Arriving in New York
Jan. 9th, 2011 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sulkyblueblogIt's taken me well over a month, but I've finally finished going through my photos of New York, and writing up my diary. It's a slow start, with only a short few hours of Friday evening actually spent in the city, and I failed to take any photos at all, but things will get a bit more interesting in the next post...
The holiday really starts I guess once you’re actually in the place you’re going, or at least within sight of it, so all the tedium and bureaucracy of planes and airports shouldn’t really taint the holiday proper. I often find there’s a moment at some point where your brain goes “holy crap, I’m on holiday” and I then spend the next half hour grinning like a bit of an idiot. For my holiday in New York, this first hit me before I even reached the city, sitting on a coach from JFK airport to Grand Central Station. As we slowly trudged through rush hour traffic, the sun was setting and bits of New York suddenly started appearing. First the outlines of the World’s Fair sight in Flushing Meadows, the giant concrete constructions and steal globe easily visible from the freeway beautifully silhouetted against the sunset. Then finally, perfectly timed with sunset, the instantly recognisable silhouette of New York appears, skyscrapers, the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge.
By the time we emerged from the tunnel that carries the Long Island Expressway into Manhattan, it was completely dark. We walked down the half dozen blocks to our hotel, down Park Avenue, pausing occasionally for me to grin like an idiot (“I’m dragging a suitcase down Park Avenue!”) and sneak peaks of the Empire State as it appeared in all its multicoloured glory.
The final worry was that the hotel would be grim, but The Affinia Dumont which was booked because it was cheap and a convenient location, turned out to be a lovely place to stay. The staff were friendly and efficient and the room easily the largest and most luxurious I’ve ever stayed in, with a full kitchen and expensively furnished desk area! The only downside was a lack of free internet, wifi or otherwise.
We just about avoided the temptation of immediate sleep (it being only 5.30pm local time) and went in search of food. First stop – Starbucks for a hit of caffeine and free wifi. We continued to walk down 34th Street until I persuaded James to embrace the Americana and partake of a Wendy’s for dinner. OK, it was mostly driven by a lack of energy for anything more experimental, but it was located at the foot of the Empire State Building, and was a step more adventurous than the next door McDonalds. By the time we trudged home it was 8pm and pretty cold. We collapsed in front of the television for a bit before falling asleep before 9.30pm.
The holiday really starts I guess once you’re actually in the place you’re going, or at least within sight of it, so all the tedium and bureaucracy of planes and airports shouldn’t really taint the holiday proper. I often find there’s a moment at some point where your brain goes “holy crap, I’m on holiday” and I then spend the next half hour grinning like a bit of an idiot. For my holiday in New York, this first hit me before I even reached the city, sitting on a coach from JFK airport to Grand Central Station. As we slowly trudged through rush hour traffic, the sun was setting and bits of New York suddenly started appearing. First the outlines of the World’s Fair sight in Flushing Meadows, the giant concrete constructions and steal globe easily visible from the freeway beautifully silhouetted against the sunset. Then finally, perfectly timed with sunset, the instantly recognisable silhouette of New York appears, skyscrapers, the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge.
By the time we emerged from the tunnel that carries the Long Island Expressway into Manhattan, it was completely dark. We walked down the half dozen blocks to our hotel, down Park Avenue, pausing occasionally for me to grin like an idiot (“I’m dragging a suitcase down Park Avenue!”) and sneak peaks of the Empire State as it appeared in all its multicoloured glory.
The final worry was that the hotel would be grim, but The Affinia Dumont which was booked because it was cheap and a convenient location, turned out to be a lovely place to stay. The staff were friendly and efficient and the room easily the largest and most luxurious I’ve ever stayed in, with a full kitchen and expensively furnished desk area! The only downside was a lack of free internet, wifi or otherwise.
We just about avoided the temptation of immediate sleep (it being only 5.30pm local time) and went in search of food. First stop – Starbucks for a hit of caffeine and free wifi. We continued to walk down 34th Street until I persuaded James to embrace the Americana and partake of a Wendy’s for dinner. OK, it was mostly driven by a lack of energy for anything more experimental, but it was located at the foot of the Empire State Building, and was a step more adventurous than the next door McDonalds. By the time we trudged home it was 8pm and pretty cold. We collapsed in front of the television for a bit before falling asleep before 9.30pm.
