Day 11 - Last big day!

Prelude

You may have noticed the blog is a couple of days out.  You may have also noticed yesterday’s blog had no entry for my earlier reference to a bar visit in Hoboken (was actually in Jersey City in the end).  Well it did happen, we’ve just been sleeping in the past couple of days and back to late starts again!  

No it wasn’t a huge night, but a late night for us nonetheless, with a bit of alcohol in the mix.  So, apologies for the missing entry yesterday.  PJ Ryan’s was the name of the bar and it was nice and relaxing.  We also brought some burgers and fries with us into the bar, from burger joint called “Five Guys” that my cousin recommended.  Best burgers we’ve had in NYC by far!

It was actually on our “to do” list to visit a dive bar in NYC.  We see them a lot on TV, naturally we wanted to go to one.  This place wasn’t exactly a dive bar, but still a bar.  One of my cousins actually chuckled when we mentioned our plan to visit a dive bar, apparently they’re notorious for being dodgy by reputation and getting mugged in?

This place had none of that atmosphere, it was a cool bar.  Met some of my cousin’s friends, had I not been sick and tired, we would of had a big night out maybe.  It was the first time we sparked someone’s curiosity with our accents since being here.  My cousin had a friend who made good attempts at imitating us, funny fellow he was.  I should have taken video, there’s something about American’s trying to say the word “Facebook” in an Aussie accent that sounds hilarious.

Back to today’s blog....

We slept in a bit so had a late breakfast in lower Manhattan.  The plan today was a visit to Brooklyn, specifically to walk the bridge into Manhattan.  So we took the PATH train to 14^th street and found the closest diner we could find for breakfast.  We ended up at the "Good Stuff Diner" (109 W 14th St).  Another hot breakfast, I ordered the same type of meal KN had at Tom’s Restaurant yesterday and KN had waffles and a sausage? 

We’re actually on a plane to Vegas as I write this and I turned to ask KN through my laptop screen because I can’t hear a thing.  She confirmed yes, waffles and sausage.

We sat on the stools in the diner and ate away.  Food was delicious and I was curious as to the other customers ordering alcohol late in the morning (KN confirms it was Saturday, people with hangovers).  I saw two orders of bloody Mary’s go out and another two orders of some kind of champagne with orange juice.  I’m sure there’s a name for that, I just don’t know it.

After breakfast, I ordered a latte to go.  Didn’t attempt to drink it till we got to Brooklyn, because the gentleman steamed the milk to molten lava temperature.  A short ride into Brooklyn, we made our way to the bridge.  As usual, I tried to bring up Google maps, but it's so damn slow if you don't have proper 3G access (T Mobile on an Aussie iPhone is basically on the EDGE network).   

Just outside the subway, there was a map on a wall somewhere pointing out the Brooklyn Bridge, so we followed that instead. It looked fairly clear on the map, but walking up the road following the streets that were named on the map, we weren’t 100% sure we were going the right way.  Another tourist also walking near us, was not so sure either.  Interestingly, he asked us for directions first, I replied with a kind, “Sorry this is our first time here, we’re also tourists”.  He smiled and went his merry way.  We ended up following him for a bit, because we were all heading for the Brooklyn Bridge.  As we got closer, the street intersections near the bridge throw you off a bit.  So we were kind of following each other for a while, swapping roles of navigation leader after crossing different roads.

We found the bridge with the pedestrian walkway, only to be thrown off by how far away in the opposite direction the entrance seemed to be.  So we ended up in front of the other tourist, who disappeared, but mysteriously we ended up at the traffic lights to the entrance, and then he was in front of us?

Near the walkway entrance and said tourist we followed, then followed us, then followed...

At the beginning of the walkway, we strolled on at a steady pace.  The weather was perfect again and it was a nice walk.  Picture here and there, we approached the beginnings of the bridge.  I forgot there was refurbishments going on, so on various sections of the bridge the view is cut off by galvanised steel.

Lovely view, shot taken by KN

You could still see over the steel walls for most the walk anyhow, past the half way mark at the different viewpoints, you have the full view anyhow.  Really nice views, could definitely see how this would be a nice walk heading into the evening, walking into Manhattan.

Closer to the other end, you get the locals selling art work (sketches of the bridge), the usual stall for drinks/food, bike rentals now that you’ve already done the walk (they should have them at both ends!), and the random crazy dude contemplating life on the bridge with a mop on his head.

Yes, random crazy dude sitting on the bridge with a mop on his head, I have evidence....

Mop head man

I wonder what he contemplates on the Brooklyn Bridge everyday...

We reached the lower end of Manhattan, same area near Wall St that we ventured through yesterday and made our way back onto the PATH at the World Trade Centre station to go back to the hotel.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the memorial site, but did get a good look at the construction of the freedom towers.  For those of you interested in travelling here, I’ll say it again, the Jersey City area is so convenient.  The PATH WTC station is still going through some construction work, but is open and running trains.  This station is huge, and is only a couple of stops away from where we were staying (Courtyard Marriot – Jersey City).

Back at the hotel, we had plans to catch up with family again.  First stop, Hoboken to check out the Cake Boss bakery (Carlo’s Bake Shop), to pick up some cake for my cousin’s kids who are big fans of the show – before making our way to Liberty State Park.

We arrived in Hoboken and this place is something else.  The building architecture makes the place stand out and really helps feature all the stores, restaurants, shopping spots, and living apartments in general.  Pizza store after Pizza store, restaurant after restaurant, shop after shop, I can see why people choose to live here.

While looking for a parking spot, we noticed a long line of people in front of a pharmacy directly across the road.  Which seemed odd, because there was another shorter line in front of the bakery?  After finding a parking spot, we made our way to the bakery and lined up in the shorter line.  A few minutes later, one of the staff from the bakery comes out to ask if we all have a ticket.  Err, no we say.  Please make your way to the line across the street and wait to get a ticket!

The line up in front of the pharmacy!

This place was so popular and busy; they needed two lines to serve customers.  We made our way to the other longer line and waited.  After a bit of a wait, the line all of a sudden migrates across the street, woo hoo!

Forty five seconds later the line migrates back, so we all kind of do this slow shuffle backwards to allow the crowd to move back.  Throughout this amusing people shuffle up and down the street, a food cart vendor was making comments to the crowd, about using common sense.  Maybe we were all just lost in the line up process, or just daydreaming about cake.  Or maybe he was just annoyed the crowd was blocking his food cart.

At this stage it was obvious this line wasn’t moving anywhere fast, so a few of us decided to go for a walk and have some pizza for a late lunch.  We settled for a pizza shop that had plenty of choice, right near the bakery.  Ordered two slices, one pepperoni and one chicken with this soft white mozzarella cheese.  I know I had some pizza at Times Sq that I rated highly and this is a big call.  The pizza we had at Hoboken is the best pizza I have ever had in my life.  Period.

The base was thin, but not too thin.  It had a crunch to it, but was fluffy with texture in the middle.  The sauce was delicious, cheese plentiful and delicious, everything all together was awesome.  I wish we had this kind of pizza at home.  There is a place called “New York Slice Pizzeria” back home, I’ve had it several times.  I think I’m qualified now to criticise them for that name.  Taste nothing like this, it pales in comparison.

I know its Hoboken and technically not NYC, but still.  From what I’ve been told a number of pizza shops here in Hoboken were based in Brooklyn originally and then moved or opened up shop at Hoboken to meet the demands of this growing community.  So it makes sense this pizza was incredibly awesome.

We finished our pizza, walked across the road to see how far along the line my cousin and his kids moved, maybe 3 or 4 steps.  Maybe that was wishful thinking; I don’t think they moved at all.  We called it quits for the time being, deciding to come back another time.

Not far away is the Liberty State Park, where you can catch the different ferries to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Unfortunately the Statue was recently closed for cleaning, so we couldn’t go on any of the tours to see the statue.  Liberty State Park however is close enough to get a decent view, ahem, of her backside.  You also get a view of Ellis Island, plus the park is HUGE with a massive playground for kids.

Ellis Island

Statue in the background.  A lot closer than it looks.

Arriving at the park, we walked over to the boardwalk and took some photos and soaked in the view.  I came up with the idea of having a pose with the statue, facing the same direction (back to the camera).  I was joking, saying this could be another planking thing (taking photos with iconic statues or people or something else, facing the same direction but having your back to the camera).  The photo turned out to be pretty cool, thanks to my cousin’s great photography work.

We also visited the “Empty Sky” memorial.  If you haven’t heard of it, it was opened recently and is a memorial for the residents of NJ who passed away in the 9/11 incident.  The memorial itself is two walls standing in parallel, facing the same direction and location as the original World Trade Centre towers.  So standing in front of these walls, with the skyline in the background, they are in the same position as the original towers.

On these walls, are the names of all the victims from 9/11 that came from NJ.  In front of the memorial, they also had some steel frames from the WTC towers.

Getting late in the afternoon, we decided to have an early dinner at an Asian Seafood Buffet restaurant called “Minado”.  It isn’t too far from Hoboken, but mix in some traffic and the drive gets interesting.  We made it there eventually, step inside, and you can see what makes this place so popular.

We have buffet’s back home and Asian restaurants, but nothing mixed like this.  This place had so much choice, from sushi, fried rice, baby back ribs, crab legs, different fried fish, salads, the list goes on.  Everything I ate was delicious, another restaurant I wish we had back home.  We ate till we felt sick.  Not from the food, from being too full.

After the awesome dinner with family, saying a few goodbyes, we headed back to Hoboken to see if we could make it into Carlo’s Bakery again.  It was around 8.30pm, the bakery shuts at 9pm, we made it.

They actually had the doors shut and had a few customers inside, but they were nice enough to let us in.  My cousin’s kids contemplated over which cake they wanted to choose, while we looked at all the different baked goods they had.  So much choice, but still full on food, it was hard to order anything.  The girls picked a cake, I ordered a slice of pumpkin pie, a few obligatory shots in the cake shop and we made our way back to the hotel.

KN and I were beat yet again, a long but awesome day, we knew this would be our last full day and night in NYC, so we made one last trip into Times Square to see it all again and do some shopping.  The lights, the shops, the atmosphere is something that keeps you going back and definitely wouldn’t get sick of it.

Last hot dog in Times Sq (KN was taking pics of me again shoving food in my mouth).

Even though we’ve seen and done all we wanted to, there’s still so much more to this city we are yet to see.  We bought a few more NYC touristy items, shirts and so on.  I bought some more things for the kids and I, tired from the day we decided to head back to the hotel.

An awesome way to end our time in NYC, today as I write this we’re on a plane to Vegas.  Today, or rather this morning was spent mainly in Jersey City (for breakfast, more shopping and a last goodbye to family).  So I probably won’t blog on our short time here today.  

In a day or two the next blog will begin in Vegas, for the few days we’ll be spending here.  If we can fit it in, we’ll be attempting a road trip to Grand Canyon (renting a car), horseback riding in the desert not far from the strip, and anything else we can cram into the next few days before heading back home! Once we get back home to Brisbane, I’ll also be uploading a few video’s I took on my iPhone, which puts some more context behind some of my blog posts since we’ve arrived in the States.

Stay tuned...