January 2nd 2008

2.1.2009

 

Hannah and I had decided on New Year's Eve that we could do some stuff together for the next few days, rather than separately, which worked well for me. She had a fabulous book and map and I was happy to go along with anything she wanted to do, seeing as I hadn't done too much touristy stuff to date. Morning started at a reasonable hour, and we walked downtown through Central Park and via the Dakota building, which she hadn't seen. The Dakota Building being where John Lennon lived and was killed. Once we made it to Columbus Circle and had a cup of tea and coffee, went in search of my coat. I was heartbroken to have confirmed the non-appearance and unlikely reappearance of my coat. How sad. I insisted that we get a train further downtown as the cold was killing me by this point, and of course, I was coatless!! Caught a train down to the Union Square area and had lunch, then wandered through the markets in the direction of Washington Park and on to Bleeker Street. That was the most of Hannah's must see list for that area, so it was my turn for a must see! I had read about the Old St Patrick's Cathedral and thought that would be nice to see, so we rounded a few corners, and there it appeared. It's yard WAS a graveyard, which was pretty horrid, lucky for us it was locked away behind a gate and high wall. The cathedral itself was quite beautiful, albeit small. No wonder they had to build a new one. Discovered a plaque referring to the "Know Nothing Movement" so we were fascinated as to what that could be - to later look up. Onwards we trudged, ok, we didn't trudge, we were having a nice day and it was fun, so definitely no trudging, but onwards we moved through to Little Italy and Chinatown - Chinatown encroaching on Little Italy as the Italian immigrants are not so new (as a general group) and are moving up to better areas. So funny that you can walk through so many different suburbs in such a short distance - Soho, Noho, Nolita, West Village, etc etc. Our final stop before we had to be back to the hostel for an evening trip to The Met was an outlet store called Daffys. I found a substitute coat in there. It's stuffed with duck down!!! It really is like wearing a doona! Am very grateful it doesn't LOOK as though I'm wearing a doona!!! Once back to the hostel, a few minutes to spare to get organised before heading off to see The Met. Well, that itself was an experience. It's a museum that only suggests an entry fee - of $20, but at any time you can pay what you like. Friday night is 'free' night, in that they definitely don't expect payment. By the time we got there we had grouped up with a few others in the tour, from South Africa. I paid my entry fee first, handed over $1 and the lady asked how many it was for, 1 I answered, before thinking, derrrrrrrrrrr Alycia, you could've said 5! So the next 4 only paid 25 cents each, by handing over $1 also. Tour was good, easy to break off and see what we wanted. Had been told to keep close to the guide so we could see and hear, so I made sure I did when I wanted to. I'm not polite on holidays anymore. The funniest moment though was when I'd separated a bit from the group but then returned to it just to hear the guide asking (should point out here that the group was not the hostel group only, it contained others) what the look on the lady's face suggested about her - everyone was answering with deep answers - whimsical, pensive, aloof etc etc... She was pushing for more and more words to better describe it as I walked over, took one look and said, "she looks like a slut", "Oh finally!" she exclaimed. "This is the second person to give me that answer in all the tours I've conducted. You're spot on! Are you an art student??" I just laughed!!!! It was so easy to see the look in this lady's eyes - the lady in the painting I mean! That was my proud, clever moment! HA !! Whatever!!! Returned to hostel and most of the hostel was off to "the party".... Free and vip entry to the first nightclub in NYC. I was still dying and keen to try some other medication I'd found to get rid of this bloody cold, so I took that and went to bed!