So I've now been away from camp for 3 days. In that time I have stayed in a 4 star hotel on Times Square for $45, been as far as the Glass museum on the Canada tour, only to be informed that my US visa is not sufficient for entry to Canada as I was told by Camp America, but rather that while British and US citizens can enter without a visa, South African and Polish can't! That meant that me and my Polish friend couldn't go the tour. It does mean that now James and Sam (the British guys we were going with) have a queen sized bed each to their selves. I opted to go back at the glass museum, since they were willing to give me a ride free of charge, but Piotr decided to go on, and stay at Niagara, and then get a bus back. Since the bus would have cost $120, I wasn't so keen on that plan! Hopefully I get. some sort of a refund. The previous night we had arrived at about 5pm, and promptly walked to our hotel. Much to our surprise, even though we did know it was 4 star, it was an amazingly expensive hotel! We got our booking for $45, but other people paid $600 for 4 people! Granted they probably got the penthouse suite, and we did have to share beds, but that was still a cool deal! We then went out to a pizza place for dinner, and then Dan, Britney, Sam and I went out for a few drinks. We started at a $1 per half pint bar, and then walked around for a bit, and found one of the oldest bars in New York, where we had a drink, it was served in 2 half pint glasses, and the choice was light or dark ale. I ordered light, but the barman got our order wrong so I got dark, so Britney and I decided, rather than kick up a fuss, we'd both just have half and half. I must admit ale definitely isn't my thing. I have yet to find a half decent beer in the States, but that ale was even less tasty. We then went to a cheap shots place, and had a few shots, and then went to a pub, where there was a dance floor, and danced a bit before we headed back to the hotel. Since it was so late, Britney and Dan snuck into the hotel room with us, and spent the night there.
The next day we went to China town at 7:30 to get our bus at 8. We then went on the bus to the glass museum, where I found out my visa wouldn't get me into Canada, and I got a lift back to New York. This was very irritating, since I was banking on 4 nights paid up accommodation! I had to frantically sms and email everyone who I knew was in New York!
I ended up staying with Dan Evans, another British guy who was not going on the tour, and hence was staying in New York. He had already planned to stay with her, so she graciously allowed me to also stay, possibly partially due to us allowing her to sleep on the couch in our hotel room after we had been out the previous night. Her mom made us pasta and sausage sauce, which was divine, even though we only got there at about 10:30. It was quite interesting, since it was pouring down in New York, when I got dropped off in China Town. I met Dan in the Macdonalds and then we walked down the road, in the pouring rain, to get to a place on Broadway where Britney could pick us up. It was a tight squeeze with all our baggage, especially since she has a sporty car. Then the next morning we caught the train From New Jersey to New York. Dan and I then went to the hotel we had stayed in on Monday night, and got our luggage stored, since he had chatted up the bell boy, and he was willing to put our stuff there, as if we had checked out that morning. We then walked around Times Square, going into Toys R Us and Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co (a Forrest Gump memorabilia store and shrimp restaurant. As we were walking towards Central Park, we were stopped by a girl, and asked if we would like to be part of the studio audience for the Late Show with David Letterman. Dan was skeptical, but I was able to convince him to give it a go, since that could happen was that it was a hoax, and we would waste a few minutes finding out. However it was the real deal. We had to go collect tickets from the theatre, and realised that this was for real! We then had some time, so we went and had coffee at Starbucks, and then walked to Columbus' Circle and Central Park. We then went to the theatre, where we had to stand in line for a while, and we met 2 couples from Wisconsin. I was wearing my Africa signed T-shirt, so the one lady asked if she could sign it, she signed it “Go Pack” which was alluding to the Packers, which is apparently their football team. The show itself was OK, there were some jokes that weren't funny, like his making fun of people who didn't have electricity after Hurricane Irene. Since we had been without water due to the electricity being off, I didn't find those jokes so funny, but on the whole it was good, he interviewed Sgt Leroy A Petry, who has just been awarded the congressional medal of honour, and has a cool prosthetic hand, and Jennifer Love Hewit, who is starring in a new movie. They were really the stars, and lots of fun to watch. Jennifer is as cute on stage as she is in the movies, even if I have to question her dress sense, since she showed up in a frilly top, with pants that must have been pulled up above her belly button! After the show we went and got 99c pizza, and then caught the underground to the end, to go on the Staten Island Ferry. This is the ferry that goes past the Statue of Liberty, so I got to try and figure out how to take pictures in the dark with my new camera. I got about 25 pictures, of which about 90% were unusable. But I did learn how to use exposure, and lengthen the shutter speed for night photo's, so all is not lost, however the pictures still came out blurry. Oh well, what can you expect from a $27.50 camera. We also bumped into a German girl who I chatted to for a bit, she also took the underground, and got off with us at Times Square. We then collected our luggage from the hotel, and then were walking to the Port Authority bus stop, when we bumped into her again. Pity we were in a bit of a rush, otherwise I would have asked for her number, since she is staying here till Monday, and we could have probably hooked up to do some touristy things, and then we wouldn't be all by ourselves! Since I hadn't organised any accommodation for tonight, I'm going to be spending it with Dan, at the Airport. At least I will get to know Newark Airport, so it won't be so foreign to me when I depart. Oh, and this airport seems to be on par with what Cape Town International is, and it also seems to be a similar size. At first it seemed a bit larger, but in retrospect, now that I think about it, its probably a similar size.
That is my first few days off camp. Oh, and did I mention its been raining non stop? That definitely puts a downer on things, but at least New York rain doesn't equal cold, so its still been temperate.
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