New
York |
 ...And
we thought we lived in a buzzing metropolis of London, England! There
is so much to do in New York City and
state. One of the best book buys for pre-flight info on
NYC, and guiding us around whilst there, was The Rough Guide to New
York City, by Martin Dunford and Jack Holland. Rough
Guides do a series of no-nonsense, plain English paperbacks. They
even do Rough Guide Phrasebooks for linguists!
| "NYC
... Where do we start ?" |
Manhattan
is the main core, central island. This has all the famous tourist
attractions from Central Park, to Times Square and Broadway, to The
Village (Greenwich Village), to Chinatown, SoHo, TriBeCa, and Little
Italy, to Battery Park (and the ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty/
Ellis Island). Our next visit to NYC will be touring Brooklyn,
Harlem, The Bronx and Queens. Here, there is so much more
to experience and if you have done the 'touristy bit' on previous
visits - apart from the never-ending shopping on 5th Ave/ or in
Chinatown - this is the next step!
OUR
VIEWS:
- New York lives up to its
reputation of being the most vibrant, noisy, mad, adrenaline-rush
packed, 24 hour living, romantic, stylized, historic,
skyscraper-packed, cultural, ethnically diverse place we have
ever had the thrill to visit!
- Surprising, we felt 'safer'
here from crime, than in parts of London! This is accredited to
Mayor Guiliani's 'zero tolerance' and increased presence of cops on
the street!! ... Like Guido's 'mates' ....
- Excellent for getting around.
Taxis are fine for longer journeys (but on shorter rides you have to
work out a 15% tip on a average $5-6 fare - very tedious!). You
might as well walk! It took us 20mins to walk from 63rd to 28th for
a curry!! The subway runs late and costs the same fare ($1.50),
wherever you travel! You can get a Metro card (10 rides) for about
$15. So... THAT was a big shock for us 'robbed' London
Commuters!!
- Take care to check the
currency (banknotes) before handing them over!! US notes are all the
same colour and size!
OUR ONLY
GRIPES:
- Where are all the good dance/
trance clubs?!! We were told there were some down by 12th Ave, near
the Hudson River (?!!). We must investigate further next time! The
one famous club for its stars' attendances is on 'Thomas and
Bleeker Street', called 'Life'. The sound system was
painful on the eardrums (get some cotton buds) - totally trebly!!!
AND why can't the DJs just let the damned record play, once mixed
in??!! You get ready for the big finale in a tune and they've 'scratch'
in the next one!!
- Don't expect a round of drinks
not to make a considerable dent in the holiday cash-flow!! We're
talking £4 - £7 pounds for any kind of drink ...
anywhere!
- Our favourite place to eat, if
you are staying on the upper East side (as we did) was Coldwaters
(on 2nd Ave). Excellent seafood and good service! It has a
'giant fish' protruding from the front facade!! In Times Square,
there's The Times Square Brewery Restaurant for a quick bite
to eat:
| IMAGES
AND SIGHTS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK |
Take a look at our snaps and get
a feeling for the place itself. A great Web site to look at everyday
images of NYC is The Columbia
University Journalism Students Web site, showing weekly photo
galleries of everyday life in The Big Apple!
- GENERAL SIGHTS
AND STREET LIFE:
Brooklyn Bridge
and at night from the Empire
States Building
Central Park
The Chrysler Building by
day...
... and by night
Grand Central Station.
This is the magnificent clock in the centre
NYC Library. Yep! We've
seen the Ghostbusters movie ...
NYC's oldest Department Store
building built in 1900's
Wall Street. The
financial centre with the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange)
The Rockefeller Centre.
This is a shopping complex with offices. It is famous for the outdoors
ice rink, the toy soldier statues, and at Thanksgiving time, there is the
official lighting of the Christmas tree within its grounds. AND boy! did
we have wait for that...3hrs in the cold!!!! (because its a fully
televised event).
Radio
City Music Hall. A great venue. We went to see NYC's famous 'Rockettes
Christmas Show'. This dance troupe is notorious for their stunning
sequences. Amazing how they do the 'soldier routine' and manage to
fall down like a line of toy soldiers!
Other Images:
The familiar yellow school bus
The World Trade Centre
...and at night
Various street scenes
Infamous 42nd
street meets Broadway (the theatre district) at Times Square. It's
noisy, buzzing, neon-lit and a great centre point of fun - 'The heart
of Manhattan'. It took its name from a newspaper connection when The
New York Times built offices there in 1904.
- THE EMPIRE
STATES BUILDING
This building is
awe-inspiring. It shadows the shopping district around it and that, of
Macy's Department Store. It's on the original site of the first
Waldorf Hotel. It was completed in 1931, just before the stock
market crash in October (and the Depression). It has 103 stories and
is 1472 feet in height from ground to tip of TV mast! It's illuminated
by different colours at different times of year, national holidays
etc.
In our opinion, the best time to
view the city from the top of the building, is when it's getting
darker/ or at night. The views are spectacular! You can see for miles
around.
The entrance hall
The top of the tower illuminated
Macy's Department Store
from the top!
- THE STATUE OF
LIBERTY AND VIEWS OF MANHATTAN FROM LIBERTY ISLAND
The SINGLE most
famous US symbol ever... The Statue of Liberty. For Americans it is a potent symbol,
representing the immigrants arrival to US shores. The statue depicts
'Liberty' throwing off her shackles and holding a beacon to light the
world. It was the creation of Frenchman and sculptor, Bartholdi
between 1874 - 1884. Ironically, it was originally built for
Alexandria in Egypt! You catch the ferry from the harbour at Battery
Park. WARNING:
The queues
to enter 'the crown' of the statue may take hours!
Manhattan skyline from
Liberty Island
One of our most
impressionable visits was to Ellis Island. Over 12 million immigrants
entered the US through Ellis Island during the years 1892 - 1924.
120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were incarcerated in camps on
Ellis Island during World War 2, simply due to wartime 'hysteria'. Two
thirds were US citizens. These camps became known as 'America's Concentration
Camps'. Over 100 million Americans can trace their ancestry back to
Ellis.
The Registry Hall
The Stairs of Separation.
After inspection in the Registry Hall, immigrants descended these
stairs to three doors - the right led to a railroad ticket office; the central
door led to detention rooms; and the left led to a NYC ferry. These
haunting stairs marked the parting of many families and
friends...
'Through America's Gate'...The first set of doors after
registering. They led to the various selection process areas: Hearing Room
- Medical - Legal Inspection - Admission (maybe?)
The Hearing Room. Where
cases were heard and decisions on a person's fate were made.
The Ellis Island Immigration
Museum. Individual stories told by photographs, written material
and taped voices of 'those incarcerated'/ or relatives.
Views from the Registry Hall
over the waters to Manhattan. This is how the immigrants would see
their first (and maybe last view of the USA).
NYC Chinatown is very much a
living and breathing cultural paradise. This is the famous Mott Street
- with Canal, Pell, Bayard, Doyers and Bowery. It's filled with life,
colour and hundreds of good, cheap tea and rice shops. Cantonese is
the most common cuisine.
The corner of Pell and Doyers
was once known as 'Bloody Angle'. It was named this after its
reputation as a dumping ground for bodies during the troubled 'Tong
Wars'.
Green, red and white tinsel
welcome you, when you arrive. Chinatown and Little Italy seem to blend
now into one neighbourhood. Mulberry Street is the main strip. In
September there's a great tacky and typically Italian knees-up, 'Festa
di San Gennaro' to celebrate their saint's day.
Fancy being part of a chat show? We found out that the 'Ricky
Lake Show' was being filmed at studios on 8th Ave. You
join a short queue at least an hour before filming (Tues-Thurs 4pm
and 6pm) ... wait in the Green Room with some very scary New
Yorkers, making up the rest of the audience ... Then get an
'unfunny' comic to get the crowd going ... Then on comes Ricky! Our
show topic was about "Booty Call" (translated means
"a bit of the side..."). It's not Jerry Springer but
equally entertaining!!!- The nightlife is great
and very varied. A good guide to what's on?, is Timeout
. Most visitors can queue at ticket booths in Times Square for
last minute tickets to shows. Here are a few places we went
to...
We even gate-crashed the 'Waldorf
Hotel' in Park Avenue, for a Thanksgiving drink and nibbles. Very elegant!
- AND FINALLY... The 1998
Thanksgiving Parade. It is customary every year and has some
brilliant floats. They arrange them in Central Park the night before
the parade. What a washout in 1998 though!! We got drenched...
The Thanksgiving turkey!
Big Bird...
Sesame Street...
The Wild West....
Majorettes from Southern
States...
A Bug's Life...
Liberty...
The Big Apple...
Rug Rats...
Clowning around!...
And lastly, Santa...
Afterwards, everyone goes off to
eat a Thanksgiving meal with family and friends. It's a bit like
"Christmas-come-early!"
| Please share your
experiences of New York City. We want to hear from
people who can recommend places of interest in Brooklyn,
Harlem, The Bronx and Queens.
us at: leegeed.web@btinternet.com
|
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