14/9/22 Seeing the sights up high and down low (sea level at least)

 I got back from my skyscapering late yesterday so I didn’t get around to doing a blog. I’ve had a bit of a quiet day today so it’s a double up. 

I tried to do less walking yesterday and take it easy so I can recover from my cold but I ended up doing as much walking as every other day, it just didn’t feel like it. Since it’s a man-cold it’s more than likely fatal but I will power on through anyway.

My great plan of not walking everywhere focussed on going up buildings in elevators, namely One World Trade Centre, The Empire State Building and The Rockefeller Centre / 30 Rock / Top of the Rock.

I’m really glad I left this until the weather was a lot nicer because a clear view makes all the difference. There was even a chilly breeze up the Empire State which was a fantastic change.

Each building has their own take on their history and importance, Although One World does the reveal quite well with a dark room with video wall lifting up to reveal the New York harbour 100 storeys below you. All their elevators are bloody fast too, although you only see the speed in the Rockefeller Centre one.

It’s really nice when the subway arrives because it moves a stack of air about creating a nice breeze, and you get to go in an air conditioned carriage instead of standing on a hot muggy platform.

The scene of my morning coffee, bit more dramatic than the corner of the Mepal Pl office.

The staff here were great, with one wanting to take a photo of my shirt she liked it so much (a Minions tshirt)

 The one downside for One World is that it is all inside, behind glass. You never get the chance for a clear photo.

It is a very very long way down

The NSA building, no windows and a stack of dishes on the roof

I always thought the Brooklyn Bridge wasn’t that long. It goes from the greenery on the left to the greenery on the right, almost 2km. I might leave this until the end of the trip so if I break myself at least I’ll be on the way home soon after.

Walking around the perimeter of the observation level

From there I moved on to the Empire State Building in all it’s Art Deco and Depression era construction shenanigans.

There are a couple of different elevators you have to take to get up to the top. It’s all very straight forward and designed to spread out the number of people trying to get up at any one time. The staff are all dressed in 30’s uniforms and the presentation of all the areas is pretty fantastic.

The Vanderbilt, whose observation deck is three or so levels of arty nonsense and contemplations of light. Nope, I just want to get a great view of New York thanks. Plus you have to book in advance which requires planning and timekeeping which I am absolutely not doing on holiday.

A smattering of yellow cabs but just so typical 

A pretty cool roof garden, possibly a bar. Probably not something I’d get invited to attend, the temptation to play rooftop coaster frisbee would be too great.

That would just annoy me living in that building, not having the windows vertical just isn’t right.

The Gorilla swinging pole bit

Now that’s a light shade.

It was well past time for lunch and for me to have some NY pizza, and this looked a good a place as any. There are a lot of places that have 99c pizza slices but when it comes to food like this I would rather pay more to know I’m getting a lower chance of dysentery.

Lots and lots of pizza, and no idea whatsoever what any of them were other than Hawaiian. Having bought some and eaten in I am still none the wiser what I had, other than Hawaiian.

Allegedly BBQ chicken, some meat type pizza with maybe ranch and Hawaiian. They were all so good, crispy bases and hot toppings. They put the slices into the pizza oven when you order them so you get them nice a hot and crispy. I’ve also managed to get half the photo blurry which bugs the hell out of me.

The Empire State from the side

Rockefeller Centre - you have to schedule a time to go up, but it’s usually within 30 minutes so not a big deal. This is where they do the ice skating and have a great big Christmas tree. Given that everywhere has had Halloween tat for sale since I arrived in Mid-August I’m surprised the Christmas decorations haven’t been started yet.

A small selection of the 100s of photos I took over the hour + I was up there.

One of the great evil banks, but their fountain looked pretty cool.

Other than they named the product wrong and Americans don’t spell litre correctly, this gives you an idea of how much basic items can cost - keep in mind this is on “special” but also it’s one of the utter bullshit alkaline ionised waters that have electrolysing gunk in them. Add 8% tax on to this, then convert to $NZ and you’re looking at around $7.60 for 1.5 litres of tap water. The tap water here is perfectly drinkable, Auckland’s is far worse at times.

Once I dragged myself back to the hotel I decided that I hadn’t spent the entire night on the toilet yet so I went across the road and got Taco Bell. They are so much cheaper here than in NZ and take far less time to make. The end result is exactly the same, but it does clean things out I guess. Apologies for the odd lighting in these photos, for some reason Hotels around the world just do not like having decent lights, instead they put up 27 dim lamps which all have a separate switch.

Not in NZ yet, the Doritos taco - that’s a taco shell made from Cheese Supreme Dorito, so yummy

The best - Cheesy Gordita Crunch (with Doritos shell inside).

Thankfully I didn’t have any cause to apologise to the nice housekeeping ladies but it was close, and I’m still not fully trusting a fart a day later. A full several hours sleep in and I was kind of ready to do something today. Not much, my voice has decided to go all hoarse and squeaky so that’s fun when it’s a bit of a challenge to get yourself understood here at the best of times. I never had a bagel last time I was here, so I thought it was a good time to fix that. There was a highly rated shop nearby (no, not Zuckers - it seems to have gone downhill recently) called the Brooklyn Bagel & Coffee Company. It’s not in Brooklyn but I gave up trying to work out the reason for names here a while ago.

Here we have a wide range of cream cheeses. As far as I could tell none of them made their way into my bagel. You can completely customise your own but for a first time I was not ready for such complex arts.

Here we have the Torch (refer above where I’ve given up trying to work out the reason for names) which is turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo on an everything bagel. I was listening to the people order before me so I knew he would ask for type of bagel, toasted and to have here or to go. 

I step up and proudly announce to, lets call him Steven, that I would like a Torch, on an everything, toasted to go.

Steven: No, no, what do you want in it?

Me: A torch

Steven:  And what bagel

Me:  Everything

Steven:  Toasted or plain

Me:  Toasted

Steven: to go?

Me: Have here

Steven: Anything else?

Me: No way

Steven: adios 

I’ll just go back to being a clueless tourist, it’s what is expected of me and just confuses things when I try and step out.

Anyway, the bagel was really good, the filling was excellent but I’m just not a bagel fan. I always thought the ones in NZ weren’t the greatest and really tough but apparently that’s what they are supposed to be like. I’m more of a crunchy (pizza base) or pillowy soft (buns) type, not this heavy duty bagel stuff.

After this I subwayed and bussed my way to the piers to go on a Landmark Cruise of Manhattan. It was pretty much the area where I got off the ferry from Staten Island the other day. Then I had walked bloody miles in the stinking humidity so I could get a subway, and today realised that there are a number of frequent buses that run from here into Times Square. Shit.

Across the Hudson is this nightmare - I need to find out what it is and possibly visit.

The boat tour was great, an hour and a half down the Hudson on a sunny afternoon with a lovely cool breeze blowing. Andy the tour guide was great, although I suspect he was under appreciated by the many non-speaking tourists on board.

Pier 83 which is where Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger was the last one off Flight 1549 following his landing on the Hudson. The plane continued to float down the river another 20 blocks.

Crazy building, golf driving range and film studios where they film Law & Order: SVU because, as Andy put it “they have three bushes in Central Park they haven’t found bodies under yet”

Apparently where the Titanic and Lusitania were supposed to berth. Strangely not used as a ship berth much after this. 

This is called Little Island and it came about during the 2020 - 2022 Covid lockdowns. Probably worth going to see, it looks absolutely bonkers.

She’s looking a bit pissed off these days.

Glamping on Governor’s Island

The Brooklyn Bridge

The other bit of it

What used to be a marshmallow factory now being made into apartments. Or something, Andy did get a bit excitable at times and the facts were relentless and overlapping.

Have they really run out of ideas and are just throwing up any old wank? What is the point of this?

Today was definitely a lot easier on the feet, and I think one of my lungs as started working a little bit and the other end has finished so I think I’ll venture out to find something for dinner.

Avoiding, as much as possible, those horrible, awful beasts called Continental European tourists, namely the French, German and Spanish, with a smattering of Dutch. I’ll go and find some of those friendly chatty homeless people, they’re always up for a laugh.

Depends on how I’m feeling tomorrow I might go to the Woodbury Commons - a huge factory outlet mall in New Jersey.