Dropping the ball
New York, what do you say about a city like that? It's a thriving super metropolis filled with rugged up, aggressive driving, styrofoam cup coffee sipping, high rent paying, sidewalk shopping New Yorkers that never closes, never slows down yet it takes you more than half an hour to go a few dozen blocks. It's not a pretty city, most of it is very dirty to the point of probably being beyond cleaning, and with so much rubbish from overflowing bins, building works and badly designed buildings from that period each city went through where boring arcitecture was the rage its not astheticly pleasing outside the landmark areas - and even Times Square is one big corporate advertisement bonanza, I don't think I've ever seen a bigger invasion of public space by private adviertising in my life.
But it is one of the best cities in the world; full of life, culture and vitality with an infinite number of things to see and do, and great places to eat and stay - if you have the money. If I had enough money, I would love to live there for a while. Maybe I'll write for the NYT for a year or so one day.
So after heading out from Toronto I spent a couple of days in Rochester, in fact out until 3am on boxing day night and the driving around the city looking at its few landmarks. Unfortunately we ran out of light pretty fast so the skyline photos will be very grainy and almost unsalvageable, but it was a pretty fun day. Amtraked down to Washington DC where Tony picked me up and we drove to Sterling, not too far down the road from Dulles Airport. On New Years Eve in the morning we made the five hour drive to New York City and after much messing around, parked the car at around 1pm and spent a couple of hours walking around sightseeing before driving to our hotel room, dropping off our stuff and then getting organised to get on the subway to Times Square. We should have left a lot faster somehow because we ended up being over six blocks away from the ball.
It's a circus. Hundreds of thousands of people standing in line around security checkpoints, then being herded into pens by police (it would so suck to be a cop that night) to stand around in the cold in the biggest mosh pit in the world for hours until midnight comes around, the ball drops and spectacular fireworks go off. Fortunately the people around us were quite cool so we had bouts of reasonable conversation and random bursts of cheering for no reason other than the need to alivieate boredem. There was even a few familiar accents which I really needed to hear, having not heard any since Fosters commercials in England. It threatened to rain and poured down when we were at our hotel near the airport, but didn't rain and stayed only slighly below freezing the whole night. The waiting sucks, your body hates standing around for over six hours and because we were six blocks back we couldn't really see all that much, and couldn't enjoy the live entertainment and free balloons and sparklers to wave around for the cameras, but the atmosphere, even if not as good that far back, and the fact that you can say you did it, just can't be bought. It's worth it, do it if you have the chance, just get half a dozen people and camp out at the front from around noon or so - I have to do this in a year or two.
Got back to the hotel via Burger King (first meal since a Maccas breakfast) at some ridiculous time of night, and then slept until leaving at around noon he next day to spend the day sightseeing. We unfortunately didn't get up the Empire State Building as the line was ridiculously long, probably with people from out of town doing the same thing we were. I was somewhat dissapointed we didn't see a whole bunch of things I had wanted to (I haven't seen the Statue of Liberty, for example) due to time and New York being so big with too many things to see, but we got to do quite a bit anyway and I know a lot more about the city in so I'm better prepared for future trips, which will most certainly follow when I have the cash and time.
Drove back to Sterling via a ridiculous amount of messing around in New York's streets, crammed with taxis and other drivers both from the city and out of towners like ourselves who's come in from the festivities, bumper to bumper for the whole length of Manhattan. You have to be 18 to drive in Manhattan, and I think that's for good reason, especially on Sundays where illegal turns disappear and all the rules go out the window. There is no way I would do it if I didn't have a lot of driving experience. The lights are rather pretty though, especially on the famous skyscrapers. The minute you get out of the Holland tunnel into New Jersey you're greeted by half a dozen petrol stations, as there are only a few in the whole of Manhattan, and they are obviously overpriced like everything else in such an expensive city.
Unfortunately, my camera is broken. Obviously, this is a serious problem. I have called Kodak, but I'm concerned that I'll not have a camera for Washington, which would obviously be a disaster. Also with $25 to FedEx it to Rochester (Kodak HQ, oh the irony) $35 to get it back fast rather than ridiculously slow, and the fact that my warranty has expired so I will have to pay $x for the repair or trade in, it's probable that the combination of the cost and time and risk of not having a camera at the right time does not justify the endeavour and I may as well buy a new camera and deal with my current one when I get back to Australia. Hopefully the parents would be ok with this course of action, but from my 6:30am call with Dad it seems they would be if I don't buy some expensive megacamera. Stupid camera, there's enough stupid stuff going on, especially after Toronto, that this extra stress is really not welcome.
Off to crazy West Virginia with Nick on Thursday afternoon, still logistics to deal with there. At least I have mobile phone now.
Why am I watching celebrity poker at 4:39am? Goodnight America.
But it is one of the best cities in the world; full of life, culture and vitality with an infinite number of things to see and do, and great places to eat and stay - if you have the money. If I had enough money, I would love to live there for a while. Maybe I'll write for the NYT for a year or so one day.
So after heading out from Toronto I spent a couple of days in Rochester, in fact out until 3am on boxing day night and the driving around the city looking at its few landmarks. Unfortunately we ran out of light pretty fast so the skyline photos will be very grainy and almost unsalvageable, but it was a pretty fun day. Amtraked down to Washington DC where Tony picked me up and we drove to Sterling, not too far down the road from Dulles Airport. On New Years Eve in the morning we made the five hour drive to New York City and after much messing around, parked the car at around 1pm and spent a couple of hours walking around sightseeing before driving to our hotel room, dropping off our stuff and then getting organised to get on the subway to Times Square. We should have left a lot faster somehow because we ended up being over six blocks away from the ball.
It's a circus. Hundreds of thousands of people standing in line around security checkpoints, then being herded into pens by police (it would so suck to be a cop that night) to stand around in the cold in the biggest mosh pit in the world for hours until midnight comes around, the ball drops and spectacular fireworks go off. Fortunately the people around us were quite cool so we had bouts of reasonable conversation and random bursts of cheering for no reason other than the need to alivieate boredem. There was even a few familiar accents which I really needed to hear, having not heard any since Fosters commercials in England. It threatened to rain and poured down when we were at our hotel near the airport, but didn't rain and stayed only slighly below freezing the whole night. The waiting sucks, your body hates standing around for over six hours and because we were six blocks back we couldn't really see all that much, and couldn't enjoy the live entertainment and free balloons and sparklers to wave around for the cameras, but the atmosphere, even if not as good that far back, and the fact that you can say you did it, just can't be bought. It's worth it, do it if you have the chance, just get half a dozen people and camp out at the front from around noon or so - I have to do this in a year or two.
Got back to the hotel via Burger King (first meal since a Maccas breakfast) at some ridiculous time of night, and then slept until leaving at around noon he next day to spend the day sightseeing. We unfortunately didn't get up the Empire State Building as the line was ridiculously long, probably with people from out of town doing the same thing we were. I was somewhat dissapointed we didn't see a whole bunch of things I had wanted to (I haven't seen the Statue of Liberty, for example) due to time and New York being so big with too many things to see, but we got to do quite a bit anyway and I know a lot more about the city in so I'm better prepared for future trips, which will most certainly follow when I have the cash and time.
Drove back to Sterling via a ridiculous amount of messing around in New York's streets, crammed with taxis and other drivers both from the city and out of towners like ourselves who's come in from the festivities, bumper to bumper for the whole length of Manhattan. You have to be 18 to drive in Manhattan, and I think that's for good reason, especially on Sundays where illegal turns disappear and all the rules go out the window. There is no way I would do it if I didn't have a lot of driving experience. The lights are rather pretty though, especially on the famous skyscrapers. The minute you get out of the Holland tunnel into New Jersey you're greeted by half a dozen petrol stations, as there are only a few in the whole of Manhattan, and they are obviously overpriced like everything else in such an expensive city.
Unfortunately, my camera is broken. Obviously, this is a serious problem. I have called Kodak, but I'm concerned that I'll not have a camera for Washington, which would obviously be a disaster. Also with $25 to FedEx it to Rochester (Kodak HQ, oh the irony) $35 to get it back fast rather than ridiculously slow, and the fact that my warranty has expired so I will have to pay $x for the repair or trade in, it's probable that the combination of the cost and time and risk of not having a camera at the right time does not justify the endeavour and I may as well buy a new camera and deal with my current one when I get back to Australia. Hopefully the parents would be ok with this course of action, but from my 6:30am call with Dad it seems they would be if I don't buy some expensive megacamera. Stupid camera, there's enough stupid stuff going on, especially after Toronto, that this extra stress is really not welcome.
Off to crazy West Virginia with Nick on Thursday afternoon, still logistics to deal with there. At least I have mobile phone now.
Why am I watching celebrity poker at 4:39am? Goodnight America.
posted by Nic White at
4:41 AM
