New York

Day 1

After a very welcome meet with some old Sheffield Uni bods on Thursday night (cheers chaps) I took the dreaded tube journey to Heathrow which was, of course, a nightmare with my luggage. Got there with plenty of time to spare and soon wished that I hadn't as there was no plane at the departure gate. After a delay of just over an hour we finally boarded and then sat for another hour whilst they tried to work out why they had extra luggage on board. Finally we set off, then had to head back when they realised they'd repacked the luggage incorrectly. Nice one BA.

Eventually arrived in New York well behind schedule and met a very patient Mik at my terminal. Both absolutely knackered, we took a bus to the hotel at the Rockefeller Centre, wandered into a bar to get some food and a few beers, and then hit the sack ready for a day of strolling around Manhatten on Saturday...

Day 2

Despite being shattered the night before, the 5 hour difference still took its toll and we were awake by about 6am, still really tired. Even so we took in a lot in New York on the Saturday - strolled through Times Square, checked out the bus terminal in advance of the Giants game, went to Grand Central Station, up to Central Park where we went through the zoo, and then all the way up to the Natural History Museum where the highlight was definitely a panoramic film of the galaxy which left me with a crick in my neck. We then made our way back to midtown via St Patrick's Cathedral, which is spectacular inside, and sat by the ice rink on 42nd street drinking hot apple cider and made a note to come back and drink it again.

Still shattered from a long and VERY cold day, we went back to the hotel for showers and then back out for a bite to eat and a few drinks, then bed again hoping to feel more awake the next day.

Day 3

After breakfast we went to the bus terminal, got lost inside it for half an hour and then finally some kind soul put us out of our misery and told us where we needed to go to get the bus to the Giants stadium.

Outside the stadium was ace, loads of private Giants branded pick-up trucks and RVs with barbeques cooking what appeared to be whole animals and big fat Americans swilling budweiser in the seats. They take going to a game seriously, they don't mess about.

The game was nothing short of a disaster for the Giants, they punted the ball straight out of touch at the beginning and the Vikings scored a touch down on their 2nd down with about 15 seconds on the clock. Quarterback Eli Manning had a 'mare, giving away 4 interceptions from which the Vikings scored 3 touchdowns directly. Lots of boos, lots of people leaving early, and some guy to our left was encouraging his kids to sing 'Eli is adopted' which I didn't particularly like, although Mik did point out that Manning's dad and brother were both top NFL players.

After the game we walked past a HUGE queue and laughed, and then stopped laughing when we realised it was the queue for the buses which we needed to join. We trapsed what seemed like miles to the back of the queue and tried to guess how many hours it would take to get back, but it wasn't too bad and we were back by 6pm for more hot apple cider. Then the usual routine of getting some food, drinks in a bar and then asleep by midnight wondering if we'd ever stop feeling so tired.

Day 4

Monday was, as described by the weather forecast on TV, a Soaker. Low clouds and foggy, intermittent rain, but slightly warmer than it had been before. I decided the Empire State Building would be rubbish and so we got the subway down to Wall Street and walked to Battery Park to get a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty.

Through what can only be described as sheer laziness we decided to get a yellow New York cab style ferry instead of joining what appeared to be the rest of the world on the official ferry tour. After debating which side of the ferry would be best we boarded it when it arrived and discovered it was just us two and 4 Japanese tourists on board - excellent.

The tour was good, Kathleen Turner (?) told us all about each part of the tour and then things went a little pear shaped when the wind picked up and the rain lashed into our faces. I took a rubbish picture of the Brooklyn Bridge through the driving rain and then we were told to go back inside the boat because of the weather, which wasn't disappointing at all. We decided to get off the boat early and head up to Little Italy and Chinatown.

Both of these were as expected - lots of little shops and eateries, and lots of very slow moving people to navigate around. We made use of the tour book I brought and hunted down Lombardi's restaurant which was recommended as the top cheap eat in New York. And it was excellent. Stuffed, we wandered around for a while then got the subway back to Grand Central Station.

Monday night was a bit different as we went to a bar with some people from Vegas and got drunk on a mixture of beer, cider, vodka and black sambuca and, to demonstrate my drunkenness, I took issue with a huge 7 foot dude outside who was trying to sell me coke and also trying to convince me it was a good idea to put in my sock and take it with me on my flight. Not finished there, I had another pop at him in the street when I saw him again later. Good work. I woke up in the morning with a bit of a hangover but also quite glad to be alive.

Day 5

Not too much to report. We floated around with those tired types of hangovers, then at 3:30pm tried to flag down a taxi to JFK airport to drop Mik off and then take me to my hotel nearby. This was a very unsuccessful mission and so we got the hotel to book us a cab, which hilariously turned out to be a stretched limo. With hindsight this was a decent move as the traffic was hideous and we got to the airport just before 5pm, giving Mik about 15 minutes to check in. I haven't heard otherwise so I assume he made it!!

Then it was onto Queens for me, in particular Jamaica Boulevard. The cab ended up costing about 40 pounds for just over an hour and a half's journey - not great but a yellow cab would have been about the same with the traffic.

I'm not surprised that Jamaica didn't make it into my Top 10 New York guide. It's a dump. I checked into the hotel, which was perfectly reasonable, and then strolled down the main boulevard, cold and tired, looking for something to eat. Fearing for my life, and struggling against the icy winds, I duly noted the various Chinese takeaways which I didn't think I'd survive through and then broke a long-standing promise by doubling back and entering the MacDonalds opposite the hotel which I'd earlier ignored. A quick drink in the hotel and then it was off to sleep in what seemed at the time to be the comfiest bed in the world, dreaming about a fantastically comfortable flight to San Francisco sitting next to a gorgeous babe with unlimited food and drink and an onboard entertainment system...