New York City - Manhattan Island

I have decided to split the main New York post into two parts. Manhattan and the other boroughs. Most of the touristy stuff is in Manhattan and a lot of the cool stuff is in the other parts, not that I'm saying Manhattan isn't cool, it's just that there is more to NYC than Manhattan. This is not going to be a blow by blow story of my stay in NYC just ramblings with photos. I made quite a few notes while I was there, so I wouldn't forget stuff (How sad am I?). I am missing some photos because Dan hasn't them and some are in other posts. Here are some for your viewing pleasure.

First up is the Statue of Liberty. This is the view from the Staten Island ferry, which is nice a free and you get a lovely view of the statue. The colour was rubbish because of the hazy weather so I decided to sepia tone it. It is quite hard to get a photo of the statue on the way there as the ferry is full of tourists looking at the statue, but on the way back they are over it so its fine.

One of the things I love about New York is the contrast. Here is a view from the Brooklyn Bridge of lower Manhattan. New York is not just skyscrapers and rich people who work on Wall St. It also has some really poor people. There are so many different communities, with people from all over the world living together. Although some of the sounds and smells make you wonder what the bloody hell is going on. Chinatown and the East and Greenwich (West) Villages are pretty close together but are worlds apart. Both are really cool to hang out in. The 'village' where Bob Dylan, other musicians and artists used to live. Since then it has been gentrified and is now uber expensive. Chinatown is just awesome, it slowly creeps up on you then, all of a sudden you in China. Even the McDonald's sign has Chinese characters in it. New York in general has this wonderful hustle and bustle about it but in Chinatown is it even crazier. People selling stuff from tourist tat to strange seafood that you have no idea what it is.

One of the other things I love about NYC is the parks. You can get some pretty good street entertainment in them too. It varies from chilled out jazz bands just jamming, free movies in Bryant park and a tourist spectacle such as the 'Afrobats', as seen below. They were actually pretty funny in their very well rehearsed show, chanting punchlines such as 'rich people at the front' and 'we are risking our lives for you sick entertainment'. My favourite part was when a helicopter came overhead and they all stopped the show and acted if it was an arrest, putting the hands behind their heads.

It is easy to forget that your are in New York while chilling out maxing relaxing in central park. Well until you turn around and see the bloody big skyscrapers behind you. This was the first time I flew into Ne York, it was fantastic seeing it from the air. You get to see how big everything really is, even though Manhattan is just on a little island. Central park is just huge.

It really is a concrete jungle. This is a view from the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Which is about as high up I get so, no cool aerial photography from this one. Dan may have a few. Looking up in Manhattan gives me a sense of vertigo. It is cool though. There was a pretty big thunderstorm while we were in Manhattan. It went so dark because of all the buildings, it was pretty cool when it got back to daylight.

Live Earth

The second day I was in NYC, I managed to go to Live Earth. While there were many bands that I would not normally see (the set list is here) it was still a cool event. The whole day was pretty mad, but cool. It started off with a very American breakfast of pancakes in a lovely diner in Brooklyn. I then went to meet Dan at Newark, NJ airport. I had to get my first bus to 'New Jersey' which is known as the 'garden state' or as I (and many others) like to call it the 'armpit of America'.

Everything went smoothly, till we got back to the port authority (bus terminal) in Manhattan. Upon where we realised that there was no storage space in the bus terminal. A friendly NYPD cop informed us that there was no storage in Manhattan since 9/11. D'oh, really should have guess that. So faced with either at least an hour and a half round trip to Brooklyn to drop the bag off or risk it and take it to the Giants stadium we decided to get on the bus to joysey.

We arrived across the Hudson unscathed, all we had to do was get into the stadium. The first security guard was bewildered by Dan's massive bag. Especially as it had presents from the UK, i.e. beer. The second gave us a typical New York reaction "you can't take any of that shit in here" then proceeded to go out of her way to see if she could get us in. New Yorkers can be seen as rude but they can be bloody nice. After talking to the head of security he said we could as long as we store it under the stadium. This is where the fun started. We got to ride in a golf buggy all the way to the security office. It was like we were celebrities, people were giving us funny looks (I'm used to that now). On the way we picked up a mad German woman who had to put her video camera there too. She was batty, she kept on saying how the London concert was much better.

The rest of the day was pretty surreal too. Seeing famous people such as Cameron Diaz (who has insanely long legs) and Al Gore on stage. Drinking beer out of a 'plastic cup' made from corn. Rocking out to 'Bon Jovi'..... it was good fun actually. Seeing Kanye West run up and down the stage about a million times in 20 mins. Akon wading through the crowd with huge security guards and a massive jewel encrusted cross that could feed Africa... it's good job it wasn't live 8 or they would have had it off him. Hearing an old British lady do chimpanzee impressions. Anyways enough name dropping.

A day time photo

My favourite one of the Smashing Pumpkins. Who were bloody good. All in all everyone put on a good show, even if the music wasn't what I would normally like. It was for a pretty good cause....even if they wasted a lot of energy doing the whole thing....

Photos from New York

First things first, thank yous. Shannon it was a pleasure to hang out with you again (as always) and thank you so much for putting up with Dan and I, even though you weren't feeling great. Dan thank you so much for coming to the US, much appreciated.

I think this is going to take me a few days to sort the blog out, so I thought I would tease you with some of my favourite pictures that I took from the last week. Here is the view down 6th avenue from central park, complete with yellow cabs.

The British tradition of sunbathing in the midday sun has stayed with some of the colonials. It was over 35 oC and New Yorkers were flocking to central park.

This is the view on the opposite way up 6th on market day. Only in New York would they close a major road to let people sell kebabs on the street. I love it.

The first skyscraper in NYC. Clocking in at a massive 20 stories, its a baby compared to some. I think it is one of the coolest, probably because it would be one of the few I could actually go up. Vertigo is strange in NYC.

I really love the colours at dusk and the Brooklyn Bridge is so photogenic. Oh yeah that little thing in the background is Manhattan Island. It does look quite cool doesn't it.

Here is pretty much the same photo but a bit later. I think this is one of the best views of Manhattan you can get. It is from a little park in Brooklyn under the Manhattan bridge.

I just couldn't resist.....

Yup I actually walked across the Brooklyn bridge. I will tell all later. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.