is the general way of being served in NY.

Next stop was the 'Friends' apartment - I'm a mega fan and it was really cool standing in front of 'their' building!  Of course the show was never filmed in that building and the coffee shop 'Central Perk' is not even a real thing, but that's okay. It was cool to get this shot anyway.

  

I walked about a mile across the sweltering city to get to the Ghostbusters' Firestation building to make sure I saw this puppy only to get there and find out it was being renovated and was covered in a huge black net.  Typical!

Until I saw that Ghostbusters symbol painted on the floor, I literally walked past this building three times whilst glaring at my Google Maps which kept telling me I saw standing right in front of it.  Took me a while but you can see why!

Onto the subways to visit the 9/11 memorial and see Wall Street.  I might look calm and peaceful but I can tell you that it was as hot as hell on that subway platform and I was melting.

Subway ticket machines - so colourful.

One World Trade Center

Ground Zero Memorial pools: they have one for the North and the South tower. You can see the vast size of the pool from the size of the people on the opposite side of the memorial to me.

An aerial view of the pools.  It's hard to think that hundreds of people lost their lives in this green, peaceful place.

At around this point, I started becoming quite emotional which I admit I wasn't expecting. These names go all around both pools and there are just hundreds and hundreds of them.

This is the survivor tree.  It was the only thing that was still standing from the blast.  When they found it, it has been blown down to only 8ft and it is a symbol of rebuilding what was lost.  If you can see the lock on the tree that is where the tree regrew from into what it is now.   At this point it was all too much for me and I had to leave the memorial.

For the firemen

Trinity Church which looks out of place just around the corner from the 9/11 memorial and the glass fronted buildings of the financial distract.  It is across the road from Wall Street.  This is the third church built on this site with the first one being rebuilt into a more spacious church, and the second having to be torn down because of damage from bad weather.  The church that now stands was completed in 1846 and has been refuge for survivors of the giant debris cloud following the 9/11 attacks, as well as serving moral and practical support for protesters during 'Occupy Wall Street' for which they got into a bit of hot water!

The South Churchyard of Trinity Church where Alexander Hamilton, William Bradford, Franklin Wharton, Robert Fulton, Captain James Lawrence and Albert Gallatin are buried.

The New York Stock Exchange building

The Charging Bull or the Wall Street Bull which is not actually on Wall Street at all but rather near the Bowling Green Station..  I don't actually know any of these people standing with the bull but it is actually impossible to get a photo of this thing without someone hanging off of it! 

After hours and hours of sight seeing I made my way to the Liberty viewing deck but decided to stop and visit a New York movie theater instead.  They really do sell those awesomely massive buckets of popcorn that you see in the movies.

Look at the leg room you get in these seats! And it wasn't even premiere seating.  I also love that you get a little school desk type table on which to hold your gigantic popcorn.

The building that the movies was in was a very strange place.  It has about three massive storeys that seemed to hold nothing other than elaborate marble flooring and this bizarre apple thingy which seemed like a good place to stop and take a selfie.

After the movie I continued my walk towards the viewing deck but got side tracked by this beautiful view of the Hudson River and the city in the background

I decided to keep walking to see if I could find Brooklyn Bridge to tick it off the list.  En route I found yet another magical building that looks like it was hand carved, causally sitting among the other modern buildings.

Brooklyn Bridge lovers have adopted the European idea of 'love locks' whereby lovers immortalise their love with a lock attached to the bridge and throw the key into the river below.  Sucks if they break up!

I'm a big fan of this type of sentimentality and was going to put one up for my son to remove one day when he visited the city as an adult, however I read an article the night before about a team from the DOT who have been employed to remove the locks so it seemed a bit pointless.  You can read more about that here if you're interested http://gothamist.com/2015/04/07/brooklyn_bridge_love_locks.php

It's very impressive!

From this and a few other things I saw, I am guessing that the health and safety in New York is not nearly as over board as it is in England.  People were actually sitting on these bars over the road to take photos and selfies.

In hindsight, knowing that the Brooklyn Bridge is just over a mile long, it would have been a better idea not to walk across it after spending hours walking around the city.  I made it to the end but after that it was straight on home for me with a tub of ice cream!

That Big New York Trip (Part 2 of 5)

Most mornings in New York, I woke up at around 9 to 10am English time which of course meant that it was 4 - 5am New York time.  I'm quite the lark anyway so getting up early didn't really bother me.  In fact I didn't suffer from jet lag at all until I got home.  It took me 11 days to get over it and every morning was absolute agony!  

Sunrise and sunset during my stay

The only real issue for me was that the local shops don't open until 10am so there is nothing to do until then. Whilst walking around Queens one morning, I was told by a local paramedic that I had a random breakfast with that 'Round here we like our late starts'.  For me (on a weekend) 10am is almost afternoon nap time so I found the idea of only starting my day then quite unsettling.

Another unexpected discovery was that in NY the sun (although way warmer than England) doesn't rise until after 6am and sets before 8pm - something to note if you're trying to avoid staying out past dark like I was.

Day 3 - Rockaway Beach, Queens

After my super long exploration of the city the previous day, I was absolutely exhausted and decided to take a time-out-day on another iconic beach, Rockaway in Queens.

Rockaway was a lot closer than Coney Island and was only 2 short train journeys from where I was staying.  The interesting thing about the train journey is that the train goes over the sea on a rail road track - not in a tunnel or a bridge, but just a little railroad track right through the water.  I'm not sure if this is something you see commonly, but it's certainly not something I've experienced before and I made a total unashamed tourist of myself making this video to enable me to fully explain this concept later.

Rockaway was absolutely beautiful and the white sands and blue skies would easily fool you into thinking you were on some Balearic island rather than in one of the world's busiest cities. In fact the more I travel the more I am amused by how completely wrong the stereotypes and preconceived ideas we have spawned about cities and countries end up being.  I don't think I've ever known that New York had beaches - beautiful ones too, let alone that the city of New York is surrounded by sea and rivers and is made up of several islands rather than one land mass.

Rockaway Beach boardwalk.  Look at that perfect blue sky.

It was around this point that I sent this selfie home and said I was never coming back to England!  It seems there is nothing that New York does in half measures.

This sun is definitely as hot as it looks.  Something else I learnt the hard way about the city is that it feels and though it's contending be one of the warmest places on earth! Jeepers it was hot and the humidity was a killer! I don't think the temperature dropped below 30c during any single day I was there.

After a day in the crazy hot sunshine, I had to stop off for some Ben and Jerry's on the way home.  I tried to sample all the flavours that I haven't seen in England, but there were just too many amazing things to eat.

It's so hot in the city that even the local cat where I was staying was taking strain and lay in front of the high powered fan the entire time I was home.

Day 4 - Fifth Avenue, Times Square, more stunning architecture, Madison Square Gardens, the Empire State Building, Macy's and a giant inflatable rat

Another one of those absolutely gorgeous NYC architectural things

A friend of mine (thanks, Zea!) saw this place on television and said to me on Facebook that I should visit there. Not sure why this guy thought that his bum should be in my photo but anyway.

It was a little pricey for a bagel at over $11 but it was 100% amazingly good (and besides it's NYC prices, right!).

A beautiful shop front I just couldn't get over - I liked it so much that I walked past it twice just to get a second look.

Real life police cars just like in the movies! Eek! This excited me greatly.

New York goths - cute.

Another 'just like in the movies' moment - a NY ambulance.

This was a strange find.  While I was searching for places to stay in NY prior to my trip, I came across this place. I wanted to stay there but the website said I'd have to share a bathroom which I wasn't 100% keen on.  It made me sad because I really thought it looked amazing.  Then I realised I didn't have to stay there to see it but I could just go there!  

When I asked the guys at reception if I could take photos they replied 'Sure.  Where do you want me?'.  It only reiterated how much I love the people of NY. I love their openness and friendliness. 

What a quirky but beautiful hotel.  The internet tells me that every room looks completely different. If this is how awesome the lobby is, imagine how the rooms must look!

I couldn't figure out what this building was but isn't it gorgeous? If my memory serves me correctly, it was just across from that massive Sony building outside Madison Square Park. Anybody know what it is? 

A view of the NYC skyscrapers from Madison Square Park where the suits come to enjoy a lunch in the picturesque surroundings of nature.  I got a couple of sideways looks from some of the mums here so moved on swiftly!

This is so NYC for me.  They had these hot dog stands on every other corner of Manhattan.

While walking towards the Empire State Building I came across this giant inflatable rat attacking a building! I have no idea why and he wasn't very successful.  They tied him to this vehicle in order to subdue him, I suppose.

And more 'just like in the movies'! The really abrasive traffic controllers with the white gloves genuinely exist.  They really shout at people and motorists too! I love it.

Madison Square Gardens where they show all the basketball games in the movies.

The iconic Empire State Building.

New York City streets - sometimes I was just so overwhelmed that I had to just stop and stare.

New York City streets - there were many of those overwhelming moments as you can probably tell!

Macy's - calm down, shopohalics! 

Inside Macy's. Very shiny.

I love this photo.  I was surprised to see that steam really does come up from the ground in the streets of NYC! Does that mean it's built on hell? :P  I think it's because they have open sewers across the pavements.  Sometimes it smells a bit funky but makes for a cool photo!

Times Square -this was possibly one of the most breathtaking things I have ever experienced.  I don't know why it's such a sight to behold and when you explain it to someone 'a few blocks of lights and big signs and moving images' it doesn't sound like much, but the atmosphere here is incredible.  It was definitely one of my favourite things about the city and I really want to come back here for New Years Eve one year. 

Back towards Fifth Avenue outside the Rockefeller Centre (more photos of that later)

St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.  Building took seven years because work had to be halted during the Civil War.  It was eventually completed in 1878. As beautiful as it is, it's another one of those weird New York 'This building looks superimposed against the back drop of modern architecture' moments. New York is full of those!

I've never been a fan of TGI Friday's in England so I thought I'd try the American one instead to see what the fuss is about.

I have to say I was definitely fussed! The food was incredible, the service was second-to-none and the whole experience was wonderful.  I spent almost 2 hours in there.

This was my amazing candy floss cocktail! The waitress came over with the shaker and the glass full of cotton candy.  She then poured the alcohol over the cotton candy and it melted.  It was absolutely fantastic.

This almost killed me. This vanilla cheese cake (selected by Ethan back home who I was having a cyber meal with) contained 980 calories.  I can tell you that (a) it was the biggest slice of cheesecake I'd ever seen (b) it was probably the most delicious cheesecake I've ever had (c) I didn't even die of sugar overload - I sure was buzzing though!  To put the size of that slice into perspective, that is a dessertspoon dwarfed next to it, not a teaspoon.