Day 43, 44, 45, 46 (10-13 of September) - The Big Apple

We spent day 43 travelling back to New York from Washington D.C. We arrived back at around 1530 and after a quick taxi ride from the bus depot we were on 45th Street, our home for the next 7 days! 45th street is in the theatre district in the Midtown area. We are a 5 minute dawdle from Times Square!! The accommodation is a one bedroom apartment with a fold out couch, it also has a kitchen with full cooking facilities.

Our New York apartment

Fully equipped modern kitchen

Our stylish but uncomfortable bed

After settling in Jo and I headed out for dinner while Eddie regrouped. We went to a 'Family Style' Italian restaurant, Family style indicating that one dish would feed a family!! We ordered a salad and the Spaghetti with Meatballs and even if we said we were able to eat half of the meal it would have been an exorbitant exaggeration. We struggled our way through the mountain of spaghetti and the forest of salad before requesting a couple of 'doggy bags'.

Italian feast

After dinner like a couple of insects flying towards a bug zapper and we unknowingly stumbled into the neon forest of Times Square. It was an overwhelming experience, the lights, the people, the cars, the cyclists, the beggars, the buskers and of course a sea of yellow taxi's.

Times Square!!

The next day we walked to the Rockafellar Centre, which is where you can go to the top of the building and checkout the whole of Manhattan. Eddie had warned us that there would be smog/fog/haze around by the time of day we were thinking of heading up but we decided to go anyway and unfortunately for us he was right. Our visibility was severely impeded by low level haze in all directions. Not to worry, we still had a cool panoramic view of the New York City skyline including Central Park and The Empire State Building

Smoggy Central Park

Rockafellar

Mitch and Jo 

Empire State Building. One World Trade Centre in the background

Today was a very hot day in New York (aboot 35 degrees), so after our 'Top of the Rock' experience we were ready to head home and regroup. Tonight we are going to a concert to see a couple of Aussie acts, Flume and Chet Faker, so we decided to have a couple of beers at home before heading out. We had some Foster's, because all Aussies drink heaps of Foster's, right?? After a few ales we hit the subway in the direction of a rooftop bar, the bar was in a cool spot and had great views of the city, but it was really hot, expensive and lacking any sort of reputable service.

Empire State Building from the rooftop bar

By now we were all on the way to being suitably inebriated and ready to listen to some music. The concert was at Webster Hall, a unique old style music venue with high ornate ceilings and a mezzanine level. It was a very cool place to see some live music.

Touch Sensitive

Chet Faker

Flume

Mitch and Jo with their new Turkish friend Emir

Post gig we taxi'd our way back 'uptown' and indulged in some late night pizza.

When you're drunk everything tastes good.

Day 45 and we were all moving slowly and quietly and some of us (Jo) stayed 'horizontal' for a little longer than the rest of us. A true case of what goes up must come down, Eddie and I weren't feeling much better, but we still managed to get out and track down a coffee and food. We managed to stumble across a 'Pie Face' store, which is an Australian franchise, that sells good old Aussie Meat Pies.

Ms Pie Face; Hi, How can I help you??
Eddie; G'Day love, can you gimme 2 dog's eyes
Ms Pie Face; (confused look)
Mitch; Oi Ed, don't forget the dead horse!!
Ms Pie Face; (extremely confused look)

Again this conversation may or may not have actually taken place. Needless to say we were all very excited to be indulging in a couple of chunky steak dog's eyes drowned in dead horse.

Once we were all fit enough to mobilise we made our way to Central Park, which was a 15 min walk (aboot 15 blocks). We made our way towards the middle of the park just in time for the heaven's to open and to get absolutely drenched. Now cold and soggy we sloshed our way home like a trio of drowned rats. Hopefully we will get back to Central park later in the week for another look.

Mitch ready with the Frisbee just before it rained.

Central Park

We decided by looking at our schedule that tonight was an opportunity for us to catch a broadway show. In Times Square they sell discounted tickets for a range of shows on the day of the show, from 1500. We had to line up for an hour, but we managed to get tickets to see Pippin for half price. Pippin is a highly acclaimed musical on broadway that uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his journey to find meaning and significance (Wikiborough). It was being shown at the Music Box theatre, which is less than 200m (656.17 ft) from our doorstep. The show was amazing, such talent in a very exposing environment, you could only imagine the amount of dedication required to perform at such a high level. All the choreography, the singing, the stage play, and in this case acrobatics were all jaw-dropping! At one stage in the performance the crowd was invited to sing along with one of the actress' - 'but only the chorus' she insisted 'the verses, they are for me and me only' she proclaimed over the audiences laughter.

Pippin

Today we went to the 9/11 memorial site in Lower Manhattan and then had a walk around Wall St before checking out the Statue of Liberty from afar. The 9/11 memorial was very busy, it seemed like we waited in lines to wait in another line. Once we went through the airport style security checks we made our way to ground zero. Again a very somber experience, both the north and south building base areas have been transformed into waterfall style fountain bordered by the names of the people who lost there lives on September 11 2001. The area surrounding the area is littered with construction workers, sporting their fluro tuxedo's, who are all working on the construction of 'One World Trade Centre'. It is now the largest skyscraper in New York standing at 541.32m (1776 ft).

Fire Station near ground zero.

One World Trade Centre

The fighting bull

New York Stock Exchange - Wall Street

A tree that was between the two towers that survived. 

We did a quick sweep of Wall St past the New York Stock Exchange and a range of different financial institutions before making our way to Bowling green (New York's oldest park) and onto Battery Park for a glimpse of Mrs Liberty.

Mitch with The Statue of Liberty in the background