Day 16 and 17 - New York

Update 18/10/2015 - Hi everyone, this is very long overdue, thanks in-part to my laziness and Kathryn's laptop which contained the photo's being broken. It's now been almost 12 months since we went away so I've been getting very nostalgic and looking back at this blog. So I've finally got a free Sunday today and I'm finally going to upload all the remaining things I have.

Saturday

This is an entry that I've written in the last few days. Naturally there is not much I can remember. On Saturday we went shopping. I got a map from a website called superfuture which has some good city guides aimed at a young audience (I used to use these a lot about 10 years ago when first dabbing into streetwear). We got the subway to 14th St on the A-C train and visit the West Village first. This was a really nice area and full of classic 3-4 storey terrace that you see in most American TV and films. The streets where a bit leafy and the streets not in the usual grid layout as it is a slightly older part of NYC.

View from the street in West Village

We visited a few shops on the map, spent some money and had some cocktails and dinner in a small tavern type bar in Soho.

Inside of place we had dinner (I can't remember the name!)

Sunday

This was the day we visited the Natural history museum, Central Park and 5th Avenue.

Unfortunately the park was a bit boring as there was a lack of anything interesting going on. The trees had lost their leaves, it was cold and gloomy and there wasn't many people about. Kathryn gave me a run down of the various buildings and who owned them. It was pretty cool to finally see The Plaza hotel featured in Home Alone 2.

Outside Central Park

Front of Natural History Museum (left) and exhibit (right)

Kathryn with festive dinosaur! (left) And walking down 5th Avenue (right)

Later on in the day, Smiti came back from Washington and we went out for dinner and watched an American football game. She expained to us what was going on and we had a really good time.

Day 15 – New York (Black Friday)

Distance travelled: 7 miles on subway, 2 miles on foot

We had a change of plans on Black Friday. We were going to brave the sales, but actually the weather was the best day in a couple so we decided to take a walk from the apartment to Brooklyn bridge. And do the shopping tomorrow.

View approaching Brooklyn Bridge

You can see the bridge from Smiti’s building so we headed down to the riverside, and then along to try and get to the bridge. We got a little lost, or you might say just exploring, before we found the way up to the bridge.

The bridge is a very impressive structure to look at. A mixtures of steel plate and rivets type contractions and wires with wooden slats that make up the pedestrian part. They was quite a lot of tourists around, but once we walked over the half way, it wasn’t too bad and we spent a while taking some photos and looking back at the view.

Views from Brooklyn Bridge of Lower Manhattan

It was still a bit windy, so after a bit we decided we’d had enough and headed back to the shore.

In the evening I had booked tickets for a college basketball match at Madison Square Garden. There was an invitation tournament over the thanksgiving weekend. We went for a quick slice of pizza at a very well reviewed place just opposite. The pizza was great, but the service not so much. Probably due to the hype, it was very busy inside, but we did get a table easily once we were served.

Pizza Suprema on 8th Avenue, opposite MSG

We walked back over to the Garden, which is actually on top of Penn station. We dove into a bar outside for a quick drink as we still had some time to spare. We were the only ones there, and the bartender was very friendly. He actually let us go up some special stairs to get into the arena so we didn’t have to walk outside.

Madison Square Garden

Apparently MSG is the oldest arena in use in the National Hockey League, and it does look a little old, but actually is really well kept. As the college teams have a smaller following, the upper bowl of the arean was not in used, and even the lower half was only about half full, maybe 5,000 to 7,500 in attendance. I was pleased to see there was a band in attendance that provided some good authentic music. The seats were a little uncomfortable as there wasn’t much legroom.

Inside Madison Square Garden

The game was actually ok, but the New York team should have won as they were better, but actually they played terribly and lost.

Day 13 and 14 - New York

Distance travelled: 8 miles by subway, 2 miles on foot

I was feeling pretty rough on Wednesday so we actually didn’t really do that much. I had a really bad headache in the morning. I’m not sure why, although we did have another drink when we got back last night. I could only think as I’d eaten quite a bit of Chinese for dinner before we went out, that the alcohol had a bit of a delayed effect. The Wednesday was a bit of a write off to be honest.

Stephen's hangover!

In the evening, Kathryn cooked a nice meal with a starter of brussel sproats, bacon and parmesan. The main course was a pasta bake with creamy mushroom sauce and green beens. As Smiti was heading for Washington in the morning, we had an early night.

So for Thanksgiving we got up early as Smiti had to get the train to Washington. We left about 8:30am to go to the parade which started at 9am in Central Park. The weather wasn’t great and it was very cold and grey. We also got some “wintery mix” of rain and sleet that they didn’t mention on the tv.

It was very eerie using the public transport and walking the streets as there was hardly anyone around and most of the shops were closed. The platforms were deserted. We decided to go via Grand Central Station and walk to the parade route. We had wanted to see the station anyway during our stay so it seemed like a good opportunity to do it.

Deserted New York; John Street (left) and Fulton Street Subway (right)

We got off the subway and spent a few minutes in the station before leaving. We got some coffee on the way to the parade. Unfortunately, being tourist/first timers we were actually not really prepared for the parade crowds. Even though we were at 7^th Avenue before the parade arrived, the police had already shut most of the streets off to more spectators so there wasn't any overcrowding. We ended up being funneled into a park, but eventually we got a decent spot where we could see most of the parade. Unfortunately we were just a little far back.

The parade was actually very entertaining and quite exciting. I’d say the best thing was the marching bands, probably because they were very loud and ou could hear them very well.

Our view for the Thanksgiving Parade (left) and another photo of what it was like in reality (right), especially if you weren't as tall as me

After we’d seen pretty much everything, we pushed our way back away from the crowd and back towards central station. We were going to get a drink to warm ourselves up and found a nice Parisian bakery. Unfortunately, although we got seated quickly, it was about 10 minutes and no-one came to take our order so we just left. We went back to central station, I took a few more photos and we headed back to the apartment.

Main hall in Grand Central Station

In the afternoon we decided to go and see a movie as we haven’t had the chance with having to look after Izzy for at least a year. We went to a cinema in a newly built office tower.

Main cinema foyer

The movie we saw as The Hunger Games which we enjoyed. Afterwards we went to a bar and grill called Bill’s. They did a special thanksgiving meal of turkey, cranberry sauce and vegetables that I had to have, and I wasn’t disappointed.  It was really good, very nice and moist turkey. My plate was clean afterwards! Kathryn had a burger.

Bill's Bar and Grill; turkey dinner (left) and bar (right)

Afterwards, we wondered past the 9/11 memorial again, although this time it was at night. It took a few more photos, which I think showed how spectacular it looked with the contrast between dark and light. We went back to the apartment and watched the remainder of the Matrix trilogy which we had recorded before going to bed.

9/11 memorial at night (left) and lower floors of the Freedom Tower (right)