Checked in at Heathrow with no problems for my Virgin Atlantic flight. The flight itself was very comfortable, and the food great. I watched an episode of Peep Show, the new Narnia (Dawn Treader) and the Adjustment Bureau. The descent into JFK was fairly unpleasant, and I felt quite ill. I had plenty of time to get over it, though, because immigration took absolutely ages. They took my fingerprints and my photo, and stamped my passport. I went through customs, dealt with a very rude man, and came out into the bright warmth of New York City.
Luckily, Geoff had read my email and was waiting for me. He had very kindly bought me a metro card, and carried my bag as we found the Airtrain, changed to a subway, and made our way to the Holiday Inn in Queens. I dumped my stuff, Geoff unpacked a little of his, and I made sure I had the right things to start sightseeing. We formulated a plan based on the list of things I wanted to do, and headed back out into the somewhat stifling heat.
We took the subway downtown and walked a little further past the WTC to Battery Park, at the southernmost tip of Manhattan. I got a large, hot pretzel from a van, a cream cheese one, which was weird because the cream cheese inside was very sweet and sickly. From there, we walked a little way around to the east to the Staten Island ferry terminal. After a long wait, we got on the rather huge ferry with hundreds of other people, and had a pleasant and refreshing journey to Staten Island. We got off and got on the next one straight back, this time on the Statue of Liberty side. I rang the hostel to cancel my night's accommodation there. We went quite close to the statue, and it's actually rather small. Dramatic, though.
At the other end, we walked up Wall Street for a way, and then to the Brooklyn Bridge. It's quite beautiful, but there were a lot of people on it. At the far end, we went in search of a subway stop and got a train to 42nd street (which got the song stuck in my head) and walked to Times Square in search of somewhere to eat. We settled on Charley O's, which is just around the corner from the Hirschfeld Theatre that How to Succeed is playing at. The box office was closed. I had a blueberry martini and a Caesar salad (spelt Caeser), which was OK, but nothing wonderfully special. We got a train back to the hotel - I was horribly tired by then, having been up for 24 hours. Bed at 12.30. I slept fairly badly.
Luckily, Geoff had read my email and was waiting for me. He had very kindly bought me a metro card, and carried my bag as we found the Airtrain, changed to a subway, and made our way to the Holiday Inn in Queens. I dumped my stuff, Geoff unpacked a little of his, and I made sure I had the right things to start sightseeing. We formulated a plan based on the list of things I wanted to do, and headed back out into the somewhat stifling heat.
We took the subway downtown and walked a little further past the WTC to Battery Park, at the southernmost tip of Manhattan. I got a large, hot pretzel from a van, a cream cheese one, which was weird because the cream cheese inside was very sweet and sickly. From there, we walked a little way around to the east to the Staten Island ferry terminal. After a long wait, we got on the rather huge ferry with hundreds of other people, and had a pleasant and refreshing journey to Staten Island. We got off and got on the next one straight back, this time on the Statue of Liberty side. I rang the hostel to cancel my night's accommodation there. We went quite close to the statue, and it's actually rather small. Dramatic, though.
At the other end, we walked up Wall Street for a way, and then to the Brooklyn Bridge. It's quite beautiful, but there were a lot of people on it. At the far end, we went in search of a subway stop and got a train to 42nd street (which got the song stuck in my head) and walked to Times Square in search of somewhere to eat. We settled on Charley O's, which is just around the corner from the Hirschfeld Theatre that How to Succeed is playing at. The box office was closed. I had a blueberry martini and a Caesar salad (spelt Caeser), which was OK, but nothing wonderfully special. We got a train back to the hotel - I was horribly tired by then, having been up for 24 hours. Bed at 12.30. I slept fairly badly.
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