The beginning of our big US adventure began in the second worst possible way. Yes, we woke up in time for our flight, after about two hours sleep – Dan with a throbbing thumb after dislocating it while packing and me with a yet to be finished wedding dress. [While these pages will cover our travels and make mention of the wedding, the wedding activities will be shared with friends and family on our wedding blog.] And then we arrived at the airport early only to find our flight had been cancelled. One friend, who was joining our flight in Sydney arrived in NY on time by herself. Two others joined us on the re-routed flight through Melbourne, only to have our alternative flight from there delayed by three hours, which then missed our original connection out of LA. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The food on the flight was not as good as previous trips and I swear Qantas must have purchased shares in a raspberry factory. Every meal had raspberries (which I am allergic to) – the muffin for breakfast, the dessert with the meal and the second breakfast on arrival in LA. The vegan girl sitting next to us on the first flight donated her muesli bar which wasn’t, in effect, vegan, but didn’t have raspberries.
On arrival in LA we lost the two remaining members of our travelling party who were on a later flight. We flew American Airlines to NY on a packed flight. Dan was much more impressed with the meal on American – a ham and cheese wrap. The Customs experience in LA was quite OK until we got to the security check to get on the plane. Dan had carried a cooler pack with gel from Australia for medication but the US TSA were quite concerned about it. In order to let it through, they did a full pat down on Dan which took about 10 minutes. We were both pretty tired by then and just wanted to get to New York. The process to get off the plane at New York was quite quick. Our bags made it, we collected them and grabbed a cab. Our usual New York procedure is the train/ subway/ walking but with an extra bag of wedding gear, and it being now quite late in the evening, we took the easy option – a flat $50 fare.
After checking in we decided to go for a wander to Times Square to get the full force of arrival in America. We met our friend who arrived on the non-delayed flight on a corner – one of the things I love about New York – meeting people on the corner of two streets – they are well signposted and easy to understand with the numbering system (until you get way downtown where the grid pattern disappears and actual street names (like Wall st for example) take over. [Ken (The Mother Nature’s Son) – You Am I. You Am I always make me think of home (and being young) when I am travelling. They conjure up memories of the beer soaked sticky carpet in the now shuttered ANU Bar.]
We looked for a diner for something to eat – we chose an Italian sandwich shop (that was quite expensive) and ordered some food – I had a fab pastrami on rye (complete with pickles). Dan followed his sandwich with a (very large) slice of NY cheesecake. After sustenance, we continued our journey to the church of rampant consumer advertising – Times Square. It was our friend’s first time in Times Square. And we were so mesmerised on our first visit we had recommended it as a first night activity for all our friends. The rampant neon that surrounds you on all sides is engulfing and much like the city/country that spawned it feels sometimes like it could chew you up and spit you out without even blinking an eye. Having said that, our experience of New York and New Yorkers has always been positive. They don’t go out of their way to welcome you but are always helpful and polite.
After Times Square it was back to our hotel – The Salisbury Hotel on W 57th – to crash. The Hotel seemed a little bit more work and the bathroom grubbier than when we stayed seven years ago. No doubt the n=management had changed. We were in an accessible room which had not been updated since probably the 70s or 80s. The shower worked well though and the beds were really comfy – which made it worth the hefty price tag. Not that there is really such a thing as a cheap hotel in NY. It was also quite spacious for New York standards as it was an all-suite hotel when opened. Dan mused that we didn’t have a view. I asked what he was talking about – we had a perfect view of a 1930s apartment building across the street, complete with an old school water tower on the roof.
Other friends joining us in NY had embraced several options to lessen the cost – some had scored really good deals on Times Square and Hell’s Kitchen hotels, hostels in upper Manhattan and Brooklyn and Air B’n’Bs in Harlem and East Harlem. [The Prince – Madness – on the first Madness album and the first of theirs I ever owned – a gift from a group of friends for my 15th birthday. I didn’t know it then, but this was their tribute to another ska great. Prince Buster.]
Days to wedding – 5
