Yep, I'm in the Big Apple! The immediate family probably got my messages at some ungodly hour yesterday morning - sorry about that, but I had to take that window of opportunity in Niagara while I could pick up the Rogers network from Canada!
Things are going well at my end. Rach and I grabbed same-day tickets to Hairspray on our first full day in the city - it's fun to be able to do things on a whim! then we checked out Times Square, did some shopping, had dinner and hit the sack early for the Niagara tour yesterday, as we had to be in Midtown for a 4:15am pickup. Ouch.
Niagara was very, very cold and - once we got close - very, very wet. My jeans and socks got soaked, but my Converse sneakers appear to have some sort of miraculous water-repelling qualities, and therefore came out of it in pretty good nick. We missed out on the chopper ride (due to bad weather, I think, but I can't be sure), and flew up with JetBlue. They're kinda like Virgin, only they give you food and drink for free, and have 38 stations of TV with sets on the back of every seat. Here's hoping the Aussie budget airlines may follow suit sometime soon...!
Anyway, we did the US side of the Falls (New York state) and the Canadian (Ontario), so I now have a Canadian stamp in my passport - whee! Had lunch at the Sheraton, with an awesome view:
It also had an awesome buffet :D I had lots of vegies (been craving them for ages - my eating habits have been typical of a traveller... not good) - crab meat, rice, potato salad, and a couple of tiny cakes and a mini lemon tart for dessert. Needless to say, there was no need for dinner last night! Then - because they don't run the Maid of the Mist in the winter season (sorry, Pa), we got to do the tour behind the Falls:
It was so windy, and the water came down with such force. Scary, but in a good way. After all that, it was a 90 minute bus ride to Rochester airport for the flight back to JFK, then a 90 minute taxi ride in city traffic back to Midtown and another 20 minutes to the hotel in the Village. And people say traffic in Sydney's appalling! We pretty much got in, showered, and went straight to bed.
Today was another Moving Day (which we've both decided we hate - all that packing and hauling paraphernalia to the taxi, and out of the taxi, and up another lift and into another room). We went from the Village to the Upper West Side. Ma and Pa, if you go to NYC at any stage, you'd love Hotel Beacon. It has a kitchenette (Fridge! Microwave! Yay!), good sized beds, and room enough to put your suitcase down and move around without tripping over - a first for the trip so far. It's only a couple of blocks from the Museum of Natural History, too, which is where we headed this arvo. Checked out the Asian and African mammals and people, some of the dinosaurs, and their latest exhibit called Mythical Creatures. I could've spend hours more, but Rach went to see Wicked tonight, so we had to head back to the hotel. Ah well, something for next trip, eh?
Not sure what we'll be up to tomorrow - we tend to make decisions based on the weather each day. We're going to try our luck for half-priced tickets to the Lion King in the evening, though.
Maman - WTF? You and your crazy comments that I have to hunt for. You scared the bejeezus out of me because I read them in the wrong order. Please send Allie my love and tell her I hope she's feeling all better soon.
Ros - hi! Great to hear from you :) Don't worry, Blogger confuses me a bit, too; I'm used to LiveJoural. Yeah, tipping's okay once you get used to it - a lot of places quite helpfully put in on the bill. Otherwise it's between 10-20% depending on what you thought of the service you received. We're just rounding up to the nearest $5 most of the time...! At least we're tipping; Aussies have a bad rep over here for not doing it. Say hi to Grandma and to Dave for me!
In other (old) news, I went to Winchester on the train on Friday (much nicer than CityRail's intercity service - very quiet and clean), met up with Amy (yes Mum, Amy = Lucy), stayed at Richelle's place on Friday night, met some nice people at a party, realised that Jaeger doesn't agree with me, overslept for my flight on Saturday morning, copped an hour delay at Heathrow due to fog, slept in a transit lounge, ate Maccas in Frankfurt (no, they don't have cocktail frankfurts on the menu, sadly) and discovered that 5c and 10c pieces in the States are the opposite of ours, size wise (very confusing at the till). Here are some random pictures:
Dad - thought you might like this. Taken in the South Western Rail train to Winchester.
Amy and I outside Winchester Cathedral
Me and Richelle in Brogan's (!) pub in Fulham.
Me and my snakebite - oh, the shame...
