3rd July Sunday
Well we made it through. Breaking two laws before 2am; smuggling in alcohol underage and not declaring it to a Customs Officer. The rest of the 12 hour bus journey was fairly uneventful, apart from a man snoring loudly next to Gillian and a rather overzealous lesbian couple in front of us. It was raining when we arrived in New York at 9am. We subwayed to our hostel on the Upper West side of Central Park only to be told we couldn’t check in until 4pm. We left our bags there and hit Starbucks. Paul (German from Toronto) had emailed requesting to meet up. We arranged to meet him outside the Empire State that evening. Being surprisingly productive, we booked a hostel for our final night in New York (told you it’d be fine!). We headed over to Times Square for lunch and organised what we were going to do for the next couple of days. We went to the library and Grand Central Station. Took some touristy pictures:
Got a subway from Central Station to Canal Street next. Canal Street is famed for knock offs much to our excitement. When entering s shop, you only have to look interested and ask a few questions and the shopkeeper will open a secret draw or two and show you rows of fake Ray-Bans or Chanel purses. They only let you see for 30 secs then hurriedly get you to make a decision. We bought a few ‘Tiffany’ bracelets and Coach purses. As you walk down the street, men whisper “Rolex? Ray-Bans? Louis Vouitton? . The idea is to nod subtly and give a brief description of what you’re looking for. They tell you to wait by a phone box and disappear off somewhere. They come back and hand you a black plastic bag with your merchandise in. You give them the nod, discuss price and a Mafia-style exchange of money takes place. You walk away without a backwards glance. All very cloak and dagger.
Back at the hostel we have well needed shower and checked in. we headed out to the Empire State to meet Paul. We were a bit late so he was already there. Paul waited for us outside (he'll go tomorrow when his friends come) and we watched a film about New York's top 10 attractions and the history of the Empire State Building. Unfortunately the weather hadn't improved and visibility was zero. We decided to keep our tickets to go to the 102nd floor tomorrow.
At the bottom we meet with Paul again and walked to Little Italy. We passed through SoHo and a bit of Chinatown.
In Little Italy we had a very late dinner of amazing Italian pizza. After the meal we got the subway back home, meeting two French guys on the Subway who took this photo for us:
That subway journey was the closest we were going to get to having Europeans outnumbering Americans. It was strange was hearing Paul, the German, and the two Frenchmen conversing in English. As each of our stops approached, we all wished each other goodnight in the appropriate language. It dawned on us at this point that there are so many different languages in Europe (we counted up to 20 and then got a bit stuck, but we know there's more!), and the whole of America has just one official language.
YAY- a post which is finally up to date! Hope you appreciate the effort we've put into this, and the large amount of money spent on coffee in Starbucks while uploading these :) .
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