Just over 24 hours in New York (part 1)

So this actually happened a week ago but it has taken me that long to finally finish the post... well kinda its going to be in 2 parts!

Here goes enjoy. ....

As the author I have the right to tell you what I want to and therefore im going to muck up the timeline a little and tell you about my trip to New York before I tell you about Becks and my road trip to visit the witches. Not that that isn’t worth telling you about, it is currently a work in progress but I am still buzzing from my New York trip and therefore feel the need to tell you about it right away.

I hadn’t planned on coming to New York again, Cathy and I came here for Easter a few years ago and it was such a good trip I didn’t feel the need to come again but I needed to break up my trip to Boston from DC and so New York was a good stop.

Last time we didn’t make it to Broadway, it wasn’t Cathy’s thing and I wasn’t going to drag her along (even though I do keep telling her she will love it!) so that was my aim this time.  I also didn’t get to go to m&m world last time so that was going to be a little bonus.

It didn’t start off too well… 6.15 am alarm at Beckas place in DC I had planned my bus time to correspond with her work time, and then a fire alarm at Union station which was evacuating everyone as we arrived. We had no idea where the Bus stop was, and I was amazed at how calm Becka was about it until she informed me I still had an hour till my bus left!

They let us all back in after about 15 min, bustop found, we grabbed breaky and then Becka headed off to work .

I sat with Gina and her mum who were heading off to New York to catch up with a family friend and have a girly weekend looking at wedding dresses and heading to Broadway. So Gina and I chatted while mum rested preparing for the big weekend. 

We weren’t sure we were going to get the alive, there wasn’t all that much resting going on as the driver was very quick on his horn, just barrelling through the traffic expecting them to get out of his way. He would honk his horn and shake his finger at them assuming they could see him telling them off I guess and we would all jump a mile.  

We got there safe and sound and on time, totally against Beckas predictions.

I headed to my Hotel, after the initial shock of the size of the room wore off, I realised its charms and how fun it was. I was staying at The Jane, a hotel on the edge of the river based on a ship. I was staying in a Standard Cabin.  So there was my bunk or berth if that’s the correct term and not much else! It was a shared bathroom, kinda like a single room in a hostel but with a lot of added extras like… water in a bottle, room service, TV and after awhile I even found a dressing gown, towels and slippers stowed away in the shelving.  (As I left I also found the ipod dock Damn it. )

There was room to stow my bag under the bed, in case of high seas,  and to make sure I had some floor room.

The corridor was dark and small like the corridor in a ship with the main doors having portholes, even the taps in the showers were little helms.

I loved it.  I stowed my bag and headed up to Times Square to hopefully get my tickets to Evita. Having looked into it and almost buying a ticket previously but not being able to choose my seat I was meant to ring them when I arrived in US.  I forgot. I was resigned to getting the back row.

Becka had suggested using the last min ticket booth in Times Square,  like in leister square in London, and I was hoping to get a ticket through them.

Times Square blows me away everytime I see it, and the people so many people.

I was handed a brochure to Sister Act and the lady said I could buy it straight from the box office that they were open all day. Maybe just maybe the Evita office was open, but I hadn’t done my research and had no idea where on Broadway Evita was playing.

I had decided on Evita as one I hadn’t seen it and two I felt it was a traditional Broadway musical, it was Andrew Lloyd Webber, not one of these new modern things.  My back up plan was Lion King just to go against everything I just said!

So I started wandering up Broadway and low and behold, the first theatre I see is playing Evita, right there on Times Square.  Box office is open and they have tickets without the $40 booking fee the website was going to charge me! They don’t do last min tickets, they are the same price all the time. So I buy my ticket then realise that the money I had saved on the booking fee, well I had been prepared to pay that so why not upgrade from the pauper seats to a better seat. He assures me that there is hardly any difference between upper mezzanine and lower as it’s a smaller theatre and its not worth the extra cash, im thinking maybe he just didn’t want the hassle of changing my ticket.  But I believe him and I leave with the biggest grin on my face.

People had been in there asking about the last min tickets.  If there was still a chance of getting them from the outlet and how much they could get off.  I had decided that waiting for at least an hour in the line was not worth it on my limited time schedule, I had already budgeted (the tiny little bit of budgeting I do on a trip) for this and I would much rather enjoy new york.  

Next stop some food. I had read about a gorgeous little Italian place that I really wanted to visit. It was back down in a neighbouring area to where I was staying.  It was great to see another part of town,

I walked through Washington Park Square.  It was teeming with all sorts of people, old, poor, suits and lots of young people. There was a homeless fellow feeding pigeons, there was even one standing on his head. A young boy was asking if he could feed them too and so the fellow gave him some seeds. As I walked past a little old lady was walking away, saying goodbye to the birdman. She still had a white pigeon sitting in the crook of her arm.  And someone addressed her by name and asked her if she was taking that one with her.

There were bands set up all over the park busking. Most of them talking to what were obviously regular visitors.

There were even a group of young people practicing a dance routine. Everyone was out enjoying the good weather. As I exited the other side I stumbled upon New York University, which explained all the young people in the park.

The restaurant was a fair walk but definitely worth it!  I shouted myself a main, desert with a glass of wine and  after all that food an expresso so I wouldn’t fall asleep in the show! Figured I could seeing as I had saved myself that money on the booking fee!

My waiter asked me if I had saved a little room for desert which I thought was really sweet, until I heard him say the same lime to the group of guys  sitting near me.

I wandered home to where I had an hour to get ready, so I doled myself up even put on some heels so I looked respectable. The one thing I hate is how people no longer dress up for the theatre. It’s a tradition I really feel should never have been let slide.

It was no use having got doled up as by the time I had walked to the tube I was a mess anyway! It is soooo muggy in New York.

The fellow at the box office had been speaking true when he said it was not worth the extra for the lower mezzanine seat. It was a small theatre and modern so I had no heads in the way and could see the whole stage.

Apart from spilling my wine all over the man next to me,  I loved the show. I can now say I have seen Ricky Martin live as he played one of the lead roles.  I left wanting to learn more about Eva Peron but also with a huge smile on my face. I went camera mad with all the other tourists outside as seen below:

After taking in Times Square at night I started to head home, until a lady walked past carrying an m&m’s gift bag. I cant believe I almost forgot to go to m&m world I’ve been talking about that for weeks!

I didn’t really have to search very hard for it I just followed the huge screen showing m&m snippets.

I spent the next hour taking in the entire store.

Ive put in a request to Santa for this for christmas

I then jumped in a cab just like in a movie and headed home. I was surprised the cabbie knew my hotel until I arrived and found out there was a night club in the basement, but I couldn’t hear a thing from my room.   I was home by midnight just like Cinderella. Promised myself id get up very early to make sure I made the most of my time… well we will see how that went.

Has it been that long?

I cant believe its been over a week since i posted. Its gone so fast. I feel like i haven't stopped. I have started a few stories but haven't had a chance to finish.

I cant type now, ive met up with Cathy and we are currently road tripping New England. Its almost midnight and she is trying to sleep so i really should be quiet!

Last time it was no photos and lots of text this time it will be photos and no text. These are some pics from our whaling watching trip yesterday morning in Provincetown Cape Cod. Amazing, couldn't have asked for a better trip. So many and close we felt like we could touch them. These arent my best, im just teasing you with some tasters first.

Enjoy.

One Long Queue

So im sorry to say I haven’t taken any photos yet… I do have some hopefully arriving from a friend I made on the plane of what we saw out the window but not yet.

I guess you could say im currently easing into the holiday… Ive spent most of my time in the Coffee Shop next door to Becka’s house. If I lived here I would be broke! It’s the funkiest little place, with vines growing all over it, wooden tables inside and out. Art work everywhere and people just hanging out. Now you could say its very social as you just sit anywhere on the same table as someone else (ie there is a little round two person table near me where an older lady and a uni student are sharing the table) but as everyone is on their laptops its really not.  Its not quiet though, there are lots of students studying together and many social coffees going on, im pretty sure this neighbourhood doesn’t go to work, I really had to ask myself if it was a weekday yesterday or had Becka just pretended to go to work as she didn’t want to hang out with me ;-)

Im sitting with an iced coffee,  just absorbing the place having placed my final weeks couple of footy tips and trying to get the enthusiasm up to start sight seeing. This is my second day here and I haven’t even seen the famous Mall. Im easing into it guess…..

The flight well… it was just one long queue. It started on the Tuesday night I was meant to be on the bus to the airport at 4am Wednesday morning.  I just missed a call on my phone while listening to the voice messages I somehow managed to delete it before I heard it. When I rang back it was lucky It told me it was a virgin Australia number else I would have had no idea what was going on.

Ringing back I was put on hold and so poor mum sat on the phone waiting while I continued to pack.

Turns out my flight out of Brisbane had been delayed by six hours (already! It wasn’t meant to leave till 11.30 am) which meant I would miss my flight out of LA. So they were ringing to ask me If I wanted to catch a flight out of Melbourne at 10am instead that would take me to Sydney where I would catch a 1.45 flight to LA and catch the same flight out of LA. Well who wouldn’t say yes… a flight leaving 3 hours later but getting me in at the same time.. well if I had known the stress I don’t know if I would have said yes… each place had a 2 hour layover sounds enough doesn’t it?! The airline assured me it was!

I had to ring back 3 hours later as they never sent me my confirmation. So poor Mum was put on hold again. Luckily this fellow just emailed it to me straight away as I finally received the official one 35min after my flight left.

Being scared of the traffic on the western ring road I caught an earlier bus to the airport.  This was fortunate as the queues for check in were pretty crazy by the time I reached the check in counter.. I may have contributed to this a little bit as well the lady couldn’t check me in. First there was $30 owing on my account.. the only thing I can think of is that the domestic flight in the US you have to pay for your luggage and I was wanting to check mine all the way to DC. 

But even after paying she was unable to check me in. Finally the big boss had to come and press a few buttons and then I was ok.. seems my fear of my luggage being too heavy was the least of it!  I wasn’t too stressed though as they would have had to make sure I could get onto my flight.

Anyway through I went to have a nice leisurely breakie If I had known what was to come I think I would have sat there a lot longer and had a bigger breakie with more coffee.

When I got to Sydney I had to wait in the transfer lounge.. we got told to sit down and wait for someone to come and collect us to take us to the international  terminal. Not to worry about lining up to check in with them there were more counters at the terminal. Hmmm maybe for the other airlines.  But that’s ok its all part of it. What I wasn’t prepared for was the queue to leave the country.. the passport control. It was crazy, by the time I got through it and then the queue for security I had to run to my gate they were about to do last call. Needless to say we left late as I wasn’t the last person.  I also felt after all this time traveling I should be in another country by now not Sydney!

When I had checked in the lady was very surprised, “Im not sure what you did but they have given you the emergency exit, its usually worth $150 more” obviously I had got the last seat on the plane! This was bizzare cause while standing in the line I had been thinking about all my friends who constantly talk about the times they have been upgraded.. in all the times I have flown I have never been upgraded. Must be my scruffy backpacker look.

It was a great seat, no sore knees from digging into the seat pocket infront, no having the TV in your face when they put the seat back in front of you. Though my long legs did trip a few people up as I had the aisle seat.   The people I sat next to were lovely and we passed a lot of take of time chatting.  Though it did take a while to get over my jealousy of the fact that they were heading to a Liverpool game at Ainfield as part of their round the world trip!

Sleep was had and I was feeling ready to hit the next part of my trip.  It finally hit me I was on holiday when we landed in LA.  But once again we were put in queues like Cattle.. this time to wait to enter the queues for Border control. I had been expecting the queues for border control but not they fact that 3 flights from Sydney arrive at the same time.  I was lucky my bag was already through I just had to get it off the carousel go through customs the one place there was hardly any queue, and put It on the transfer belt. The couple from the plane had purchased separate flights and so had to check in on time. I really hope they made it. 

For once I had no trouble with border control, he even welcomed me back to the united states. I was a bit concerned my bag wasn’t going to make it as the fellow told me just to leave it sitting next to the belt, having pulled a wad of dollar bills out as I approached I think he was hoping for a tip for putting it on the belt for me. I kept watch as I was leaving and so he finally threw It on the belt, with a glare and made sure it landed upside down.

I tried to check in on the computer but it wouldn’t let me so I joined another queue to check in. There was one person handling this I was starting to get a bit worried but I still had an hour before I left.  I was also worried as to what was going to happen if I got asked to pay for my bag again.

Anyway it all went smoothly no questions. No queues for security. I am struggling to remember the inside of LA airport. I do remember thinking I needed ot get some food as there was none on the next flight but… there were queues for everything! So I kept heading towards my gate. We were boarding so onto the plane I went. For another 5 hour flight.

I was sat in the middle of a family who were returning from a trip to Alaska, it sounded like an amazing trip. The daughter, her boyfriend and I spent the whole trip chatting, we got accused by the hostess of having a big political discussion but you all know that defiantly wouldn’t be me!  They pointed out all the land marks as we flew. There are good reasons for flying by day, you forget what you will see!

I arrived safe and sound, weirdly at 9pm of the day I left.  Becka picked me up and off to the pub we went.. ..

Tonight we head to Philadelphia to see Benjamin Franklin, then Hartford to see Mark Twain and finish with Witches of Salem.  Photos will be taken.