Crack of dawn again, no time to waste. This is the US of
frikken A and we are hitting the Big Apple today!
The Hudson
The train from Syracuse to New York is nothing short of
amazing. Honestly the best stretch of train track I have ever been on. As you
travel along passed the very top sections of the glacial Finger Lakes, massive
expanse of marsh and meadows and mangroves. It is incredible.
Top Tip #14: Sit
on the left hand side of the train as you travel. The right hand side is
nowhere near as impressive as you carve through the wetlands and along the
Hudson.
There is only one thing that could have made this section better: the
low rumbling of a 103 Rushmore Vtwin, the sun on our back and two fists in the
wind. However, the train was properly impressive.
There was one consistent thing that broke the beauty and
stillness during that section of train track. The female homo sapien. Specifically
two of such organisms. They jabbered, and jabbered and jabbered endlessly. Now
I don’t mean “endlessly” in the way Never Ending Story had three movies. I mean
absolutely, Time-Crisis, unstoppable, Oscar Winning’ly endless. I have never
experienced that consistency – it almost became part of the track noise.
And Into the Light
The train travels along the Hudson and then, there in the
distance, you spot a bridge. First sign of city life appears down there, far in
the distance. Then you go underground for a short while and travel
though sections of noise-reduction tunnels into darkness. The only noticeable
evidence of motion is the graffiti on the walls progressively getting more and
more dense. The train slows, gently. She softly approaches a train station landing.
This is another one of those emotional and sensual bombardments that we were
not prepared for. From the epic green Hudson, 10 minutes of darkness and now
BOOM! Penn Station.
People. So many people. It is like being hit by a humidity
of people. As if Barbara and I have been in hibernation over the winter and
have emerged into this cloud of electric movement. It is immense. We walked up
and out of the station where we expected the mass of people to subside. It just
doesn’t. It is busier on the streets. Let me tell you : New Yorkers know how to
walk. Chicago warmed us up a little but holy moly this place is massive. The
crowd is like a river: In that the middle sections of it travel slightly faster
that the outside banks. The banks erode into shops and side streets. You have
to get your little raft ready to flood out of the channel when you see your
exit coming. Don’t slow down, don’t
stall and for goodness sakes – don’t ramp your little wheelie bag over peoples
feet.
I hooked Barbara to shore, we clamped onto a post box thing
and took a moment to get out of the People River. Okay, it is a short two mile
walk to our Hotel. Straight up this road – which just happened to be the road
through Times Square. That brief walk to our hotel took us over an hour. Barbara raked over people’s feet and fought
like a little mini Spartan in the mass of people. She’s so little with her
silly little Avengers wheelie bag that people just mauled passed her. There was
a few moments where I figured she was lost. Was expecting some rough looking
guy to walk up to me and say “Sorry Pal, New York has her now”.
She made it. We fumbled into the hotel, obviously in
distress, as the front desk noticeably stood back from the counter and came
around to assist us. We had a little joke with the guys about how we are from
Africa and we are not used to this constant Serengeti Migration of people.
Unfortunately we were a little early for our room, they held our bags, we took
a breather and headed back into into the mass. Whoosh – washed away in People
River again.
So Barbara has been planning this moment for three years. We
are in New York – the City of all Cities. In typical fashion I planned the places
to see and she planned places to eat. First up: PokeWorks. The home of the
sushi burrito.
One thing about food in New York City: If there is no queue outside the
place then the food will be pretty good. If there is a queue then the food is amazeballs. Get
used to standing in queues if you want that Discovery Channel food.
After that Sushi revelation we walked around a bit and
headed back to check into our House. What a glorious place. My sister hooked us
up with this spot. All inclusive. Breakfast, light treats for lunch and drinks
from 17:00. We sipped Champagne, ate muscles and lapped up the luxury, two
streets away from the hive of Times Square. We met up with the multi-racial gay
couple, spoke with them about this, that and the next thing. They are going to
watch Fiddler on the Roof. We, on the other hand, are off to She Loves Me which
is a Broadway play with the lead actor from Chuck. Zachary Levi.
Broadway Musical
Now, my performing arts pallet is limited to Speech Recital
back in the North Transvaal Cultural Sports trials. However, this little play
blew me away. The props and the manner in which the actors interact with the
stage is phenomenal. It gave the presentation and incredible three dimensional
feel to it. Okay yes, there was singing. But it is all part of the deal you
know? This is Broadway. We are in a Broadway show. It was fantastic.
We walked back home to the West House the longer way around and
caught up with an awesome fella selling falafels, spoke to him about New York
and what it is like being a street vendor. Culturally mind blown. It is around
1am and we smashed a salty pretzel for dessert.
Top Tip #15: Don’t get amped about Pretzels. They are nasty.
We walked around a bit more, popped into a few stores, bought
trinkets in a gift store and hit the hay at 2am. 4 hours sleep and up and at it
again. No time to waste. The city that does not sleep awaits us.
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