The first week, I went with my friends Emma and Andy the Australian. We took the Amtrak train down from Montreal to Penn Station. This took a literal AGE. 11 hours. Mainly because, I discovered, that American trains go at about 2mph and stop for about 20 minutes at every station. Oh well, it was fine. We chatted, slept and watched Ray (which is a very good, if very long film). I have to say that the scenery on the journey was simply gorgeous. The leaves are turning for Fall (yes, I am becoming North Americanised) and I have never seen such beautiful and vivid colours. Lovely. Certainly passed a lot of the time just staring out the window at them.
We got to NYC. We got to our hostel, which was...characterful to say the least. Oh well, New York never sleeps, so does it really matter where your bed is?
First night we were such tourists and headed over to Times Square which is just as amazing as it looks in the films/pictures. In fact, just being in NYC itself felt like being in a movie. Genuinely unreal. We went to a nice Japanese restaurant where they didn't check our IDs for alcohol and Andy ordered cow tongue. Bloody Australians.
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| Genuine Tongue |
Aside from Andy shoving a cow's tongue down his throat, which I'm sure is regular behaviour back in Australia, we were fairly cultured. The Museum of Modern Art was fantastic. I'm a bit of a philistine when it comes to art. I don't get all this modern nonsense. I like pictures where you can tell what the subject is supposed to be. But MoMA was fantastic as a museum. A really nice, chilled atmosphere and not all wanky and pretentious like you'd expect from a modern art museum. We also went to the sex museum. I have been to a sex museum before, in Amsterdam, and it cost me three Euros to get in. This once was a bit pricier ($15, I believe) and definitely classier. The sex museum in Amsterdam is certainly fun. It mainly consists of Victorian pornography and well-endowed mannequins that flash you. The one in New York was a lot more educational. It had sections on the history of sex in film, contraception and STIs, the development of sex toys (very eye-opening!) and sex in the animal kingdom. It was an actual, proper museum and not at all sleazy.
As ever, in a city like New York, you get a lot out of the place just by walking around. We spent some time wandering around Chelsea, which is really lovely. We walked the Highline, which is an old above-ground subway line which has been converted into a pedestrian walkway/garden type space. Andy and Ems weren't too impressed, as the plants and grass are pretty rudimentary and it's not a pretty space, but I really enjoyed it. You get some really nice views of the city and it's a really nice walk. We also went to Central Park for a bit, but really we just had a nap and didn't see much of it.
A major cultural lowpoint involved Andy dragging us to an Aussie bar to watch the final of the Aussie football league. Australian football is LETHAL (not as brutal as hockey, but I'll talk about that in another post) and I got properly into it. Partly because in Aussie bars they don't give two hoots about drinking laws and we got served no problem, despite me and Ems both only being 20. American, please, sort your drinking age out. 21 is RIDIC! So, anyway, I got pretty hammered (sorry mum and dad!) and ended pretty much having to be held up by the two Kiwis we met on the subway. I'm still not quite sure why they were watching Aussie football. Andy's sister, who is travelling at the moment, was also there, which was really nice. Apparently I was very enthusiastic about the game, but kept forgetting which team I was meant to be supporting. The losing one, it turns out.
I <3 NYC
I'm very sorry this post is so short, and does not feature details of my second trip. This will be rectified soon, but it is midterm season and I am revising away. Expect more posts soon!
As ever, in a city like New York, you get a lot out of the place just by walking around. We spent some time wandering around Chelsea, which is really lovely. We walked the Highline, which is an old above-ground subway line which has been converted into a pedestrian walkway/garden type space. Andy and Ems weren't too impressed, as the plants and grass are pretty rudimentary and it's not a pretty space, but I really enjoyed it. You get some really nice views of the city and it's a really nice walk. We also went to Central Park for a bit, but really we just had a nap and didn't see much of it.
A major cultural lowpoint involved Andy dragging us to an Aussie bar to watch the final of the Aussie football league. Australian football is LETHAL (not as brutal as hockey, but I'll talk about that in another post) and I got properly into it. Partly because in Aussie bars they don't give two hoots about drinking laws and we got served no problem, despite me and Ems both only being 20. American, please, sort your drinking age out. 21 is RIDIC! So, anyway, I got pretty hammered (sorry mum and dad!) and ended pretty much having to be held up by the two Kiwis we met on the subway. I'm still not quite sure why they were watching Aussie football. Andy's sister, who is travelling at the moment, was also there, which was really nice. Apparently I was very enthusiastic about the game, but kept forgetting which team I was meant to be supporting. The losing one, it turns out.
I <3 NYC
I'm very sorry this post is so short, and does not feature details of my second trip. This will be rectified soon, but it is midterm season and I am revising away. Expect more posts soon!
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