New York Day One Saturday 1/11/14
I took an overnight flight into New York it left at about 11pm and arrived 7am at JFK airport although due to the time difference west coast to east coast it was actually 4am by my body clock. It was a fairly nice flight a bit bumpy in parts I flew Jet blue who I’d never been with before and it was a fairly goods experience. I’d paid for some extra leg room so wasn’t too cramped it also let me get first go at the overhead bins and so had my bag right there rather than potentially the other end of the aircraft. I did my best to get some sleep but it’s difficult on a plane I dozed a bit but didn’t get any proper rest so I was a bit worn out when I arrived.
The airport was pretty busy
I’d booked a car to take me to the place we were staying which was in the edge of New Jersey just across the Lincoln tunnel. I had to call them to arrange pickup which was fairly straightforward then a few minutes later a black Toyota Camry screeched up to the pick up point and I was off.
The bloke drove like a maniac but I guess that’s to be expected of a New Yorker the car was nice and clean and comfy. At first I didn’t see any of the famous skyline but then we went passed the worlds fair site with the flying saucers from men in black. Some more weaving in and out of traffic later we pulled onto a bridge and the famous skyline appeared. We then drove across Manhattan lots of stop go then honking of the horn and on we went. Eventually we got to the Lincoln tunnel and across to New Jersey and Union City where the little airbnb place my parents had found.
They had arrived the previous night so were there waiting I paid the driver and then went in. The place was a long thin single story with bedrooms at each end a small living room, with a tropical fish tank, and kitchen/dining room in the middle a small bathroom down the back. Cozy but pretty nice I had a cup of tea and some toast then went to bed.
I slept for a bit then woke up around lunch time and had some soup and sandwich and an apple. Fortified we went out to work out the bus ride into Manhattan.
We picked up the bus a street or so over and it was a pretty quick ride into the Port authority Bus Terminal. We jumped off and found a rather confusing array of stops several stories of gates. We sorted out some more tickets so we could come and go. We exited the bus terminal and then headed across to another bit of it to pick up these week passes to various attractions my parents had sorted out.
Once we got that we headed out for a wander. It was a pretty aweful day raining cold grey with a fairly high wind. At street level it wasn’t too bad we walked over to times square looking up at all the massive buildings and dodging people dressed in micky mouse and iron man costumes trying to get money for taking pictures.
Time square was pretty chaotic lots of people lots of glowing neon signs advertising all sorts of stuff. We had a quick look then decided to go and visit central park which was a few blocks down.
We walked down to central park it was looking very autumnal with the leaves turning on the trees. It was also covered in flags and barriers as tomorrow is the New York marathon. It’s a very iconic location. Walking through the streets was like walking through a series of movie sets. We looked at the finish line then began heading back home. We walked up to the port authority and were just in time to catch the bus back once we had discovered where the bus went from. They had some useful touch screen units that had the timetables and also maps to the gate.
It was starting to clear up now and the sun was peaking through just as it was getting dark. As the bus went up the hill towards Union City you got a lovely view of the skyline with the lights coming on.
We walked back to the rental place and looked at getting some pizza delivered.
Hits: 570