At dinner o’clock, as I walk around, my head is generally whipping from side to side almost fast enough to cause some sort of spinal trauma. On a lot of the roads there are just restaurants or food places on either side that all look so great and are generally packed with people, so trying to decide on a place to eat becomes this incredible excercise in mental anguish as I try to make sure I’m getting the best meal possible.
Yesterday I decided the weather was good enough to try going out to the Statue of Liberty. I got on the subway and made my way down the entire length of the island, got out and wandered over. I saw a massive line of people but I figured they were there to get someone’s autograph or something, because it was far too massive to be going to see the Statue – right?
Sadly, I was wrong – they were all going to see the Statue. It’s like it is some sort of incredible tourist attraction, or something. I’ve never seen so many people lined up for anything anywhere I’ve been doing tourist stuff. We’re talking easily in the thousands of people.
I decided that I wasn’t going to stand in line with the rest of the chumps so found another tour thing (one that didn’t actually land on the island) and spent the next hour or so getting an instructive tour of the southern end of Manhattan Island, including a look at New Jersey, Queens, Brooklyn, the Statue, plus a bunch of other places. We ended up pretty close to the Statue (and you can’t go up it any more since 9/11) so I think I’ll save visiting it ‘properly’ for next time.
I then was planning on going to the Metropolitan Museum, but on the way back I went past the Chrysler building and decided I had to get out to get some photos – it is easily the best looking building in the city. While I did that I remembered the UEFA Cup Finals was on so wandered around until I found a pub that had it on (poor old Arsenal, getting their keeper red-carded in the first 20-odd minutes).
Then my plans fell apart, because I’d forgotten I hadn’t had lunch, and as it was 4pm I was getting hungry, so I went to Hard Rock, ate and checked my email (free wifi rules), then stupidly decided to walk the 50+ blocks back to the hostel. I arrived and that was effectively the end of the day; I was exhausted.
Today is my last day in NY and it looks like the weather gods have decided to tease me by offering the best day yet – all blue skies, 20+ degrees, really beautiful. Unfortunately I leave in about 3 or 4 hours so don’t have time for a lot but hopefully I can make a museum or do one last cool thing before I jet out.