The City That Never Sleeps
It was another jam-packed day full of sight-seeing and fun today in New York City. We set off early for the American Museum Of Natural History. Spending longer there than anticipated, we couldn’t get enough of the incredible animal exhibits and displays, especially loving the dinosaur floor - the sheer number of bones and the vastness of their collection of fossils and dinosaur artefacts, blowing our minds. It was awesome! The kids loved the “Night at the Museum” connection too.
Still in possession of our tickets for the hop-on-hop-off bus, we hopped back on, intending to get the free Staten Island Ferry over to Staten Island to do a drive by – technically a sail by – of the Statue Of Liberty. Our tour guide on the bus, with the thick Noow Yuawk accent, was absolutely hilarious and we wouldn’t have been surprised if he was mooonlighting as stand-up comedian somewhere. Not surprisingly, Toby was again decked out in his New York Yankees jersey, while Sam was sporting his new Philadelphia Eagles jersey. Ross rounded out the sporting trifecta, proudly getting about town in his New York Giants cap. When our entertaining tour guide found out we were Australians, he christened us “the Ossssies” and announced to the rest of the bus’ amusement, that we were “dressed up as Americans for Halloween!” Being a long-time Mets fan, he took exception to Toby’s Yankees jersey, making a sport of heckling Tobes for the whole time we were on the bus. Toby has “Rodriguez” on his jersey, for Alex Rodriguez and he took to calling Toby ‘ARod’. Steve was his name and despite being a barrel of laughs, he actually taught us a lot about New York. For example, we saw a giant inflatable rat outside a building and he explained that whenever the rat appears, it’s a message from the unions to the owners of the building to say that they’re not treating their employees fairly. No-one’s going to miss a giant inflatable rat at the door! Whenever someone blew their car horn too loudly, Steve said “quit the horn you ANIMAL!” On one occasion, after verbally blasting the horn-blower, he had the embarrassing realisation that the honking was coming from his own bus.
When we passed the bull down near Wall Street, Steve told us all the nice tourists get their photos taken at the front of the bull, while all the “perverts” get their photos taken at the back of the bull. There just so happened to be a family having their photo taken right at that moment, right in front of - you guessed it - the bull’s behind. We all had a chuckle at their expense, with Steve insisting we “cover ARod’s eyes!”
We had another bus driver today who was equally funny but not intentionally like Steve. He had the BEST Spanish accent and his name was Jorge (pronounced “Hor-Hay”). He sounded like a cross between Nacho Libre and the villain in Kung Pow and he was poetry to listen to. We have really enjoyed the bus trips here and would totally recommend them, not only as a great way to get around and see the city but also for all the great, informative commentaries, teaching us so much about New York City.
We hopped off the bus at the Staten Island Ferry Wharf and boarded the ‘big orange boat’, as its referred to. The ferry is huge and incredibly, completely free to ride. We were rubbing shoulders with all the Staten Island locals and loads of other tourists just like us. There seems to be a lot less Australians in New York than the many we encountered on the West Coast, with the tourists in the Big Apple predominantly European. We were all so keen to see the Statue Of Liberty up close and personal and because we’d dipped out on getting tickets to actually go up inside the statue, this was the next best thing. We’d tried to get tickets online from home before we came away, only to find that disappointingly, it was sold out until December! Consequently, just sailing by and taking a few snapshots would have to suffice. Lady Liberty was certainly very impressive up close and seeing her majestic figure in the harbour was so quintessentially New York. Those French really excel in the giving impressive gifts department.
We had been trying to catch up with Kath Thomson, the sister of our good friend Spud, while we were here in the New York City. She’s a writer, working here for a few months and, though her schedule was extremely busy, we were able to squeeze in a quick drink with her tonight at Greenwich Village. What a great little area! Buzzing with restaurants and bars and lots of little specialty shops open way into the night, the atmosphere was a bit bohemian (though the cost of actually residing in this hip and happening village probably precludes many actual bohemians from moving in). Kath introduced us to a gorgeous little Italian Restaurant called Rocco’s, staying for a drink with us before she had to catch up with some other friends. It was great to hear how much she’s loving living and working here. The dinner was delicious and, thanks to Billy Joel’s “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”, was just as I’d imagined a New York Italian restaurant to be.
Bottle of red…..ooh, bottle of white…It all depends upon your appetite…
Ross and I have been watching a bit of tv before bed, cracking up at the ads for pharmaceutical products. American law obviously requires that advertisers of such products must disclose absolutely ALL (and I mean ALL) the possible side effect of these medications. Brand X is going to help with your arthritis but, by the way, it may cause drowsiness, partial paralysis, cancer, respiratory problems, skin disease, liver disease, brain tumours, cardiac arrest and possibly even death. Take at your own risk. Yikes! The ad will then have a snappy little jingle and some old people smiling and holding up the bottle, obviously immune to any of the hideous side-effects. Surely anyone even daring to set foot in a US pharmacy deserves a medal for bravery? It’s a wonder anyone takes any medication at all.
I can’t beleive tomorrow is our last day! It does feel like we’ve been here forever and we’ve had such a ball. Hope tomorrow is no exception.
