New Yoick

Time to say goodbye to the Shore and head to our next destination New York! Exciting!

 We’re staying in Jersey City with a lady called Sharleen. When we arrive at her house she is in the shower, she must have been in a rush to get to the door as she’s wearing pants, an opened dressing gown and a blouse with one button shut over the top of that, we don’t know where to look! Sharleen is lovely and gives us lots of tips to get the best out of New York and after a quick cup of tea we get on the bus.

 Walking out of the bus station we’re overwhelmed, it’s madness! So many cars beeping, people rushing about and huge glistening billboards everywhere. Tricia and Katherine were adamant that we had to get a potato Knish while we are in NY so we do as we’re told and stop at a bakery stall. While ordering, a little old man comes over to the bakery and says “Excuse me, do you have any chair-wee toin-ovohhs?”…can you work it out? We LOVE the New York accent and Christine wants to spend the day following the old man around.

An Englishman in New York

 Instead we walk around Times Square and then aim for some peace in Central Park which doesn’t happen because even that is packed full of people. We peek over the wall to see the seals and goats in the zoo (We’re guessing  that there are more animals in there than that though).

It’s geeky time as we go to find film locations from Taxi Driver. First we find the theatre where Travis watches naughty films and then go to Columbus Circle which is a little area in a roundabout full of statues. The next stop is Grand Central Station which instantly reminds us of the scene from Madagascar. We spend about 5 hours trying to spot the "dirty square" on the ceiling which was left there to show how polluted the station used to get. It was the size of a post it note, no wonder it took us ages to find!

  It’s getting late so we go back to Times Square to see what it’s like all lit up at night. On the way there is a lot of commotion and we’re pretty sure the President or his wife drove past us, It’s not been confirmed but we’re taking it anyway. Spotting the M&M shop we go inside for a bit of warmth. It’s huge with pretty much anything you could think of having a picture of an M&M on it. After watching a giant blue M&M do a little dance we go into Toys R Us to see if we can find a present for Katherine and it’s amazing! There’s a huge giant ferris wheel with cars designed like Little Tykes and My Little Pony. There’s a huge lego Hulk and Statue of Liberty as well as a huge moving and roaring dinosaur from Jurassic Park which is scaring all of the little kiddiwinks….and James. Home time!

Mr President??

 

Be mine?

I only said Green wasn't his colour!

Balloooowww!!

We’re looking forward to a nice breakfast as promised by Sharleen, however, the sliced strawberries and sugar don’t really fill us up so we stop at a little café in Lower Manhatten for a proper breakfast (What Americans do best) before going to find the High Line which is an abandoned railway above the city that has been turned into a park with lots of trees and flowers. It’s a nice change from the mayhem of Times Square but it probably would have been a lot better without the downpour of rain! 

Next up it’s more Taxi Driver location spotting on E18th Street where Sport the pimp hangs out and Travis does all that shooting malarkey. We stop for a rest in a dingy bar before walking over to Little Italy, eating pizza and watching the world go by. We could stay here for the rest of the day, especially as Christine is in love with the Italian-American accent but instead we buy a red velvet cannoli and have a stroll through China Town. 

Doing a Travis

Pizza and People watching

Arriving in the financial district we see Wall Street, lots of tall buildings and a helluva lot of people having their picture taken with a giant bronzed bull’s balls.

We make our way to the ferry terminal and get the Staten Island ferry to catch a close up of the Statue of Liberty (for all of the budget travellers this is the free way to see the lovely lady!). The weather is rubbish today so by the time we go past on the way back we can only see her skirt. The weather cancels our plans of a helicopter ride or going up the Empire State building, it’s so foggy we wouldn’t be able to see anything. 

We walk back through China Town and Little Italy and stumble across another film location, the church from Mean Streets and Godfather II. We can’t go in because it’s too late which is a shame, it’s been a while since we visited a church. We find a bar to chill out in, it’s 10pm and we’re shattered! After a couple of beers our legs are working again and we find our way home.