USA Holiday, November 03 (Empire State Of Mind)

So flying overnight to New York isn't as fun as you might expect. Being in the emergency exit row was good for leg room, but those seats don't recline! We arrived at about 5:30am but got stuck in some holding area outside the terminal (I think someone just forgot to unlock the door), it was so very cold, and I was still wearing shorts having just come from sunny LA.

Had to get a taxi for the first time, because there wasn't really any other option. Told the taxi driver the address, which was the corner of 29th and 39th, and from there everything went to hell. I had to repeat the address about ten times because the guy just couldn't handle the fact that both ended with 9th. Driving in New York, what are the odds of that happening!? I even offered to hand him the google map printout I had, but for some reason he just kept rejecting it.

So, this guys driving style was just the worst. Anytime there was a gap between him and the car in front, he'd slam on the accelerator as hard as possible to catch up, so the entire trip was like driving in a car with a learner manual driver, just so much jolting. We arrived in at JFK airport but after about 20 minutes we're seeing signs for La Guardia. I didn't start panicking though, as I knew the hotel was fairly close to that airport, and assumed everything was still good. But then we just pass 29th street and hit 28th street. Just as I'm about to ask him what's going on, he turns around sounding a little concerned and asks us to write down the address we need to go to. OK...

I should be lucky I suppose that we were generally heading in the right direction until now. Again I offer to hand him the google map which not only has the hotel marked on a map, but also has the address on it. However he still refuses to accept this and keeps saying "No, write it down". So of course we're getting more frustrated now and insisting "It's already on there!!". Finally he gives in and reads the damn thing, and we arrive at the hotel with a slight detour down to about 26th street. I was just too tired to care, so I was just going to round off his tip to the nearest dollar, or whatever change I had, but Jason decided he wasn't going to get a tip at all. Well, a little surprisingly, he really didn't appreciate that at all. He even claimed we should have just told him the hotel name, as he would have known where to go. Really, you can get us to the right place with the hotel name but not with an address ? Wouldn't you make that association on hearing the address. So that was a great welcome to NYC taxis.

We made it to the hotel at 7am, but the checkin isn't until 3 or 4pm. Lucky they had a spare room to go to right then, and it didn't even cost any extra. This hotel had no free breakfast but an overpriced restaurant down in the basement. Free breakfast is super convenient and will be right near the top of my requirements in the future. Having self-service laundry is also useful.

So with everything nicely taken care off, we've now got a full day to spend in NYC. Took the local train into Manhattan and was immediately confused by the train lines. I got it after about a day, but the most confusing thing I found was finding your platform in some of the very large and complicated subway stations in Manhattan. Once you've got that, and you understand where the different boroughs are, you'll love the subway system. It's so easy to get around.

When I got out at Times Square I was searching around for somewhere to get breakfast and came across a place selling TAB Cola! This was the first and only place I ever saw TAB being sold.

Jason found this thing called a City Pass which you pay for and it gets you free entry into a bunch of tourist attractions and stuff. Whether it was worth the money I'll need to calculate at the end.

First stop was the Empire State building which was very busy, but when we finally got to the top you do get a great view of the southern half of Manhattan - although I had no idea what I was looking at.
While at the Empire State building there was another item on this Pass which was a New York City Skyride. This was another one of those 4D type rides I mentioned earlier. It normally costs like $30 and if I paid that for it I would be devastated. It was a really lame, simulated ride through NYC. It's narrated by Kevin Bacon, which makes it even worse. Here's some reviews by other people to prove I'm not making this up:

Seriously guys- the worst attraction in NYC!!!!! I really am not exaggerating. Avoid at all costs...... EVEN IF FREE! We paid $37 each for the Skyride plus trip to the top of Empire State building as the guys selling tickets outside the building talked us into it by saying you get to jump the queue to the top - this is not true.

The ride itself is so outdated and jerky. I can't actually believe it has not been closed its that bad.

AVOID AVOID AVOID!

And another:

We had purchased the NY Pass (great deal) and decided to try this out since it was free with the pass. What a major disappointment!!! Very low budget, very low tech, and very poorly executed. Has good views of NYC, but very blurry. The motion is very jerky and so out of date. The total ride lasts less than 15 minutes. Thank goodness we did not put cash into this. They charge 36 per person!!! Even at no cost, we felt is was a complete waste of time!!!

So there you go.

South Manhattan, financial district and stuff.

South-West Manhattan and New Jersey.

North of Empire State Building, Chrysler Building to the right.

Central Park - the big patch of green in the distance

There's another MT's Wax Museum in Times Square, so since it was free we decided to check this out too. There was a few good celebrities here too, but also a lot of repeats and generally I thought not as good as the Hollywood one. Perhaps because I'd already been to one recently I wasn't as interested in this one.

OMG IT'S HANNAH MONTANA!

Headed further north to Top Of The Rock, which is like visiting the ESB but it's the GE building instead. I thought the view from here was better, perhaps because you're more towards the middle of the island.