Day two in New York and the first challenge was getting myself out of bed!! I was already pooped from touristing it up yesterday. But a nice hot shower where I could get my hair wet and dry it with my new hairdryer and i was good to go.
I found the stop for the uptown tour bus which was only two streets away from my hostel and waited for the bus to arrive. Yesterday i bought a ticket which included four rides, the Uptown tour, the downtown tour, the Brooklyn tour and the night tour, which lasts for 48 hours. What they didnt tell you is that it is impossible to do all four tours in 48 hours, unless you actually just sit on one bus after another after another! Yesterday I managed to see about 1/3 of the downtown tour, getting off at various points to see the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty, and that was it!
So, I took the bus from the area of my hostel uptown to go downtown. I was headed for Bryant Park, where Ivan told me there was a free concert of Broadway musicals for an hour! So, the bus took about an hour and took me past all of the museums, the building where Jackie Kennedy lived (woo hoo) and the most amazing huge 'town houses' built by millionaires in the early 1900s and now mostly museums.
It also took me alongside Central Park, and I am hoping to be able to visit there today.
Once we got to 5th avenue I left the bus and walked confidently in the direciton of Bryant park, picking up a picnic along the way. It was very sunny and all of the seats in the shade were taken, so I found a spot right in the middle of the park, and sat on the grass to eat my picnic and enjoy!
We heard songs from A little night musicm, Falling for Eve - a new musical, Chicago and Rock of Ages. I was quite pleased to see the Chicago set, as I had seen the London version. I dont know if it was the thrill of seeing it for free in the glorious sunshine in a park in New York, or what, but I felt that even though the cast didnt have costumes on, or any lighting, and the sound quality wasnt that great, the put their hearts and souls into it and I enjoyed it more than the show in London.
Rock of Ages was brilliant too, and they finished off with a crowd pleasing "Don't stop believing" which I thoroughly enjoyed!
After that it was time to get on the downtown tour bus again, and finish the tour that I hadnt managed to get around the day before. Our tour guide was a Greek Portuguese called Tomy (his real name was Anastasios but he said nobody could pronounce that, so call him Tomy). He told us all sorts of fascinating facts about New York - cant remember any of them in particular now... could be because I was just looking at Tomy instead of the sights!! Lol
I think I may possibly have had information overload, because I couldnt really take much more in. I did think that the South Sea port looked like a lovely place, and if I can make it down there i will, but I also got more of a view of Central Park, and I really want to take a look in there, which is my next stop after going to the Rockerfeller centre where i dicovered yesterday there is a shop of Magnolia Bakery so I can get a cup cake.
The tour bus dropped my off at Times Square, so I went to the theatre to collect my ticket for West Side Story and then went back up the road to the street of restaurants and pubs that we had just past. I went into a Pizza place and ordered a slice of pizza and a bud. I was scrabbling around in my bag for my passport to prove my age, but the lady in the Pizza place wasnt that fussed about it. The pizza was delicious, probably the best pizza I have ever tasted. I think I may have shown up the fact that I am not a local by not eating it properly. After I had devoured my pizza I took a moment to look around me and it seemed the correct method for eating Pizza is to fold your slice in half so that you sort of make a triangular sandwich with it with the crust on the outside and the gooey cheesy filling in the middle.
I popped next door for a slice of Cheesecake - which was dissapointing, and then walked back down the street to the theatre.
I was meeting some friends from Cyprus at the theatre. We had arranged it while we were chatting during the performances of My Fair Lady when we realised we would both be there at the same time. So it was great to see them when they arrived, and we were delighted when we looked at our tickets and saw that I had successfully managed to book a seat next to them... until we passed through into the theatre and one of the front of house members told me to go in a completely different direction to them. I had booked the next sequential number to their tickets, but in the Orchestra, not the Mezzanine level as theirs was! Oh well, no biggie, we arranged to catch up in the Interval. West Side Story was fabulous. Hands down the best musical I have seen so far. The dancing was brilliant - it tickles me how these boys can look tough while dancing beautifully! And the singing was just wonderful too, Maria's voice in particular was superb. The 'PRs' spoke quite a lot in Spanish, so it was good fun trying to remember my Spanish and keep up.
At the end of the show Chris, Pete and I went for a drink up the road. I was walking through the door and eyeing the bouncer to see if he was going to ask me for my ID. He did, more fumbling in the bottom of my back pack and then I was allowed in.
It was fun catching up with my friends, and quite bizzarre to see them in the middle of New York, quite far from home!
The last reserves of my energy left me quite quickly and after a couple of drinks I had to go home. We walked out the door and thanked the good fortune which meant that there was a subway stop right outside the door of the pub, which was going in my direction. We said our goodbyes and I descended into the subway and caught the train. Only to find out it wasnt in fact my train and it was indeed going in the wrong direction. I exited at the next stop and found the train going back in the direction from which I had just come so that I could connect to the train I actually wanted. But the train didn't come for ten minutes, by which time the couple of drinks I had drunk had worked their way to my bladder. I left the subway and hailed a taxi directing it to '"94th street west". I still havent quite worked out how the street system fully works, so that was the best I could do. He took me to 94th street and I jumped out and walked quickly down the four blocks until I got to my hostel, dodging the street rats along the way.
It was another greatful return to the hostel, where I quickly made my way to the bathroom and then sunk greatfully into bed, with the airconditioner roaring away in the background.
I found the stop for the uptown tour bus which was only two streets away from my hostel and waited for the bus to arrive. Yesterday i bought a ticket which included four rides, the Uptown tour, the downtown tour, the Brooklyn tour and the night tour, which lasts for 48 hours. What they didnt tell you is that it is impossible to do all four tours in 48 hours, unless you actually just sit on one bus after another after another! Yesterday I managed to see about 1/3 of the downtown tour, getting off at various points to see the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty, and that was it!
So, I took the bus from the area of my hostel uptown to go downtown. I was headed for Bryant Park, where Ivan told me there was a free concert of Broadway musicals for an hour! So, the bus took about an hour and took me past all of the museums, the building where Jackie Kennedy lived (woo hoo) and the most amazing huge 'town houses' built by millionaires in the early 1900s and now mostly museums.
It also took me alongside Central Park, and I am hoping to be able to visit there today.
Once we got to 5th avenue I left the bus and walked confidently in the direciton of Bryant park, picking up a picnic along the way. It was very sunny and all of the seats in the shade were taken, so I found a spot right in the middle of the park, and sat on the grass to eat my picnic and enjoy!
We heard songs from A little night musicm, Falling for Eve - a new musical, Chicago and Rock of Ages. I was quite pleased to see the Chicago set, as I had seen the London version. I dont know if it was the thrill of seeing it for free in the glorious sunshine in a park in New York, or what, but I felt that even though the cast didnt have costumes on, or any lighting, and the sound quality wasnt that great, the put their hearts and souls into it and I enjoyed it more than the show in London.
Rock of Ages was brilliant too, and they finished off with a crowd pleasing "Don't stop believing" which I thoroughly enjoyed!
After that it was time to get on the downtown tour bus again, and finish the tour that I hadnt managed to get around the day before. Our tour guide was a Greek Portuguese called Tomy (his real name was Anastasios but he said nobody could pronounce that, so call him Tomy). He told us all sorts of fascinating facts about New York - cant remember any of them in particular now... could be because I was just looking at Tomy instead of the sights!! Lol
I think I may possibly have had information overload, because I couldnt really take much more in. I did think that the South Sea port looked like a lovely place, and if I can make it down there i will, but I also got more of a view of Central Park, and I really want to take a look in there, which is my next stop after going to the Rockerfeller centre where i dicovered yesterday there is a shop of Magnolia Bakery so I can get a cup cake.
The tour bus dropped my off at Times Square, so I went to the theatre to collect my ticket for West Side Story and then went back up the road to the street of restaurants and pubs that we had just past. I went into a Pizza place and ordered a slice of pizza and a bud. I was scrabbling around in my bag for my passport to prove my age, but the lady in the Pizza place wasnt that fussed about it. The pizza was delicious, probably the best pizza I have ever tasted. I think I may have shown up the fact that I am not a local by not eating it properly. After I had devoured my pizza I took a moment to look around me and it seemed the correct method for eating Pizza is to fold your slice in half so that you sort of make a triangular sandwich with it with the crust on the outside and the gooey cheesy filling in the middle.
I popped next door for a slice of Cheesecake - which was dissapointing, and then walked back down the street to the theatre.
I was meeting some friends from Cyprus at the theatre. We had arranged it while we were chatting during the performances of My Fair Lady when we realised we would both be there at the same time. So it was great to see them when they arrived, and we were delighted when we looked at our tickets and saw that I had successfully managed to book a seat next to them... until we passed through into the theatre and one of the front of house members told me to go in a completely different direction to them. I had booked the next sequential number to their tickets, but in the Orchestra, not the Mezzanine level as theirs was! Oh well, no biggie, we arranged to catch up in the Interval. West Side Story was fabulous. Hands down the best musical I have seen so far. The dancing was brilliant - it tickles me how these boys can look tough while dancing beautifully! And the singing was just wonderful too, Maria's voice in particular was superb. The 'PRs' spoke quite a lot in Spanish, so it was good fun trying to remember my Spanish and keep up.
At the end of the show Chris, Pete and I went for a drink up the road. I was walking through the door and eyeing the bouncer to see if he was going to ask me for my ID. He did, more fumbling in the bottom of my back pack and then I was allowed in.
It was fun catching up with my friends, and quite bizzarre to see them in the middle of New York, quite far from home!
The last reserves of my energy left me quite quickly and after a couple of drinks I had to go home. We walked out the door and thanked the good fortune which meant that there was a subway stop right outside the door of the pub, which was going in my direction. We said our goodbyes and I descended into the subway and caught the train. Only to find out it wasnt in fact my train and it was indeed going in the wrong direction. I exited at the next stop and found the train going back in the direction from which I had just come so that I could connect to the train I actually wanted. But the train didn't come for ten minutes, by which time the couple of drinks I had drunk had worked their way to my bladder. I left the subway and hailed a taxi directing it to '"94th street west". I still havent quite worked out how the street system fully works, so that was the best I could do. He took me to 94th street and I jumped out and walked quickly down the four blocks until I got to my hostel, dodging the street rats along the way.
It was another greatful return to the hostel, where I quickly made my way to the bathroom and then sunk greatfully into bed, with the airconditioner roaring away in the background.
Nice post, Darlin'. Keep going, we're all reading :-)
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