Manhattan - Part Three
There were numerous things I had in mind to do in the early morning of Monday 22 August: watch the Today Show at the NBC Studios, or head downtown to Wall Street and watch the morning traffic. However, I decided to sleep in and start the day at about 10 am.
After my standard meal for lunch (a Quarter Pounder with a Diet Coke), I decided to use the easyInternetcafe on 42nd Street. This was a bargain, something like 4 hours for 5 dollars. Thank you easyInternetcafe, sure beats hotel rates.
Next, I applied my attention to buying some things for people at home. Apart from purchasing some exotic American chocolates for myself and friends, my brother wanted a New York Jets t-shirt, his one request from my trip. This was no easy task, as I was shopping in the off-season. I found two t-shirts, one from Champs, Where Sport Lives, and the other from Modell’s, Gotta Go To Mo’s. So similar are my brother and I, that I knew that if the shirt fit me, it would fit him. And if not, I had just bought for myself two Jets t-shirts, was it really so hard?
Later in the afternoon, inside the Rockefeller Center, I took the NBC Studio Tour. I saw the set of Saturday Night Live, NBC Nightly News, Dateline and other programs I didn’t know anything about. The SNL Studio is smaller that I thought it would be.
Rockefeller Plaza from the NBC Store
That evening, I took the B or D train from the Rockefeller Centre to 161st Street. The New York Yankees were playing the Toronto Blue Jays inside Yankee Stadium at 7.05 pm. I purchased a Yankees cap and magazine from outside the ground and was ready for the game. Inside, the stadium was smaller than I thought, but with great atmosphere. I was seated in section 15, box 257, row H, seat 8. Confusing I know. When I asked a fellow spectator for help, he pointed to my seat just beside me.
During the game there were food sellers walking up and down the isles chanting, Cracker Jacks; Ice Cream; Nuts; Beer’s Here; Bud; Coors Light; Water, Get Your Healthy Water. These traders were the entertainment on the side. I tried some Cracker Jacks to see what the song was all about. Cracker Jacks are caramel coated popcorn and peanuts, pretty good for the first quarter of the bag, but I would need a baseball team to finish this one. I enjoyed two Hot Dogs with Premium Kosher Beef Franks made by Hebrew National. The slogan of Hebrew National is great: Hebrew National, We Answer to a Higher Authority. The Yankees beat the Blue Jays, seven to nothing.
After the game, I bought a Rodriguez (number 13) t-shirt, he’s the big hitter for the Yankees. On the subway home a man boarded the train and started playing a song, his right hand on an old keyboard (with keys missing), his left hand around a recorder (taped together). His pace, tune and attitude was enjoyed by the passengers, and we all gave him some low notes in return. As he collected the money in his cap, he wished us, peace brother, and said that’s what the world needs, more peace. This man seemed to be enjoying life.
After packing my bags, I checked out of the New York Hilton on Tuesday 23 August. Today, it was time to go Downtown. Leaving my bags at the hotel, I took the subway to something like City Hall via 34th Street-Herald Square. Walking down Broadway, I was searching for Wall Street. Turning left off Broadway, the entrance of Wall St is so narrow that it is only suitable for pedestrian traffic. There is vehicle roadway once you get to the New York Stock Exchange and Federal Hall, but there are very few cars driving on Wall Street. Wall Street didn’t look as impressive as I thought it would. At the top of Wall St (on Broadway) is Trinity Church, an appropriate reminder of who to follow in the commercial world.
Brinks visiting Citibank on Wall Street
Moving west along Liberty Street, passed the World Trade Centre site, I walked into the Esplanade on the shore of Battery Park City. This is a great place to relax, run, read, or watch the sailing boats float passed. As it was after 4 pm, I moved on to visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage after a walk around the park. The museum exhibits items related to the Holocaust as well as Jewish life in general. I found some good books in the museum shop including Essential Judaism in a Nutshell, and The Book of the Jewish Year.
Goldman Sachs Tower from the Esplanade
I hopped on the subway at Bowling Green to go uptown but ended up going in the opposite direction. So I changed at Borough Hall in Brooklyn and headed back for Manhattan, ready for dinner with a friend.
Bowling Green subway station
My last day in New York, Wednesday 24 August, and I finally woke up in time to watch the end of the NBC Today Show broadcast at the corner of 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza. I saw a bit of a girlie make-over session and then some cooking; no serious news or weather. Then it was off for the Ed Sullivan Theatre on 53rd and Broadway, home of the Late Show with David Letterman. For the entire time I was in New York, not one episode of the Late Show was being taped. The studio was being upgraded for High Definition broadcasting next Monday. In any case, I made the best of things by enjoying a Letterman sandwich from Rupert Jee’s Hello Deli. I sat down outside and met a lady who worked at the Lincoln Centre but was interested in working on the Late Show. She asked if I worked for Dave, because she said, I looked familiar, like someone who worked on the Late Show. We talked about New York, Sydney, her job and my job, then wished each other a good day.
Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges
I caught a taxi at 4 pm for my 7:20 pm flight from JFK. The taxi driver was an immigrant who had found hope for his family in New York, accumulating several valuable taxi medallions.
Arriving at JFK, the wheel carrying my luggage fell apart; but I could relax as I had plenty of time; I purchased a book about Steve Jobs for the flight, and during a meal, struck up a conversation with some british ladies. I asked if they could swap some coins so I could have a whole set of denominations. Waiting at the gate, I met a French man who had come to New York for the wedding of his cousin in Central Park. This was interesting because earlier in the week, I spoke with a man at the Hilton who was also in New York for his cousin’s wedding in the same place on the same day. I was sad to leave New York, but happy to be boarding a Qantas flight. By now I was so comfortable with flying that I almost forgot to pray before take off.
Being on the left of the plane, I couldn’t see Manhattan from the air but the view was tremendous. Later in the flight there was a lightning show over Wichita, Kansas. We arrived at Los Angeles at about 10 pm. In the lounge, I met some American ladies who were off to Australia, but they couldn’t pronounce ‘Cairns’. I almost didn’t recognise the place, so I tried to help them pronounce it like an Australian. Apparently the major attractions for Americans who come to Australia are Sydney, the Blue Mountains, and Cairns.
But I was a hungry, so I headed off to Burger King, the same place where I had been denied a Whopper when I first arrived in America nearly a month ago (the Whopper was not on the breakfast menu). I would not be denied this time. I purchased a Whopper and an orange juice. The American trip, book-ended by a breakfast and dinner at Burger King. Now I was ready to go home.
Most of Thursday 25 August disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. The blankets seemed more comfortable on the trip home, but I didn’t get much sleep. Arriving at Sydney Airport on Friday 26 August, I was familiar with the landscape, but most on the flight were seeing it for the first time. The scenery looked normal to me but exotic to others. I had planned to catch the train home from the airport, but I wondered if anyone would come to meet me at the airport. I looked around the arrivals lounge and could see no-one. But then I heard a familiar voice quietly call my name. I arrived home at 9 am, 26 hours after leaving New York City in the yellow Ford Crown Victoria.
© Danny Haynes
Tim Haynes, 14 March 2006, 22:04:
Do we expect too much out of the sites in America? After all they do brag alot about how big everything is. Super-size is more than proportions of fast food, it’s a way of life.You see, when I went to Manhattan, New York, I expected The Statue of Liberty to be bigger than it was. I caught a close up when I was a passenger on the Circle Line cruise, a must for any New York visitor.
Now in one day of site seeing you have been left unimpressed by the dimensions of the SNL studio, Yankee Stadium and Wall Street. What will be next? Did you expect Hebrew National to have bigger hot dogs? After all they do answer to a higher authority, so they better produce filling hot-dogs.
Perhaps it’s a lesson for young players in the travelling game. The pessimist traveller will always be pleasantly surprised.