Got up with the sunrise in Manhattan. My body has slipped easily into its natural diurnal rhythm so by 8am I was out on the sidewalk enjoying a beautiful sunny spring morning.
Cold but not too cold and lots of people walking dogs. Seems to be a big thing around Chelsea (which is where I’m staying) although the strange thing is that there’s no dog poop to be seen. Very different to England. Also the sidewalks were trash free, although I’ve walked down to Soho now and there are streets where that isn’t so, but generally, Manhattan is squeaky clean. I wouldn’t eat my breakfast off them, but I’m weird about stuff like that.
Everyone tells you the US is very cheap to eat out. It’s no cheaper than London BUT the food I’ve had so far has been more delicious and bigger portions. Okay, so I’ve had one meal in a shiny metallic diner around the corner from the apartment where I’m staying. It was good.
Getting from John F Kennedy airport to Manhattan took three freaking hours from the time the plane touched down. Customs and immigration were fine but the baggage handling took about three quarters of an hour. Then the inaptly named Express Bus takes another 45 minutes (or so it seems) going around every terminal to pick up passengers. And there are a lot of terminals at JFK!
The expressway… hahahaha, good name! No, it doesn’t go very fast all the time. Sometimes it’s solid traffic. But the air at the moment is clean and clear so it was nice to sit and look out of the window at the diamonds and rubies (headlights and tail-lights) as we drove.
‘But what about beer?’ I hear you say. I know you people! Beer — one day so what can I say? I had a Samual Adams which tasted pretty strong and didn’t really have the flavour of either a bitter or a lager. Nice. Mind you at $4.25 a bottle plus tax it should be bloody marvellous. Maybe I need to try some of the bars for more reasonable prices.
I digress. It is a beautiful day and I’ve walked up to the Empire State Building and caught the express elevator to the 96th floor, ears popping all the way. Fantastic views and surprisingly good quality souvenirs along the lines of pewter miniatures and snow shakers. Nicely sculpted models, I mean. So I didn’t buy any. I must find the nastiest Statue of Liberty cigarette lighter in existence to take back as a gift! Hehehe
Going off to look for the Guggenheim next. Maybe I’ll log on again, maybe I won’t. Who knows?