David's Blog: Jet Lagged in New York

In the song New York New York, Frank Sinatra wanted to “wake up in a city that does not sleep”. Well I did not sleep very well in New York.

We spent the morning of day one in Hoboken, a suburb of New Jersey, Mafia country. While we had lunch at a restaurant on Frank Sinatra Boulevard and did not see any guys walking around in long bulging coats and fedora hats, New Jersey is accepted as one of the most corrupt town councils in the states. The couple we spent the first night with pay $1000 a month in town council taxes. The limo driver told us he pays $48000 a year in taxes. Crazy stuff, but that goes with the whole New York scene. It is all crazy.

Hoboken is a suburb occupied by people, living in high rise apartments who either have babies in prams or dogs. I observed the dogs take their masters for walks in the morning, and I am not talking about 120 kilo rottwielers taking anorexic 50 kilo masters for walks. On one occasion I saw a cute Australian silky terrier take his mistress, an overweight woman, for a walk down the pier, about 100 meters. They turned at the end of the pier and walked back. When they reached the road kerb again the silky decided that they need to do it all again and refused to move. They did the circuit again, no questions asked. On the flip side John and I saw a family walking with a bulldog. The bulldog decided that they had gone far enough and sat down refusing to move. His supposed master picked him up and carried him and they continued their “walk”.

Took the ferry from Hoboken to Manhattan Island in the afternoon and checked in to the Surrey. Pretty posh, felt right out of place with my jeans and shirt. Black granite everywhere.

Please make a note, always check hotel prices on Hotels.com. This hotel lists at $473 to $1211 per night on their website. We got it for $350 via hotels.com.

New York is best described as crowded, huge, noisy and with people and vehicles everywhere all the time. No end to sirens traffic and crowds.

Fortune did not smile on us in New York and the weather was cold and wet. We headed for the Aircraft Carrier anchored on the Hudson as a museum, only to arrive there and find that it was closed for the day, however we managed to get on board the next day. A great experience going through a submarine, and viewing the carrier with fighter and bomber planes, rode the aircraft lift from the hanger deck to the flight deck. Highlight of the visit was going on board the Concorde. Managed to sit in the seat preferred and used by the Queen and sit in the cockpit. A great experience and I could well have spent several more hours on the carrier.

We saw ground zero and the rising new “Freedom Tower”. Beautifully shaped single building that will exceed the height of the previous structures and have two pools where the foundations of the old towers were.

Saw the mind blowing Times Square at night. Lights and gigantic video screens 360 degrees. You have to see it at night. There are hundreds of people in the square, none more mesmerized than the hillbilly, with video screens all around constantly changing with brilliant colour turning night into day, all accompanied by the ever present wail of sirens.

Toured the NBC studios in the Rockefeller Centre ,and rode the escalator with the see through roof to the top of the building and viewed the city lights at night. From the top of the centre the city streams out all around as a mass of tall buildings that stretch from one river to the other on the narrow island that is Manhattan Island. The Rockefeller Centre is an amazing building in its own right with crystal chandeliers raining down from the ceilings in the foyers.

Obama was in town and I had the privilege of being about 4 meters from him with no one else between him and me. What a great coincidence. Me in New York with the president.

It is a pity he did not have time to chat as he flew past in his limousine in a cavalcade of cars and police bikes with flashing lights while I stood on the footpath getting wet.

While there is so much to see in New York it is extremely tiring trying to do it. Managed to walk through Central Park and ride the infamous underground, not as scary as implied by the movies.

Taxi rides were numerous and something else. Standard operating procedure is changing lanes and hard on the gas then hard on the brakes, repeat as required. They have “pirate” town cars touting for work without meters. One offered to transport us from near Time square to our hotel for $35.00 dollars. We declined his kind offer and got a taxi later for $8.00 and that included the tip.

n our last day John’s friend Ronnie took us out to see the Statue of Liberty and the historic train station through which all the migrants, who were processed through Ellis Island, were then transported to the final destinations of their long migratory journey. The docks where they would have arrived have been left intact, though they are decaying, as well as the skeletal structure of the roof that covered the more than 20 platforms at the station, The sign boards noting the destinations of the trains that left from each platform are still there as well, at the head of each platform. The train lines are no longer there and there is plant growth were platforms and lines would once have been, but with the chirping of the birds amidst the otherwise silent station skeleton you can gain a sense of history and the flood of humanity that once passed through the place. Families with precious little in their pockets, but with unbounded hope and a dream of building a better life in the new world.

It was fitting that we saw this historic site prior to leaving New York.
It helped to see the human side of a city that, while occupied by a sea of humanity, appears to be overwhelmed by commercialism with little time for humanity.

Please see my photos below. Try to ignore the old goat who kept getting into the picture