2 A.D.
First off, I need to take back what I said in the last post about the YMCA guests - they're not that bad. No sooner had I completed yesterday's entry than I found myself in the lift with two lads (possibly German, possibly from who-knows-where) who were keen to show me a picture they'd only just taken of popular music singer Rhianna, who they'd they'd just spied in the street. That's all it takes for whole swathes of people to go up in my estimation!
Back to today - we were up at 7 like good little boys, keen to get on with our sightseeing. That morning we hoped to beat the queues for Empire State Building or Rockefeller Centre - it depended on how cloudy the skies were. They turned out to be a bright blue so we got the subway to 34th Street and headed for the Empire State. As expected, there were already people there when we arrived just before 9, but there was none of the dreaded hour-after-hour of queuing that we'd feared. In fact, we got through in no time at all, only pausing at security for my "multi-tool" to be temporarily confiscated. We were herded into the lifts and sent up to the 80th floor for the background info on how the building came into being (which we paid little attention to), then up a little further to the 86th floor and the viewing observatory. Said views were absolutely superb, given how clear a day it was, and we were able to see everywhere in the known universe, even Southport. We also realised just how much ground of the five boroughs we'd covered in only a couple of days. We stayed up there for a little under an hour until I got told off for standing on the viewfinder to gain a little extra height.
After retrieving my multi-tool, we realised that something was missing - coffee! Straight to Starbucks we went, before returning to the YMCA to book our accommodation for when we're in Washington D.C. We found a reasonably priced hostel with a room for four people...of mixed gender. Now, this would be our first time doing the sharing thing with 'others', so it could either be a culturally enriching experience in which we get to make new friends who add knowledge and fun to our lives...or it could be a complete nightmare. We'll see. The time spent back at base was also used to skype our parents for the first time, which was everything it should have been, despite the ropey internet connection.
As the afternoon arrived, we took the train downtown to find an Irish bar (where we knew "soccer" was guaranteed to be shown) in which we saw England's mighty victory over Sweden - take that, Sven! We shared a lunch portion together, expecting it to be a fabled over-sized American meal...but it wasn't - it hardly touched the sides. Is the need for doggy bags a myth? I was hoping to use them to slash my food budget in half!
Being downtown, we decided to have another crack at finding Wall Street, which we did, though there wasn't a great deal to see. It took us a while to find the bull statue at the end of Broadway which, if you don't know, you're supposed to touch the testicles of, presumably for good luck rather than a cheap thrill. There were loads of people taking photos, so it was difficult to get good shots, but I thought I was quite innovative doing my best James Herriott impression.
Given we were in the area, we checked out Chinatown and Little Italy, both of which seem to have shrunk since decades gone by. However, I got to walk down Mulberry Street, which I'm pretty sure is the street in which a lot of the Godfather Part 2 was shot. Now it's all restaurants and we didn't get shaken down by the mob, just bothered by patrons insisting we stop to eat with them. Little did they know that we'd already bought some ready-made sushi meals from a nearby Japanese deli - take that, all those people who thought I wouldn't be able to deal with exotic cuisine!
Come this evening we were going to do the "Top of the Rock", but lethargy has kicked in and it's all we can do to lie on our bunk beds and drink beer. And why not? it's Friday night after all...
First off, I need to take back what I said in the last post about the YMCA guests - they're not that bad. No sooner had I completed yesterday's entry than I found myself in the lift with two lads (possibly German, possibly from who-knows-where) who were keen to show me a picture they'd only just taken of popular music singer Rhianna, who they'd they'd just spied in the street. That's all it takes for whole swathes of people to go up in my estimation!
Back to today - we were up at 7 like good little boys, keen to get on with our sightseeing. That morning we hoped to beat the queues for Empire State Building or Rockefeller Centre - it depended on how cloudy the skies were. They turned out to be a bright blue so we got the subway to 34th Street and headed for the Empire State. As expected, there were already people there when we arrived just before 9, but there was none of the dreaded hour-after-hour of queuing that we'd feared. In fact, we got through in no time at all, only pausing at security for my "multi-tool" to be temporarily confiscated. We were herded into the lifts and sent up to the 80th floor for the background info on how the building came into being (which we paid little attention to), then up a little further to the 86th floor and the viewing observatory. Said views were absolutely superb, given how clear a day it was, and we were able to see everywhere in the known universe, even Southport. We also realised just how much ground of the five boroughs we'd covered in only a couple of days. We stayed up there for a little under an hour until I got told off for standing on the viewfinder to gain a little extra height.
After retrieving my multi-tool, we realised that something was missing - coffee! Straight to Starbucks we went, before returning to the YMCA to book our accommodation for when we're in Washington D.C. We found a reasonably priced hostel with a room for four people...of mixed gender. Now, this would be our first time doing the sharing thing with 'others', so it could either be a culturally enriching experience in which we get to make new friends who add knowledge and fun to our lives...or it could be a complete nightmare. We'll see. The time spent back at base was also used to skype our parents for the first time, which was everything it should have been, despite the ropey internet connection.
As the afternoon arrived, we took the train downtown to find an Irish bar (where we knew "soccer" was guaranteed to be shown) in which we saw England's mighty victory over Sweden - take that, Sven! We shared a lunch portion together, expecting it to be a fabled over-sized American meal...but it wasn't - it hardly touched the sides. Is the need for doggy bags a myth? I was hoping to use them to slash my food budget in half!
Being downtown, we decided to have another crack at finding Wall Street, which we did, though there wasn't a great deal to see. It took us a while to find the bull statue at the end of Broadway which, if you don't know, you're supposed to touch the testicles of, presumably for good luck rather than a cheap thrill. There were loads of people taking photos, so it was difficult to get good shots, but I thought I was quite innovative doing my best James Herriott impression.
Given we were in the area, we checked out Chinatown and Little Italy, both of which seem to have shrunk since decades gone by. However, I got to walk down Mulberry Street, which I'm pretty sure is the street in which a lot of the Godfather Part 2 was shot. Now it's all restaurants and we didn't get shaken down by the mob, just bothered by patrons insisting we stop to eat with them. Little did they know that we'd already bought some ready-made sushi meals from a nearby Japanese deli - take that, all those people who thought I wouldn't be able to deal with exotic cuisine!
Come this evening we were going to do the "Top of the Rock", but lethargy has kicked in and it's all we can do to lie on our bunk beds and drink beer. And why not? it's Friday night after all...
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