US/Canada/French Canada Tour 09

I'm way behind schedule writing this so I'm going to keep it twitter-y short and sweet.

This is sort of embarassing but we had coffee for breakfast at Starbucks. Beggars can't be choosers in a country where coffee is fairly consistently shit and Zagat's number one rated coffee is Starbucks - well go with the flow.

We headed down Fifth Ave from Midtown and walked past the Chrysler Building (which is probably the most attractive NY skyscraper) to Washington Park (which is at the end of Fifth Ave) where we were pounced on by a sprucker selling "pick-me downs" as you do.

From there we walked back to the Village attempting to go to the shop which sold (amongst other things) Rod Stewart t-shirts... (My mum has wet dreams about Rod...). But alas it was shut.

From here - we walked down Christopher Street till we hit the West side of the Island. Some freaky druggy guy enjoyed playing frogger (would pretend to jump out in front of trucks and SUVs which were speeding about 60 miles an hour on a freeway). Although maybe his sense of self preservation kicked in when, at the last minute, he pulled back.

We wandered along a newish looking park along the Western side of the Island. So did the Frogger guy who we did our best to try and avoid his antics. New Jersey was visible across the river - it looked a lot less dense than Manhattan - but it did have a "W" hotel which is one up than Australia.

We headed down to Ant's favourite site in NY - the World Trade Center ground zero site (in Downtown). Last time we were at NY - it was only a couple of years since 9-11 and the site was still in a bit of a mess. However - it seems as if they are finally constructing a new site (a split between new office buildings and memorial parks). Everything was covered up so you couldn't really see much of the site from the street level. Anyhows - after "paying our respects" - what better way of following that is to shop at Century 21 (a big department store right next to ground zero). $5US 2-Xist undies - high five.

We had lunch at Battery Park (a newish/90s development on the western side of Downtown) and had a greasy Panini.

We continued walking down the southern most tip of the island was - the Staten Island Ferry terminal where we caught a free ferry to Staten Island and back. I hadn't done this since I was first in NY back in the 90s - where I seemed to recall the ferry terminal being really run down. However it was all ritzed up with big f### off LCD monitors displaying ads for gender reassignment surgery. The Staten Island Ferry is a free way to ride past the Statue of Liberty (Hollywood's most blown up statue) instead of forking out $30USD for a trip to Liberty Island. We did our patented "push old people and children out of the way" to get the best seats on the back of the ferry - and we were treated to some excellent views of the Statue and Manhatten Island (mind the smog).

It took a bit over an hour to do a round trip to Staten Island (we had to faff around at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal for a bit) and when we got back - we headed into Downtown and did a bit of shopping at NY's "JB Hi Fi equiv" J&R. It was a bit like the downtown Melbourne JBs (with shops specialising in different things all over Downtown). I bought some cheap games and perused the CDs and DVDs and avoided the urge to buy "Creepizoids" on DVD for $6.

We did a few sights around Downtown (ie: Wall Street, City Hall) and then headed over the Brooklyn Bridge and followed the masses of tourists (and crazy cyclists) over the bridge to Brooklyn. It was very pretty (around dusk) and slightly dangerous in the way that cyclists shoot past pedestrians. We also had to navigate around an annoying pack of russian teens who seemed hell bent on making our walk unenjoyable.

Once at Brooklyn (which was sort of a first for me to get off the Island) - we found a little Pizza place in DUMBO (Down Underneath the Manhatten and Brooklyn Overpass) which served great NY style pizza. Luckily we got there before the hoards of Russian students. High five.

We wandered around DUMBO for a bit which was sort of pleasant - lots of nice organic supermarkets, cafes and artsy stuff. It had felt like this place had been gentrified somewhat (could imagine it to be fairly grungy 10-15 years ago).

We headed back to the Island on the nearby Manhatten Bridge (just north of the Brooklyn Bridge) - although this bridge was fairly un-touristy as it was a lot louder and ear drum destroying than the Brooklyn Bridge with several trains going past at high speeds...

Once you get over the Bridge - you arrive in NY's Chinatown. Although not as iconic as say San Fran's Chinatown - it isn't without its charm. Right next door to Chinatown is Little Italy (of course!) full of touty restaraunts and shops with Godfather and Sopranos posters and stuff...

We headed back to the hotel (quite late) and dumped our stuff and headed back on the Subway (our first trip of the day) to Chinatown. Although when we got there (around 11ish) most things appeared shut. We stumbled onto a busy Chinese Restaurant where we had to wait for a table for 20 minutes. The wait was worth it. Thankfully we got our own table because for the most part - they made you share your table with other people. Also thankfully - we didn't have to share our table with the local serial killer who was sitting on a table near us (sort of had the whole Dennis Ferguson pedaophile look down pat).