My parents and sisters were heading to New York for a few days shopping and also as a birthday present for Emer's 21st. So I decided to fly up for a couple of days to join them. Plus it was a good excuse to do some shopping as clothes and electronics are so expensive in South America. I left Ecuador on route to New York with a stop off in Miami. I have never been to Miami before but it was only three hours so not much time to go out and explore. But first things I noticed was the amount of Spanish been spoken in the airport. Funnily enough even though my Spanish is awful I found myself thinking in Spanish over the few days in America and actually having to translate my thoughts to English in bars and restaurants. Or even accidently speaking Spanish to Taxi drivers who didn't have a clue what I was saying! Other thing about Miami was the heat and humidity of the place. This didn't change once I hit NY. Even though it was the end of Oct it was a warm sticky night. As I got a bus and subway from Queens into Manhatten I couldn't help but think how much older, dirty and run down a lot of things looked compared to Colombia. Always get a different perspective of a country depending on which one you've come from and at first Colombia just seemed so much more modern and developed. The shopping malls were way more modern, cleaner and fancier, the subways and public transport the same, no graffiti anywhere and even small things like the sidewalks were so dirty in NY. But once I got downtown this all changed. As I was on the subway I was getting more and more excited about seeing everyone and arrived at the hotel room to find most of them in bed but they were happy to see me!!
The first day there we headed out to Jersey Gardens to do some shopping. We got on the coach and funnily enough there wasn't enough seats for everyone so half the people had to stand. Again this is something I'd usually associate with more developing countries. If you buy a ticket it usually guarentees you a seat. It didn't help that most of the people were Irish. Around me I literally didn't hear one person that wasn't Irish actually. We got to the shopping mall just before it opened and there were literally shopping trolleys that you could take to bring around the shops which most Irish grabbed straight away. Other people literally had wheely suitcases with them. Dragging a big empty wheely bag around the mall with the intention of filling it up. Later on we saw people barely able to lift them onto the bus. Even at the front door of the mall they were handing out booklets of discounts for people who had Irish passports. I couldn't understand what was going on. Wasn't sure was everyone over here spending their hard earned dole money or what!! But then someone in a shop mentioned that it was Halloween break at home so possibly it was a lot of teachers on break! Plus the exchange rate helps immensely as well. Could not get over the prices. Its so so cheap for everything. And not just clothes and stuff. In New York, food, drinks, bars everything is so much cheaper than in Ireland. And I guess a lot of things are cheaper than in Colombia as well. Obviously you can find your high end stuff as well!
The following day myself and Seamie went out to some shopping malls in Queens while the girls went downtown. We went to Steinway street in Astoria to see Essie, my Grand Aunts old apartment where I stayed back in '94 and Seamie had prob stayed in about 10 times over the years. Was interesting to go back here. Again walking around was crazy hot. New York can get so humid and last June was probably the humidest I've seen it but even though it was practically November the weather hadn't let up much!! Some of the nights it didn't even go below 17 degrees celcius which would be a nice summers day at home!
Thursday was probably one of the best days of the trip. It was a beautiful blue sky day and a scorcher. Usually when I'm in cities I'm not into any of the cheesy tourist things most of all tour buses. But one thing that I had done before, the circle line is a ferry right around Manhatten and is well worth doing. I've done it before and would definitely do it again. You get great views from all around the city and find out a world of info about the city that I didn't know at all before. The guy who did the tour was the same guy I think I had the last time I did it 6 years ago. Very good personality and very knowledgable. I love my facts and numbers so will write down a few random ones that he mentioned. Whether it bores the rest of you or not I found them quite interesting! I'll put these down the bottom. We enjoyed the rest of this day walking around in the heat, going to the highline park, an old elevated railway track that they turned into a park and then I went and bought a laptop. Never had one before but so many people travelling have them and it can be so handy especially since theres Wifi everywhere lately. Plus the price of them are so cheap in NY. In South America they are two and a half or three times more expensive. That night myself, Kate and Emer went out on the lower east side on a bit of a bar crawl.
We woke up the last morning to a freezing cold Autumn day. The seasons had really changed. Christmas decorations were starting to come up along with the Halloween ones. A number of outdoor icerinks were open which was quite strange when it was about 25 degrees the previous few days but it fit the part now! We walked around Central Park enjoying the atmosphere, the leaves that were now very multicoloured been blown down around us. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to the others that afternoon. Usually its me thats leaving to the airport not them! So I had an hour to put in myself until I met up with two friends from college, Kate and James. Kate is living in Philly and I meet up with her quite regularly when I come over. James literally just moved to NY two days ago. Am so jealous! He got a three year contract here with Goal and is living the dream!! Me and him both dreamed of living in NY at some point so was quite exciting for him to get this. Been friends with him for years but funnily enought havn't had the chance to meet him in Ireland in ages. We always seem to cross paths in other countries! So far this year he's been volunteering in Haiti after the earthquake and Pakistan after the floods. Myself and Kate wandered around for two hours looking for a case for my laptop. I had seen one I wanted earlier in staples but couldn't remember which shop! So it took us 7 different shops around the city to find it again. All Staples shops. Never seen so many of them in my life they are everywhere and still just couldn't find the right one for hours! We met with James then and he'd just come from a meeting in DC! Only two days there and he was already meeting with the big guys in DC!!!
Went back to James apartment in the Village. And what a nice area. Really cool little pizza places, cafes restaurants and just nice and relaxed but totally central. Just a few blocks from both union square and washington Square. And the apartment is so cool. He lives with a guy called Andrew who was so much fun. James had warned us he was fun but literally from the minute we met him he was non stop!! Like myself he seems to not bother sleeping much and partying all the time! Having music blaring to all hours of the morning. Loved it. I've gotten so many warnings when I was living in college for too loud music and parties but for some reason all the other apts around either don't hear them or don't care which I'd love! From the roof top of the apartment you can see the skyline, the empire state and they were planning a halloween party up there for Sunday night! I think James really got lucked out with the apt and the people he got to live with.
So the night started out with pizza and drinks and music at James house then we went on to a house party of people who are friends of Andrew. Another pretty cool apartment on 8th and 54th with views of Times Square from one of the bedrooms. They had converted another bedroom into a dancefloor, beer pong in the tv room and drinks and snacks around the house! Met a lot of interesting people in there. Funnily enough none of them were from NY but were all living in NY and loving it. Really have to come back and do the illegal Irish thing there someday!! The night went onto some night club that the guys got us into for free and then back to Andrew and James place where we only got 2 hours sleep before the guys woke us up to more music and introduce us to the other roommate Ryan who was also just as wild!! He had literally just flown in from Brazil and was full of energy and mad to drive me to the airport!! Well I had the option of getting a subway and bus, laden down with a bag that is now nearly 20 kilos and been hungover or gettting in a BMW with the two guys and a free lift to the airport! Of course I chose the BMW, great sound system in it blaring out the tunes driving across Manhatten bridge and out to La Guardia.
I am now sitting on the plane looking out over the Caribbean islands still recovering from last night on my way back to Ecuador! Had a great time in New York and was great to meet up with everyone! And thanks for everything there!
Some random NY Facts:
On the buildings in Times Sq there is more money made on adivrtising on the outside than the companies that are in the inside.
On any average day there are roughly 5 million people on the island of Manhatten. In the evening 3 million of these leave the island at pretty much the same time. Taking a taxi across town at this hour would be an average of 1.4 mph.
On Ellis island where they checked people for diseases in the past 98% of the people got through. I wonder do this many people get in these days! I thought that would have been way less back then.
Central park if it was sold for development is worth $580 billion dollars.
There are roughly 600,000 millionaires in Manhatten.
Roughly 600,000 students in Manhatten.
The new tower in the world trade centre is going to be 541 metres tall!
The circle line boat carried 35,000 people on 911.
575 miles of coastline.
13,000 cabs in the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment