New York

NY, City of Lights. Pics: Trevor Craig
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6th May 1998

Having spent 6 months working in London, myself and Trevor, decided to blow some of our hard earned cash on a visit to the USA. I had visited New York as a child but the memories are vague. I wanted to see the towering skyscrapersand discover for myself if they were as high as I remembered!

City of Skyscrapers

Other major cities on our itinerary were:

NY's bridges by night. Pics: Trevor Craig
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East Coast: Washington DC, Orlando, Miami, Everglades, Key West.

Then onto the West Coast and to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

The day arrived. London to NY. I was nervous and forced some coffee down at 6am in the morning before leaving for the tube to Heathrow. After this 45 minute journey we faced our first queue in the airport. A security check. We were verbally quizzed and cross questioned about our reasons for travelling, where we were going and why, where we'd come from etc... and this was well before the September 11 terrorist attacks!! After this it was the turn of our hand luggage to be checked. Random checks but as luck would have it, my bag was picked [no problems tho'].

The Financial Centre taken from top of World Trade Centre. Pics: Trevor Craig
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On the plane we had excellent seats with loads of leg room. Tired from having got up early in London, the time zone changes and not having had much sleep onboard, we rolled off the plane into JFK. A vast airport - and I thought Heathrow was huge! A free bus service whisked us away to the subway which in turn took us to our hostel. I must admit that the NY subway is horrible. It makes London tubes look like the Orient Express! They are dirty, old and have quite a seedy and unsafe feel about them. On the other hand they also have a certain character. These are clunky, chunky, squeaky NY trains and it's kind of what you'd expect.

The tip of Manhatten Island. Pics: Trevor Craig
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By now we were feeling decidedly dirty and utterly exhausted. The hostel, a short walk from our subway stop, lies between uptown Manhatten and The Bronx. Getting a bit towards the dodgy end of town. We discovered that it in fact, also lies one street up and parallel to Broadway. Tomorrow after some jetlag catch up, we explore.

7th May 1998

Our first major tour of New York. We decided to do downtown Manhatten and Liberty Island today. A good nights sleep always works wonders and the jetlag had already cured itself. Once downtown we were rather disillusioned when we walked out of the subway, to see that we could actually see nothing!!! The fog and mist was right down. There went our 1st plan to take the ferry to Liberty Island. We then decided to walk around the whole financial district instead and wait, hopefully, for the weather to clear in the afternoon. What we did see was still absolutely phenomenal. The buildings make one feel so very small and insignificant. The narrow streets with their huge skyscrapers all around, are something that has to be seen to be believed, especially if one isn't used to such towering structures. We walked and walked and walked. The only way to experience a place. Up Broadway to Wall Street, down to FDR Drive and back up through the small back streets to see whether the World Trade Centre was out of the clouds. It wasn't but what we could see really made us speechless, utterly and totally!! 110 floors of straight up. And 2 buildings at that. We hung around in the Square for a while just absorbing the sheer grandeur soaring above our heads. It's still so hard to believe that both these giants have now gone.

Trevor on top of WTC. Pics: Trevor Craig
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As the day went on, the fog started to lift. We made our way over to Battery Park to investigate the prospects for a ferry trip. All go. We could see the Statue of Liberty appearing through the mist. Once on Liberty Island the size of the Statue hits home. Its HUGE. Looking backwards, the Manhatten skyline was also rising out of the fog. Stunning. We could almost see the tops of the World Trade Centre towers now. The sun burnt up any remaining cloud and we decided to do the trip up to the Observation Deck of the WTC whilst the opportunity presented itself. It was pretty expensive but proved to be worth every single cent. I have never before seen such a vista. New York is fabulous from up here, huge, grand, picturesque. It hit me up here exactly where I was - in New York - this city of skyscrapers that had sub-consciously imprinted itself somewhere in my brain as a child. For 3 hours I lived the experience for myself up on top of the world. We waited for darkness to fall and gazed out, 110 floors above the streets, over a 360degree panorama of dazzling city lights.

Janet of top of WTC. Pics: Trevor Craig
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8th May 1998

We woke to horrendous weather. Fog yesterday and rain today. We weren't winning. We had planned to go up the Empire State Building but that was out of the question. Zero visibility we were told. Instead we spent most of the day walking in and around midtown Manhatten. Down 6th Avenue, commonly known as The Avenue of The Americas, until we reached Washington Square. The Washington Arch was surrounded in scaffolding!! Then a walk/hike/trek up the long 5th Avenue from it's beginning point at the Arch. En route: the wafer thin Flatiron Building at the junction of Broadway and 5th Avenue. A very intriguing building. Opposite is Madison Square Park. We continued up until we reach The Empire State Building still totally covered in cloud. I reckon that's the price you pay for wanting to see monolithic buildings. They reach out way past the cloud base!! By now the rain was coming down in torrents but we persevered and wandered on up to the 42nd Street/5thAvenue intersection. This is where the famous Time Square is. Talk about neon city. This is something else [2nd only maybe to Las Vegas itself]. The general buzz here is almost tangible. Its loud noisy loud noisy.! Full of vibrant people, adverts, theatres, movies, red-light stuff. Geez! So full of life. We came back in the evening to experience the place at night and to see the dazzling, glaring lights of this world renown New Year gathering place. Then dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe - far better than Londons' we decided. What an action-packed evening at a real happening place.

Looking uptown. Pics: Trevor Craig
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9th May 1998

Guess what? Howling winds and driving rain greeted us again. It's worse than Britain!! We went out in it. No choice really. As a visitor you just have to do it and make the most of everything. We kitted up in all the goretex clobber wed brought along and headed off to Grand Central Station. It was like walking into the 1920's in here [except for the building construction]. What an impressive place. I can see why the movie moguls like to use the place. What with that romantic and oh so perfect meeting place next to the clock, that hustle and bustle feeling of going somewhere and the grand stairs winding their way upwards. Once the rain had calmed down we dodged in and out of doorways towards the Chrysler Building. I didn't think one could call something like this beautiful, but that's what it is, even in the rain. The elements just about held out for the continuation of our hike up 5th Avenue to The Rockefeller Centre. This is an amazing conglomeration of buildings with a gold plated statue in front, surrounded by all the flags of the United Nation countries. By now the wind and rain was comparable to any of the big storms I've experienced in Cape Town [my home town], and believe me they can be awful. We continued pounding the pavement passing St Patricks Cathedral and just about every famous name you've ever heard of: Christian Dior, Rolex, Trump Towers, Walt Disney, all the top fashion designer names. What total extravagance, glitz and glamour. Not my world at all but intriguing to see how the other half live. If that wasn't enough we reached the corner of 5th Avenue and Central Park. Home of the 5-star Plaza Hotel, complete with hoards of stretch limos cruising around, just waiting for the likes of Madonna, Tom Cruise, Elton John or some such famous person to hop into. Across the way from the park is the luxury apartment that was once home to John Lennon and still is for Yoko Ono [I believe].

City of Skyscrapers. Pics: Trevor Craig
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The weather was now taking its toll on us. We were sodden, cold and hungry + the feet were having a sense of humour failure. We left walking in Central Park for another time and walked back to 34th Street in the hopes of getting a glimpse of The Empire State Building. What do you know. The cloud base had lifted a bit. We took the chance, went up and things weren't too bad visibility speaking. The wind however was howling like the proverbial banshee. Trevor braved it outside on the deck. I watched from inside as he tried to take the obligatory pics!!!

Pics: Trevor Craig
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So, my first real trip to NY was both a washout [literally] and extremely exciting. We both knew we'd be back to finish what we missed and we did return, in May 2001, 3 months before the horrific terrorist attacks. More of that later in the journal. Tomorrow it's off to Washington DC...