17/9/22 Two busy days

 After having a quiet day, the last two have been pretty busy. I uploaded all my photos and videos last night and then nodded off so I’ve got two days worth of updates to do. Hopefully I can remember at least half of what I did…

I’m using these days at the moment to make the best use of the 10 day pass I have to do things that are ticketed. Later in the week I’ll be going over the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park etc that are free.

Last time we didn’t look in the museum area of Liberty Island or Ellis Island so this was the perfect chance. This is one of the easiest places to get to from the hotel because the subway entrance is right outside and drops you off at the Staten Island ferry, itself only a five minute walk to where the Liberty Island ferry goes from. Last time I remember the walk being a hell of a lot longer but last time it was really hot and I hadn’t had four weeks of pre-conditioning.

I remembered the process from last time so I knew where I had to go and where to line up to get which ticket. And they’ve changed the whole process, now you just use the QR code in your phone and head straight to the ferry. It’s almost as bad as the EFTPOS machines here - every damn one has a different way of doing things and no indication of where you can wave your card  to make it make happy beeps. Sometimes I’ll have to put my pin in for a $4 purchase and other times it’s not needed for a $100 shop. I’ve only had to do the writing the tip and sign the docket once here (last night), most places have an option to add a tip on the eftpos machine.

This is why I have a SLR camera with a telephoto lens

Because this is what you’re dealing with half the time

Liberty Island is a great little place, actually a lot of room to wander about and take in the view of the statue and the cities surrounding you.

Yep, they were doing maintenance here too. Definitely must be the season for it. 

Not as bad as DC was though, that was everywhere

I can’t believe people still want to get on these monstrosities - like the old plague ships but you have to pay to get dysentery 

All flags on US Government property are being flown at half mast due to the Queens passing. A very touching move but a bit confusing since they seem to go on quite a bit about the Declaration of Independence and the war against the English tyrants.

I’m seriously going to miss proper lemonade in all it’s forms when I go. This had slices of crushed up lemons in it, so fruity.

Liberty’s foot and some random for scale

I guess they bought spares just in case

There were a lot of helicopters and planes flying around the island, and there didn’t seem to be any particular direction or flight path for any of them. How they don’t smack into each other is beyond me. Adding to the mix was a plane towing a banner about including Taiwan into the UN. 

I’m not 100% sure why the pilot thought that the tourists on Liberty Island needed to be informed of this but we were as he flew past half a dozen times at least. I get the link with liberty and freedom and independence, but we are there to take photos of a big green lady and our combined pressure on international policy is probably slight to the point of non-existant. Aunty Jacinda is in town this week so I’ll have a word if I see her.

Socially distancing, not because of any illness, just because they are all loud and annoying French and Spanish tourists.

Good thing I came outside of the holiday season when it is quieter…

I took this photo mostly to use for the investigation when it sank. It looked so overcrowded and completely un-seaworthy, with a pathetic paddle at the back and a square front so it was just bashing through the water and rolling about the place. I don’t know what happened after this because some interesting things flew over and I forgot about it.

I have never seen one of these before so it was so cool to see it flying about. This was at 20x zoom from the back of a moving boat so it’s a bit uncentered.

I saw one of these in DC as well - it’s used to ferry the President & Vice President around

I need to find out what the hell this is.  It seemed to be some sort of dinner platform floating about at the end of the Hudson. I’m sure the view was fine but seems to be an incredible pain in the ass just to have lunch with the bread rolls rolling about the place.

Inside the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. It was fairly interesting but very theoretical and wordy displays, not a lot of actual artefacts on display. It would probably mean a lot more to those with a family immigration connection with the place.

I did have lunch on Liberty Island, it was some chips and a pretty shit hotdog with a slightly warm stick of mystery meat and a pretty sad bun. Not worth the effort of taking a photo of.

I was pretty damn hungry by now so I subwayed up to the Times Square area where there were a couple of places I wanted to try out, all of which were closed or had shut.  Luckily I came across a BBQ place called Virgil’s Real BBQ on 44th St so tasty meats it was for dinner!

This is a Kentucky Bourbon ale, slightly weird because it was quite sweet but definitely was a beer and definitely tasted like bourbon. Also a mango lemonade, the result of me panicking when the server threw all sorts of options at me and I chose mango at random. Of course she replied “so that’s a bourbon ale and a strawberry lemonade”.  No goddamit, how the hell do you confuse mango with strawberry? I didn’t want any flavour other than lemonade but I had made my choice and dammit I was getting it. So I had a mango lemonade that I didn’t really want. It was fine.

I thought I was given an activity sheet at first but my excitement dimmed as I realised it was just gumph. The towel instead of a serviette is something I should probably have most places where I eat out.

We have here some pulled pork that could have done with a hell of a lot more pulling. It was cooked well but just not shredded much. Brisket, cornbread, mash & gravy and coleslaw.  All top notch and very filling.

While I was eating I heard a strange yet familiar sound next to me! I said to the guy, excuse me - is that a Kiwi accent? He was from the NZ section of the UN living there so it was great just to talk to someone and have them understand me, if only for a minute.

After dinner I went for a walk through Times Square and through Hershey’s Chocolate World - being a Saturday evening it was busy with people everywhere, and things going on in every direction.

Points to note - 3:30, a homeless guy opening his dinner with delight - it truely did look like a big mix of all sorts in there.

5:00, the worst Hulk costume ever

8:02, yeah, anarchy! Really getting edgy here.

This morning I decided to do the Big Bus tour which is something I should have done on the first day, and probably the first day of the first time here. It was really great going through the streets on top of the open air bus and getting to check out the buildings, and they have a pretty good running commentary playing through earphones. I’ve found a couple more areas I need to check out, mostly for cheap tat.

Times Square Sunday morning, slightly more subdued than last night. The queue is people trying to buy tickets for shows. 

Maybe they don’t have the internet, or think saving $10 is worth 3 hours of their holiday time.

The New York Public Library, with the addition of a chap enjoying a kip in the morning sun by the front door.

There was a few places where the trees came quite close to the bus, and traffic lights even closer. One guy did try to grab a traffic light as we went through the intersection. Happily he missed otherwise I would have been splattered in blood as it took his hand off.

There is an incredible amount of detail on so many of the NY buildings, and a lot of it is up high. Just walking around you often don’t get to see it, either out of sight or you’re busy avoiding Germans who stop dead in the footpath to take a photo of their partner.

The after effects of some Marvel movie or other I assume.

Apparently this is the windiest part of Manhattan because it gets channeled down between the buildings.

No, in case you were wondering, it wasn’t very windy here and there were a couple of places that were significantly windier.

A load of old bull. This is about as much effort as I am willing to put in to seeing this.

Apparently it’s the second most popular sight in New York which is baffling, but there was a pretty big queue so people must like it.

I can’t help but wonder if they’ve thought about branching out into pigeons, an almost endless fresh supply.

Another large Queen memorial just on Times Square. It is Barclays so that’s a bit more understandable.

It was quite nice walking through the city on Sunday, it can actually be peaceful and quiet

Lunch / breakfast - a Philly cheesesteak. Pretty damn good actually, the right amount of fake American cheese, good meat and peppers. And big fuckoff pickle.

I don’t usually do sweets but this looked too good. A napoleon mille-feuille - bit of an odd texture to the custard, like marshmallow had been added, but it was bloody nice.

At the bottom of Central Park, between 6th & 5th Avenues. It’s a very weird thing with an enormous city just stopping and trees lakes taking over.

Walking between 6th and 5th Avenues

Entering some sort of fruit store

I don’t know why these people were lined up, I feel something was going on that I wasn’t a part of. 

I did have a look at a iPhone 14 and compared it to my S22 Ultra and decided that I didn’t want to be a part of whatever was going on.

I swear this lady wasn’t here in 2019! I’m going to have to go back through the photos from then and find out what the hell is going on.

I took this so I could check later to see who it is. Google answered and he’s local colour.

Inside the New York Public Library - they do a nice archway I’ll give them that. 

Not a lot of books on offer though.

The Library has an amazing collection of treasures and have a good number of them on display. I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not but they had the bibles in the same section as fairy tales which gave me a chuckle.

Draft manuscript written by Frances Hodgson Burnett of The Secret Garden, inspired by gardens she planted during and after divorcing her husband.

First edition of Alice in Wonderland, 1866

Original drawings by John Tenniel who illustrated the books

A letter from C L Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) to Alice Liddell who he wrote the story for.

Charles Dickens’s writing desk

Charles Dickens’s copy of David Copperfield with his handwritten notes in

Charles Dickens’s paper knife. There’s a story here…

Charles Dickens was a dog lover, but his daughter Mamie persuaded him to let her keep a cat, Williamina, who later gave birth to a litter of kittens; all but one - Bob - were given away. Mamie related that “the master’s cat” so called by the households servants for his devotion to Dickens, would “follow him about the garden like a dog, and sit with him while he wrote”, and even snuff out candles with his paw in a bid for attention from Dickens. After Bob died, his paw was fashioned into this paper knife. 

I suspect this is not a paper knife, but a candle snuff and some cold revenge.

Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence

THE Winnie the Pooh! It was so cool and such a surprise to see this.

Oh his first birthday in 1921 Christopher Robin Milne received a teddy bear purchased from Harrods department store in London. Christened Winnie-the-Pooh, the bear soon acquired several companions; Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Tigger and Roo (Roo was eventually lost in an apple orchard). These would form the inspiration for his father, A.A. Milne to write the Winnie the Pooh books.

Outside the library, the snoozing man had moved on.

The Lego store on 5th Ave. Absolute bedlam inside and I left pretty damn quickly. Damn children ruining my fun.

There are some fantastic parks here, this one is Bryant Park, just behind the library.

Just a normal Sunday afternoon in New York. 

Not sure if this is the bloke from the library, but I really hope so.

This looks to be a delicious and juicy burger. It was not. No seasoning on the meat, dry and tasteless. The fries had some sort of rosemary on it, but they were also just so oily. I left half the burger uneaten it was so unappealing. 5 Guys still has the best chain burger by far, closely followed by Shake Shack.

Popeyes for Chicken burger.

I think tomorrow I might go to Woodbury Commons, a large factory outlet mall in New Jersey. I’ve kind of run out of luggage space but there’s probably a corner I can cram something into.