Once again I live up to my reputation of being the one who develops stupid injuries. From the girl who brought you 'the cut on the thumb from a craft knife when making a Viking Village out of Bolser Wood when she was 7' and 'the sprained ankle from falling over a slide during Fresher's Week' is now 'the incident from falling up the stairs'.
Currently I am having to rest my right foot after I sprained it going up the stairs of the National Art Gallery of Washington DC. Two days ago it was really quite painful, and even yesterday I couldn't put very weight on it without hobbling like a peg legged pirate. I was even told yesterday I should get it checked out at a Doctors as it could be a hair-line fracture. Thankfully now I can walk on it again and the bruising seems to be from a sprain. If it starts getting bad again tomorrow, then I'll see a doctor but otherwise I'm not as worried now about it. At least it happened before we drove back from Washington DC, and not when we arrived in New York.
So, because I am going to watch a few movies with Jesse in a bit, I am going to give my review of New York.
... and type this while eating lunch.
My account of Washington DC shall follow probably tomorrow or in a few days.
I was planning to write this in as an account of what we did and when, but then I couldn't remember the order. Therefore, what I am writing is just my opinion and recommendations based on what we experienced. If you don't agree with anything I am saying, then feel free to rant and let me know why-though please be constructive in your criticism.
So, here goes.
Getting there
It took us over 12 hours to get to New Jersey. We drove longer than the length of the UK, with only a few stops for food and restrooms. We also went through North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and most of New Jersey before we arrived. This is not a journey to try if you do not like the person you are travelling with (which wasn't my experience with Jesse but we were knackered by the time we arrived), and while Virginia (in particular) is absolutely stunning, you will feel by the end that you have gotten to know every bit of the States personally.
I swear New Jersey Interstates are solely designed to infuriate you when you get lost.
To get to New York itself, we stayed outside the city and travelled in for the first few days by train, which involved changing at Newark Penn Station to get to New York Penn Station. It's really cheap compared to the UK- about ten pounds return and the journey took us over a hour each way.
Subways
We only used it a few times. I recommend getting a Metrocard, which is essentially a London Underground Oyster card. It takes a while to get used to the numbers that they use to name the lines, but it feels less claustrophobic than the London Underground. Get yourself a map if you want to get anywhere.
The Hostel
To be honest, I would have loved our hostel and would have recommended it to anyone if it was much closer to Manhattan and was in a better area. We were close to a Subway station (113th Street), but we were in an area referred to (by a Taxi driver we used) as 'Spanish Harlem'. It took ages to walk anywhere. While this area was around ten minutes west of Colombia University, the area wasn't all that nice. There were gangs of people hanging about near our Hostel and we weren't always sure what they were doing. Saying that though, they never approached us.
Now the Good Part: The Hostel was well worth its price. It was cheap, warm, comfortable, friendly and provided the best breakfast I have ever had at a Hostel. Considering I have stayed at a Hostel that once beleived that people solely survived on topast and watered down coffee, that is high praise.
Food
If you are willing to walk around for hours-especially at the end of the day-then you will find some great places to eat. Here is what I recommend:
- You must eat Pizza. Not because it is essential, but because it tastes so good! I never like Pizza usually, but no-one can resist big slices of gooey Pizzas with lots of cheese. Most pieces I ate were bigger than my head. If you want Pizza, then I recommend the restaurant chain 'Sbarro' or the authentic 'Ray's Pizza' we ate near the Natural History Museum.
- Delis are good for supplies of drinks. One we ate provided hot and cold food, but it wasn't that good as the food, by the time we got there, was stale from sitting out all day.
- You really don't get enough Mexican food in the UK. We ate at a really cheap chain place called 'Chipotle' one evening that tasted superb. I am addicted to Tacos and Guacomole.
- If you can finish a large McDonalds meal, then you have a stronger stomach than me. I managed, but only just.
- Fruit Juices are cheap, and you get far more smoothie for your buck.
This is just a quick summary of my favourite places.
- If you want to see the Skyline, then go to the Rockerfeller Centre off 5th Avenue. We were originally going to go up the Empire State, but the queue was stupidly long and we were told it was a bit crap. If you go to the Rockfellers 'Top of the Rock', it is a reasonable price (we got a discount through our Hostel) and you get to walk about up there, taking lots of pictures of different angles. It is 67 floors up. We went up during the evening, and seeing the sunlight bounce off each building was beautful. I would wrap up warm though.
- New York itself is great fun to walk around. Most of what we found to see and eat was done through looking upwards and aiming towards buildings. New York is shockingly loud and busy the first moments you arrive, but once you have found your barings it is a lot of fun. That is how we found Trump Towers, The Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station.
- Central Park is great if you just want to relax and see a landscape that is not dominated by buildings. The green areas tend to be fenced off at this time of year, but there are lots of benches and vendors. Central Park Zoo is interesting, albeit a bit small. It's worth seeing the Sealions being fed at 4pm, and the Penguins are too cute.
- I didn't actually shop that much, except at Times Square. There are lots of tourist shops, but clothes are a lot cheaper than the UK (especially for sport tops and at Gap). Times Square is more of an experience than a place, and you can easily pass a few hours there without realising it. It is so busy and loud, it reminded me vaguely of the cityscape in Bladerunner-but without the scaqry robots or Harrison Ford. I also recommend FAO Schwarz and the Apple Store. The Village and Soho are just very artsy and expensive, but worth seeing for the Buildings.
- I loved the dinosaur exhibit at the Natural History Museum and the Metropolitian Art Museum was interesting as well. As I found to my curiousity, alarms go off if you touch a sculture, so be more careful than I did (no worries, I didn't knock it over).
- There are celebrities thast you can spot. However, I dunno if seeing Tarentinos feet and 'the tall guy off Everybody Loves Raymond' counts as a celeb spot.
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