USA: New York

My dorm in the Loft Hostel

I wasn't surprised to find my pack a bit soggy when I arrived in NY because I'd seen it sitting out in the rain at Reykjavik airport waiting to be loaded. Arrived quite late and had to negotiate the subway to get from the airport to my hostel in Brooklyn, luckily a young guy helped me out by getting the subway map on his iphone (there were no maps in trains or at stations!) Chatted to a crazy guy who wanted a dollar for showing me how to get through a turnstile, but I didn't have one. Speaking English felt great.

My hostel was really cool; it was set in a huge loft building with spacious dorms, a beer/ bbq garden (with free bbq that night) big kitchen, internet and tv room. They had free breakfast in the morning with waffles, fruit and the brightest coloured sugary cereal you've ever seen. Some cereals even had marshmellows in them. In the morning I caught the L train into Manhattan and walked around Times Square getting free wifi to see what else I should do... I didn't have a guide book or anything. Went into all the big toy shops like FAO Schwartz where the giant keyboard is (from the movie Big) and Toys R Us which has a lifesize Barbie house, giant T-Rex dinasaur that roars, and huge figures made out of Lego like Empire State Building. The weather was crap; really muggy but rainy, so the subway stations were so humid and gross. Saw a few people slipping over as they sprinted into trains.

The next day I went on a Sex & The City Tour. It was hilarious; our guide was a stand up comedian/ actress girl who describes herself as having the heart of Charlotte and the mouth of Samantha. We drove around in a bus as she explained all the places we passed and she showed us clips on the bus TV at the same time. We stopped at a couple of places like the restaurant where Big & Carrie had their wedding rehearsal dinner, a cupcake shop Miranda and Carrie went to, the location of Steve and Aidan's bar (where you could have a Cosmo but I couldn't afford it!) and some others I've forgotten. It was a really fun day and showed how obsessive some people are about the show.. Our guide would ask the most obscure trivia questions about quotes or episodes and someone in the bus would always know it! The biggest party animals were a group of four grandmothers from Austin, Texas on a girl's trip. They were raucous.

Went out that night with a couple of Melbourne guys from my dorm, to meet Liz De Fegely (a Queener living and working in NY.) We went out in the meat-packing district to a couple of places including the bar that Coyote Ugly is based on.

Next morning I got up early to head into Broadway where I was hoping to win a cheap ticket to see West Side Story.. put my name in the lottery and was called out! Walked around Central Park before the show then got a front row & centre seat so I couldn't see the actors below their waists but had a great view of the conductor. It was a fun show and I'm glad I got to see it in the city where it's set!

That arvo I walked down through Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was still so cloudy and rainy I couldn't see the tops of the tall buildings so didn't think it was worth paying to go up the top of anything tall!

Strawberry Fields in Central Park

I liked how the buildings had those staircases zigzagging across the outsides of them, and ladders up to the rooftops like in all the TV shows. Also liked the abbreviations of area names, Soho is South of Houston, Tribeca is Triangle Below Canal st, Nolita is North of Little Italy.

I hope to go back one day, maybe for Christmas, to see the iceskating rinks and giant Christmas tree. And I didn't get to go up any tall buildings, didn't get to Ground Zero or even see the Statue of Liberty (I did see the Lego version however.)