New York, Days 1 & 2

NY Pizza-ey Goodness!

 It’s very difficult to begin this post.  New York has been the inspiration for so many times by so many different writers, singers, artists, designers, it’s really hard to express anything that hasn’t already been put down before.

The emotions, the feelings, the initial impression as you drive into the city, it’s difficult to find something to say, the zeitgeist for New York is already huge that I’m not sure I have anything else to add.

Still, here goes.

Wow.

That about covers it.

We drove into New York City from the South, coming in via New Jersey, and, apart from the sheer size of the city the first thing you notice is the Statue of Liberty sitting to the right of the city.  That pretty much sets the scene for the rest of your experience.  Immediately you get a sense of the sheer immensity of the Empire City experience, how people have been inspired over time as they’ve seen this site throughout the years.

Still, after not sleeping very well the night beforehand, I took a nap when we arrived, then went for dinner at Sal and Carmine’s Pizza (as reviewed in Zombieland – look it up!).  I’d highly recommend it – big tasty pizzas in a... shall we say ‘authentic New York’ (read:  dingy) diner.  Still, absolutely awesome.

Our hostel is in Upper West Side, on Broadway near Central Park, so after pizza we headed back to the hostel for an early night.

New York Rocks! Hah, I'm so punny.

The next day, we jumped on a Subway and headed downtown.  This really helped put everything in context – it’s a half-hour subway trip (and those trains move fast) from uptown to downtown.  The subway stations themselves are straight out of the movies – white tiles with tiled artwork and signage, although very hot and sticky.

Downtown, we managed to achieve quite a bit the first day, including:

• Greenwich Village:  Unlike San Francisco, this has a more gritty, urban feel to the gaybourhood.   The rainbow flags are around (and we walked past Stonewall), but it feels more... real than the Castro in San Francisco (and we managed to find a good cuppa!), almost as if the Castro was more of a film set.
• The Brooklyn Bridge:  Sitting on the banks of the East River looking back feels like Rhapsody in Blue should be playing.
• Wall Street:  Quite a bit darker than I thought it would be, the high buildings block out all the natural light.  I’m sure there has to be a metaphor in there somewhere
• Battery Park and booked our tickets for the Statue cruise the next day
• The 9/11 Memorial.

The Memorial a very sombre location.  Two huge cubic waterfalls mark where the two towers once stood amongst pristine gardens.  You get a real feeling of the sheer scale of what happened on that site and, while I can’t begin to understand what the People o the States must have been going through, as an outsider you can sympathise.  It also begins to set the stage for ensuring that people don’t forget, and that they start to rebuild.  The new towers are beginning to rise over the city, and I look forward to perhaps one day returning and seeing the completed site.

Completed with delicious Chinese food in Chinatown and back to the Hotel

Next post... Statue of Liberty and Top of the Rock.