New York

accompanied by the emotive sounds of Brand New, with Soca Amaretto Lime:

22nd November, 15:30

I rolled back to the hostel where I walked in and grabbed my stuff from the apparently "locked" luggage room. I then proceeded to Grand Centrla station, got horrible confused, realised I was going from Penn Station, caught subway back to there, checked in my bag, had some crazy pizza and got a few supplies for the journey.

Then I basically did what anyone does at a station.

Wait -> Train.

22nd November, 13:00

I majorly overslept today as I keep waking up at odd hours. I also hope the spanish people don't realise it is me who manages to stink an entire room out while I sleep. Though to confuse matters the guy told me it was 10.30, when it was acutally 9.30, possible Lost In Translation moment, without the sad romance. Soon got ready and check out, and dumped my main bag in the luggage room. I then watched part of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on the tele in the jazz cafe.

After careful ponderment I decided it was unlikely I could get in a decent spot in the crowd to see anyway. Instead I took the subway to 72nd, and chilled in south central park, which had a strange clam bustle about it. Sitting by "The Mall", there was a saxamaphonist saxamaphoning away. Very nice. I also utilised the free park wifi again, and Shing could hear me for free!

If you want to communicate with me, via sound, for free, make sure to have a pc microphone and Google Talk. Some form of skype phone may also work.

I exited the park via Strawberry Fields, which was very pretty.

21st November

Today I have mostly been forgetting to write this journal. And as it is tomorrow my brain is murky with the details. I began the day waking up with my 3 new spanish chums. A guy and 2 girls. They're nice.

I then cruised to central park and celebrated it's autumnalness. At 11am I hit the Whitney Art Museum which I was extremely excited about. This was mainly due to their large amount of Edward Hopper works. Unfortunately,

1) Most were sketches
2) Most weren't on display
3) The security guards were mean. (I blame rex mainly)
4) Not allowed cameras
5) The rest of the museum was aweful. Full of pretencious snobby excuses for art that ached my soul

Never the less, the 2 or 3 Hopper paintings there were AMAZING. As was stuff by Charles Sheeler, who was a fellow precisionist, though more so. Only a few there by him as well. Ah well, NightHawks is at the Chicago Institue of Art. Wooo!

After that, I was a bit disillusioned, so, via random wandering I came across the central park zoo. Entry only $8, bonus points, and in wifi range! I saw: sea lions, some form of water baboon, RED PANDAS!, penguins, seals, all manner of birds, frogs, snakes, lizards, fish, fauna, various monkeys.

I then evaporated from there and hit rockefeller plaza once more, followed by Times Square. This was mainly because I had to buy clothes for tomorrow. An element t-shirt, gap jeans and sock laters, I was ready and bushwacked.

That evening I spent ages sorting what I could chuck/leave behind. I may need UPS ship and pack in Chicago. Especially for the amount of books I'll need for the 55 hour Chicago to Frisco journey.

20th November, 18:37

Okay, so this is the most awesome salad ever at Sugo! 45 Street and 5th. It's about the largest ever. Today I have woken up, traversed successfully to the ferry port, where it rained buckets. And I queued for ever and I had no umbrella, hood or general waterproofing device. I became so wet that when I moved I looked like a wave. Eventually we got on the ferry where I used the medium of coffee to return movement to my heart. Then we landed on Liberty Island. She's very big. And very green. Rain had stopped by now, but I was still travelling around in my wave persona. After exhausting the audio tour and photograph points, I got the ferry to ellis island where there is the immigration building and museum. And although it was interesting, some of it was a bit... odd. Some of the racism back then was shocking as well. Nearly as shocking as the old woman in starbucks last night who was the most racist person I've ever seen. Humourously, although she was mainly targeting non-white people, the closest two white people to her was me (English in case you didn't know) and a dutch lady, so we were foreign anyway.

After returning to Manhatten island, I accidently took the subway to Brooklyn. Then managed to return, intact, to Grand Central.

Which was another "whoa" moment. Then I cruised shops till I arrived here. My salad ingredients? Lettuce (mixed), carrot (grated), tomatoes, crazy peas, mushrooms, eggplant, olives (black) feta cheese, balsamic vinegar and some crazy chicken. It's BIG!!

In other news, why did the public have to pay in donation's to restore the statue of liberty when they're selling mini statues for $450?!?!

19th November, 22:39

After a moderate starbucks confusion, I met Erika and we wandered towards Times Square catching up on the debacle of the weekend. After I drank 50 litres of Dr Pepper in McDonalds we explored the most awesome Toys R Us ever. Ferris wheel AND massive robot dinosaur. Nuff said. We then chatted for ages in Starbucks, while ignoring a particularly racist old woman and confusing a dutch lady. Erika then discovered how little English school kids read and was shocked at my lack of Dickens and Austin reading. Finally we got a random dude to take our photo in Times Square to prove our simultaneous existence to Rachel. Erika's off back to Virgina for thanksgiving, so I'm left to fend for myself from now on. What all you crazy people don't realise is my feet stink and my knowledge of Chicago is less than 7.

Yay for solo travel \o/

I just finished On The Road. Oh my God what a book. It's a flurry of words. A structured ramble, vividly exploding every minor scene and manages to describe such vibrant passion. Erika is right, my lack of book reading is totally shocking, and must be rectified post-hast. Book suggestions are welcome, though current topic is America.

Once I get back to Blighty I'm gonna do the London tourist thing, as there's so much to see that I haven't. I also need to go to Bletchly park.

I think I forgot to have dinner.

19th November, 16:30

Okay,why are there never any bookshops and especially internet cafes when I need them. That aside, I'm making a surprise recovery from my leg related injuries as my limp was starting too make all my joints click. I decided instead to just walk normally and try to ignore the pain, which seems to be working. Bonus points.

MoMA was very good, some of it was a bit abstract or just trying too hard for my liking. I also sat in front of Monet's water lilies for 10 minutes to try and "get it". Needless to say I did not. Then I found the single piece in the MoMa that was by Edward Hopper. And I was muchos happy, screw the picasso, dechumps and Monets of the world. Afterwards I wandered around bit and played in the Nintendo world shop.

19th November, 11:07

I think I've fallen in love with the Rockefeller centre and it's surrounding plaza. Got up early and limped to the subway, and then got a coffee in Pret. I then wandered up to the Top of the Rock place. Lift up is awesome as the roof is transparent, with a translucent projection on it. The top was amazing, not only the view but there was much more space than empire state building, barely anyone there, it was day time so I could see the wonderful colours of central park AND it began to snow. Good times. Even took some humourous photos of my face, so a normal photo then. I then went down to the NBC shop, but they had run out of the heroes t-shirt I wanted to spite Adam with.

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

And although the NBC tour sounded interesting it wasn't around the shows I knew much about. So I went to Mancha Wok, which explains the sweet & sour sauce all over this book. I'm using chop sticks this time cos I'm cool like that. Did you know that chopsticks originated in China under the Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC), as a substitute for knives at the table. According to Confucius, knives were equated with acts of aggression and should note be used to dine.

In other news they still have no Mountain Dew and I'm going to MoMA.

18th November, 23:00

Monday

8.30am: Top of the Rock
NBC
MoMA
6pm: Meet Erika

Tuesday

Liberty Statue
Eliss Island Immigration Museum
Grand Central Station

Wednesday

Central Park
Whitney Museum (11am)
Museum of TV & Radio?

Hey you there. Check out my plan of days to come. It's far too organised so will of course fail at some unimaginable convoluted sequence of events. One can but dream. You may be wondering where the whitney museum comes in to play. Well it would appear one of my favourite artists, Edward Hopper, has nearly all his art there, save for NightHawks. Grand.

I migh tneed to investigate getting more socks. And a pair of jeans. I can do that Tuesday Night

18th November, 20:11

Okay I'll be the first to admit I was an ickle bit hungover this morning, so I got up a bit late. I wandered out of the hostel and realised my leg was still in quite a lot of pain. I ventured to times square as it seemed the place to be. I then went down to union square, and checked out the greatest 2nd hand book shop ever, the strand. It apparently has 18 miles of books, or something equally crazy. After wandering around there for a while I went in the forbidden planet next door where I browsed some of the comics etc. I cruised back to times square where I got some pizza at John's Pizzeria on the advice of Kath, which was yummy, Olives, Ground Beef and Pepperoni. I have two slices in my bag now actually, for later. I then got some supplies to fix my leg and took the subway back to the hostel. And did the internets.

Slammin'

18th November, 04:30

Whoops.

That was all fraught with danger and intrigue. Well not really, but after the Irish couple left, I had a few more in the current Irish pub, and had some really nice spring roll type things at the bar. I then went out, and back into an Irish pub next door. Which was bigger and actually nicer and the bar guy there seemed to like me. I let him choose my lagers so I experienced the wide range they had there, I even got 1 on the house at one point, which was a bit annoying as I was about to go but I had to stay for another one. I got a free pen as well as I wasn't sure I'd find it again if I wanted to come back.

It was now 2 or 3 am and I attempted to go back, but managed to walk completely the wrong way, and hurt my right leg somehow. Still I eventually found that right subway station and limped home. Had a good time though, and met some interesting people.

Photo Shambola!

17th November, 20:54

Well that was successful. I randomly went into an Irish bar near times square. Found out that Israel beat Russia at the last minute and England "just" need to draw against Croatia. What was far more cunning was that an Irish couple invited me to drink with them, which I gladly did. They were extremely nice. They were from east of Dublin, over here for a week and even gave me a free ticket to a comedy show and bought 2 pints of an American lager for me: Samuel Adams. It's not fantastic, but I foolishly had it when I joined them so they thought I liked it and I didn't want to break their hearts. They liked gigs, and we discussed such festivals as reading and Oxygen. The guy had seen Pantera and proposed to her in strawberry fields 4 days earlier; those two facts aren't fully related. We chatter about America, music and drink.

Very enjoyable.

17th November, 15:16

I see the Gods' game, making this nice chinese restaurant run out of mountain dew. Little does Zeus and his armada of Demi-Gods realise, but diet pepsi does the trick just as well.

So what have I been up to? Everything! But mainly having an awesome sleep, I then slung on my new and sexy quiksilver t-shirt and sauntered out of the house. hark! What did I see but a small farmers' market across the street where I bought a huge multi-grain French loaf device. Which I ate on a bench in central park watching some ultimate frisbee and making Rex jealous with my locational awesomness. Crossing central park I ventured into the Guggenheim Museum which was extremely good. Skipping the free audio tour I opted for a soundtrack of Lemon jelly and Mr SCruff. Although I found some of the cubism ironically samey/unimaginative and picasso over hyped, the rest of the gallery was surprisingly enjoyable. Some good first half of the 20th century photography, specifically war era photo montages as well as some other stuff I've forgotten the name of.

The main spiral ramp which is the core of the building was an exhibition of Richard Prince, who is kind of the DJ Yoda of art. i.e. cut and paste sampling. Some of it was funny as well.

Overall, it was short and sweet. Very good. I wandered out, grabbed cheap hot dog and water outside the Met and wandered haphazardly to the subway where I watched a man get mashed by the subway doors, much to my amusement.

Needless to say I waited till the next one with my Starbucks. Got off at 51st and looked at the outside of St Patrick's. It looks so out of place amongst the modern day buildings that are all reaching to the heavens.

To be honest I knew I got off here for some other reason but I couldn't remember what it was. I wandered around until I walked into the rockafeller centre and so after the laughter died down I scampered inside.

Very odd in here, normal kind of shops, very few people but it's all done up EXTREMELY POSH. It's a bit of a maze to get down - argh spicy chilli - to the shopping part which is probably - *cough, splutter* - why there are so few people down here. I found a magazine place and bought Time Out for myself and Maxim for Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I was gonna grab sushi but I found this dope Chinese place that was cheap and called Manchu Wok. 8 dollars for rice, 2 thingys and large diet pepsi. Now I have to decide what rockafeller based activities I should pursue.

Photo Bonanza!

Note: I've changed how I display large collections of photo, because this is neater and doesn't hurt my soul so much when I upload.

16th November, 23:30

I basically spent the whole evening wandering around times square with slack jawed awe. Found they have a quiksilver shop, which was entirely bargainous, but only purchased 1 t-shirt, for about $20, as I promised myself I'd investigate some of the cheap shops mentioned in my Time Out book.

Before heading to Times Square I got some North Face gloves, which seem quite a popular brand over here and allowed me to set off the door alarms. I grabbed a slice of pizza from a random place as well so I could use their loo. I then wandered around Virgin Megastore and finally got subway back as my feet exploded maiming a number of nearby orphans.

Large dilemma of what to do tomorrow. I kinda wanna see the England Match, no idea where though. I also wanna check out 2nd hand bookshops and do postcards and find clearance stores and eat healthy and cut down caffeine and use internets and buy Time Out Magazine. I need to do all of this with minimal walking to save my feet and knees. Oh the rigours of old age.

-Insert Emo Post-

I'm not sure what I expect from this trip. I'm not really sure what I expect from myself or even what to expect from this. I think I don't know what I want, how to get it or if I can. I'm so tired right now that my thoughts are awkward and laborious. New York as a place, and an environment is amazing and spell-binding and the freedom of being a solo traveller is refreshing. However, a lot of experiences to be had in New York are to be had with someone else, or someones else. I also imagine the biting cold across the atlantic to be less harsh with someone to soften it's glare.

I'm enjoying odd pleasure, like reading on the subway with some acid jazz fed straight into my cortex. I think the combination of exhaustion, frustration at my exhaustion, On The road, acid jazz and a conversation with Louis has made me reflective but with emotastic undertones. Utilisation of a top bunk has also allowed me to gain a vantage point over my thoughts as well as be closer to the light.

Then again I could be eating too much junk food.

Quickfacts

• The pier where titanic was set to arrive at is a multi-storey driving range now
• Only 5 people died making the Empire State Building, 2 by falling and one had his face removed by a lift. Normally back then, the expected death rate was 1 death per floor built.
• It took just 14 months to build.
• Zeppelin dock at the top turned out to be far too windy to be usable.
• On completion it was 6 inches shorter than planned because of the foundations compressing.
• I bought a photo of myself. Haw Haw.
• All the Broadway stage hands are on strike, so no shows are on. And they're all picketing. Lucky I'm too disorganised to have got tickets really.

16th November, 19:13

Whoa New York is pretty. Especially 86 floors up on the empire state building. Bit of a queue but it's alright. Not much space at the top, and my camera seemed to struggle with the night time lack of light. Very hard to move around at the top and it was so incredibly freezing I thought my face would fall off. Free audio commentary with my city pass as well. I'm hitting up Macy's again as I need a hat, gloves and maybe new headphones as these ones lack volume. So it's draining my music battery like crazy. Crap. I need to eat. I'll see what happens in Times Square.

16th November, 16:12

With grace and elegance I utilised the subway to 42nd and wandered to pier 83 where the cruise boats go from. Turns out at this time of year there's only one 3-hour cruise a day, at 12.30. So I booked a ticket on that and grabbed a coffee.

Trip was really good, we saw all of Manhattan, liberty island etc, with a quite humourous tour guide. I took loads of photos thanks to my cunning pre-planned (w00t?) spare camera battery and SD cards. Though I think most of the photos are the same. On board it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING, I tried beer, hot dogs and hot chocolate in an attempt to warm up. I think I'm starting to put on some winter hibernation fat.

Took subway to 3X street to go to empire state but just wandered into Macy's first. Confused a techy dude and retired to a table with a lemonade to write this amazing amalgamation of autonomous continuity....