A Trip to New York

The Football on Hive Community put me on the missing list last week after yet another Tottenham defeat but in fact I was on another continent far away from the football. Its called saccer over there and they don't pay much heed to it. They are probably right. So the plan was to abandon the children at their nannys for a week and go to New York which we did. We had the hotel booked in Greenwich Village and this was to be our base for the week. The flight was 7 hours but we went back in time so we landed just 2 hours after we left and 1pm American time. It was really around 6pm back home so the task was to stay awake for as long as we could so we would not be affected too much by the hour change. Easier said than done. So the first day we mosied around Greenwich Village which was both nice and not nice at the same time. The NY university is there and there was a small park where all the hustlers play chess called Washington Square park. I could not get over the smell of stale urine and weed around the place and every street we walked up , Now we did not see the perpetrators of the urine or the weed but they were ever present I tells you. If it wasn't piss I was smelling it was weed so I grew longing for the smell of weed. The squirrels in this little park were tame which is a first for me. I would rarely see a squirrel in Ireland so it was somewhat of a novelty. Maybe they were the ones pissing or doing the weed. Anyway by 6pm American time we had a nice pizza in Bleeker Street and went back to the hotel wrecked.

I woke at 4pm the next morning ready to go! My body clock was still in Ireland. I waited until herself woke at 6 and we both decided to just go for our first proper wonder. The High Line was the first thing on the list so we waited for a diner to open and then we started walking to the meatpacking district from our hotel which was around 20 minutes. The idea of walking was to get a feel for the city and boy did we do alot of walking. The Highline was great and it was a lovely walk down to the Hudson Yard development that had "The Edge " attraction which is a triangular platform which juts out from the 7th highest building in New York. This was not on the itinery but we went up for a look anyway. We had these New York explore vouchers that gives you access to 5 New York attractions for $200 so we used one of these. So up we went to the Edge and I have to say it was some view. I never really like going to the edge and looking down but the wife doesn't mind it. I'm funny with heights. I don't have a fear of heights per se. It's more a feeling of falling from a height. There was a section of the edge that was a glass floor which gave me the heeby jeepies but I had to conquer the fear so I walked onto it. But I quickly scampered off. I loved this Edge sky scraper but it was on a flight path and I am always weary of airplane sounds near high buildings in New York for some reason. So with this done we decided to get the hop on and hop off bus which was good. They say the New York Hop on Hop Off is the best way to see the city so we did a circle on this and jumped off at Central Park. Central Park was alot larger than I imagined and again we walked for ages to the John Lennon Memorial and to a few sites in the park. Going back the way we came was torture but we ended up on 5th avenue after around an hour of trekking. We paid a visit to Trump tower hearing the ex president on speaker in the building ranting about some immigration. It was all a bit mad. It was nearly evening and getting dark so we ventured to Time Square. Many people say to avoid this area but I thought it was mad and worth the visit. We went for pizza in this famous pizzeria called Joes back in Greenwich and were in bed by 9pm. Absolutely wrecked. Very unlike us Irish not to have a drink.

The next day we went to Ellis Island , taking in the Statue of Liberty. Came back and did the 911 museum and wall street. One thing on my itinery was visiting the "Best Pub in the World" called the Dead Rabbit on Water Street so I left my wife do a bit of shopping and went in there. They say to get an Irish coffee which I did and it was indeed the nicest Irish coffee I have ever had. They use a different whiskey than we do. They use Bushmills and finish it off with Nutmeg which was nice. I got a tang of orange off it as well for some reason but it was all good. I met an American guy at the bar and we chatted and sure by the end of it we were best pals. But great pub. Sawdust on the floor, Nothing fancy with the exception of their cocktails. Right up my street. Expensive but worth every penny. Now I had a good few drinks in the place so when my wife finished shopping she asked if I wanted to get the Empire State building done. Sky Scraper at night and Sky Scraper during the day is a must do. So off we went. The Empire State building tour was great. It was really interesting. Being an older building they work through how they built it and it was very good how they did it. When I got up to the top I didn't know whether I was swaying or the actual building and this gave me the heebie jeepiers once again. With drink in me my spidey senses were tingling more so I was quite happy to be back on the ground with this one. Where as the edge had lots of room I felt there was not much room on top of the Empire State Building. But again briliant all the same.

Day 2 we were wrecked again. Another early night. We agreed on Day 3 that we would walk less and take it easy more so we started subwaying around the place. The subways are bleak old places compared to the European undergrounds. In good need of an update. I don't know how anybody who is disabled gets around. So Day 3 was the day to do the likes of Macey's and shop a bit for the kids. We ended up doing more walking than the first few days. It was ridiculous. We made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge and mosied into Dumbo which was lovely. We also did the Chelsea Markets which was heaven herself. I liked these places as well because there was food. Eating out is very expensive in the states. I was really surprised. If any New Yorkers came to Ireland I think they would get better food for half the price so they must love it here. But I liked their dishes. Portion sizes were off the scale however. New Yorkers like to booze ezpecially if there is a game on that day so the bars had people in them even in the mornings which I liked. A couple of more sites visited and we made it back to hotel to go out for a drink and a meal. The problem with New York is that you cannot get a small lunch there so when you have lunch you are not that hungry at dinner so you are better off having a big breakfast and skipping lunch and have an early dinner. So we did. We were planning to go to some bar called Marie Crisis Cafe as we heard everyone sits around a piano and sings but they were only taking cash so we ended up next door in a place called Arthurs Tavern which was a jazz club.

Place was packed and we had a nice evening in there listening to music so all good. The next day it was time to go home to take the kids out of the orphanage and tell them it was all a mix up. New York is a city where you cannot complete in 4 days. So there will be a take 2 some day.