First Words. New York New York for Christmas and New Year’s. There are not enough words to describe New York, nor enough blog space! Be prepared for a super long entry …
 
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| Dates | Out of Heathrow Saturday afternoon, 25 December In to Heathrow Sunday morning, 2 January |
| Airline | United Airlines |
| Why go? | So many reasons. This is New York people! |
| Weather | Cold but extremely bright clear days and snow early on. |
| The experience | This is the third time I’ve been to New York City, with my most recent visit back in early May, so you would have thought I would have run out of things to do by now. Wrong. Sure I expected this to be a less frantic visit than the last two – you know, less running around for tourist attractions and what not – but in the end we still found it a challenge to get around and see everything. |
| Mornings began rather slowly usually with a nice leisurely breakfast, actually almost brunch, at Andrew and Elvira’s hotel. Having said that however, as I had to come in from Flushing, my mornings inevitably started at around 8am (ugh! I’m supposed to be on holidays!) though I didn’t mind so much – can’t waste too much time in New York sleeping. | |
| Just simply stepping into Manhattan brought a thrill to me. I know it sounds cheesy but there is just such life and soul to the City and the excitement was just bubbling to get out. | |
| Time went by so quickly in New York that I’m struggling to remember exactly what we did each day. I know that we spent a lot of time shopping (including an afternoon at Canal Street cruising the counterfeit products), we visited Columbia University, we saw the Frick collection, we saw the Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall, spent New Year’s Eve in and around Times Square, finally got to the Statue of Liberty and of course we ate! I couldn’t resist the New York slices of pizza and their street vended hot dogs. And then there was Smith and Wollensky. Though there is seafood and chicken on their menu they are most famous for their meat which comes on a plate as is. There is no attempt to even disguise it with the usual garnishings such as salad or veges (though these can be ordered as sides for a hefty price). Not even one green leaf graced our plates which made for an interesting change. I had a giant filet mignon which was a struggle to get through. Andrew was okay with his meal but I don’t think Elvira even got through a quarter of hers. Of course I also had dessert and I can happily recommend the Hot Deep Dish Apple Betty w/Vanilla Sauce. Another memorable meal was at the City Crab where my cousin treated her family and I to gorgeous seafood meal. The seafood there is mouth-smackingly good and their mashed potato is to die for! |
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| Special mention has to go to Monday for the snow. Thanks to a huge dump late Sunday night I’d gotten my Christmas wish for a white Christmas. Okay it was technically two days after Christmas but really who’s counting. Monday was a perfect day for a walk in Central Park. Sure it was slightly cold (and absolutely freezing up at the Reservoir) but the snow made for a lot of fun. Andrew caned me a few times with very large, and well-placed, snowballs but I think I got him back. No words can describe how magical Central Park is with snow so I’ve attached some photos. | |
| New Year’s Eve – Times Square | I guess I should mention New Year’s Eve at Times Square. Everything you read about the night suggests you get to Times Square relatively early – meaning early afternoon. If you’ve got a hotel room at Times Square I don’t think you really need to do this but of course we didn’t know this before hand so although I had a room at the Millenium Broadway (on 45th) we thought that even if you had a hotel in the area you wouldn’t be allowed on to the street once they had closed it off. We weren’t sure what was going on and asked the police at the barriers when and how we could get on to the street. I couldn’t believe it but they told us a blatant lie – spouting some rubbish about getting screened at a security booth (that didn’t exist) at 5th avenue. This appeared to be a wide-spread strategy to get people to leave the area and reduce the numbers. Not a very nice strategy at all. |
| Anyway, by about 4-5 they started to close the roads down and at about 5.30 we finally found ourselves on the street staring around (without having to get the necessary screening!). Unfortunately there was little entertainment and by 7.30 we were starving, a little bored, sick of standing around (you could sit but the police kept on coming to prod people to stand up for “our own safety”) and I was starting to get a little cold. We had a spot near the MTV studios where they were shooting a NYE special so we at least had that to entertain us, trying to spot J Lo, Snoop Dog and Lindsay Lohan, but as we couldn’t hear anything it could only hold our attention for so long. An enterprising Chinese restaurant had started taking orders from our area and soon enough most of the people around us were chomping away. I don’t know how the delivery guy managed to get in or out but this, and Elvira and Andrew’s encouragement, convinced me to take the risk of leaving Times Square for some dinner, banking on being able to smooth-talk our way back in with my hotel room key closer to midnight. | |
| By the time we got some dinner and chilled for a bit in my hotel room, it was creeping up on 10pm. Andrew, employing his amazing sales skills, talked our way past three check points to finally get us back in to Times Square at our original spot. It wasn’t easy but Andrew took it all in his stride. | |
| The atmosphere was definitely up by this time. Everyone had their orange party hats on and their red balloons in hand and finally, there was some music, at least, playing on the loud speakers (though there were definitely some dubious choices) to entertain. Finally it was nearly midnight and the countdown for the dropping of Waterford Crystal 1,000 pound Ball began. Yes – this is the first time I’ve mentioned The Ball. It?s the big thing for New Year’s eve and I’m sure if I saw it up close it would be gigantic but all we could see was this tiny tiny ball, up above the Noodle Cup, changing colours as it made its way down the pole to the “2005” sign. Yay. The confetti was more exciting and this definitely made it feel festive. | |
| Overall, as an evening, I would say Times Square was disappointing (even more so considering this was supposed to be the 100th celebration in Times Square) though the count down and atmosphere itself from about 10pm was very cool. | |
| Next time, if I’m in New York for New Year’s Eve, I would definitely make sure to get a hotel room (with a view of Times Square if possible). Then I would spend the evening up until about 10pm celebrating in my own way with friends and/or family at some dressy function, or even at Rockefeller Centre where they appeared to have at least a few class acts (this could have been easily broadcast at Times Square so I don’t know why they didn’t), before making my way into the Square after 10 just in time to enjoy the lead up to midnight. | |
| Still, I don’t regret having experienced the night. At the very least I can finally tick it off my to do list. | |
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| Lowlights |
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| Final words | New York City is definitely abuzz with something indefinable. I know its a City that I’ll keep coming back to again and again. |