Ground Zero

Entering this area would make even the most stone hearted person feel humble. The thought of everything that happened on the day is still in the atmosphere. What hits you first is the amount of emptiness there where the twin towers once stood. We walked around and seen a gallery of photographs showing what happened on the day. One thing that did leave a bitter taste in our mouths was that the law enforcement were as usual really anal in their efforts to play Starsky and Hutch. One officer stood right behind us as we were looking out towards ground zero from the bridge. There were also a whole host of police cars at all four corners of ground zero. Kind of pointless as given it's no longer there it seems to be the least likely place any terrorist would attack. I guess it makes people feel safe and believe that something is being done.

When You're Strange

There are a lot of really odd people in New York, such as funny people waving their arms about screaming here and there, others in there own little worlds. We seen one person who for the time being shall be known as 'Lipgloss Face' together with her friend, 'Surgery Woman'. Surgery Woman looked like her doctor had put his foot on the back of her head whilst yanking her facial skin back so hard that her muscles and bone structure were almost popping out of her face. She could barely move her lips whilst talking. There were also a fare share of people pushing their dogs around in kids prams.

Wall Street

The beautiful building where all the business folk go to gamble with their stocks and such would have been such a wonderful sight if it weren't for the huge American flag plastered on top of the buildings lovely architecture. The street in general had a lot of charm and was very pretty.

Statue of Liberty

One thing is for sure, you can't go to New York without visiting the Statue of Liberty. First impressions were that it was a little smaller than we had expected. However the statue was still pretty impressive. The island where it stood had a really nice atmosphere and had a whole bunch of history regarding the artist who created it and such. I must admit mind, the statue does hold a striking resemblance to Rocky Balboa. In fact, stick her arms up in the air and she would look a lot like the statue at the top of the stairs in Rocky 3. Well worth a visit, thumbs up for Lady Liberty.

Madison Square Garden

This is another one of the famous locations seen in the films. Again it always looks so much larger on screen, and again when you are there it doesn't seem anything spectacular compared to any other city centre. In it's own right however it was pretty lively and a sea of neon all the way.

Time Square

This is how I thought more of New York would be at least, if not America as a whole. Time Square looks a bit like Tokyo or Shanghai, with the large neon adverts and entertainment all over the place. It was really buzzing with life.

Empire State

Again, although I'm sure it was great in it's day, this building kinda sucked in real life. We can say we've seen it I guess but ain't impressed. Next!

Waldorf Astoria

Ok, now this really was an anti-climax. The great Waldorf Astoria looked more like a run down youth hostel. There are far more grand hotels in the area. Another example of all talk, no delivery.

Lennon Memorial

Just inside Central Park, opposite where John Lennon lived there was a small mosaic like memorial. It was called Strawberry Fields, after the song. It's so sad that the American government had to off him for speaking out against Vietnam and other such things. Almost as sad as that poor quality fake photo of Harvey Oswald holding the gun during the Kennedy investigation. Why did the shadows on his face not match up with the rest of the photograph. Sigh!

Central Park

Central Park was really nice. You can see why people need a place such as this. It takes you away from all the noise, dirt and rudeness of the city. It has such a peaceful atmosphere. You can take a horse and carriage ride, row boats in a lake or take the kiddies to play on the swings as well as other things.

Crap subway(3rd world)

And I'm not talking about the sandwich joint here, although saying that, the branches of Subway found all across America tend to sell unfresh kinda rotten looking contents in their sandwiches, unlike anything you could get away with at home. In fact on one occasion in LA we found ants an our Sandwich. Bonus! (not).

Anyways, the subway underground we expected to be world class, given that its the 'Fabulous New York' in 'Fabulous America'. Sadly we found better quality subways in places such as Thailand, which is still regarded a a third world country. It was nothing in comparison with systems in Tokyo, Paris or London. All of the underground stations were grotty, run down

School for Dogs

This was one of those silly little stories that you get pretty much anywhere in the world but god was it stupid. The TV programme showed researchers trying to teach dogs how to read. So far they had managed to get dogs to understand signs that said, sit, roll over, bark and other such things. That's all well and good, clever dogs, but why the heck are you guys wasting time and funding on such things? What possible use can you find from such a task? Do they aim to teach our dogs to read so they can run off somewhere and use their doggy smarts to find a cure for cancer. Crazy, absolutely crazy!

Brooklyn Bridge

This gigantic structure joins Manhattan to the less fortunate side of New York. The size was impressive enough but like most of New York it was probably a lot more worthy of a gasp when it was built.

Grand central railway

Far too many times we have seen an area famous due to appearance in various films and thought it lacked the same sense of atmosphere. Grand Central Station I'm glad to say was not one of these. It had such an aura about it that could be compared to an old (but well maintained) museum. It had such beautiful architecture. You can see why they use it in so many films.

Chrysler Building

One of those buildings that you tend to look forward to seeing if you are going to New York. My advice, don't. I like architecture but this really isn't anything special in person. It sucked.

Dat Boy Got Soul

We were sitting in good old Macdonalds eating our food when this guy walks in, wearing his earphones and singing at the top of his voice. I didn't know at first if he maybe thought he was on Pop Idol or something.

A few moments later however, it did indeed seem that he knew where he was as he began to order. That is, he continued to sing just as loud but this time he held up one finger and pointed to the number one menu option (Big Mac Meal). After receiving his goods he left... still singing.

The Day The World Almost Ended

As we took our first walk around New York there were fire engines and police cars whizzing around all over the place. It was complete chaos and as usual very much over egged.

Eventually we arrived at a spot where there were no less than 6 fire engines parked outside a hotel (no smoke to be seen). The little old lady who accidentally burnt her toast was alleged to have possessed weapons of mass destruction and hid links with Alkaider.

New York, New York! (no really this time)

The city that never sleeps, it's just resting it's eyes. We are always told that New York is alive all hours. Quite a shame that shops and restaurants close the same time, if not earlier than anywhere else.

Our Old Friend Insanity!

As we passed through customs back into the USA we were welcomed with the usual arrogant, over the top, status seeking 'I'm wearing a badge' official, who was eager to share his finicky insanity with us. He asked us all kinds of up-tight questions but failed to check a single thing. So long as he sounded important, we could have been carrying anything through with us.
I got out of the car to retrieve a visa card from the boot. He took a look at it and then in his best wannabe Starsky and Hutch voice said, 'Get back in your vehicle sir, back in the vehicle!'