New York, New York!

We are currently sitting in an airport in Paris, waiting for a delayed flight to Barcelona.

A bit of a run down so far from where we last left you. We left North America and caught up with Mike’s rellies in Edinburgh. We then got sick and flew to London, and met up with my brother. We got even sicker and then flew to Paris. We have actually spent about 4 extra days here just so that we (in particular me) could recover.

Ok, so back to our trip. Now it’s time to tell you about New York.

New York
We spent a lot of time walking around and on buses in the Big Apple. We got this cool bus tour ticket which gave you 5 tours in 48 hours – we got in 4 (Upper NYC, Lower NYC, NYC at Night and the Brooklyn). They were double decker buses with a clear roof so it was the perfect way to see the city – you were constantly looking up. Other than that we did all the touristy things. We saw the Statue of Liberty from the free Staten Island Ferry. You can’t go up inside the statue itself anymore, so we decided to be stingy and just see her from the boat. We took photos of Times Square, wandered down Wall Street (and went into Tiffany’s – bling everywhere!), went up the Empire State Building, and saw the Memorial to the World Trade Centre. They are building this massive reverse fountain – it’s like a big hole in the ground with water flowing down and the name of everyone who died will be inscribed on the walls of the fountain.

For those of you who watch The Late Show, we went to Hello Deli for lunch one day. We still don’t really know the deal, but the deli owner has appeared on the show for years. We took a photo of the shop, but decided not to pose with him considering we had no idea who he actually was. Actually, this was how we found out it was famous – someone asked if he posed for photos.

Another highlight of New York was our trip to the theatre – we went and saw Rent. Figured it was appropriate considering it is a musical about New York. It was great – I was laughing and crying. One of the stars was an American Idol reject (Mike’s words). We also went to see ANOTHER basketball game – the Knicks (NYC) vs Cavalliers (Cleveland). The Knicks lost (Mike – No surprises there but we did get to see LeBron drop 50 points, though I missed his half-time buzzer beating 3 while I was taking a photo of the court logo…. Damn it!). While talking about sport, we also went on a tour of the Yankee Stadium. This is their last season at the ground they first moved to in 1923 (or something, though it was dropped and rebuilt in the 70s) and then they move into a massive new stadium across the road, which costs something in the vicinity of $1.2b! Mike – I thought the whole thing was awesome, getting to go in the press box, the clubhouse and sit in the dug-out. I think I took about 100 photos!

What else? We went on a carriage ride through Central Park – a bit of a rip off but it is the thing to do. Didn’t see much of the park – too lazy to walk around the whole bloody thing, not to mention most of it was still dead due to the cold weather. We also walked the Brooklyn Bridge and got lost on the other side. And how could I forget?!?!? We went to the Guggenheim – it was so cool! Best museum I’ve ever been to. They had this Chinese guy who “painted” using gunpowder – really different stuff. He also had some interesting exhibits, like 9 cars – real ones - with all these tubes of lights sticking out of them that ‘crashed/tumbled/exploded’ up the middle of the Guggenheim. We also went to the Museum of Natural History – a great museum but full of stuffed animals – literally! And they also wouldn’t let me buy a postcard – the bastards shut their shop at closing time – EARLY!

It’s also worth mentioning 2 of our dinners. One was in the meatpacking district – ultra swanky area with some cool bars and restaurants. We had a steak and lamb cutlets served on a stone-like hotplate. Really pricey place but great food. We also checked out a sushi place after our broadway show. Apparently we tried dolphin skin – now I had problems with this but then got over it. We were then told by a German chick that it wasn’t dolphin skin. I’m not sure if I want it to be or not. Either way, their food was amazing and even their sushi (which I don’t really like in Brissy, but all sushi in Nth America seems so much nicer) was delicious.

So, New York finished our US travelling and then we headed back into Canada. But more about that later!