New York: Day Three

Still sick. Still in pyjamas.

*

On New Year's Day, LOML and I went back to Central Park to see the zoo and go ice-skating. The zoo was just fantastic, particularly the amazing Tropic Zone (which was nice and warm, too), but the rink was far too crowded with far too long a queue for us to go skating. Oh well! It started raining shortly after that, anyway, so we consoled ourselves with hot dogs from a street vendor, which has always seemed like an essential New York experience to me. We finished the day with a visit to FAO Schwarz and a walk down 5th Avenue, followed by a few slices of pizza.


Birds in the Tropic Zone at Central Park Zoo.

Look at the wee mongooses! They were so cute. A mongoose lived at the bottom of our garden in Zimbabwe, by the compost heap, and helped to keep the snakes away from our chicken coop. I love them. Can you see the little one poking its head out from under the biggest one's tail?

Sea lions! We watched one of them climb down from the rock for about twenty minutes. He was not really designed for climbing.

A crane in the snow.

LOML relaxing with a hot chocolate in the snowy zoo cafe.


Skating in Central Park.



NOM NOM.

New York: Day Two

We actually got back from New York on Sunday, but I'm bed-bound with 'flu and taking the opportunity to record our trip a day at a time!

*

We were so lucky to be in New York while the snow was still thick and pristine - by the time we left, it was almost all gone, revealing that the big drifts on the sidewalks were actually big drifts of garbage bags covered in snow, and the little powder that was left had turned black from traffic fumes. When we went to Central Park on Friday morning, however, it was still a picture-perfect winter wonderland. Making a snowman (or snowcat) was the first order of the day, naturally, and we ambled about the park for hours enjoying the beautiful landscapes of frozen ponds and swathes of powder.

We spent the afternoon in the Museum of Natural History, which was just fantastic, if insanely crowded. I should stop saying that things were insanely crowded, because it sort of goes without saying. Just imagine huge crowds wherever we are (except for in Central Park, which is big and peaceful enough to give at least the illusion of being deserted). As naive hayseeds, we only wandered down to Times Square at about 5pm, at which point it was already completely packed. We gave up on getting too close to the Time Ball (the police had barricaded off the nearest streets, anyway), and had a romantic three-course dinner in Pigalle, a French restaurant a few blocks away. Once we were warmed with sufficient quantities of rich food and wine, we had enough stamina left to stand for three hours as close as we could get to Times Square, waiting for the ball to drop. There were about a million people crammed into four blocks - the population of Auckland. It was impossible to move, but the sheer volume of people kept us all (mostly) warm as we waited.

Then the countdown! It was very cool. I don't think I could bring myself to stand in the cold and the crowds for that long ever again, but it was a great experience.





LOML constructing the snowcat in Central Park (all I did was the face).





Wintriness!


In the Museum of Natural History - I was very excited about the African Mammals section, being an African Mammal myself.


Dinner in Pigalle.




Times Square!

New York: Day One

Hi everybody!

We're actually back from New York now (flew in last night!), but I have so many photos that I have decided to split them into a few posts. Also, I have contracted a horrid New York 'flu as a sort of unwanted souvenir, and so I am bed-bound and rather useless, so it's a good opportunity to record our time away.

Happy New Year!

Andrea x

*

We arrived in New York on Wednesday night - or, rather, we arrived in Newark first, then took a succession of train rides to get to our hotel, made more exciting by the fact that there was several feet of snow on the ground along the way. Snow! I still get excited about snow. I'm sure that many of you live in places where snow is commonplace, but I only ever saw small dustings of it on overseas trips until I moved to New Zealand, and even then it barely powdered the ground before dissipating. It was a glorious way to see New York for the first time, with every building, tree and car wearing a jaunty snow hat and great drifts of the stuff accumulating along the sidewalks (I'm sure it was less exciting for people who actually have to live and work in all that).

We had planned to do tourist-y things on Thursday, but visiting one of the busiest cities in the world at one of the busiest times of the year meant that there was an apocalyptic queue at every one of the major tourist attractions, and we decided that we would rather experience the city than stand in a line for two hours. We did still see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, but we didn't stand ON them. I'm all right with that. We also found time to visit some vintage stores, many bookstores and a huge camera warehouse that LOML wanted to see, as well as having lunch in a brewery.

Self-evident.

Battery Park.

Yep, the snow was pretty deep. I planned originally to sit in one of the chairs, but didn't want to walk around with a wet bum all day.



LOML making our first snowman of the trip!



The amazing Strand bookstore on Broadway. Heaven.

I like squirrels.

First glimpse!

Needs to be our Christmas card for next year, clearly.


General New Yorkage!