Introduction
Ever since I was little I’ve always dreamt of seeing the bright lights of New York. Two cities in the United States piqued my interest; Los Angeles for its “Hollywood” lifestyle, west coast style and uniqueness – and New York for its history, reputation and excitement.
Having been to Los Angeles twice now (first time in 1991 and again in 2004) was an exciting adventure both times.
In December 2004, though, Toni and I saw an opportunity to touch down in the city once called New Amsterdam – New York.
So we went! The plan: fly overnight on the 2nd of December and land on the morning of December 3.
Since we had absolutely no knowledge of New York we decided to stay within close proximity of a subway station (for cheap transit into Manhattan) and close to LaGuardia airport for ease of getting in and getting out. Christmas (December) is one of the high seasons for New York. Hotel prices are at a year high premium and the city is buzzing.
Many people are flying in to shop in New York for exclusive Fifth Avenue gifts; families are returning to ancestral homes to celebrate the festive season, or people are jetting in to marvel at a big city in a partying mood. It is for these reasons and more that we chose to visit in December. We had a simply awesome time and this is an accurate recount of our experiences.
Getting to New York
We chose to fly WestJet, which is a small to medium commercial airline operating principally out of Canada. Most Australians could compare WestJet to VirginBlue or JetStar. The trip over was mostly uneventful.
We hopped from Vancouver to Toronto which was a moderately interesting four hour flight. The flight was delayed and made longer by a snowstorm/bad weather which had encompassed north eastern Canada. This meant a redirection and flight over the northern most states of the United States.
Upon arrival in Toronto, Toni had a rather unpleasant experience going through US customs/immigration which culminated in some tears and what I perceived to be the failure of the trip – in the first six hours! Luckily we are both a bit more resilient these days and we managed to move past the bad luck.
We eventually touched down in the US. The decent into New York was interesting. The plane broke through the low cloud cover which had been obstructing our view of the great New York tri-state area.
Our path to New York led us over the occasional break in cloud cover and allowed us a view from high, of the “country” in New York State. My memory is of how most of the terrain looked grey or white with very little colour. I guess I could blame the clouds for the contrast.
Friday, December 3rd, 2004
Landed!
So, we landed in LaGuardia on time at about 11 AM on the Friday morning. Once we located the hotel shuttle (remember: US customs is done in Canada, not actually in the US, so we had no clearance problems) we took off for the hotel.
The ride was pleasant and we got a good view of the local Flushing area including Shea Stadium (home of the NY Mets) and the world’s fair site (as seen in the movie “Men in Black”).
Our hotel was situated in Chinatown, off of Main Street. The hotel was a Sheraton hotel without a doubt. As such we had no fear for the security our belongings or our person. We did not dwell long in the hotel (nor did we at any time during our stay). The hotel was merely a base to launch our operations fromJ.
We made a quick turn around at the hotel and made our way out to the subway. Toni had been ultra organized and had a complete itinerary for the days we were in New York. This proved to be a real asset and most likely saved us a lot of hassle. New York is a very big city and understanding the subway system is not immediately obvious.
The subway station in Chinatown was essentially typical of the majority of stations in the NY metro system. We bought MetroPasses which would allow us unlimited Metro and bus trips for the duration of our stay.
The New York subway: Wow!
The New York metro train system is brilliant. After a few days we came to appreciate the system as a timely way to get around Manhattan and the other Burroughs. Each train goes incredibly fast and comprises of at least twenty carriages. The network is divided into letters and numbers, and is easy to take for a quick cross town trip.
We made our way into Manhattan and eventually found our way to the United Nations buildings, on the shore of the east river (an estuary, actually).
The United Nations is quite an interesting set of buildings comprising the tall slim building of the UN Secretariat and the more modern and wide building housing the UN General Assembly and other councils. Security here was a 30 minute affair which we found out later is a standard thing for the majority of New York attractions.
Once inside we purchased tickets for a guided tour of the GA building. It goes without saying that I have always had an ambition to visit the UN in New York. I think I actually knew more about the UN than our tour guide did. It was humbling standing in the rooms where international history was (and continues) to be made.
Some of the exhibits to land mines and nuclear attacks are mortifying. It is quite something to touch an item which was brutally warped long ago in Hiroshima. It is important to realize that the UN is not solely about peacekeeping.
The UN is often misunderstood and labeled as obsolete or ineffective due to its mistakes and problems regarding peacekeeping and war.
The UN has many other bodies and arteries and they are responsible for some many selfless acts, supporting those who cannot support themselves. It is a pity that everyone cannot see for themselves these soldiers of peace at work, in New York.
After we left the United Nations we attempted to locate the main terminal of Grand Central Station. This proved to be difficult for people of limited experience in the New York (Manhattan) area.
So we ended up exiting and walking up to the Empire State building. From street level the Empire State Building is an inspiring sight. It is a vertical building which needs to be seen to be believed.
The observation deck sits atop 86 floors and is well worth the trip up. What we had not fully understood was the two hour wait to purchase tickets (we purchased a “CityPass” for six major NY attractions) and the wait to actually ascend to the deck.
What we discovered in waiting is that the people who run the Empire State have a whole other understanding about how it is possible to fool people into believing they are making progress in a queue. I’ve never seen such an elaborate method to queue people and maximize space.
Simply amazing!
The wait though was rather boring and unspectacular. We resolved to avoid at all costs any other two hours queues, because the time wasted in a queue was eating away from other New York experiences.
We entered the queue at street level about an hour before sunset. By the time we reached the deck it was easily into the evening and the sun had set.
This left us with a beautiful view of the New York and New Jersey horizon dotted with brilliant lights. In the distance we could just make out the Statue of Liberty all lit up.
What we had noticed from the first moment we looked east was the obvious absence of the twin towers. This made us a little sad at the image we had in our heads of what it must have looked like for generations of tourists and New Yorkers to have appreciated both by day and by night.
The night was crisp and clear (clearer than usual, apparently) and thus we had our first hint that New York itself was pulling out all the stops for us to enjoy our time. After about a 45 minute stay on the observatory (and some obligatory gift purchases) we made our way back down.
We made our way north west towards Times Square and on our way walked by the famous New York public library as seen in one of my favourite movies, Ghostbusters. After some photo taking (we were getting quite bold now, we were nervous about revealing cameras in public for fear of being seen as tourists) we headed off west.
Toni came across a really nice outdoor market set up in Bryant Park (a small inner city park).
As it was still cold (I think the average temp for the whole trip was about 3’C) we grabbed a hot chocolate (and a mocha for me) from this excellent store selling the most brilliant chocolate.
We made our way to Broadway and Times Square (well, what we thought was the Times Square) where we decided to call it a night. A quick subway trip east and we’re done for day one.
Toni remarked later that the hot choc she enjoyed was the first she has ever had that she didn’t have to add extra sugar to.
The shop also sold handcrafted chocolates which were hand decorated with cartoon people, shoes and other items. The tears in Toronto were forgotten by the good day we had had, but success in the big apple was by no means achieved yet.