New York, New York

I thought I might write a little something here about my trip to New York a month ago.

So yeah, I went to NY with K for the first bank holiday and had a blumin good time. Within 24 hours of arriving there I had years and years of built up preconceptions falling around me. I don't think it's too much of a secret that I generally disliked the US due to issues with the current president, working for an American company, gross generalisations from the media, Americans I would meet on my travels, and other information sources. Its always good to have a "bad guy" somewhere, and for me America was it. K on the other hand loves NY and the other couple of cities she's been to there so I felt it necessary, and timely (I've travelled well over 40-50 countries now) to actually visit.

Within 24 hours I'd decided that I could live in NY and in fact liked it more than London. The reasons, strangely, didn't come down to the extremely favourable exchange rate but more

1. The friendly hotel people.
2. The complete stranger who said "bless you" to K when she sneezed on the street.
3. The Jewish guy who took us on a walking tour around Grand Central, who against all my previous preconceptions of American humour seemed to know how to take the pess out of his city (something I thought was distinctly English and which Americans didn't understand) without demeaning himself or his city.
4. The sports pages - its been a while since I read an unbiased analysis that gives a fair picture of the strengths and weaknesses of a match or a competition. The English press are far too one sided and negative. Admittedly here I was won over by the Americas Cup analysis that gave big ups to the South African Team and gave credit to the quality of the (comparatively) "underfunded" NZ team.
5. The buildings, Central Park (okay its sculptured, but it has a nicer feel than the very stark London Parks), the very distinctive districts with their mix of shops and people.


6. The shopping - I bought the most items in one 12 hour shopping spree than I had ever done before - jackets, shirts, trousers, shoes, accessories ... the list goes on.

So basically what I'm saying is that if the US is NY then I could comfortably live there. I'm not naive enough to think that it is, but I am definitely more willing to give it a go. The only thing that worries me now is that I might have become the perfect consumer that is personified, strangely, by the city I now like and the country in which it resides.

As for the other things - the "tourist" things ...

We stayed in Times Square at a hotel called Night. A modern goth hotel - K's surprise - which whilst it isn't what we both thought it would be was absolutely amazing and the staff were really friendly and accommodating. Comes high on my recommendation list.

Did the whole Statue of Liberty thing. Learnt that the best time to go is not first thing in the morning as everyone seems to get that idea. When we got back from the statue there were no queues! Damn. Also security was shocking, especially if you're going into the statue where they do the whole anti bomb treatment. Still it's worth doing once, but make sure you do it well so you don't feel the need to go back!

Visited Ground Zero... felt oddly disjoint from it even though I remember vividly the day they fell. The pictures on the wall were moving, but apart from a massive hole in the ground there wasn't much there.

Central Park... good

The M&M shop ... damn, three floors of M&Ms!!!!

Oh, and my favorite piece - having a donut in a donut shop, looking up and seeing a cop eating a donut with a cup of coffee just prior to being joined by his mates. Okay, so I didn't see the Knicks play, but this was damn close in terms of things to do in NY.

New York has broken my American continent drought and opened up a whole new world of travel. It scares me as I haven't finished with Africa or Europe (East or West), so what is a man to do? Where do I move next? Where's my next holiday?