A New York state of mind...

Finally, our post about New York. Now, such a big city needs an equally large post, so apologies if this runs on a bit.

We took the Greyhound bus from Atlantic City bus station last Monday afternoon, and arrived in NYC's Port Authority Bus Terminal at about 6pm. There's something magical about seeing the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan from afar, entering the Lincoln tunnel, and then surfacing in the midst of the urban centre. When you exit the Lincoln tunnel, there are so many elevated roads passing over each other, and so many skyscrapers, you almost feel you're in some burgeoning future metropolis, along the lines of Los Angeles from Blade Runner or Coruscant from Star Wars. 


We exited the bus station and surfaced. Having met Maryann's cousin, Milton, we had dinner at an artsy Thai fusion restaurant in a district of Manhattan called Chelsea. Now, whereas London's Chelsea is full of sloanes, large townhouses and Land Rover Defenders full of Waitrose shopping bags; NYC's version is a lot more snazzy. It's a bit like London's Soho, with lots of trendy bars and restaurants.

Like pretty much every major city, it seems New York is made up of many districts, each with its own feel and vibe. There are too many to note here, but some main ones we went to included Hell's Kitchen, once a grimy industrial hell hole, now an up-and-coming area to live; Chinatown, with its bustling narrow streets; Little Italy, which has on the whole a more European feel, characterised by its ubiquitous restaurants and cafes. There are many others, which all form the island of Manhattan, New York's city centre. The distances involved are rather large, too: the distance from Battery Park to Central park is about 4.5 miles, and that's under half the length of Manhattan...

Anyway, so after having our Thai dinner, Maryann's cousin Constantine met up with us and showed us around the NYC Google office, where he works. It was pretty sweet: with scooter stations where workers ride from one end of the floor to the next, cafes and eateries packed with food, and lots of interesting/geeky decor. Each floor had its own snazzy theme, with ladders connecting the floors. If any of you happen to be in NYC with a bit of time to spare, definitely check it out!

After oogling at Google, we headed back to Milton's batchelor pad in Jersey City, a quick PATH ride away under the Hudson river. Unlike the rest of the US, the public transportation systems in NY are actually pretty good. There's the Subway system, which covers all of Manhattan and most of the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn; the PATH, or the 'Port Authority Trans Hudson' train service, which is essentially a subway add-on
which connects Manhattan and Jersey City on the other side of the Hudson; and ample bus and overland train services, etc. And then there are the omnipresent yellow taxis, of course.

The next day, we got up early and decided to check off the 'big must-sees', namely Times Square, Central Park, and some more of Midtown Manhattan. Before taking off, we met up with another cousin of Maryann's, Penelope (we imagine you're getting a 'big fat Greek family' impression right now.. you're right.), who took us to the waterfront between Hoboken/Jersey City and Manhattan. Below are some photos we took:

View of Manhattan, with a ferry crossing the Hudson River.

Times Square. Duh.

A nice film shot Dex took, with a NYC cab.

Rockefeller Center (film). We had to wait 15 min for Japanese tourists to finish taking their photos, so hope y'all appreciate this!

After treating ourselves to a brownie and cupcake from Magnolia Bakery, we headed up to Central Park, which is massive. It's interesting because if you find yourself in some areas, you almost forget that you're in one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world.

One of the lakes in Central Park, with remote-operated boats.

It sounds like we didn't do much so far, but trust us, we were exhausted by the time we reached Central Park. NYC is simple enough to navigate, but the distances involved in sightseeing do rack up. We probably walked around 3 miles by the time we reached our final stop: the Met Museum of Art.

G(r)eek shot of Maryann with the NY kouros.

One of the annoying things about America has to be the price tag that goes along with all historic landmarks and museums. Fortunately in London (esp for us uni students)  almost all museums are free. The Met was $10, and MoMa was $12, which must be a pain for humanities students, or anyone else that is in the mood for a museum visit. Bear in mind that these are student tickets: the regular adult tickets are about twice this. These are not even considered expensive tickets: a trip to the top of the Empire State building, or a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty will each set you back about $30 or more. Sightseeing in New York is an expensive game.

After seeing the Met, we took the subway down to the PATH station at 33rd St, and went home. Now, if you go to NY, a trip on the subway seems to be a kind of rite of passage. At off-peak times, it's a busy as hell; at peak times it's a complete nightmare. It provides a crushing, sweaty experience that the metros of Europe can only hope to live up to. In fact the actual subway system itself resembles the Paris Metro somewhat, but is even more dirty and grimy.

That night Milton and Penelope treated us to some delicious dinner and fine drinks:

Milton showing how risotto's done: a Food Network star in the making.

On Wednesday we took the ferry over to the World Trade Center part of the downtown Financial District. Here we tried (in vain) to catch a glimpse of Ground Zero: all we could see was the perimeter fence of this building's construction site:

'Freedom Tower'

They're calling it Freedom Tower, and it is being built on the site of the World Trade Center skyscrapers. It was going to be the tallest building in the world, but the Burj Tower in Dubai spectacularly overtook it.

While we were in the area we wandered down Wall Street, and took a photo with that icon of capitalism, the Bull.

And after that we headed down to Battery Park, at the southernmost tip of Manhattan, for a quick ice cream and a glimpse of Castle Clinton and Lady Liberty herself. Then we checked out Chinatown, Little Italy, and of course SoHo.

On our third day we met up with our friend Jeff, who's working for an IT firm in a Hell's Kitchen. We went out to a Texas barbecue restaurant and indulged in ribs, mac and cheese and shredded pork burgers. Ah, American cuisine.

That afternoon we walked up to the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, as they call it. We spent most of the afternoon there, and as a consequence had to forego a trip to the Museum of Natural History.

That evening, we decided to sample New York city's famed nightlife. Now, America being the somewhat conservative protestant country it is, they have a ridiculous drinking age of 21, and actually go out of their way to make it as damned difficult for under-21s to have fun as they possibly can. Why they don't just relax and step in line with the rest of the world is anyone's guess. It is perfectly legal for nightclubs to let 18-21s in, but it seems only a handful are willing to do so. And when they do, the cover charges are ridiculous. Consequently, we ended up in a nightclub called 'Webster Hall', somewhere in a Greenwich Village backstreet. After paying a ludicrous $10 for girls and $30 for guys, we entered. Now, some of you will be familiar with a certain nightclub in London nicknamed 'Moonies'. For those who aren't, it's essentially a leopard-printed, STD-ridden dive on Greek Street in Soho. That's essentially what Webster Hall was, except spread over three floors. And to make things worse, we couldn't have alcohol to make things better.

At about 3am we grew tired of the power-tripping DJ (he regularly stopped the music to make incoherent speeches about god-knows-what), and found that his gangsta rap playlist got repetitive. We left, and as we were walking back to the PATH station, the heavens opened in a spectacularly British fashion. By the time we arrived back at Milton's, we were soaked to the skin.

Essentially, this is our advice to would-be underage NYC clubbers: wait until you're 21.

Regardless of the underage nightlife, New York is a fantastic city. It lives up to its worldwide reputation, without a doubt. Three days was too short a time to experience it fully, and we greatly advise anyone who happens to visit the States to try to see it on their travels.