Not much else to add. I have mostly stayed in to avoid getting a second pair of shoes and jeans wet. Plus the footpaths are all a bit too slippery for my liking. Today is not going well and I think it's best not to tempt fate and end up falling over.
It's not a great weather today. The snow I never got to see at Christmas, I have seen today.
I went to the NY Fire Museum this morning. It was much better than the Police Museum. I then wandered around SOHO and went to Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village.
I got very wet. Walking around in the snow (plus thunder and lightening) without watertight boots and a snow appropriate umbrella doesn't work well. It was fun until my legs got numb.
Waiting to hear something on the Qantas situation. Can think of worse places to be stuck though!
Only one and a half days left!
Tomorrow is going to be interesting, as they are forecasting snow (up to 1.6") after a day of rain. This is big news, or so the constant news updates would indicate.
But let's not worry about tomorrow when I have yet to tell you about today.
Today I shopped a little, walked a lot, smiled heaps and had frozen yoghurt from y new favourite place.
Shopping was shoes: work shoes, weekend shoes and running shoes. I only intended to get the running shoes but I have a shoe shopping problem.
Walking was Central Park as far as 86th Street. I want to go up to the Harlem Meer but I couldn't walk that far today. I think that will be a Sunday morning trip.
Walking was also from the hotel to Battery Park to see the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty fireworks.
The fireworks were great, although I love fireworks so nearly anything would have impressed me.
After the fireworks I attempted to avoid the crowds a little by going to the Empire State Building at night. If what I got was better than during the day, I am SO glad I didn't try during the day.
I have previously mentioned my dislike of tourists. I would like to take this further by expressing an increased dislike of French tourists. Three different groups, and every one of them were loud and had no concept of personal space (most specifically, mine).
Despite the tourists, the views of both the fireworks and from the Empire State Building made me smile lots.
Horrible rainy day today. Not good walking weather - and what I do is walk.
Because of the weather I decided to hit up two museums today.
I started off at the New York City Police Museum. This was a bit disappointing. There was lots of potential but it was pretty poorly executed. Would recommend only if nothing else to do.
Before museum number two, I had a cosy long lunch in the financial district. It was at a Swiss place so I had a Swiss meatball sandwich with a side of mashed potato. Perfect cold and wet weather comfort food.
The second museum was the National Museum of the American Indian. This was much better (it's part of the Smithsonian) but was not big enough.
I really like Lower Manhattan, although the lack of nice blocks and consecutively numbered streets does tend to result in a lot more of me being completely lost. The fact that all the buildings are skyscrapers does not help the orientation either.
I succumbed to the weather and just went back to the hotel once done. Luckily, their forecasting a sunny day tomorrow. I don't care if it's cold, I just don't want any more wet.
All the excitement of the past couple of weeks plus being in close proximity to 9 million people has given me a cold. Insert sniffly sad face here.
Undaunted, I set out to explore the Lower East Side today. This is the area where all the Immigrants initially settled when coming to America, so used to be very multicultural. Now a huge part is Chinese and the rest is Puerto Rican.
I spent a large part of my time at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a synagogue built in 1887 and fully restored very recently. It was very interesting but I couldn't take any photos. Here's the website though: Eldridge Street Synagogue
Once I was done walking I had late lunch/early dinner at a French Cafe in SOHO.
Nothing else of any excitement to report for today.
A tale of two neighbourhoods.
This morning I headed out to Coney Island and Brighton Beach. I was expecting everything to be shut seeing as it's so late in the year. I was also expecting it to be a bit tacky. I got everything I expected and more. I found Coney Island to be very depressing. I think it would be a bit better when everything is open but would still have an undercurrent of cheap, dirty, desperation about it.
I walked the boardwalk from Coney Island to Brighton Beach. Brighton Beach was everything I had heard as well. Lots of old Russians. Everywhere I looked there were old Russian people.
I'm glad I went but definitely would not be in a hurry to go back again.
Once back in Manhattan, I had lunch at 5 Napkin Burger (good burger, even if a little pricey).
Then, because I'm crazy, I decided to walk from 42nd Street to 84th Street along 5th Avenue. It was a great, albeit long, walk. I actually saw a couple of private school kids get dropped off at their fancy building, complete with doorman, by their personal driver. It turns out sometimes what you see in TV is true.
On the upper east side I checked out a frozen yoghurt shop I had heard of (it's OK to have frozen yoghurt for dinner, isn't it?).
And then, because I was very tired from all my walking, I went back to the hotel.
Not too much to report for today, as today was designated shopping day. I caught the PATH train to Newport in New Jersey and spent a large proportion of my day in the mall there. It was definitely much easier than shopping in NYC. There were no crowds and I'm pretty sure I didn't see a single tourist.
