Those of you planning on a trip here and want convenience but at a good price, staying in Jersey City is definitely the way to go. We're here at the Courtyard Marriot (Newport Jersey City) and it's directly next to the PATH station which takes you right into Manhattan in 10 minutes. Directly across the road is a big shopping mall too!
So we headed off into NYC, first on the list, breakfast at ihop.
I ordered a breakfast special with smoked sausages, eggs, biscuits (for the aussies reading this, will explain shortly), 3-stack pancakes, hash brown (to share). KN had 2 eggs, bacon, french toast and pancakes. Was pretty good, average pricing. The biscuits we were keen to try. Back home, biscuits are more or less 'cookies' (as Americans would call them). So naturally, seeing a menu for breakfast, lunch or dinner with 'biscuits' is amusing. When they came out, we saw that they were more like our 'scones'. Very fluffy, melt in your mouth. Depending on the quality, they can be quite starchy. These ihop biscuits were starchy. Had much better ones later in the day from another food chain :).
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| Yummy yummy in my tummy |
To get to ihop was relatively painless. The subway system makes a lot of sense and I was finding myself using this iphone app "Hopstop" all day to figure out which trains to catch to which destinations, very handy. Google maps on the other hand has been rather slow and buggy, sucking my battery dry whenever I use it. Moving on, we decided to head into the heart of the city - Times Square.
Checking the trains/times, I found my phone decided to start using "WebGuard", which is T-Mobile's internet content filter. It basically started blocking all the important websites, like.....Facebook. And uh...erm... Facebook. So I couldn't check in anywhere, oh my god how painful it was, not being able to leave evidence of our travel destinations. Naturally our next stop was a T-Mobile store to get it unlocked, because the only way to do it online was to provide the last 4 digits of your social security number. Being Australian and not having one, my random entry of 1234 or 4321 failed to work. And so we arrived at the T-Mobile store.
The gentleman who served us, clearly displayed his frustration at this request. Whilst on the phone to the operators who remove the WebGuard, we found this was his 40th request in 2 days, since they turned the feature on - all of them tourists not from the US. Poor fella, we were on our merry way once done.
We decided to go to Central Park first, being such a beautiful day. Typical tourists, we got excited seeing a squirrel come right up near us, digging the ground for something. Of course we took pictures, it was a cute looking thing.
There was still some snow scattered around the place from the other day and a lot of fallen/broken tree's and branches. Moving through the park, we found a couple of spots we recognised from movies, including the ice skating rink. We also paid a visit to the Central Park Zoo. That was pretty cool, not as many animals as we thought there would be. The seal we saw smelt fishy and he/she had one eyelid shut the whole time, as if it was winking at us permanently. We were also meant to go to a 4D movie about penguins, but never made it.
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| Fish breath Seal |
After our trip to the zoo, we headed out and made our way to times square. Walking out the park on the southern end you find a number of gentleman lined up with a horse and carriage, with plenty of horse shit for you to smell. They have these clever bags hooked up underneath the horses ass which catches all the shit. I'm surprised this hasn't caught on for tourists to wear, with the lack of public toilets around the place. You could literally walk around and just shit as you please... Yeah, maybe a bit too much of a convenience, excuse that disgusting thought (don't worry no pics).
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| I lie, here's a pic. No poo though. |
By this stage my phone had full internet access again *sigh of relief* and we made our way to times square, to see it in the day first and venture back in at night. On the way, we got out of the train in the subway and got pulled into a group of dancers performing. A group of African American dancers, promptly reminding you they're black throughout their show and their expectation of tips before we leave...also reminding us of their blackness and they can run fast - if you choose not to tip.
They were really good dancers and their 'lead' dancer was pretty funny. He seemed kinda gay, which I found interesting. He had an alpha male persona, but was charismatic and flashed his hands around with peculiar facial expressions. He clarified this for me, when he randomly mentions to the crowd that he's not gay. Okay then. After the show, yes we did tip, and continued on.
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| Said non-homosexual dancer |
**Update** I actually had a whole section here that mysteriously disappeared, so I'll have to attempt to rewrite what I had here. ***Update #2*** I just updated my udpate, and this damn blog site keeps deleting it!! Try again...
We arrived at Times Square, and were immediately drawn to all the sights, shops, scenery, everything. Back home, you see this all on TV, but you can never appreciate the full scale of it till you are here. You quickly realise where the tourist traps are, after the fact. Like getting sucked in by those cartoonic characters you grew up watching as a kid. Mickey, Minnie, Elmo, how you took advantage of me. Innocently walking by, we saw them, and naturally being first time tourists - you take a photo with them.
As you start to walk away, these warm, welcoming characters quickly change their cartoonic voices to deep manly desperate calls of "TIP, TIP!!". At which point you go, "oooohh, okay", and tip them :). Tricky characters, lucky I didn't tickle Elmo, who knows what he would have asked of me next.
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| "You there, unsuspecting tourist!" |
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| (Mickey/Elmo) .oO(Suckers) |
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In my absent minded tourist gawking at all the sites, I got sucked in by a local rapper, telling me his spiel of his demo CD and officially naming me "P. Boogie". That is now my official NYC name, according to....."Square Free". I think that's his rapper name. Anyhow, I got a signed CD, and tipped him. Was worth it for an official NYC name, I think P Boogie will catch on.
We spent a lot of time going up and down times square just looking in shops and absorbing it all. After all the walking and sightseeing, decided to head back to the hotel room for a much needed break. Although we adjusted our body clocks sleeping patter, our eating habits have been somewhat askew. Late breakfast, late lunch or no lunch - replaced with dinner.
Once we were rested enough, we headed back into midtown to look at it all again, and get some grub!
First stop was the "Original Soup Man" store. For the Seinfeld fans you know what this is about, those of you who didn't watch Seinfeld, shame on you - NO SOUP FOR YOU! Although not the actual original store, it was from the same owner and relocated to W 55St & 8th Ave. We both bought a lobster bisque, but I ordered a special with a T-Shirt and a large bisque. Mmmmm, was soooo good, hit the spot. We actually brought it with us back to times square, then ate it at one of the public seating areas in the square. An awesome idea, sit back relax, eat/drink and soak it all in again - this time with bright neon lights.
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| Lobster bisque, also came with bread, halloween chocolate and a banana! |
Sensory overload, it's such a cool thing. I wonder what it would be like walking times square drunk... No we weren't drunk in these pics, but here's a few around Times Square at night.
After the soup, we looked around some more, and decided to visit another junk food spot on the must do
list "Popeyes Chicken". It was actually a bit of a mission finding it, I blame Google maps. We were following directions for a store that was permanently closed. Eventually we found one and it was worth it for me. It's a bit crunchier than our KFC Hot n Spicy, but tastes different. In a good way. The fries are awesome too. And, the biscuit was better than the one at ihop :).
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| Crunchy and juicy chicken. mmmm.. Definitely going again. |
We were beat after this and decided to call it a night. Back to the subway, and back at the hotel. Passed out like a light and slept in a bit again the next morning! Things I've learned today:
- Learn the subway well, it pays off, so convenient
- Keep your phone charged, try to research areas you want to visit first
- Be aware of being absent minded while gawking at the sites, especially at night
- Further on the above point, if you have a drifting girlfriend, consider one of those kids leashes attached to a vest/bag. I kept losing KN! lol
- Don't fall for the tourist traps if you can help it, you'll find yourself handing out cash too many times at the end of a day
- Prepare for sore feet, legs and back
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