New York, New York!

As exciting as it was to finally be in New York City, we instantly discovered that America is not like Canada and you can't just ask random people for directions. In fact you can't even ask the guy at the info booth for directions without getting a murderous look of contempt accompanied by a get-out-of-my-face-you-stupid-tourist expression. So with much difficulty Alexis and I finally found our way to a place to exchange what little Canadian money we had left and met our first (and one of very few) friendly New Yorkers. The guy asked us how long we were staying in New York and we told him about 4 days. He then grew very concerned and told us that $70 wouldn't be nearly enough for that long. We knew that. He did give us moderately useful directions to our hostel but seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to walk there. We didn't want to get a cab for fear of the fare (we found out later that taxis are amazingly cheap in NYC) so we walked all the way from 42nd St to 63rd with all our luggage. And then we weren't allowed to check in yet so we ditched our luggage and crossed the street to Central Park and sat down on the first bench we could find. Needless to say, after our sleepless night and rather toublesome morning, we ditched all our activities planned for the day and slept all afternoon.

That night we went to visit Alexis' friend John who lives pretty much at Ground Zero (which is still just a big hole in the ground). He lives right downtown pretty much on the water so we went for a little stroll down to the water and then went on a hunt for some beers. We didn't get back to our hostel until around 4am but it was well worth it to have a nice relaxing night.

However, we were up bright and early the next morning for museum day! We went to the Guggenheim first which was wonderful but some of the temporary exhibitions were really weird contemporary stuff. For example, there was a giant sculpture of a phallus hanging from the ceiling and a guy who paints black canvases... that's it... just big black squares.

Anyway, next on the agenda was the Met. This place is WAY bigger than I ever imagined and after a few hours of artifacts from all over the world our late night started to catch up with us. But I saw Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Manet.... oh the list goes on! It was wonderful! But wow were we ever tired by the end of museum day. We strolled across Central Park back to the hostel and went straight to sleep. That night we did nothing. Well Alexis went for a walk and picked up some supper for me but I just slept.

The next day we ventured out of Manhattan and went to the Bronx Zoo. It was super-fun. We saw tigers right up close and hilarious gorillas (one of the babies ate his poop right in front of us! haha). Even at the zoo they take your picture and try to sell you your image in front of a lion or something! We didn't fall for it this time. After Niagara we were experts on the photo selling phenomenon.

On our way back to the train from the zoo we saw a zillion police cars zoom by... a welcome-to-the-Bronx sort of experience. Anyway, we decided we would go on a harbour cruise and got there just in time to catch the last one of the day. And somehow we managed to get the best spot on the boat right at the front of the bow Titanic-style! This was probably my favourite thing we did in NYC. The boat left from about West 42nd St and went down the harbour out to the Statue of Liberty, around to the east end under the Brooklyn Bridge, up a bit further and then all the way back. It took about two hours and was absolutely perfect.

We were supposed to be staying with John for the next couple of days so we decided that before heading over to his place we would run over to the Empire State Building and catch sunset. This was a big mistake. They trick you at the Empire. When you arrive you only see the little line at the door, then you get past the door and see another big line at security, then you get past security and see another big line to the ticket booth, and it goes on and on for about two hours until you finally get to the top where it is so crowded you just take a couple photos and go back down again. Seriously overrated. In any case it was well after dark by the time we got to the top (as beautiful as the city is at night) we couldn't get any good photos because well... it was dark. So after all that we hustled back to the YMCA (that was our "hostel"), picked up our luggage and hustled down to John's place. To our dismay the last bit of the track was closed so we had to haul all our luggage onto a tiny packed bus to get there. But, we made it and Alexis' good friend Fahim (who Alexis hadn't seen in 7 years) was there. We went out on the town and had a really good time.

The next day we slept in and spent a nice relaxing morning by the water next to John's apartment building. Then we decided that we would head back to the Empire to go on the virtual reality ride. This was actually really fun but if one is moderately hungover, not such a good idea. So feeling slightly sicker than before, Alexis and I decided to do some shopping. I took him to Victoria's Secret and we were e ntertained by the dozen or so guys hanging out in the foyer while their women shopped. We went perusing a few other shops and went to a couple more museums including the Bodies Exhibition (so cool!) and then decided to go out to dinner at Ninja New York (a restaurant which we had seen on the travel network on a show called "craziest places in the world to dine", or something like that). We met Fahim there and then were escorted to our table. The restaurant is set up like a ninja layer and ninjas will jump out at you with swords and fire balls and stuff. It is super-cool! And if you order dessert they will do a magic show for you! It was the coolest restaurant ever and I highly recommend it to everyone!

After dinner Fahim was planning on going to a hip-hop show at the BB King Blues Club so we decided to go along and see if we could still get tickets. Fahim's friends were near the front of the line so we snuck in with them. I soon discovered that I was about to go to a Black August Benefit Concert. I must say that I have never felt so white in my whole life. We came straight from dinner so I was wearing a white knee-length skirt with a blue t-shirt and my glasses, looking like quite the librarian, and then I could barely understand what these girls were saying to me (one of whom had a big tattoo across her shoulders that read: Hood Rich). Incidentally we did get tickets and the show was amazing. We saw Q-Tip and a whole bunch of other people I had never heard of but who are evidently rather famous. I personally think the best part of the show was at the start. The first act wasn't ready yet so the MC asked if anyone in the audience could beatbox. There happened to be a guy at the front who was amazing and then the MC started freestyling along to his beats.... it blew my mind.

The next day we went to do some more shopping and went to get a proper look at Ground Zero but I wasn't feeling well so after an hour or two I went back to John's place to sleep and Alexis went with the boys to a Caribbean parade. I guess there was loud music and lots of girls wearing basically nothing so they had a great time. That evening Alexis and I caught the bus back to Toronto. We actually got to sit together for most of the return journey and we were even half an hour early getting in to Toronto in the morning. That was awesome because we had a flight to catch back to Saskatoon and made it with plenty of time to spare. There were lots of things that we didn't have time to do in New York (like see a Broadway show *sigh*) but it was an amazing trip and I wouldn't change anything... except maybe the bus ride from Hell.

Inspiration

Well hello there! How have you all been? I am reading a new book by Bill Bryson who is my very favourite travel writer and I suddenly find myself with the overwhelming desire to document my trip to New York (which was over 4 months ago now). Well it all started because Alexis (you will remember him as my object of affection from the Mexico posts) needed to go to Toronto for a conference-like thing and this event was to correspond with my return to Canada after 4 months in Mexico. The idea of being home again and not seeing him for an extra three days was a little heart-breaking so I decided I should meet him in Toronto and we should make a holiday of it. In any event I came home a month early from Mexico but decided to not waste an opportunity to head out east (which I hadn't done in 11 years). Then we decided to take the bus to New York City (in hindsight this was a very bad idea and I recommend paying the extra $100 and flying there).

So Alexis left a few days before me and I met him in Toronto where we spent a few nights at the luxurious Westin Harbour Castle for mere pennies because Alexis works for the Sheraton Hotel and gets fabulous discounts! We had a room on the 20th floor with a fabulous view of the harbour and half price room service (which I thoroughly took advantage of). We had a really good time in Toronto shopping, strolling along the harbour and eating at some amazing little ethnic restaurants. We also had the opportunity to stroll through the "largest gay neighbourhood in Canada" and got trapped in a mini drag parade. It was awesome!

View from our hotel in Toronto, exploring the harbour

We took the train to Niagara Falls simply because neither of us had ever been passenger aboard the illustrious VIA Rail and it really was quite fun. We only spent one day in Niagara Falls and took the bus overnight to NYC to save on accommodation and time. Niagara was really really fun and we partook in every dorky tourist activity we could find. It was here that learned of the tourism industry's obsession with taking photos of unsuspecting tourists at every attraction and imposing their image onto some scenic backdrop. In a matter of an hour or so we found ourselves in front of the falls in broad daylight and then eerily hovering over them in the dark of night. In New York we were at the zoo, hovering above the Empire State Building... you get the idea. Of course being the dorky tourists that we are, Alexis and I bought the photos from the Falls. We went on the Maid of the Mist (the insufferable boat that is in EVERY photo because they run four different boats so that there is continuously a boat in the falls) and then we walked under the falls through the tunnels and got soaking wet on both adventures. These attractions are WAY more fun than they appear and I highly recommend them to everyone who has the chance.

That evening we had to get to the bus station before they closed at 10pm even though our bus didn't leave until 11:00 to get our luggage that we had stored there. As we were waiting we changed out of our wet clothes and napped while waiting for our bus which was over an hour late. And then when it finally arrived I couldn't find our tickets. I searched through every crevice of both our luggage but they were nowhere to be found. The bus left without us. But of course we found the tickets about 5 minutes later in the hidden front pocket of my backpack where the zipper was covered by a little flap to help keep water out. It was heartbreaking. So we waited for another hour or so until the next bus came shortly after 1am. Almost immediately we had to get off the bus at customs and Alexis got to try out his new Canadian citizenship card. He was amazed at how easily he was allowed to cross the boarder while the poor Mexican girl next to us got grilled with questions. Eventually we all got back on the bus and then we arrived in Buffalo where we were supposed to have a 30 minute rest stop. The 30 minute rest turned into a 90 minute layover and 3 in the morning because our bus was late... again. Finally we got aboard our next bus which was packed so Alexis and I couldn't even sit together. It was a proper catastrophe at that hour in the morning when I really needed a familiar shoulder to sleep on. In any case a couple hours later we had a bit of a break in Nowhere, New Jersey or Pennsylvania or something like that and the guy next to me got off and took with him all his belongings. So I grabbed Alexis in a half conscious stupor and we fell right to sleep. Then I was aroused not a few minutes later with the voice of a man saying "Where is my seat?... I was sitting just there, wasn't I? Who is that?" As bad as I felt for stealing his seat I pretended to be asleep and let him take Alexis' old seat. Anyway, we were originally meat to arrive at 7am but didn't actually get to New York City until around noon. It was the most horrible bus adventure ever!