New York: Exploration

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Day 2: 21 September 2005

Waking up refreshed and full of beans, we were ready to see the sights. Breakfast was taken at an all-American diner, then it was first stop Empire State Building to get a birds eye view of all that lay before us. Fortunately it was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky, so visibility was perfect – we could see for miles in all directions. It is amazing to see how built up New York is, every available space is taken up by buildings of at least 6 or 7 storeys, and the southern end of Manhattan is nothing short of spectacular.

Next stop was the New York Public Library, where after a quick read it was on to Grand Central Station. It was brilliant seeing things and streets that have been in movies, and these two have been featured in such classics as Ghostbusters and The Day After Tomorrow. Next time I see a film set in New York I think I will be looking at the scenery rather than watching the actors!

The UN building was alive with protestors, as apparently the 21st September was some kind of International Day of Peace. At one of the gates, a lady protesting for peace had brought along her two pet parrots for the day, and was filming people while they gave out their message of peace, all the while with the parrots sat on their shoulders. Luckily I did not get caught out, but Sam and Chris were accosted and the ‘parrots of peace’ were placed on their shoulders. Sam’s wasn’t going to be drawn in and simply gave his message to Kofi and the boys: “It’s all a bit too political for me”. Chris on the other hand was keen to try to do some good with his statement: “We’ve just got to make the world a better place”. No suprises for guessing that this pearl made us crack up with laughter, and this kind of became a catchphrase for everything we did for the rest of the day.

We’d been walking for about 5 hours when we stumbled across Bryant Park, where we stopped and had a beer, and photos, Chris again giving us a laugh with his impression of the Joker from Batman.

That evening the New York Yankees were playing at home to Baltimore. This is baseball before anyone asks. We decided to head up to to the game and took the subway up to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The subway experience was cool, apart from being absolutely mega-crowded and having the hottest stations in the world.

We got into the stadium just before the first pitch was thrown by the girl who had one of her arms bitten off by a shark a while ago, I’m sorry but I forget her name. Then it was onto the main event, drinking and eating. Now major baseball fans forgive me, but baseball is boring. Its even more boring than cricket. So we used the three hour game time to sample some famous American hot dogs and drink some famous Australian beer, Fosters. We were not alone in our antics however, everyone does it, in fact I think going to the game is just an excuse to drink, eat and give abuse to English boys who don’t stand up when the national anthem is played. Or in particular when Dave Godwin doesnt stand up when the national anthem is played. The abuse he got was actually a bit random (“Hey, O.C. hair, put your panties back on”) but it made us chuckle and gave us another saying for the rest of the holiday.

The game was finished 2-1 to the Yankees for those interested. At least the right team won. We went back into Manhattan to have a few more drinks, again it was a quiet night, but a very funny one as Dave ended up very drunk after a Sambuca and claiming that he was being an embarrassment to himself, the U.K. and the whole world, but we love him really!