I then contacted Paul (the Chinsese guy with the hostel contact) to see when I could check into the hostel. He assured me it was the best hostel for the price, and in the best location. I naively believed him, and went along with it. He was supposed to meet me at the place at 12:30, but since he was in Brooklyn, and it was raining, he only ended up getting there at 13:30! By then I was really ready to pass out, so it was quite a relief when he came. The "hostel" however was definitely not what was promised! It was a tiny 2 room apartment, one tiny bedroom, and the kitchen/living area, and the bathroom. Paul had put 3 stretchers in the bedroom, and another 2 in the kitchen. Needless to say it was seriously cramped! If I had had time, I could have got a much better deal through airbnb.com, but at that stage I just needed a place to crash, so I payed him and went to sleep.
At 19:00 there was a Couch Surfing gathering at a local restaurant, so I decided I was going to go to this. It turned out to be a lot of fun, there were about 30-40 Couch surfers there, and I met a few really cool people. I ended up staying up a bit late, and then I slept in till 14:00, probably making up for the sleep I lost on Monday night. One of the things I had wanted to see while in New York City, was the Brooklyn bridge, and while the location of the "hostel" wasn't as good as promised, at least it was closeish to the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. I walked down past the power station, towards the East River. On the banks of the river there was a walkway, kinda like the promenade in Seapoint. I walked South down this, passing some parks where there were people practicing soccer, I then got to the bridges, and utilised my tourist right, by taking millions of pictures! I continued down towards the financial district, and took a walk along Wall Street. Outside the New York Stock Exchange, there was a huge police blockade, where they had cordoned off some of the road, apparently the British Prime Minister was making an appearance. I wasn't too keen to see him, so I carried on along to the park on the tip of Manhattan. I then walked back, passing by the 9/11 memorial site. I wanted to familiarise myself with it, as I was going there the following day. I Then got a $5 foot long from subway, and went back to the "hostel" for some drying off (as it had been raining) and some watching of series'. I also went and had a beer at the "Shrunken Head" which was the bar at the lowest level of the apartment block. Paul had claimed it was amazing, but really it was quite expensive, and a bit dingy. Apparently its famous, but I can't imagine why.
Thursday was the day I had booked to go see the 9/11 memorial, so I got up at a reasonable hour, I had been sharing the room with 2 French guys, and they were leaving for Boston, so we chatted a bit, and it turned out that they were also Couch Surfers! I guess that's how Paul gets his clientele, by keeping an eye open for couchsurfers who are having difficulty finding a spot in New York! Anyhow, we exchanged details, and then they left, and I went off, leaving my luggage at the "hostel". I had checked where I had to collect my tickets but still got slightly lost. I then asked a information person, but she gave me completely wrong directions, I was supposed to get there at 14:45, and it was 14:25, and I hadn't even got my tickets yet. so I eventually ended up just going to the entrance to the memorial, to ask the guy there. It turns out that that was the place where I had to collect the tickets in any case, and the girl at the counter bumped me up to a 14:30 slot, so I didn't even have to wait! The memorial was quite nice, its basically two pools each on the position of the old world trade towers, which have been sunk into the ground, and have water flowing down into a large pool. At the centre of this pool, where I would imagine the lift shaft of the building would have been, there is another hole, which you can't see the bottom of. All in all it is very impressive, but unless you are looking for a specific name, it doesn't take too long to check it out. Unfortunately they are still working on the museum, so that wasn't open yet. After I went to the 9/11 memorial, I decided, seeing as the weather had cleared up a bit (or rather since the clouds were high and it wasn't raining, I would go to do the Empire State Building. I went along, and outside was accosted by several guys trying to get me to buy "better" tickets. basically they were $54 dollars for skipping the queue (and I think they may have included going to the very top), but since I didn't really want to spend and extra $32, I decided to go for the cheap options. It turns out the queue wasn't even that long, and those that got good tickets still had to queue at the bottom of the lifts. the lift itseldf was quite quick, it went up in 10 intervals right up to about 80. It went up to 87, where we were let out. We then got to see a pretty decent view, even though it wasn't as great as it could have been if it was clear, but it was pretty cool. After that I went back to the hostel, got my bags, and headed out to Queens where I had arranged to stay with a guy from couch surfing. I arrived a bit later than planned, but was still early enough that Tom wanst' annoyed with me. We played baseball with his son Jonathan in his room for a bit, and then had some dinner. I then went out to another couch surfing event, this time at a pub near Union Station, called "Re-Union Bar". It was quite fun, and I chatted quite a bit to an Indian architect who has traveled quite a bit in his profession. I also chatted to a girl from California who is into pet psychology. Its a bit ludicrous, but apparently she is hoping to do some pet/owner compatibility tests. Despite this, she was fun, and offered to give me a lift home. She had parked quite far down, so we took the subway, however we ended up on the wrong side of the tracks. So we went across to the other side, but the card wouldn't let us in, as her metro ticket had just been used. since we had already paid, we decided to jump over the turnstile, since we weren't actually committing a crime, due to the fact that we had already paid for the trip, just on the incorrect side...
It was quite fun never the less, and we got to where she had parked her car only to discover it wasn't there! We looked around for a bit, and then she suddenly thought it might have been in 96th street rather than 86th, even though that was what she had written down.So we ended up walking another 10 blocks, fortunately that was right, and her car was were she had left it. We then proceeded to Queens, where we got lost, since I knew the address, and how to get there from the station, but had no clue how to get there by car! Eventually we got back, and I went to bed, way later than I had planned!
Then today I went down to Canal Street, the main street in Chinatown, to see if I could get some gifts there. After doing way too much shopping, I headed back to Times square to feast on the most yummy ribs ever at EZ Deli which is a few blocks up Broadway from Times Square. Much to my dismay, they didn't have any ribs, so I ended up having chicken and crumbed calamari, which wasn't nearly as good as their ribs! There was some Chinese festival day demonstration in the square, such a pity for them, since it was pouring with rain. I did manage to get a free-bee of two packs of noodles, and a bag with some Chinese writing on it. I then went to the Rockerfeller centre, and walked around there for a bit going to the Lego shop, and also checking out a few of the cathedrals in that area. I then went to grand central station, and then proceded back to Queens. Unfortunately I ended up taking the wrong underground, since I stopped at the wrong platform. Grand Central Station is a rabbit warren of tunnels, so its no wonder, but due to this I ended up being back pretty late in the evening. I then cooked up some noodles for my dinner, which were quite tasty. Tom gave me some curry paste, which made things severely spicy!
No comments:
Post a Comment