Saturday, February 10, 2007

My last day in New York


So, after a really good nights sleep, I stuffed around organizing my stuff until about 11am, then decided to do a bit of a walk around central park until I had to be back here at 2.30 to meet Thomas and Kev and go do the boat trip. Okay, now just some advice for any of you thinking of ever coming to New York… awesome place, great things to do, I mean the people leave a little to be desired in some cases, but in general, well worth it… If you get the chance to go see Central Park, make the effort, go and see it, but leave yourself more than a couple of hours. I got to the park and did what I really like doing in new places- got myself lost… didn’t know which way is up, and I generally have a really good sense of direction, but I was lost… anyway, I eventually found myself towards the northern end of the park and all of a sudden an hour had gone past… so I figured that I had to head south and eventually would run into the reservoir which would mean that I was roughly in the area that I had to be to get back to the hostel at around 103rd st. So I walked and walked, and eventually found the reservoir, and headed around the edge (got some great photos) and again, got to the end of that and another half hour had gone, so not knowing how long it was going to take me to get back, I walked a bit faster. Walking thru some baseball fields, and the eventually not having any idea where I was, started jogging… The problem was that by that time I was in a part of the park that had some really cool things to take photos of, like Cleopatra’s needle, and some statue of a Polish dude on a horse with two crossed swords – awesome… so I was running, and like “Oh, Shit… I have to get a few photos of that” and running some more, and “Bugger… that looks awesome” anyway, eventually I found the edge of the park that I needed to find, and realized that I was on 81st street – 22 blocks from home… luckily there was a subway station right there and I caught it the 2 stops required and all was good… now I have a sore foot from running…

Then it was on to the cruise up the river… We took the 4pm one on the recommendation of another traveler who said that you get the best views at that time of day. Boy was he right… leaving the dock it was a bit glary, but soon enough the sun started to set, and apparently the smog of a huge city gives a pretty awesome sunset… yeah, got some good photos… only problem was that on a cold day, its even colder out on the water with the wind and stuff… there were several times that I couldn’t feel my fingers, at all. Not “I had cold fingers” – I literally couldn’t feel my hands. And then when I could – It hurt like hell. Photos had to come first – who knows how long before I come back?

Anyway, that took 2 hours, and afterwards we went to Starbucks and got a hot drink to warm us up a little bit… then I went back to Macy’s and bought another suitcase… *coughs* its not that I bought that much stuff in NY, and I was almost going to get another suitcase before I left Australia… but I found a good one and at a decent price and it will save me carrying around like a duffel bag or whatever which I can maybe leave for Shannon and his 60+ books that he’s collected over the last 8 months or so… *shrugs*

Anyway, then I got back to the hostel, relishing the fact that it was only 9pm and I was going to get a good nights sleep after being really organized and getting my bags packed before bed and all… but Irish had other ideas for what was also his last night in the big apple… and we went out for a “couple of pints”. Interesting night… he decided to try the old “buy a round of drinks for the girls at the bar” trick… which apparently works… sort of.

*coughs*

Anyway, I got back to the hostel at 3am, and although not hung over – I am pretty tired and I might just let the gently buffeting of the bus lull me to sleep…

Next stop – the nation’s capital – Washington DC

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