My first trip to New York City- April 2011

So... this installment is a copy and paste from my Facebook notes. My first trip to New York City was in April 2011. It was a 4 day bus trip that I took with a friend. I had never really been to the States before, save for a quick trip across the bridge in Niagara Falls when I was 10. I'd always wanted to go to NYC, if you know me at all, you know I love city life, the bigger the better! Here are my journal entries from that week.

Friday April 22, 3:30am

This is it! My trip has finally begun. I'm waiting at the Greyhound station for my bus to Scarborough. Its been quite a day so far! It began for me at 8am yesterday, my eyes snapped open, and immediately my mind was racing with all of the things I had to do that day- laundry, housework, bank, library, not to mention packing! My mind was too full, I think I had a couple of minor anxiety attacks- heart pounding, mind racing, inability to concentrate, body shaking, even a few tears! All I needed to calm down was a lot of deep breaths, some classical music, and a black cat or two curled up beside me.

I finally got my luggage all packed up , and tried to get a few hours of sleep, since I had already been up for 14 hours by that point, and was leaving in 3 hours. Didn't happen, was too excited to sleep! So I gave up trying and got ready to go. Called my cab, and now here I am, waiting for the bus. I am so nervous that the bus won't come, even though I checked the schedule on the website repeatedly, called greyhound to confirm it, and also confirmed again when I bought my ticket in March! Of course, to add to my worry, the bus was running late! I finally boarded it at 4:30, 20 minutes behind schedule. Luckily my tour bus wasn't picking me up in Scarborough until 7.

 We waited for the bus in Scarborough, meanwhile 2 other tour buses picked up people at the same spot- one other bus for NYC and one for Boston. Finally it was our turn! Wayne was our bus driver and Eliane was our tour director. We got loaded up and were on the way! We stopped twice more in Toronto to pick up more people, and got on the QEW towards Grimsby to pick up the last bunch. Again I tried to get some sleep, as i was going on 24 hours with no sleep.... I managed to doze for about 15 minutes before we pulled in to our last pickup point. Then, we were all ready to get going! 

We headed toward Niagara Falls, and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of them, but we kept right on going to the border crossing at Fort Erie. We went into the duty free shop, and got some chocolate to fuel us for the long bus ride ahead, then made our way to the Peace Bridge, which had 3 lanes. Each lane had a light-up sign above it, with a green arrow or a red x, so they could adjust the middle lane in either direction according to the traffic volume.  There was a huge lineup to get into the States, being a long weekend and all. At least we have a movie to watch about some New York history, which should be interesting...

Well the final tally is in, our border crossing took 3 and a half hours! We were on the bridge for an hour and a half, waited an hour for the border patrol to process the 2 people from Iran that were in our group, and we went through a random safety audit on our bus. We saw some interesting things, like all of a sudden there's a group of border guards (who carry guns, btw) running across the lanes of traffic, but we couldn't see what they were running toward. We also saw a dude in handcuffs inside the immigration office, a huge xray machine for transport trucks, and we heard a story about someone who was refused entry because their papers weren't in order, but Canada wouldn't take them back either, because they had already been denied citizenship. Nice try!! So that person was on their way back to their own country. Bye!

Finally, we were on our way. We didn't have time to stop at the Corning Museum of Glass, because our crossing took too long, so we voted to skip it, and head for the hotel. We drove through Buffalo, and I was struck by the amount of derelict buildings and run-down houses I saw. They even looked like they were inhabited, but in rough shape. As we got into the suburbs, the houses got much nicer, and more taken care of.

 With Buffalo behind us, after a while we stopped for lunch in Pembroke, NY. I got some souvenirs- a keychain of an 'I love NY' t-shirt, and another shirt. We embarked again through upstate New York, and I've gotta say, the scenery was pretty dull! There really wasn't much to look at that was outstanding, just regular fields and forests. I imagine that it's much nicer in summer and fall, everything is still brown and dreary in April. We watched a movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and it made me hungry for souvlaki from Pappas Grill on the Danforth, because you can see the restaurant in some of the scenes in the movie. It's my favourite restaurant in Toronto. we also drove through Binghamton, NY. After a while, I started noticing these gigantic hills everywhere, they were unlike any hills I had ever seen, they made Armour Hill look like a speed bump! I was amazed! Upon further investigation I realized we were driving through these moraines. I thought they were mountains...and was excited, but I was wrong! Hehe... Unfortunately they too were all brown, except for patches of evergreens scattered throughout. Very pretty, but the pictures I took don't do them justice, as pictures through the window of a moving bus are rarely going to be any good. I snapped away anyway, because even a bad picture is better than no picture at all!!

Soon it began to get dark, and my lack of sleep was really starting to get to me. It was very hard to stay awake, because I didn't want to miss a single thing- I looked at every road sign, and every license plate, and every building and piece of scenery... It's important for me to remember the journey of my trip just as much as the destination. So, I was pretty tired at this point, after being awake for 36 hours! 

We got into New Brunswick, New Jersey around 8:30 or so, and checked in to the hotel- the Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, it was an impressive lobby, with marble and cool statues everywhere, but the rooms were standard hotel rooms. We had a balcony, but there were no chairs on it so we couldn't even sit out there, just stand there and gaze at the freeway. Before we unpacked and I had a chance to lay my head down, we went out to check out the town, and get some grub! New Brunswick is the home of Rutgers University, so there were students as far as the eye could see. I think we only saw 3 or 4 adults the whole time we were there. It was a really pretty town. After supper, it was time to hit the hay, as we had 3 mornings of 6:30 am wake up calls ahead of us, and I had been awake for 40 hours straight by that point. I can't believe I was even conscious! I guess I was running on adrenaline or something...needless to say I fell asleep pretty quickly!

Saturday April 23

Boy oh boy 6:30 comes early for a night owl like me! For some strange reason, (adrenaline perhaps? Hehe) it was easy for me to get up. It was Saturday, and we were going to Manhattan!!

After getting ready, we went to breakfast, which was included in our tour package. Good thing, because it was not worth $20, which is what they charge! The people running the restaurant were so disorganized. You would think that having bus trips in your hotel all the time, you would be prepared for 55 people coming in for breakfast all at once!! In our case, we had 2 buses there at the same time, so there were over 100 people all needing to be seated and fed in 90 minutes. The staff were totally not prepared...It was food regardless, and we needed fuel for a busy day. Unfortunately it was pouring rain, which was awful, who wants to take a sightseeing tour in the rain?

We left the hotel around 8, and it was an hour into Manhattan. We went along the New Jersey Turnpike, toward Weehawken and the Lincoln Tunnel. We went around a big corner near the entrance to the tunnel, and there it was across the river, Manhattan!!! It was foggy and rainy and difficult to see well through the rain covered windows of the bus, but it was still an unbelievable sight! I was pretty excited, my eyes were wide with glee! First, we had to get into the tunnel. It was an interesting tunnel trip, the first I had ever been in. I expected it to be a straight tube under the Hudson River but it was actually pretty curvy. It was a strange feeling, knowing that we were driving underneath a river! When we came out the other side, my head was spinning, I didn't know where to look first! Skyscrapers everywhere, old historic buildings, new flashy buildings, all nestled in with each other. I found it funny that you could see a building that was obviously old and historic, then reading the sign to discover it was something mundane like Office Depot (no offense to Office Depot lol) one thing that was strange, and I didn't even notice until our tour guide mentioned it, but there are no power lines anywhere, as everything is underground. That's also why there is steam coming out of the grates, it's a way of keeping the temperatures steady underground. Another thing that's odd is that Manhattan is almost completely flat, except in the area of Morningside Heights, which is pretty hilly.

We picked up our tour guide, Hardy, who lives in New York. He came on our bus and we drove around while he pointed things out to us, and told stories, and told us where the celebrities lived, among other things. He was super! We basically drove all the way around the outside of Manhattan, and then across the middle. Our journey started on the west side, through Chelsea, and the meat packing district, Greenwich Village, and Tribeca. We went down into the Financial District, and made our first stop at the World Financial Center. I distinctly remember the moment I stepped off the bus, as the moment my feet hit the ground in New York City. I smiled to myself, silly things like that make me happy.

The World Financial Center is right across the road from the World Trade Center, and the building was heavily damaged the day the towers fell. They repaired the damage shortly afterward. The complex of 6 buildings is home to many financial institutions, including American Express, the Dow Jones, and Merrill Lynch. There is also a beautiful area called the Winter Garden Atrium, in which I took many pictures! There is a huge wall of windows facing the WTC site, a giant marble staircase, and windows everywhere! When we were in the atrium, there was a giant movie screen set up, as it is one of the locations of screenings during the Tribeca Film Festival, which was on at the time. 

We spent a lot of time looking out at the World Trade Center, many of us lost in our own thoughts about what happened there. To look at the site now, it is merely another construction site in a city with buildings being built everywhere, but it was when you thought about what used to be there, that's when it became important. As part of my research for the trip, I knew about the future plans for the site, the buildings that are in various stages- one completely built (7 WTC) and others partially built (1 and 4 WTC). The thing that struck me the most were the reflecting pools. These are pools that are built on the very footprint of the twin towers themselves, so no building will ever replace them. They will be inscribed with the names of the people that were lost that day. From our vantage point, we could only see the pool in the spot where the North Tower (1 WTC) stood, the south pool was obstructed by a building. That was the point at which I did some reflecting of my own, thinking about those people. Our tour guide told us about how nobody in New York calls it Ground Zero, everyone refers to the area as the World Trade Center, just as they always have done. It's one way of keeping some normalcy in a world where things can be uncertain and unjust. We also learned about the events of the day, and how if they had chosen any other day of the year to attack the towers, the loss of life would have been far greater. The fact that it was before 9am, it was the first day of school, and it was also the election primary...those things combined meant that there were far fewer people in the buildings as there would have been on a normal day. Its scary enough knowing so many were lost, and even scarier knowing it could have been much worse had it been the next day, or even an hour later. We also visited a tribute in the American Express building, where they made a tribute to the 11 people they lost that day when their offices were in the WTC. It is a beautiful pool with a giant crystal in the centre. The names are carved into the edge of the pool, and there are 11 spots in the ceiling where droplets of water fall into the pool, simulating tears. I believe the fountain is called Eleven Tears.  We also saw some gorgeous murals painted on the walls, representing famous cities all over the world. No Toronto, I'm just sayin....

Then we were back on the bus, and headed up the east side of Manhattan. We went through the lower East side, then the East Village, went by the United Nations headquarters, which are not technically on American soil- the grounds they sit on are considered international territory. Hardy told us to run there if we were being chased by the police, because they couldn't touch us if we were on international soil LOL!

Our tour of the east side took a brief stop for lunch at Grand Central Terminal. This is the largest train station in the world, with 44 platforms and 67 tracks. And it sure felt that way! Bustling doesn't even begin to describe it. It's a beautiful old building, and it still has that 'old building' feel to it. The first thing I looked for is the big opal clock, because I just LOVE opals. The next thing I looked for was the spot on the ceiling that they left un-restored, showing the grime that has built up over the years (it was built in 1871). The painting on the ceiling represents the constellations and stars, with some points being lit up with fiber optics- very cool. My camera photos didn't do it justice. We went through the terminal and saw the Oyster Bar, a famous restaurant. Apparently the ceiling is shaped so that you can hear the conversations of the people in the opposite corner of the room to you. Needless to say, many lives and careers were ruined when private conversations and shady business dealings were overheard by other patrons in the restaurant! We did not eat there, we went to the food court for lunch, and headed back out to the bus.

 Of course, it was still raining when we got out there, so all of my pictures are through a wet bus window. Also unfortunate was that my camera was on Auto setting, which meant that it thought I was trying to take pictures of the raindrops, and kept focusing on them, rather than the stuff outside! Arg. I still got some pictures, though. My motto for my photos at this point was "better to have crappy photos then no photos at all!" Pfft. Ah, well.

 Off we went, continuing up the East Side. Went by a lot of hospitals, (they seem to all be in the same area) a lot of gorgeous churches, and other interesting buildings. We went through the Upper East Side, the swankiest part of town, and then into Harlem, a bit of a different world! We then came down the Upper West Side, past Lincoln Centre, and the Metropolitan Opera, and Julliard. We made an unscheduled stop at Grant's Tomb, which wasn't on the tour, but we were going by it anyway, so we went in. This is where General Ulysses Grant, (who was the 18th President and a Civil War general) and his wife Julia are entombed. They aren't actually buried there, as they are above ground, in a mausoleum. There's a semi famous joke "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" The answer is technically nobody! They're above ground ;) LOL 

After Grant's Tomb, we came down the west side of Central Park, and got out of the bus across the road from the Dakota, which is where John Lennon lived, and the spot where he was murdered. Yoko Ono still lives there. We went into Central Park and visited Strawberry Fields, the memorial created by Yoko Ono. It's a area shaped like a teardrop, with lots of trees and flowers, and the IMAGINE mosaic, which is just beautiful. It is also designated a quiet zone, so you can't make noise while you are in there, no loud music, etc. We only stayed in the park for about 20 minutes, I think because of the rain. I was expecting more of  a tour, since it's a pretty significant attraction, but noper. As we were leaving I was taking some pictures of tulips, and a bird pooped on me! Both hands, and a tiny bit on my camera! So gross....

We came through Hell's Kitchen, and the theatre district, into Times Square. It's just like all the guidebooks say- people EVERYWHERE! Very interesting place. I couldn't wait to go back there on our free time to drink it all in.

At that point, we were very near the end of our guided tour, and were about to embark on our free time. We got off the bus at Macy's, and went in for a look around. After getting up to the 8th floor by escalator, (which were old wooden escalators- very cool) we did a little shopping! I bought 2 shirts. I got my Macy's shopping bag (I have a thing for shopping bags) and then we had to leave to go to Rockefeller Center.

We had tickets to Top Of The Rock, which is an observation deck at the top of the G.E. Building, one of many buildings at Rockefeller Center. The building is almost as high as the Empire State Building, but has equally stunning views. Unfortunately our views were not quite as stunning, thanks to the blanket of fog covering the city. Crap! At least the rain had stopped by this point. They told us at the bottom that visibility was not good, but we didn't care, we had only this one chance to get up there, only being in the city for 2 days. So, off we went! The elevator going up had cool images being projected on the clear ceiling, and the elevator shaft was all lit up, it was pretty. We got out on the observation deck, and even though we couldn't see far because of the fog, it was still breathtaking! I took a ton of pictures :)

After we went back down to ground level, our next stop was Tiffany & Co!!! It was one of the things we were both looking forward to. I have had my eye on the same Tiffany bracelet for years, but $230 is a little more than I tend to spend on one piece of jewelry. But, this is a special time, and we went to Tiffany's, oohed and ahhed over every piece, and I bought my bracelet. =D  I also made a beeline for the Tiffany Yellow Diamond on display, and as soon as I saw it, I got goosebumps!! It's beautiful. After leaving almost all of our money in the registers at Tiffany's, we were off to our next stop. I took a picture of the office building used on "Friends" as Chandler's work. Just a funny little New York thing that made me smile.

Next up, we walked down Fifth Avenue towards the theatre, as we had tickets to see Wicked! We passed about 6 bead stores, and as badly as I wanted to go in, I resisted! We just didn't have the time, so I put it on my list of things to do on my next visit. We stopped for supper in a restaurant called the Heartland Brewery, because it was right down the street from the theatre. At that point my feet were so sore from walking, I would have stopped almost anywhere to eat...almost... The meal was good, although I had to pick off a pile of capers off my steak...ew.

Next up: WICKED!!
The Gershwin Theatre was where Wicked has been playing since 2003, and still sells out every show. After seeing it, I now know why. It was unbelievable! I have only ever seen one musical before, which was Cats in Toronto in the mid-80s. The atmosphere was electrifying, everyone in the theatre was buzzing, waiting for the show to begin. There were some people dressed to the nines, but most were just in jeans like us. We didn't feel out of place at all. As soon as the lights went down, the magic began. I don't know how many people describe their first Broadway experience,  but for me, it was very moving. I found myself in tears after every song they sang, and it had nothing to do with the storyline. It was just that moving...the whole experience. At the end of the show, there were tears just streaming down my face, and my eyes were puffy. It got to the point where I couldn't even dab them out of the corner of my eyes, they were just rolling down my cheeks. I was grinning from ear to ear, and I just wanted it to go on all night! I kept thinking of that famous quote: "I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats!!" Which was funny to me, since Cats was the only other musical I had seen..LOL!

After we left the theatre, we headed for Times Square to check out the action in the "Crossroads of The World"  What a scene!! It's just like you would imagine it, lights everywhere, people everywhere, billboards, restaurants, souvenir shops, bars, everything! And thousands of people! It was very fun. We found out the next day that the Saturday of the Easter weekend was when the gangs would do their initiations, resulting in more crime than usual, but luckily for us- A) It didn't happen as bad as the authorities expected, and B) We didn't know about it until the next day LOL!!  We did some shopping, and got a cab back to Penn Station for our train back to New Jersey. We were pretty worn out at this point, and we had to get up in 6 hours and do it all over again the next day! We caught our train back to New Brunswick, and fell into our enormous pillowtop beds, exhausted, but very happy! I tried writing some journal stuff, and fell asleep with my iPod in may hand...hehe..goodnight!

Sunday April 24


Sunday morning, and it was to be our last day in New York. I was pretty sad about this, because there were still so many things I wanted to do! In my opinion- 2 days is not enough to get a good feel for the city. However, my spirits were lifted immediately upon opening my eyes, because the sun was shining!!! All I wanted was sunny days for my trip, so my pictures would have beautiful blue skies instead of dreary grey skies, fog, and rain. Sunday seemed to be the day for the sun! How appropriate! We headed down to another disorganized breakfast, filled our tummies, and headed out for the Big Apple- day 2! 

We traveled down the New Jersey Turnpike towards Jersey City, where we were catching the ferry to Liberty Island. I saw some interesting things along the way, like a number of freaking gigantic parking lots full of vehicles! Some of them had those big white stickers covering the hoods and roofs, so I figured that most of them were new, and awaiting shipment. It wasn't until doing some research after I got home, that we had gone past one of the largest shipping container ports in the world- the Port Newark/Port Elizabeth Container Terminal. There were these giant cranes, and shipping containers EVERYWHERE. It was really cool to see.We also went by a couple of really neat bridges- the Bayonne Bridge and the Pulaski Skyway Bridge.

When we got to Jersey City, we went to the Communipaw Terminal ( I love that name- Communipaw!!) to catch the ferry. This is a super old railway terminal, and it's just gorgeous. All of the tracks are still still intact, but haven't been in service for many years. You could just feel the history in the whole place, and it was very cool. Even the ferry slips were old-looking, and some have been restored for use today, but others have gotten run-down. We boarded the ferry by Statue Cruises called the "Miss Freedom" I wanted to get to the top deck, which was open air- for the best photo opportunities! The views going through the harbor were gorgeous, and seeing the whole Manhattan skyline was breathtaking, even though it was hazy. That haze in the air told me one thing- the sunny weather wasn't going to stick around all day...but that's another story!

We could see the Statue of Liberty the whole way there, but as we got closer to her, she loomed larger and larger, and more impressive. I couldn't wait to get off the ferry, and take a good look at her. We had watched a documentary on the bus about the story of the statue, and how she was a gift from France, and all that, so it was nice to know the history before we got there. I took a whole pile of pictures, and got separated from Charlene, so I had to get a stranger to take my picture with the statue, LOL! I went into the gift shop and bought the typical key chain and a cute charm bracelet with little tiny statues on it, and even a bottle of water branded with her! I laughed to myself, thinking it's good that it isnt water from around the statue, because ICK! The New York Bay and Hudson River are quite nasty!

We got back on the ferry, this time is was the "Miss Liberty" and we headed for Ellis Island. I found the immigration museum a little on the dull side, mostly because for a lot of people, their ancestors came through there. Personally, none of mine did, as I am only a second generation Canadian- at least on one side of my family. It was still very interesting to see the displays, as they have actual artifacts from some of those millions of people that passed through there. 

We headed toward Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, and we broke off from the rest of our group, as we weren't particularly interested in the area they were going to spend the afternoon at. So off we went, blazing a trail on our own!

 First stop: FOOD! We were starving, and found a TGIFridays. Since we had vowed not to eat anywhere that we could go to at home, we stopped in. Most restaurants will come to the entrance and take you to your table, but in this place, they gestured the number 2 in a question from the back of the seating area, which was pretty far in the back. We nodded yes, and they waved us back there!! How lazy is that?? We might as well have shouted our orders into the kitchen ourselves...I had a bad feeling about the whole place after that, but we were too hungry to be fussy. Upon perusing the menu, I opted for the burger, which ended up being friggin delish!! I only wish Charlene didn't have such rotten luck with the menu...her first choice was unavailable, her second choice sounded nasty, so she had to settle on her third choice, which arrived with soggy fries, which I think are yummy, but she (along with the majority of people!) prefers them crispy, like the menus all over the globe describe good fries. The service didn't get much better, we had to ask for everything, and they never came to check on us, offer refills on drinks, none of those things that good servers do. We were glad to get the heck out of there! We had lots to do anyway, and had to get started!

Our next destination was the Tribute WTC Visitors Center, which is run by the September 11 Families Association. Until the WTC museum is completed, this is the only place where people can gather to learn about and reflect on the attacks of Sept 11, and also the bombing of 1993. There are films, items belonging to the victims, photos, a list of the names of those that died, and also info about the rebuilding process. It's a small place, but very informative, and very moving. I would imagine there are very few people who can go from room to room in there without shedding a tear, we sure shed a few while we were there, and I was grateful for the boxes of tissue there were placed throughout...they must have a big Kleenex budget!

Next up we were headed to the subway that would take us into Brooklyn. We were walking back into Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge. The weather was still gorgeous and sunny, YAY! I actually got a sunburn on the walk across. As we neared the bridge, I saw a rat ( I was hoping to see one of the supposed millions of rats in New York) but he was squished flat on the road. We made it to the bridge, and started our 40 minute trek across, with stunning views of the Manhattan skyline (and the bridge itself) all along the way. Of course, I took a ton of photos!

 As we got to the Manhattan side, we hailed a cab and headed for Greenwich Village. I wanted to take a picture of the building that was used as the exterior shot of the apartment on "Friends".  The cab driver didn't really know where it was, so I whipped out my map, where I had all of the things marked with little stickers :)  When we got there, I jumped out of the cab to take my pictures, then I ran down a block to take a picture of the narrowest house in the city (9.5 feet wide) which is just down the street. Since we had the meter running, I did actually run, which I rarely do! I got my shots, and we were off to our next stop, the Flatiron Building. This is a very cool triangular shaped building, and it was the first skyscraper built in New York. It's gorgeous!

We hailed another cab, and this one turned out to have the scariest driver in New York! Charlene and I kept stealing sideways glances at each other as if to say "Is this really happening? I quietly reached for my seat belt so the driver wouldn't know I was terrified, in case it encouraged him further!!! I glanced at the speedometer, and we were going the equivalent of 90 km/h through the streets of Manhattan!!  Seriously, if you think I have big eyes on a normal day, you should have seen how big they were during that cab ride!! We got him to drop us off at Central Park, and it didn't matter where, as long as we got the heck outta there! He wasn't unsafe, we weaved through the traffic like we were on rails, just super scary fast!

Central Park was the first time I felt relaxed in days...with all the preparations, planning, travelling, attractions, and schedules....I finally felt it slip away when I sat on that park bench in Central Park. It was spitting rain a tiny bit, but not enough to be a nuisance. We wandered about looking at the sailboat pond, and statues of Alice In Wonderland, and Hans Christian Andersen, to name a few. We looked at so many lovely things- trees, flowers, even cute pet dogs! The park is well kept, and clean, not covered in litter like it could be, with so many people around constantly. We came across a swarm of pedicabs, and the second we showed a shred of interest, they were on us like locusts! We were offered full tours of the park, the whole nine yards. They were disappointed when we told them of our destination, which was within walking distance, but we wanted the experience of the pedicab ride. I think the guy who drove us may have regretted it, as the poor guy had to stand up while he drove his bike, it was almost all uphill!! I felt bad, but he did earn every penny of his fare LOL! He was also nice enough to take our picture in the cab. He did point out some things along the way, but I barely understood anything he said, the Jamaican accent was pretty strong. We got out at the Bethesda Terrace and fountain, which is very pretty. We walked through the Central Park Mall, a very wide walkway lined with enormous trees. I would love to see it in fall, it would be breathtaking! We didn't even have leaves on the trees, just branches. Even they were pretty. We exited the park (somewhat reluctantly) and set out to our next destination- the Roosevelt Island Tram.

We also chose to take this route in a pedicab, as it would have been a new adventure...boy was it ever! Much like our harrowing cab ride earlier that afternoon, we also feared for our safety in this pedicab, not because of high speed, but because of our close proximity of the traffic all around us! I actually got out my iPod and took video of our journey, to preserve it in posterity...yikes! At one point, the vehicle in front of us stopped short, so we stopped short, which made the vehicle behind us almost squish us to smithereens!! The vehicles were literally within inches of our shoulders when we all got stopped...it was scary! We were grateful to get our of that pedicab in one piece!! We had to walk a few blocks to the tram, and went by Serendipity, but there was a lineup to get in, so we kept on walking! Took a picture, of course...

The tram is a part of the NY transit system, and it is an aerial tram that travels between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island, a tiny island in the East River, alongside Queens. The tram ride is a 4 minute aerial ride alongside the Queensboro Bridge, and offers its own stunning views of the Manhattan skyline, as well as a bit of Brooklyn and Queens. It was very pretty.

Once we got off the tram, the next thing up was the Empire State Building, which was one of the things I was most excited to do! Unfortunately it was starting to rain a bit, but we were hoping it would hold off until we were up there. We jumped on a bus, and headed downtown to the ESB. Our wishes for the rain holding off were not coming true, and we were soaked before we even reached the building! We had pre-purchased our tickets, to avoid waiting in the ticket line, but we were not prepared for the half-dozen other lineups we had to wait in! The first line was for security to put our bags through the xray machines. Then there was the line for the ticket area, even those who had tickets, there were enough of us that it was a line too. Next up was the lineup for the elevator to the 80th floor. Once on the 80th floor, there was the lineup for the elevator to the 86th floor. Once on the 86th floor, there was the lineup to actually get onto the observation deck. To our dismay, we had been in lineups for about an hour and a half or so, and we had lost our daylight, and the rain was coming down harder than ever. I would even go out on a limb and say "torrential" Or, maybe it just felt torrential because we were that much closer to the clouds??? LOL!!!

When we finally got outside to the outdoor observation deck, I scanned every corner for the spot from the end of Sleepless In Seattle, (one of my favourite movies), but there were so many people around, I couldn't get a good picture. We also had to watch out for getting our eyes gouged out by the hundreds of umbrellas everywhere, which also made it difficult to see the view.  The view itself was still beautiful, even with rain and fog from the humidity in the air. We went around the whole deck, taking pictures from every angle. Once we were there for about 15 minutes or so, there was a huge crack of lightning and thunder!! That really made a lot of people not want to be standing atop the highest building in the city during a thunderstorm. My mind immediately went to a video I had watched on YouTube a week or so earlier, of the ESB getting struck by lightning, and I didn't really feel much like sticking around either! Especially since of my lack of fondness for thunderstorms... We were also worried that they were going to make up go back inside, so we snapped a few more pictures, and headed back inside.

Lo and behold there was another lineup to get back onto the elevator to the 80th floor! By this point my feet were hurting so badly that I had already taken all of the Advil I had with me, and I was in agony. I could have easily cried, had there not been so many people around!! Note to self for next trip to NYC: get prescription strength Advil, carry lots of it in my purse, and don't forget the foot pain cream in the hotel room! *grimaces while flashing back to the pain of that night*

The 80th floor was the location of the gift shop, which I would have enjoyed much more if not for the agony of my poor feet and the fact that I was so hungry my hands were shaking...I would have eaten more beforehand if I had known how long the lineups would be! The elevator back down to ground level had a much shorter line, thank goodness!!!! my ears popped a zillion times on the way down, and everyone in the elevator was dripping wet. The coat I wore that is made of neoprene, BTW, was far from waterproof!!! Oh, well, it could have been worse, at least it wasn't snow!!

Once we got out of the building, we went to the first restaurant we saw, which ended up being Sbarro, and the only time in NY we broke the rule about not eating somewhere we could at home. I needed to sit down so badly and get food into me so badly, my mind was actually spinning, and I couldn't focus. I wasn't even "with it" enough to pick the stuff out of my spaghetti sauce that I didn't want to eat...LOL! Once I calmed down a bit, I was able to sort out the nasty junk in the sauce...I am so fussy about tomato sauce...I also hate to admit this, but I totally took my shoes off in the restaurant, and was rubbing my feet under the table...it was a food court style atmosphere, so I felt comfortable doing so. If it had been a true restaurant atmosphere, I would have still taken them off, but would have just kept them on the floor and rubbed them on my shoes or something...hehe...

Once we finished eating, we headed for Penn Station, and our train back to New Jersey. our time in Manhattan was officially over, and to be honest, I was devastated. There was still so much I wanted to do, and see, and experience. The crappy weather of the day before, and that evening, really made a lot of the things we saw seem not as impressive as they should have been.
We ended up running for the train, and catching it, yay!! I wondered how it was possible that I had been in Penn Station twice, and driven by it once, and in all 3 times, I managed to not get a look at Madison Square Garden!!! Crikey!!  Ah well...another thing to add to the list of things to do next time!!!

The hour long train ride was long enough to let my feet begin the healing process, (which would end up taking a full week after my return home!!!) I had the biggest blister of my life on the bottom of my little piggy that cried wee wee wee all the way home, and that's  what I felt doing too!!! I was so tired and sore all I wanted to do was crawl up onto the giant bed, and sleep. I fell asleep in the middle of a text to my sweetie...sorry babe! I had one more morning of 6:30 am wake up call...

Monday April 25


Day 4 was our travel day back home. I was pretty sad to be leaving, I didn't feel like I was there long enough to soak it all up. There are so many amazing things to do and see in New York, and I wanted to do it all! Definitely going to go back there, although not on a tour next time. I am comfortable enough with the city to go it on our own next time, and I am already starting to make some plans!

We went down to the third day of mayhem in the restaurant, and I am dumbfounded that an establishment that sees the same bus tour of 100 or so people on a weekly basis, is so disorganized. Yet again, there were people waiting for tables that weren't even set up yet, why don't these people have their act together? You know there are 100 people coming at 630 am, and they all have to be out by 8. Seriously!!! Have your tables ready! And for a place serving eggs, bacon, sausages, and omelets, put some ketchup on the frickin tables, we shouldn't have to ask for it from 3 different servers. The most shocking thing is that this breakfast buffet costs about $20 per person. Luckily for us, it was included in our trip costs, because it was SO NOT WORTH IT!!! 

At 8am, we were off...and guess what?? More rain!!  All we were missing was another dull scenic bus ride. so the rain didn't matter. We watched a movie called Man On Wire about Phillipe Petit, who walked across the Twin Towers on a tightrope in 1974. It was really interesting, and it won an Oscar in 2008 for Best Documentary.

We stopped near Binghamton for a lunch break, and I went into a grocery store, just for a look around, and to avoid buying McDonald's LOL! I took some pictures of some interesting license plates, and this lady got mad at me for taking one of her vehicle LOL! So I deleted the pic for her, and then we got to chatting a bit about travelling, blah blah blah...

Back on the bus again! We stopped at an outlet mall in Waterloo, NY, and I was pretty excited because they had Old Navy and Claire's outlet stores, and I had been saving some of my money in anticipation of the great deals at outlet malls!!  Boy was I disappointed....the Old Navy was exactly the same as every other Old Navy, and there were no outlet mall bargains to be found, and even if I had found some deals, they didn't have anything in my size, like the Old Navy here!! Big bummer. So, I browsed around the other stores- bought a new raincoat, umbrella, purse, and neck pillow at Totes. I also found a kitchen store, where I could have spent a fortune on little gadgets and stuff, but I kept it under $50  LOL!  Yankee Candle was my last stop, and I got a lot of good smelly stuff in there! After a while, it was back to the bus....I took some comfort in knowing that the next time I stepped off that bus, I would not be stepping back on!!! Don't get me wrong, I loved the trip, but I'd had enough of motor coach travelling.


On the road again..... We watched another movie, Julie & Julia, which was good. Halfway through it, we reached the border, and we were all anticipating another long wait to get back into Canada, being a long weekend, and the wait we faced on the way down...we were ready for the worst. We all filled out our declarations of what we spent there, and miraculously, nobody on the bus went over the $400 limit!! I don't know how...some people may have gotten selective with their reports...who knows...at any rate, we were all ready. The customs dude got on the bus, checked the passports of the non-Canadians on the bus, collected our cards, and sent us on our way!!!!! Total time stopped at the border: 10 minutes!!!! We couldn't freaking believe it!!

It was funny, the moment we got back onto Canadian soil, it seemed that every person whipped out their cell phones to see if they had their service back!! everyone was beeping with all the messages they missed while across the border, and people were checking voicemail, and making calls, it was like a cell phone convention! Mine went crazy with 14 text messages from Facebook about the action on my account, since I have it set up to get a text when someone sends me an inbox message, or writes on my wall, or makes a comment....stuff like that. Most people got their service back right away, and others took a few minutes. I decided early on the first day of the trip, that next time, I am hoping to have an iPhone by then, and I will set it up to use it while i am there, no matter the cost. There were so many times I wanted to be in touch with people here, but my US cell phone wouldn't work to Canadian numbers :(  Darnit.

As we got closer to home, we dropped off the first group in Grimsby, and said goodbye to the friends we made- Bobi and Shannon, who brought us treats from the Cake Boss!

 The rain was coming down hard, and I was glad I had bought a raincoat! I had a feeling it was going to come in handy during my jaunt to the subway in Downsview, and then down the Greyhound terminal in Toronto. Even though I was off the motor coach finally, I was still looking at another 90 minutes on the Greyhound back to Peterborough!! I was practically running through the subway stations to get to the bus on time, and made it with 4 minutes to spare!! It's funny how I forgot about how much pain my feet were in while I was running up University Avenue from the subway! The thought of sitting in the bus station for 3 hours until the next bus to Peterborough spurred me on!

I made it back home around 11pm, and it felt like only moments before that I had dragged my suitcase in the opposite direction, beginning my adventure. I was very sad to leave the Big Apple, but I was also very glad to be home. My feet took a week to shrink back down to their normal size, and the first 3 days were touch-and-go about whether or not I would be able to get my shoes on to go to work! I made it on the 3rd day, with my shoes loosened as far as they would go.

As I write this journal entry on May 8- it's been 13 days since I returned from my adventure. I can already tell you that plans are in the works for another trip to New York, possibly September. I am already excited at the thought of it all over again!! If that doesn't work out, I have other friends taking the same bus tour in October...I may have to tag along with them ;)