These vagabond shoesAre longing to stray,And step around the heart of it,New York, New York.
- Fredd Ebb
Again, sleeping on what is basically a concrete slab with no CPAP machine gets me up super early. Which is sad, as the last time I stayed here the bed was actually super comfortable... Whether or not it's the bed, or that I put on 25kg since last staying here, you decide.
So I had a plan for the day, and that started by heading to Times Square again for a bit of breakfast and to wait for the stores to open so I can do a bit of nerdy exploring.
Thanks to the folks at Times Square McDonald’s who humoured me and made my breakfast burger for me. Basically just a McDonald’s big breakfast except everything thrown in between the hotcakes. Just feels different when other people do it for you!
With my energy for the morning attained, it was time for our first stop. A toy store that had the big piano seen in the movie BIG with Tom Hanks. Though since then FAO Schwartz had moved from 745 Fifth Avenue to Rockefeller Centre, the Big Piano remains and has a prominent position by the window overlooking the square.
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While I'm sure at the stores opening in 2018, it may have likely been 1000x better, these days it is probably just popular for its brand recognition. But still, it was a wonder to behold such an amazing range of toys, set out unlike anything we have here in Australia. Toys R Us in Singapore, that's a whole 'nother story though!
From FAO we then headed basically across the road to the Nintendo store in New York. While yes, I am primarily a Sega and PlayStation boy, I do kinda have a soft spot for Nintendo and what they have done for the electronics and games industry as a whole. The Gameboy, game-changing.
When I arrived at the store, I was told that unless I was here to trade and buy Pokémon cards, I would be limited to staying on the first floor. Card trading, it seems, takes place for the first hour or so of trading. Once that died down, the staff opened the stairs to visitors, which led to a few displays of Nintendo history, both released products as well as concepts, and of course, more Nintendo merchandise!
I wish I had planned to actually be as excited to be there as I was. I would have bought quite a few items. Maybe next time...
After paying homage to the plumber, I realised I was pretty close by to another destination where "everything is awesome", so I made a b-line to the Lego Store at Fifth Avenue!
Here I was greeted with a veritable wonderland of Lego displays, Lego merchandise, and fun play areas. We don't really have proper Lego-owned stores in Australia; we have licensed stores run by an independent company. So stepping into a REAL Lego store is something special!
A two floor wonderland chock-a-bloc full of Lego-ey goodness.
Downstairs was primarily Marvel Superheroes, and wonderfully detailed dioramas of New York locations as well as a magical tree built entirely out of lego, whilst upstairs too continued the lego displays but had housed the interactive elements of a lego store, such as creating your own lego portrait, create your own mini-fig and lego learning.
If you follow along on my vlogs on YouTube, you would think that it is from here that I head over to the Hudson rail yards to begin my trek along The Highline. However that would still be a couple of hours later, as first I headed back to Grand Central Station and explored the promenades and not so crowded areas.
Just outside the dining concourse was the MTA shop. Here they had quite an impressive model railway display and a lot of New York Subway merchandise. Have your favourite subway service? They will most certainly have the shirt, model train, hat or homewares so you can celebrate and show off your love of the A,C,E or 1,2,3 train, or whatever subway line your heart belongs to!
But sadly, I could not ignore the one truth that had lingered from before even entering the station itself from Park Ave.
Avengers Tower is a lie! Do better New York!
Avengers Tower is a lie! Do better New York!
When done looking over the exhibition, I exited from Grand Central on 42nd Street because Google Maps had promised me a Jollibee just outside, however that was not meant to be, as the site which Google proclaimed would house said Jollibee had only just been purchased for renovation and would not open till later on in 2025.
So I headed back down into the Subway and caught the 7 to the Hudson Yards where I found a Shake Shack to satiate my hunger.
Last time I had Shake Shack was in Singapore and it was gloriously tasty... their shakes are soo delicious too, and very much worth doing the dance of my people! Though in America, they all seem to have the same problem... not enough seating. I almost had to use a "Disney Table" until at the last minute a couple of people vacated. I could see another person eyeing it off too... It was close. But do not fear, I reigned victorious and claimed my territory for Australia!
The Hudson Yards is an office, shopping, entertainment and arts district just off the Hudson river once formally, I believe, the central railway yards for freight in and out of New York.
One of the more famous landmarks of the Hudson Yards is the Vessel. A giant explorable art installation. For a fee you can scale the installation, I was happy to appreciate it from the outside (translation: I ain't paying to climb no stairs!?!).
I don't think I really knew the meaning of cold until I walked this route. The temperature this day was already a sizzling 3℃, and now adding to that the wind chill coming through the buildings from over the nearby Hudson River.
Any patch of sunlight was a very welcome reprieve.
As this was also the 4th day of me wearing the same dress shoes, shoes that weren't meant for the amount of walking that I had done, my feet were beginning to blister and give out. I had passed where I was going to finish, across from my accomodation at Chelsea, as I at least wanted to say I have walked the whole Highline.
So I made it to the end, where funnily enough, I was greeted with the familiar scent of cooking beef. It was indeed another Shake Shack!
From there I headed back to my accomodations in Chelsea and called it a night...
Or so I thought.
I received a call from the luggage company, they had found my luggage and it would be arriving at the airport shortly. If I could meet the baggage supervisor for the current shift before they clocked off at 7 there would be less of a kerfuffle getting it through customs and into my hands.
Other than the obvious reasons, this was welcome news as my laptop battery had died and my phone was at 10%.
So I did what anyone who dearly missed their luggage would do, headed straight to the airport, and on the train I was greeted with a wonderful sunset.
Getting a bit of a pro at training it back and forward from the city to the airport!
As I arrived in the International Arrivals, so did the baggage supervisor with my cargo.
Happily reunited, with my winter wears, my chargers, and most thankfully, my CPAP machine... never thought I'd ever be happy to see that. I'd been avoiding using one for sooo many years!
Off we went, back to our accomodations to set up chargers and to have a wonderful nights sleep.
Both fortunately, and unfortunately, it was a really good sleep.
The bed still as uncomfortable as heck, but I had managed to sleep in!
I had a ferry at an East River pier to catch to New Jersey to see the Kevin Smith present his anniversary screening of his most derided film!
Back sore, muscles tired, I hurried to get ready as soon as I could. Sadly though to no avail. I got to the pier and the ferry had already left.
On further inspection, I noticed a slight something-something I overlooked. I was planning my trip using the weekday schedule for the ferry... It was the weekend. There wouldn't be another ferry until the afternoon. In which case, it would be too late anyway.
Not one to waste the day, I remembered I had promised my step-dad that I would take some photos of a boat docked in New York that he was interested in. In fact it was only a couple of piers up the river.
The Wavertree, or as I lovingly call it, that scrap metal floating in the East River, is one of the last ships of its kind built. With an incredibly storied history it is close to a miracle this ship is still in existence, and in its current condition also!
It is now part of the South Street Seaport Museum.
From there I explored more of the piers surroundings and headed off to the Financial District to check out Wall St and other sights, such as the final resting place of Alexander Hamilton
I knew I wanted to adventure around Central Park before leaving new York, so from the Financial District I headed back to Penn Station as I was hankering for some Panda!
I don't know how to explain Panda Express, except to say delicious "Chinese" cuisine for an insanely affordable price. The same order here at our equivalent establishment, Charlie Chan, would cost me north of $30... without the drink or free fortune cookie! Even with the exchange rate making everything roughly 40% more expensive, this was still well under!
After a full belly it was time to work off the feed by hiring a bicycle and riding down 8th and around Central Park. I was a little thrown off at first as I didn't realise Central Park traffic only flowed in one direction... after a couple of "sorry's" I got my bearings and began exploring around.
After a bit I returned the bike to a rack and set off on foot and explored this majestic, yet stupidly noisy park.
One would assume it would be a wonderful serene park, a place to enjoy the sounds of solitude, ducks and geese on the lake, squirrels squirrelling away their nuts, but sadly no. It seemed there was a busker almost every 50 meters providing what they thought would be the soundtrack. And at Bethesda Terrace, it seemed like a busker convention. A cacophony of noise.
This noise, mixed with the bike ride, mixed with the Panda was just a little overwhelming for me for some reason, and set my anxiety off, and well. The dance was ready to begin. I had to find a venue and fast.
With the dance done, and the sun beginning to set, there was one last item to do before bidding adieu to this great place. Finally. Visit the observation deck of the Empire State Building. I've heard that when you visit the observation deck, a lot of people are disappointed as they don't recognise the city all that well because they cannot see the Empire State Building!
That didn't really concern me all that much. I wanted to see what "The King" saw. I wanted to see where beauty slain the beast.
With King Kong being one of my most favourite of films, It was a bucket list destination for sure.
However, it seemed that my Master Card security check had other ideas. It didn't trust the transaction.
So with that crushing disappointment, I decided, instead of catching the subway, I would walk the marijuana scent soaked streets one last time all the way to my accomodation.
Arriving back at the accomodation I packed my bags preparing for tomorrow's early departure to then realise that my flight from New York didn't leave until 5:30 that afternoon! Looking up the airline I noted that tomorrow's challenge, get booked onto an earlier flight to arrive and settle into Florida a little bit sooner.
And a success that was. The lady at the check-in counter was fabulous and had me arriving in Orlando before my original flight was even due to leave New York.
And with that, I was off. The Captain giving us seated on the right hand side of the aircraft a wonderful send off.
I would really like to come back to this city again sometime, either well into Spring or Autumn to see the differences in the city, but I'm a creature of habit and enjoy my winter travels.
Maybe someday.
