New York City, USA - Day 4
New York over the weekend is a veritable market place. Everywhere you walk there seems to be a market on with people selling just about anything you could imagine from old car parts to vintage sunglasses to war memorabilia to cigarette cards to china to old USA flags with some stars missing! These were mainly the 49 and 50 star flags omitting Alaska and Hawaii respectively. It was unbelievable the things we saw for sale. It was also quite shocking to think that some of the items could sell at all! We went to a couple of markets. There is one in Union Square which sells home-made food and art – very good for a bite to eat and they had a meditation session which was free to join in! I bought some sunglasses and a silver wing mirror from a 1960s automobile! Very good if you want to take home a piece of old USA.
Central Park is a large public, urban park located in the heart of Manhattan and is near to the Guggenheim Museum:
Central Park is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year. Central Park was opened in 1859, completed in 1873 designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the architect Calvert Vaux. While much of the park looks natural, it is in fact almost entirely landscaped. It contains several natural-looking lakes and ponds, extensive walking tracks, two ice-skating rinks (one of which is a swimming pool in July and August), the Central Park Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, a wildlife sanctuary, and the outdoor Delacorte Theatre which hosts the “Shakespeare in the Park” summer festivals. However, I found the best part to be rowing on the lake! Very relaxing if not a bit too romantic for my liking.
In the evening we were in the area for some comedy. Another Time Square offer but we did manage to barter. At first the tickets for entry to the Comic Strip Live were $20 but you can get them down to two for that price. It’s not a bad deal except that once you are in the Comic Strip Live, there is a minimum purchase of drinks (two per person) and they are very expensive! Plus the comedy was not all that either. One Irish guy was quite funny but the Americans were poor – of course the American crowd did not think so, but on my side of the Atlantic jokes should be funny. It was a bit of a let down and I don’t recommend it unless you want an insight into the standard of American comedy.
On the up side dinner was good that night. Near the Comedy Store is a restaurant called Big Daddy’s which is a typical in-your-face burger joint. Good potato tots and brilliant service.
Although it is not recommended - a walk through Central Park at night is quite entertaining. A great mix of people and a few chats and it was a very good night!