New York City, USA - Day 1
New York City. A city I have visited before and I have come across none like it since. Apart from London! Our arrival was smooth enough into Newark in New Jersey. Word of advice – be careful which train you get from the station to get to NYC. There are two services, one Amtrak and one New Jersey Transit. The cheap ticket is for the New Jersey Transit but try and get on the Amtrak train and you will be shouted at! Fortunately our “British” accents got us out of trouble and out of paying the extremely expensive Amtrak fare! We just got ejected off the train. Quite an eventful introduction to NYC but we eventually made it to our hostel.
Chelsea International Hostel is a clean and friendly hostel. Basic rooms but a hostel is a hostel. It is expensive enough at $80 a night each for a twin room which is barely big enough to swing a cat. But the location is terrific between the financial centre and Broadway on the west side. The area seemed very safe and the local night life was very much alive which was fun!
One of the best things about the area in which we were staying was the eateries. There were delis galore and fantastic restaurants. Our first morning we went to Murrays Bagels and the food was fantastic. I got the impression quickly that Americans consider breakfast a key meal. It should be too. However the ease and speed by which you can get a decent bit of breakfast grub is astonishing and something that we desperately need in the UK instead of Subway and McD’s painful excuse for muffins!
Fuelled up and ready to hit the town we decided to try and get our bearings and go for a walk. Times Square, a major intersection in Manhattan, was close by and always entertaining. Such a tourist mecca/trap it is hard to keep moving and not be completely dazed and confused by the bright lights of its animated, digital advertisements. So many people trying to sell everything and anything from theatre tickets to their own rap music productions! It is impossible to pass through quickly, easily and without being harassed but quite entertaining the first time. We also had an extraordinary stroke of luck on our first day in NYC.
In Times Square we came across this woman shouting out “free tickets to the David Letterman Show”. Thinking it was another scam I was dubious and I was also trying to figure out who David Letterman whilst putting our names down! Still without a Scooby as to who Mr Letterman was or what sort of show we were in for, we went to the theatre to get our tickets. There was a lot of crowd cheering and encouragement on entry to the theatre and in the theatre waiting for the show to start. It started with various fairly poor jokes by David Letterman but his star guest that night was Bruce Willis!! It was crazy. Our first night in NYC and we got to a chat show starring Bruce Willis. Great fun!
That night we wandered around Fifth Avenue with all the expensive shops and some outlandishly dressed people! Went for dinner at a bbq restaurant called Rub “The Best Butt In Town”! It also describes itself as “Righteous Urban Barbeque” and is at 208 West 23rd Street. Fantastic food with fried green tomatoes, bbq chicken, beef and spinach. Servings were a little on the big side which is only to be expected. But all in all a fantastic first day!