FrozenDreamer

Well… this is a little insight into my holiday in New York City - April 23, 2002 — April 30, 2002!!!!

New York City is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular places I have seen in all my life… definitely on of the cities that EVERYONE should try and see. It is so worth it. The people are fabulous… and always willing to answer a question or two… and the bargains you can get are really spellbounding.

For those of you looking for a fabulous hotel to stay in… I was in the CHELSEA STAR HOTEL for 6 nights… and it cost HALF as much as what a normal crappy hotel would cost. You do have to share the bathroom… but you only really run into issues on Saturdays. The address for them is as follows
http://starhotelny.com/ so use them… they’re good… cheap… and you get fresh towels in the morning…

So will I go back to NYC… DUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH… ASAP!!! Just I’ll check the credentials of the airplane I go on first… hehehehee

So read what happened…
Eventually I’ll get the pictures of things up in my travel section… so bear with me on that one.

I shall away now and get some sleep… in my own bed…

Moondrops and sunshine to you all…
FrozenDreamer… out…

I am so tired…

You must excuse the state that this entry is in… and you must also excuse where I am posting it from. I know that I said I would write the final post from the hotel, but some stupid little chinky boy got in my way and the blogger wasn’t working… so you’re getting an entry from the good ol’ comfort of Mama Cass and the room of much mess (I just unpacked… kindof)…

Well… Monday was a very interresting day to say the least. I got up quite early… and my head was spinning. I could hardly breathe coz my sinuses had gone awol (one of my lovely friends when it comes to travelling) and I just felt pooey. Wnt for a shower in the room of marble (*snigger*) and checked out of the hotel… leaving my bags and other things in the reception so that I didn’t have to lug them around with me all over the place.

I took the majority of the travellers cheques left and cashed them in the downtown HSBC that stands accross the road from the old World Trade Centre… and then started my day off with a little walk around town. I generally darted all over the place… icluding Central Park (where I was cruised by some freaky little American boy in The Rambles)… Central Park again… where I saw The Turtle Pond, Belvedere Castle, The Great Lawn and a few other little buildings that pop up throughout the park itself.

I also managed to do the world famous 5th avenue shops (including the shop I saw on the subway which name I cannot remember now).
I also walked along the west side… and then did a little bit more of the midtown and got a jacket from one of the shops that is just along the road from the Empire State Building. Hopped onto a subway train and visited that fabulous music shop next to the Radio City Music Hall.
After that I came back to the hotel, got my stuff… fought with Blogger, then caught a taxi to the Airport…

THEN THE FUN BEGINS!!!!

I checked in and all was well… just this time… on the Boeing 777 that was taking me BACK to Europe… the scren on my entertainment system was boogered…. as opposed to the controller being stuck in the arm and TOTALLY unmovable. So I landed up sleeping the majority of the way back (Thanks to Tylenol Ache Reliever — and sleep inducer!!!)

The meal was AWFUL!!!! *puke *spit* *splutter*

Go into Paris CDG and made my way to Hall F after waiting for about an hour for them to post which gate I had to go to.

ON THE PLANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! all was fabulous until the plane started its decent…

We were decending quite rapidly… and through some VERY thick clouds that hung rather low in the sky… as we were going down… the sky around the engines looked as if it was going red… so I started to panic. Then… looking into the cabin… there was smoke all around us!!!! The plane WAS ON FIRE!!!
We landed… (after me thinking to myself… ‘Oh well… it was a nice holiday… I had a good time… now I have to die!’) and had an emergency stop on the runway where the fire department surrounded us and nearly swarmed the plane. People were really starting to panic… but my hat goes off to the air steward who kept everyone calm.
It turned out the air-conditioner packed up and the filters has probably metled out… FABULOUS!!! As for the red skies… well… the ground around the airport is particularly red… so it was just the ground shining through the clouds…

So…
That was the end of my holiday… my first holiday on my own…

Refer to my second posting for the day to get my conclution thingumy!!!

Moondrops and sunshine…
FrozenDreamer…

Greetings… from the last full day in NYC!!!

Today was theatre day in NYC and a day well spent in my opinion! I started the day off with a quiet read in bed… with the fab book I bought in Edinburgh Airport. Then, I had a shower, and went off to the Radio City music hall. I went and did the tour to get the full idea of the place… good god it was really worth it. That theatre is absolutely amazing!!! To think of all the fabulous celebs that have graced that stage… and I got to see it… if only forr a few minutes!

I left the RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL and made my way downtown to the Orpheum Theatre to watch Stomp using the tickets that I bought on the web. That was definitely a couple of pennies extremely well spent!!!! The timing and rhythm (I can’t spell it) that is involved in that production was spell bounding. I loved every second of it!!!

I left the theatre and made my way back to Times square where I did a bit of shopping and spend an arseload on CD’s and stupid novelty things for some people at work (god, I have to go to work on Thursday!!!! NNOOOOOOOOOOO) (Pit you poor sods who are there now… *snigger*

Came back to my hotel as the weather started to get bad again. It’s rained most of the day… but good god… when it gets rainy here… its like being back in SA… you get all sweaty and icky like… its not fun… It is so humid!!!! I’ve had to put the fan on in my room while packing my stuff up!!!!

Tomorrow I am going to a fabulous clothes shop that I saw on the Clothes Shop Car on the A Subway train… then I am probably going to lounge in Central Park for a bit and maybe do a Museum or two before coming back to the hotel and catching a cab to the Airport to end this fabulous holiday.

So with that… I must away to see the wonders of hotmail.

I shall write one last entry upon my leaving the hotel…

Moondrops and sunshine…
FrozenDreamer…

I’ll email you tomorrow LA…!!!!

Well… another fabulous day in this fabulous city!!!!

I must admit though, it did start off a little bumpy… as I didn’t realise that banks do not open here on Saturdays… and I was out of cash (well…. I had enough to scrape through… but I am here to have fun… not scrape through). I landed up having to run around downtown Manhatten trying to find an HSBC that was open… none of them were. I came back to the hotel and asked the lovely manager if he knew where I could change travelers cheques on a Saturday… and he kindly changed $100 for me…. so that made my day.

I left the hotel after that and made my way on the C train to Columbus Circle where I started a small walk of Central Park. It is huge… much like the rest of this city!
I have never seen to many cyclists and runners in all my time! Fabulous sight!!!! I walked around to the Sheepsmeadow and lay on the grass there for about half an hour… taking in the sights (nothing like a fe barely clad american guys playing frisbee!!!!!) After that, I made my way to the The American Museum of Natural History. It is unbelievable. I thought it was great. I did the planetarium… ($19!!!) and then walked around laughing at the Americans trying to pronounce Gemsbok! It is quite funny.

I left the museunm and made my way back to the hotel… after planning my route I headed back to the downtown area on the peanut train… and headed for the Staten Island Ferry. I did the whole ferry thing… but never left the terminal at Staten Island as Jane told me there wasn’t much to see… and anyway… it was getting a bit late by this time.

Tomorrow I am not too sure what I am going to do… but we shall see what happens after I have fought for the right to use the shower. Anyway…. its going to cloud over tonight and piss down with rain… so that should be arseloads of fun tomorrow running around with my umbrella from Edinburgh!!!

Gotta go… time is running out.

Moondrops and sunshine….
FrozenDreamer…

Today I met up with Jane Birman from the BIG APPLE GREETERS program. I had to get up really early and go down to Brooklyn (Court Street station) and stand at a bank… the bank she told me to stand at had closed down and was no longer in use… so I stood at the wrong bank!!!

Nevertheless… eventually we found eachother and she took me around Brooklyn Heights and showed me around the Brooklyn Promenade. It is a fantastic area… and the view of Manhatten is very picturesque. We left their and made our way to the south of manhatten… and saw the Coney Island area… and walked along the promenade. From their, we went to the Russian shops that line the subway lines. Some of them are really interresting.

As I sit here, there is a poor little irish lady trying to explain something to someone on the phone… but her accent is very thick and she can’t get her point accross. Poor thing.

… after leaving the Brooklyn area… I made my way up to the Staten Island Ferry… but given the time span… I decided against going on the ferry, and made my way back to the hotel… but stopped at a wonderful little market… kind of like a flea market thing and found some wonderful things to take back to South Africa. So that was quite good. I left the market and went to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked accross that. It is a fantastic piece of architecture… and I am glad I got to see that.

Left the bridge and hopped onto the subway and walked around the area that my hotel is in. Hardly spent any money today, but got five ties…. for bargain prices.

Tomorrow should be more entertaining I think….

Good… that poor Irish lady is still trying to spell Ireland to someone on the phone…

Moondrops and sunshine…
FrozenDreamer…

I MISS BROADBAND!!!

Today was possibly the best day I have had so far… nothing that happened was bad… at all!!!!

I got up really early (Jet Lag again) and had a shower in the lovely bathroom (said to be marble…. black tiles)… and then left and made my way down to the Empire State building. Went up to the top floor and spent about half an hour up their with my mouth dangling open at the prospect that I was at the top OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING!!! I couldn’t believe it. I kept on thinking of my godmothers little statue that she had of the building… and now thinking that I was on top of it… kinda freaked me out!

I left there and made my way to MACYS…. I have been spoiled… I will never be able to shop properly in another shop again. MACY’s is possibly the best thing that has ever happened to me ever in the worl dof shopping. It was amazing… it has the original wood eescalators in it and it just has the most fabulous things in it. I got an amazing shower doohicki… but never mind that just now!!!!

After MACY’s I went down to TIMES SQUARE and browsed around there for a while… It is an amzing site, and couldn’t believe it when I found myself staring at the wrong side of TIMES SQUARE… only to turn around and find a bigger one on the other end of the cross…. I was dumbfounded. It really is spectacular!!!!

Left Times square and headed for Grand Central Terminal. Amazing… I have never been awestruck by 1 single room before… and totday I was. It was impressive… the ceiling… amazing. And the market in the back… even better… I couldn’t believe some of the things in their… it was huge. On the way out… I passed a photo shoot… and watched that for a while… I then made my way back out to 42nd street… but on the way… got tapped on the shoulder by a guy. He said, ‘I’m a talent scout… and you are perfect for photo shoots… have you ever thought of doing modelling???’ I was amazed… but when he found out I was a tourist, he apologised for slightly wasting my time… and walked off…. so when I get back to Edi… who knows… might go for a screen test…

I left Grand central and made my way to the UN building. I did the tour which was fantastcic…

Gotta go… no time left…

MNoondrops and sunshine…
FD…

Well… another day of complete amazment on this side. I cannot get over this city and am having a total blast. I didn’t really follow any schedule today, just found myself wandering around looking at things. I saw the World Trade Centre site, and it really was quite emotional! I could picture the carnage and feel the emotion of the thousands of people there… it was quite unbelievable.

I saw Wall Street, so that was quite fab… the NYSE was actually closed off to the public, so I couldn’t go in…. which was a bummer! The bull that stands outside was quite fabulous though!

I also decided… quite on the moment, to hop onto the Statue of Liberty island ferry and then I found myself staring up at that fantastic staute! It is quite an unbelievable thing to see something that you have seen so many thousdsands of times on the tele! Took my breathe away. I didn’t have time to go and do Ellis Island… so I am probably going to go and do that tomorrow, and also do a liitle shopping in MACY’s. I wanna see if I can find a coat in NY… as I have had so much trouble trying to find a decent one in Edinburgh!

Last night i WOKE UP AT 2:00am…. jET lAG IS EVIL!!!

I have had a shyte nite… and bought myself absolute crappage…. Hersheys is the oilest chocolate I have ever eaten in all my life!!!! It’s quite spewy!!!

I ventured forth into the subway for the first time. Its an amazing system that they have here… I only got on the wrong train once… and found myself in Brooklyn!…. as usual… went the wrong way. Got off and just turned around. The London underground is much easier to navigate… but the streets here… are much easier than London… so it’s a balance thing.

On the ferry was quite strange…. I could just picture what it must have looked like on September 11…. really weird! Must have been sickening to watch the events unfold before you!

Anyway… I am gonna away… as this costs $1 for 5 minutes…, and I have 1 minbute left!!!!

Moondrops and sunshine…
FrozenDreamer…

Oh… and by the way… this keyboard is MANKY!!!!!!!!!!!

oh… I bought postcards today… when I got back… my fingers were stained black from the soot!!!!!

Moondrops and sunshine…..
FrozenDreamer

Well… the flight over was absolute hell…I got seated next to a screaming 2 year old french kid who was hyperactive. I was not impressed at all… and the mother knew this.

The hotel is really funny… I am in the Grace Jones room… its so small… you couldn’t swing an atom around in it. I like it though… it’s enough. It cost a little more that what I was expecting… but hey… such is life.

The Empire State Building is huge…

Anyway… gotta run… strange people are coming down the hallway… I fell like I am in school or somthing!!!!

Moondrops and sunshine…
FrozenDreamer…