24/9/22 The way back

I had some time to fill in today, with about six hours between checking out of the hotel and being picked up by the taxi. I hadn’t really gone down 6th & 5th Avenues past 23rd St so that seemed a good idea. It was definitely a trendy neighbourhood on the edges of Greenwich Village. That mostly meant the graffiti was considered art and the stairwells smelt less of wee.

The Jefferson Market Public Library - it’s closed for maintenance of course but looked pretty cool from the outside.

Sadly there were no wizards that I could see.

It was a nice cool Autumn day, between 12c and 16c which is far more to my liking.

I saw absolutely no trouble during my time here, despite stories of how bad the street crime in NY has gotten. The only times I saw police with people it was when someone had fallen over. There were often police around, especially in the parks and the subways often had either NYPD or Metro police around.

Washington Square Park, a hub of activity with locals and a few tourists just doing stuff.

Washington Square Arch - with the Empire State Building up 5th Ave

The Arch from the other direction, and me trying not to get run over taking photos.

One of the shops that I hadn't been in to was Harry Potter's Wizarding World. It's a good thing I'm not a big HP fan because I could have spent a lot of money and filled another suitcase in here.

There were wands of every type, for what seemed every character and a few more thrown in. Over the two floors there was so much stuff it was mind boggling. They even sold books!

The original Madison Square Park. The garden was on the roof of the stadium that was here, which has clearly gone.

There was another segregated dog park with areas for big dogs and little dogs. And a hill which they seemed to love running up and barking at everyone.

The scene of my previous blog writing (the zoo) while I waited for the airport time. They do a really nice ginger ale here, it's not as acidic or overly gingery.

On the way, there honestly wasn't much to look at the whole way, and no good last glimpses of the city skyline.

 I have made it through the check-in at JFK for the second time, and mostly unscathed through TSA. The check in staff were mostly new it seemed, and the woman who checked me in was on her first day. She had Gary from Air New Zealand helping, and despite two of my bags being over the 23kg limit they checked them in without problem.

At checking they were asking if anyone wanted to go on an alternative flight because they had overbooked. The PM was on the flight but I'm not sure this was the reason because she was due to come back at some point around today anyway. Because I had gotten permission to carry my CPAP machine onboard I was automatically on the "do not bump" list and was guaranteed my seat. I never intended using the machine in flight, and did the clearance form just in case but it was an important lesson - apply for it, you don't even need to prove you've got one and they won't dick about with your booking.

A last glimpse of NY, no idea when I will be here again. Probably won't come by myself again, but it would be great to show others around, now I'm a four week veteran of the place!

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, Staten Island and New Jersey. 

I tried to get a shot of Manhattan but the guy next to me decided it was time to turn his reading light on and ruined the photo.

Leg room was plentiful and the Air NZ service was really good. I managed to get a chunk of sleeping done thanks to some Melatonin and Zopiclone, but still had time to watch a couple of movies and some TV shows.

Dawn over the Pacific, after about 14 hours flying. It did seem a little drawn out but after the fact I don't really remember much of a difference between the 12 hour flight to LA and the 16 one from NY.

So after five weeks of travelling solo around all sorts of places my holiday is over. Over 7000 photos, 8 hours of video, 100+ 360 panoramas, 33 blog entries and three suitcases & two backpacks of souvenirs it's all over for now.

My favourite part was the week driving around Arizona and California, DC was great with the museums and monuments, NY is just full of things to see and do and Disneyland is worth going to at least once.

Vegas; I'm glad I went and experienced it but not high on my list to revisit. Hollywood was just gross, the worst parts of any of the places all in the one spot and Tombstone by far the least friendliest.

For the most part everyone was pretty friendly and welcoming with so many quick random encounters and conversations with people from all walks of life. 

There is so much more that I have seen and done than I blogged about, and now I have to work out what to do with all those memories, photos and videos. I might take the day off and let my brain work out what time it is. And then plan the next trip - possibly San Francisco - Seattle - Yellowstone - Yosemite - Monument Valley - ? Definitely not going during Summer though, maybe Spring or Autumn.