New York Hour

I was going to call this post New York Minute, but there is no denying it - this is going to be a very long post. Just skim over the boring bits.

On Friday evening I went for a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is a sprawling museum and I didn't bother to try and cover all of it but there was some cool stuff in there. It was one of those free walking tours given by volunteers through the hostel. The guide happened to be an off duty New York City police officer so he took us inside an NYPD precinct on the way to the museum.

After the museum I caught the Staten Island ferry there and back, largely becuase it was free and got a good view of the statue of Liberty. As the boat passed near Lady Liberty, I said 'stat you bro?' She didn't reply/was not amused/probably heard it before.

Yesterday I got up early and set out to walk Manhattan. Walking for most of the day I was able to pretty thoroughly explore: Battery Park, Lower Manhattan and the Financial District, the South Street marina, the Brooklyn Bridge and Greenwich Village. I still have a long way to go, and I have to get to the outer boroughs as well. 5 more days... Actually I did end up in the Bronx on Friday night, just rode the subway up there to see what it was like but didn't explore much.

Statue of Liberty, and the Ellis Island immigration station

Trinity Church on the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street, where emergency workers sought shelter as the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

The New York Stock Excahnge

Federal Hall, the first US Capitol and the site at which George Washington was inaugarated as the first president in 1789.

The Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington celebrated victory in the revolutionary war with his troops. I had a beer here, to share in tradition.


After the Financial District I was walking towards the South Street boat harbor and came across the New York Police Museum. It was a really good museum. The saddest and most extensive exhibit was on the 3rd floor, which was all about the September 11 attacks. Here are some of the items they recovered from ground zero:

And the guy at the museum showed me what my patch would be if I dispatched at the NYPD:

It was about this time that I recieved good information from a reliable source that the President was due to land at the downtown heliport.

The photo is not of his helicopter. I waited around for a while to try and get a photo of Marine One, but it was only about 2pm at that stage and my information suggested he was going to a broadway show so I thought it was a bit early yet. There were police and secret service everywhere, towing cars etc. If they were trying to keep it a secret, they weren't doing a very good job. I decided it wasn't worth hanging around too long, this would be my second presidential hooplah (the first being in 2005) and I was worried that the secret service might have a file on me! So I carried on with my day..

Another city, another famous bridge to walk across. This time I was tackling the Brooklyn Bridge. It offered some pretty good views all the way along but after all that walking my feet were so sore I opted to catch a subway back to Manhattan once i made it to Brooklyn in stead of walking back across.

Later last night, I ended up at Times Square again. I know, way to look like a tourist. But I love those lights, they are so amazing. Like the middle of the day in the middle of the night. I wanted to see them again. In the back of my mind, I knew the preisdent would likely be around there somewhere and sure enough before long I could hear the military helicopter circling above, and then came across roads blocked by sanitation trucks and a crowd lining temporary fences at the corner of Broadway and 44th Street. While there was a crowd gathering, at least 10 times as many people walked past oblivious to what was going on. A lady walking past asked me what was going on, I said "Obama's here", and her eyes lit up and she screamed at the top of her lungs "where!!!??? omigod where?!" And then the crowd got bigger. After standing around with the crowd for a while I began get tired, and my feet were still sore as. But I knew I wasn't going anywhere until I had seen him. I began to think like a secret service agent. I knew it was highly unlikely they would drive him out on to Broadway, with all those tens of thousands of people around. I knew I had to get to the other side of the theater. To do this I had to walk around the block due to all the police barricades.

Before long I was a block away at 6th Ave and 44th St. I was not the only one thinking that way. Although smaller than the crowd that had gathered on Broadway, a large number of people had gathered at barricades set up down the street from the intersection I beleived he would be coming out of. It was a one way street, and what these people had failed to notice was that most of the dozens of police cars, motorcycles, trucks, busses and ambulances were facing the wrong way, against the flow of traffic. So taking a huge gamble I secured myself a front row position against a barricade where there were only a few other people in sight. Within an hour, the sanitation trucks blocking the road moved, the motorcycles and other vehicles revved up, traffic was stopped, and the President drove past right in front of me waving out the window.

Today: Harlem here I come.

New York City

Good afternoon from New York City! So far I have been to Times Square (will go back and get some photos, didn't have camera with), Rockefeller Center, the United Nations, and Ground Zero.

I arrived in New York late yesterday afternoon off the Amtrak train at Penn Station. My ride to the hostel involved 2 connecting subway rides. Somehow, despite only having a vague idea of where I should have been going, I got it right first time. Penn Station serves 1000 passengers every 90 seconds, so it was a pretty busy place.

My hostel is on the Upper West Side, one block away from a subway station and close to Central Park. It is way uptown but still feels downtown to me, and is handy to everything. I feel like I have been all over the place, but I havn't even seen the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty, or even left Manhattan yet! I have a week pass on the subway with unlimited travel. I am in love with the subway, it is just so easy and fast to get everywhere.

United Nations HQ. They didn't have all the flags up this morning because it was raining. Typically wimpy UN I thought to myself... all talk and no action! (joking - I like the UN).

The General Assembly

Me at the General Assembly


Some sculpture outside the UN of a broken gun... again, typical UN - all talk and no action. (joking - I like the peaceful nature of the sculpture)

Ground Zero

Some singer, I don't know who, but possibly the next Britney Spears type thing who's first name is Taylor sang a song in front of the gathered crowds at Rockefeller Plaza for the nationally televised NBC Today Show.

O Canada

I spent the evening in Canada checking out the falls in the darkness. This afternoon I went on the Maid of the Mist boat trip right up to the bottom of the falls. Its a really in-your-face way of seeing the falls with water fresh from the 180ft drop raining down on you. Totally cool.

Earlier in the day I toured this building, the 26 storey 1931 built City Hall of Buffalo. The building itself is an archetectual masterpeice, and the detail on it is amazing. It was also an oppertunity for wonderful views of the city from the top floor. I learnt a lot about the history of the area, way too much to go into here... but hey if you catch me at around sometime and you want to be in the know on Buffalo history, hit me up. It was really interesting.

This is my favorite building in Buffalo, it is the Liberty Building. There are two replicas of the statue of liberty on the roof. One faces east, to welcome trade from New York City and the oceans, and one faces West to bid goods and trade farewell as it headed toward Chicago and the West. That was basically Buffalo's role in the history - transport hub between east and west, so it is cool that the building still stands.

I found this really strange. With all the economic decline the city is in, it managed to scrounge together enough money to build a brand new stadium (background). Obviously the funds didn't extent to tearing down the old one, which still sits there as a crumbling eyesore.

Tomorrow: New York City.

Buffalo and Niagara Falls

I arrived in Buffalo yesterday morning off the Lakeshore Limited train from Chicago. The train dumps passengers at a station out in the suburbs, so I then had to chill out for an hour waiting for a bus.

Buffalo is a bit of a sad case of a city. The city has been in decline since about 1950, from when it has lost an average 1.1% of its population every year since. More than twice as many people lived in Buffalo in 1950 as live here now. Although still the center of a metropolitain area of some 1.2 million people, the city itself seems to be rotting. There are a lot of very poor people around. And 10,000 abandoned buildings! The roads are crumbling so bad that the bus jiggled with more fervor than a magnitude 9 earthquake, and I thought I was going to get brain damage from all the banging and crashing.

I went out to Niagara Falls late yesterday afternoon. I had a good walk around the American side and then decided to walk across the bridge into Canada. After going through a non-reversable turnstile out of America and on to the pedestrian bridge, I remembered I didn't have my US passport with me! Oops. I had my NZ passport, but it had no visa stamp in it as I had not entered the country on it. So for 20 minutes I wandered around the Canadian side of the falls doing little but fretting about whether I would be able to get back to my hostel. On returning to the American side the customs officer didn't seem very impressed with my story but luckily I had a card with my passport number written down and he let me through anyway.

I'm going to spend the first part of today in Buffalo checking out some of the crumbling old buildings and archetecture, which are actually kind of cool. Then I'm heading back to the falls tonight cause I want to see them after dark - aparently they light up. Also I still have to go on the Maid of the Mist.

Last pics from Chicago

More from Chicago...

After the last blog post, I went to the bar at the top of the John Hancock Center. If you did not have reservations for dinner, and just wanted to have a drink at the 95th floor bar, you had to line up in the lobby. The line stretched out the door and around the corner. Once up there, the drinks were expensive, at $US8.50 for a local beer. We perused the drinks menu, deciding on O'Drools. When the beers arrived moments later, we read on on the bottle that - to our horror - we had just paid $17 for 2 non-alcoholic beers. So it was necessary to stay for a 2nd! The view from up there, at night, was amazing. The lights of the city and the freeways going out in all directions like the spokes of a wheel. It was worth suffering the prices. I may be able to get some pictures from Dave's camera if I catch him before I leave, as I didn't have my camera that night.

The next day I walked down Millionaires Row (Prairie Ave), where some of Chicago's finest houses are, mostly 19th century mansions. Then I walked all the way to Navy Pier, and further north, all the way to the Lincoln Park Zoo, where I spent the afternoon.

Tonight I'm leaving Chicago, on the all-night train to Buffalo, NY.

Chicago

It has been a pretty full day so far. Did a 2 hour free walking tour of downtown Chicago provided by the hostel. It was very interesting and saw some awesome sights. Went out for lunch with a new friend who is staying at the hostel, and then up to the top of the Sears Tower - 103 stories!

The plan for the evening so far is to head up to the other main observation deck in town, the John Hancock Center. There is a bar up the top and if you drink there then there is no charge for entry - only exhorbetent drink prices aparently.

As I rest my weary feet for an hour, here are some photos of the day so far....

Sears Tower

Memorial Day Parade (though memorial day actually isn't until Monday)

I can't remember what this building is called, but built during the prohibition era its archetect designed a gold plated dome at the top in the shape of a champaigne bottle to remind Chicagoans of happier times.

The Bean (in the background!!)

County Genral Hospital. Not actually hospital, but where they do the exterior shots for E.R. The roof of the building is, as our guide explained: "where they bring in patients by helicopter, or John Carter goes to cry."