New York, New York
It had been a long time since I had been in NYC...a very long time. Some things had not changed (crowds, crazy drivers, concrete everywhere) and some things had (Times Square has been "cleaned up" and there was no evidence of stripped cars at the side of the road, which was the first thing I saw on my last visit to NYC). I just returned with two of my "bestest friends", from a 3 night stay in the city that never sleeps (and we're all still talking to each other).
Our main reason for the trip was to attend "Harry, Carrie and Garp" at Radio City Music Hall. It was a fundraiser for two very worthwhile causes, The Haven Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. We got to hear Stephen King, John Irving and JK Rowling reading excerpts from their respective works. It was a phenomenal experience to be sitting in a world renown beautiful theatre (air conditioned, I might add, since we had been melting through a heatwave with triple digit temperatures) listening to these great authors reading. It was just SO cool to sit there, look up and see them, live and in person, reading and being funny (John Irving and Stephen King both surprised me by showing a good sense of humour). The evening was topped off with Whoopi Goldberg as the emcee, Kathy Bates introducing Stephen King (could that have been any more fitting?!), Andre Braugher introducing John Irving (still very handsome, if anyone's interested in aesthetics) and Jon Stewart introducing JK Rowling (who, btw, had wonderful shoes).
I guess the second best highlight was the time we spent in the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), where to do that museum justice, you would have to spend at least 2 full days checking out the exhibits. It was interesting to see the old American furniture though, since I am interested in that, as well as the British fashion exhibit and the medieval exhibit (boy, I could have some fun with that stuff!).
We took two tours of the city, of uptown and downtown, via a double decker bus with no roof. We got to see all of the sites (except for Brooklyn), which was great, but due to time restrictions, we didn't get to do as much as we would have liked to have done. The tour bus operators were great though, from the older tour guide who was yelling at the crazy drivers (apparently "if your IQ is over 35, you can't get a driver's licence in New Jersey"...please, all letters of complaint from you Jersey-ites should be addressed to the Grey Line tour company) to Mo, the ex armed forces tour guide who, while obviously very proud of his home town city, wasn't afraid to tell it like it is and give us tid bits of information that other tour guides may not have been so forthcoming with. If you're short of time but still want to see the sights of NYC, the bus tour is a good way to do that.
Was everything wonderful? No. It was way too hot. While I know that New Yorkers have no control over the heat, it's just oppressive when it gets into the triple digit Fahrenheit temperatures. The city is so full of concrete, people and cars that there's just no where for the heat to go, it's trapped there. What else was bad? It was dirty and smelly in parts (stores should not be allowed to leave 20+ bags of garbage on the curb for the city to pick up). It's a little disheartening to shop in stores that have security guards in them (I'm talking about EVERY store, some stores had multiple ones). People are mean. Well, perhaps abrupt and not friendly is a better description. I mean even those in the service industry (hotels, stores, restaurants) were not friendly. I know it's not always genuine here at home when a sales clerk says "Hi, how are you?", but at least it's friendly and an acknowledgement of your existence. You can't get a decent cup of coffee (pronounced cauwfee) in any restaurant there (I learned years ago not to even attempt a good cup of hot tea in a US restaurant), so Timmy's could make a killing there. At the end of a day in NYC, we were wiping black dirt off our skin - that was nasty. What I missed most though, was green space. Outside of Central Park and the few streets surrounding it, there is no grass and there are no trees. Kids play on concrete and cement at the local playground. It's sad, very sad, and it really made me appreciate home.
Would I go back? Yes, I would like to go back and do a tour of the various museums, a horse and buggy ride in Central Park and a harbour tour, but it would have to be in the fall when it was a lot cooler.
Our main reason for the trip was to attend "Harry, Carrie and Garp" at Radio City Music Hall. It was a fundraiser for two very worthwhile causes, The Haven Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. We got to hear Stephen King, John Irving and JK Rowling reading excerpts from their respective works. It was a phenomenal experience to be sitting in a world renown beautiful theatre (air conditioned, I might add, since we had been melting through a heatwave with triple digit temperatures) listening to these great authors reading. It was just SO cool to sit there, look up and see them, live and in person, reading and being funny (John Irving and Stephen King both surprised me by showing a good sense of humour). The evening was topped off with Whoopi Goldberg as the emcee, Kathy Bates introducing Stephen King (could that have been any more fitting?!), Andre Braugher introducing John Irving (still very handsome, if anyone's interested in aesthetics) and Jon Stewart introducing JK Rowling (who, btw, had wonderful shoes).
I guess the second best highlight was the time we spent in the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), where to do that museum justice, you would have to spend at least 2 full days checking out the exhibits. It was interesting to see the old American furniture though, since I am interested in that, as well as the British fashion exhibit and the medieval exhibit (boy, I could have some fun with that stuff!).
We took two tours of the city, of uptown and downtown, via a double decker bus with no roof. We got to see all of the sites (except for Brooklyn), which was great, but due to time restrictions, we didn't get to do as much as we would have liked to have done. The tour bus operators were great though, from the older tour guide who was yelling at the crazy drivers (apparently "if your IQ is over 35, you can't get a driver's licence in New Jersey"...please, all letters of complaint from you Jersey-ites should be addressed to the Grey Line tour company) to Mo, the ex armed forces tour guide who, while obviously very proud of his home town city, wasn't afraid to tell it like it is and give us tid bits of information that other tour guides may not have been so forthcoming with. If you're short of time but still want to see the sights of NYC, the bus tour is a good way to do that.
Was everything wonderful? No. It was way too hot. While I know that New Yorkers have no control over the heat, it's just oppressive when it gets into the triple digit Fahrenheit temperatures. The city is so full of concrete, people and cars that there's just no where for the heat to go, it's trapped there. What else was bad? It was dirty and smelly in parts (stores should not be allowed to leave 20+ bags of garbage on the curb for the city to pick up). It's a little disheartening to shop in stores that have security guards in them (I'm talking about EVERY store, some stores had multiple ones). People are mean. Well, perhaps abrupt and not friendly is a better description. I mean even those in the service industry (hotels, stores, restaurants) were not friendly. I know it's not always genuine here at home when a sales clerk says "Hi, how are you?", but at least it's friendly and an acknowledgement of your existence. You can't get a decent cup of coffee (pronounced cauwfee) in any restaurant there (I learned years ago not to even attempt a good cup of hot tea in a US restaurant), so Timmy's could make a killing there. At the end of a day in NYC, we were wiping black dirt off our skin - that was nasty. What I missed most though, was green space. Outside of Central Park and the few streets surrounding it, there is no grass and there are no trees. Kids play on concrete and cement at the local playground. It's sad, very sad, and it really made me appreciate home.
Would I go back? Yes, I would like to go back and do a tour of the various museums, a horse and buggy ride in Central Park and a harbour tour, but it would have to be in the fall when it was a lot cooler.
posted by Karen at 10:41 p.m.
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