Before you start to read this I would like to mention that I have basically abandoned the actual timeline of this trip. Rather than running in chronological order, they will be posted in the order of what I wanted to write about first (so THERE!) - that said, if I have any success at all with the narrative it should all still make sense & be... well at least as informative as these ever turn out to be!
New York City - Day 8 in the US.
Having been planning this trip for so many months, and based on past form, it shouldn't have surprised me that I would be so unprepared for this trip to New York. Of course I think it is part of my "thing" in life that I will probably always be surprised - so for all the journeys from now on I will simply stick with the theory that, yes - of course the world is bigger, better & so wildly different to expectations than one could ever imagine (well its either that or I just accept that I seem to have a naivety about that world that will hopefully never go away).
One of the most important things that I should say, as part of my continuing hope that this blog will eventually prove useful to at least one person planning a trip - is that NYC isn't always how it seems in the guidebooks. At least it wasn't what I had taken from the guidebooks. Going in I was pretty sure that I had a good idea of how it was going to work. It would be expensive, loud, overwhelming and overflowing with people - those people would be the stereotypical New Yorkers that I had grown up seeing in so many different TV shows & movies. And most especially, from that little voice in the back of my head which always warns me not to get my hopes up too high, I worried that it wouldn't be all I'd hoped, that I might not like it even. That regardless of the history, the scenery & the sheer NEW YORK of it all, I would still find it less than what I had so wanted it to be. I am so happy to type, especially having come straight from Dallas, which ended up being so unlike what I had expected (and will be the subject of another story) to the "Big Apple" that New York lived up to all of its hype. And then some.
We flew into NYC on the cheapest flights we could find, this meant a short, unremarkable layover in Charlotte, North Carolina before touching down at JFK just after 3pm. I must confess that I'd consumed a bag of licorice on the flight & so landed with a rather challenging, though well deserved case of motion-sickness. I can emphatically recommend that no-one try to replicate that decision. Ever. Even if it is strawberry flavored. And brought in from Australia.
With the direction of the plane coming into the airport we hadn't been able to see any of those famous views so it was with some anticipation that we collected our luggage & set about organizing our way into the city.
Now here I go into disclaimer mode again. Just before this next bit, I want to clarify that in NO way am I complaining about the service from the Super Shuttle driver, they were by far the most economical way to travel (US$18 per person direct to the hotel door) & there was only about a ten minute wait for them to arrive. Right thats out of the way, now on with the story.
By this point in the day we were more than slightly jet lagged, or perhaps more appropriate to say would be that we were "travel-lagged" having started off before 5am that morning in Dallas. The driver helpfully packed our bags into the van & then after collecting the other customers, to fill the van, we were off. I know I just made a big song & dance about NYC not being the way I had anticipated, but there is one thing that is pretty much exactly the experience you expect it to be - it is JUST as bad being on the roads around & in NYC as you would imagine. Horns seemed to be blaring constantly, used, it felt, to punctuate their own special language. Everything from "the light has changed" to "hi, hello, excuse me" and escalating to "You M*ther F**ker, get out of my way" - although it did seem that the latter option was far more prevalent. Lanes seem to be more suggestion that anything else, and as always seems to confuse my New Zealand sensibilities red lights don't always seem to mean stop! Our shuttle driver informed us as we cut our way through the traffic - that the President was in town, & this, he said was the reason for the increased Police presence & helped to explain why so many roads seemed blocked off. Even to a first time visitor it had seemed like an unusually large number, even slightly worrying so that there would be as many police normally congregating on street corners so it was both a relief, as well as being rather thrilling to think that we were sharing the same 22 square mile island with the leader of arguably the most powerful nation in the world. It was shortly after that announcement, which seemed to go down well with his passengers that our driver started to become more open with us, sharing with us some of his personal details. That he is from Haiti & works all the hours he can so that he can send money home, oh & of course that he doesn't want to upset any of the aforementioned police that we are passing as they are liable to simply "shoot him in the street". He even went so far as to tell us a story of police officers doing this seemingly without provocation to an unarmed girl a couple of weeks before. By this stage both myself & my traveling companion were looking at each other disbelievingly, and if I might add cynically, unsure if this was just him angling for a bigger tip, especially for performing his job in such dangerous circumstances. And hey, if we did clutch at our seats a wee bit tighter, well surely that was just because of the driving!!.
By the time that we made it to the hotel, it was for me pure relief, less the excitement of finally being in the midst of the city, and more that I could imagine nothing better that stretching out - horizontally - for an hour or so & hopefully being able to make use of a reliable wifi source - our luck up to this point had been spotty at best and I was going through withdrawals!.
I am feeling that this may once again require a disclaimer from me… Actually perhaps I should use this moment to disclaim any and all further comments that I may make in this blog? I am not setting out to portray anything negatively, rather just the honest reaction that I had to what was going on, I feel that the experience we had in NYC was amazing & we couldn't have done it, especially with the budget we had, without being able to find this hotel and take advantage of the very cheap rate ( the room for two people is US$150 per night, excl. taxes) they were offering.
The Jane hotel ( www.thejanenyc.com ) is right across the street ( the FDR, one of the major access multilane roadways in the city ) from the Hudson River, & has been in operation over 100 years. If we believe the website, some of the Titanic survivors were taken here after finally making it to New York. It has a wonderful ambience, uniformed porters with smart caps to open doors as well as a well air-conditioned lobby, really all we could ask for at that moment. The room when we finally made it, was to be honest, pretty much exactly what I had been expecting from my research. Fifty square feet (there is a communal bathroom at each end of the floor) bunk beds, and a mirror running the entire right hand side of the space, intended to make the room appear larger. I do have mild claustrophobia but like I said, I had known it would be small, had chosen the room in spite of this, as it gave us the best bang for our buck. My traveling companion was slightly less excited about this prospect than me, but she made the most of the situation and within a couple of hours we had made the place our own & settled in. A quick walk around the neighborhood, which is right on the edge of the Meat Packing & Chelsea districts and on a very safe, well lit mostly residential street and we made our way to the local, fairly reasonably priced deli to purchase dinner & sat eating under streetlights on the lovely river adjacent walk and cycle way with the breeze of the river providing a beautiful contrast to the oppressive heat of Dallas we had left behind. All in all it had been a good day, with a frenetic pace that would become the theme of this trip!
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| The view of the Hudson River walkway, the tall tower under construction at the right of the picture is the new Liberty Tower. 1 World Trade Centre. |
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