Our Bite Of The Big Apple.. TASTY!
by Susan Siu Grobler | 26 December 2011 | United States
New York City, New York
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Arriving in New York was no easy feat, I wish I could have been an outsider watching us as we arrived in NYC. If you can picture with me, both of us have huge travelings backpacks, a large Krumpler Camera Pack, another smaller camera bag, and a huge snowboard bag. When we arrived in Hawaii, they asked if it was our surfboards. When we told them it was our snowboards, they answered, "You realise there isn't any snow in Hawaii right?".
Picture the same bags, hauling them from the airport traveling an hour and a half to our accommodation in Queens, Manhattan. It was quite the site and we had the most funniest stares I have ever received in my life. We had so many bags I couldn't take photographs, but I'm sure you can see it in your minds eye and laugh with me.
We were overwhelmed by the hospitality of our friends Jon & Joan who gave us their apartment while they were away on vacation, it was stylish, classy; we loved their creative NY apartment, thank you so much to you both!
~
Brett was pretty adamant that he needed to experience our first taste of the States in true blue American fashion. Hot dogs, HUGE pizza slices, and pretzels. Allow me to paint a picture. It is no ordinary pretzel you have in a small packet on an Air NZ flight, these things are as big as your face. Salty as the sea. Chewy on the outside and doughy like playdough. For all our American friends, forgive us, we know you still have love for us. They really weren't the best, however the lady in line for our pretzel gave me quite the New Yorker experience. Her yelling, cussing, abusing and heavy New Yorker accent, while shaking her head, her behind, and finger like "oh no you don't" on her cellphone to her boyfriend made the whole experience well worth it.
As we explored New York City by foot and subway, we quickly discovered that there was simply too much to do and too little time. We had the potential to stay up all night and keep exploring until dawn, but us Kiwis simply love our sleep too much!
We went to see Lady Liberty, taking a boat ride to her island to visit her, we went up both the Rockefeller Centre (yes the famous big Christmas tree) and Empire State Building (yes just like Sleepless in Seattle), we toured through Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and saw some incredibly famous paintings in real life, Central Park with people ice skating, Bryant Park, Time Square, and pretty much most of lower Manhattan on foot. There were buildings everywhere, the population is tremendous, and the urban buildings are dense. You will never be bored in New York.
Brett & I learned that we were hopeless tourists... although we did do all the "must do things" in NYC, we certainly enjoyed watching people and experiencing the culture and people and places a whole lot more than simply seeing main attractions. People are just so fascinating to us, not to mention New Yorkers are just that bit more interesting! We learnt at Lady Liberty that New York is made up of many immigrants from all around the world; it was fascinating to learn the history of American culture, realising we really didn't know much previous to our visit.
One of my highlights was definitely meeting Howard outside of a Pharmacy on the East Side of Manhattan. Howard was waiting for the bus with his wife and I kindly asked him if he would mind if I photographed him, he had such style and character about him, him with his big glasses and hairy moustache. Mind you, he also had an attitude like only a New Yorker can have, "Lady from New Zealand right? Hurry up and take the picture, we need to get on that bus... come on, hurry up!". I loved every second of it, and I'm sure he did too.
Summary of highlights:
* Seeing squirrels for the first time in our lives
* American cops all carry guns, there are MILLIONS of them in the city everywhere
* NYC Policemen on horseback in Time Square guarding protesters
* Meeting Howard and his wife
* Telling Americans Brett's name, they all think we are saying "Brit"
* The light switches go UP to turn on... go figure, it gets pretty confusing!
Enjoy the photographs from our moments in NYC! Your comments are always welcome.
Susan :)