On Friday we went to do the Circle Line tour around Manhattan. The boat left at 11:30 so we went early to get tickets with our city passes, then just hung out by the fountain near the boats because we were meant to get in the queue for boarding at 11. We bought a "souvenir mug" for $6 because drinks were $4 each but with the mug you got free refills. So we had about 5 drinks then chucked the mug afterwards :P The tour itself was pretty good. With our passes we had to do the 2 hour one, but I have to say I was done with it when we'd been on the boat for just over an hour. But we did get to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (smaller than you'd expect) and where they're building on Ground Zero, as well as several bridges. When we got off the boat it was raining so we ducked into a deli on the way to Times Square and had some lunch. By the time we'd finished the rain had stopped so we wandered over to Times Square. I liked it there. It reminded me of Piccadilly Circus but spanning blocks, not justone intersection, and with many more lights and signs and things. Even the NYPD had a sign with flashing lights rippling all across it.
From Times Square we walked up past the Rockefeller Center to the Museum of Modern Art. Unfortunately on Fridays between 4 and 8pm it's free, so it was really busy (though with our passes we didn't have to queue at all). I liked it though, despite the huge numbers of people taking photos of the paintings/their friends in front of the paintings. We saw Pollocks, Oldenburgs, Warhols, Matisses, Mondrians, Lichtensteins, Picassos (including sculptures), Klees and many more, I forget! We did a pretty quick tour as it was so busy. Afterwards we went to a cafe and shared a piece of NY cheesecake and a cannoli, two foods we had been meaning to sample whilst in NYC. I liked the cheesecake, though I don't like cheesecake in England much. Refreshed by those, we went to Bloomingdale's again to look for a bracelet for Oz because his came off yesterday in the Natural History Museum and we couldn't find it again, but we didn't have much success. We walked all the way down Lexington until we stumbled across Grand Central station, which I'm glad we saw. Then we got on the subway there and went back to the hostel, because we were pretty tired.
All in all I didn't like NYC as much as I thought I would. I think this is mainly because it was so hard to get around - the subway and subway maps were extremely confusing, and though it was good to see the city on foot it did take ages to get around and was very tiring. Also it's not as if we could go on a massive shopping spree or find amazing places to eat, I think it would be much more enjoyable if you had a lot of money to spend (and could get taxis everywhere). Anyway, I think another trip to NYC will be on the agenda at some point in the distant future, after all we still have the Guggenheim to see!
Statue of Liberty, see, she's really not all that big
New York skyline
Times Square
Oz in FAO Schwarz (New York's equivalent of Hamley's). He gets unimpressesed every time I try to take pictures of him with things. Especially giant London figures fashioned out of jelly beans, it seems.
1 comment:
But New York is like the best place ever! Harlem! and Brooklyn! and the Met (we spent two days there...) and plays and concerts in Central Park, and the subway isn't all that confusing after a while (it's mainly because it's organised so differently to London's one). And there's so much FOOD. And so much music and night-life and weird, weird people. I've decided it's basically my 2nd favourite city in the entire world, and it would be the 1st except that Oxford has too much sentimental value.
xxx Connie
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