Day One - New York City

Here you have it, ladies and gentlemen - a report back of our Day one in New York City. This is a long report, since our "Day One" began on December 26 3pm in South Africa and ended December 27 11pm in New York City! Plus, of course, there's always more to report on your first day out :)

We left Durban International Airport bound for JHB at around about 5pm. I was feeling quite unwell after taking a DISPRIN earlier to "thin the blood" for the flight, but it may have also been nerves. We were quite late for our flight (although they had never pinged for us so I was a bit miffed with that), and when we arrived in the departure lounge some people ran up to us, checked our flights, and quickly ushered us through the gates. We got on the plane, and the captain chimed "ladies and gentlemen, the last two passengers have finally arrived, so we are preparing for takeoff". It was a little embarassing, but also annoying since they had never announced our names or advised us to hurry up - and the plane still left early anyway! We arrived in JHB about fifteen minutes ahead of schedule, but we decided nonetheless to get into the international section ASAP.

JHB has changed a bit (sorry, OR Tambo) so it was a nice experience. We shopped around the duty-free shops briefly for luggage locks and a sleeping pillow. We found both at reasonable prices (R75 and R70 I think) and then moved to the boarding gate about ten minutes ahead of time.

After our obligatory rounds of security checks, I noticed Robbie Dent (from WBHS 1996) and his wife were on the same flight, bound for NYC and it turns out whereas our trip is NYC - DC - LA - SFO theirs is NYC - Vancouver - SFO - LA - DC ... so how's that for a small world?

We departed on time, and the first leg of the flight was quite an experience for me, with me having not flown internationally for almost twenty years! Overall I enjoyed the entire experience, and our landing in Dhakar (which incidentally is in Senegal, and the stop-off makes strategic sense when you see that it's the western-most tip of Africa in direct line to USA) was interesting - I could spot out isolated settlements from 10km in the air over Ivory Coast and surrounds, and it was fascinating. Dhakar was a very intriguing city, with the architecture very "Muslim-esque" if I can call it that - and the airport seemed quite big, although Kat remarked that the runways were short. The only problem we encountered on the first leg were the initial hour's navigating into and through a storm system. Lots of bounces and jumps and the passengers exclaiming and such, but after we "weathered the storm" it was a smooth flight, and I enjoyed my supper ;)

Dhakar to USA was more concerning for me because of the long flight over the ocean, but it was smooth and restful (as far as it can be) and I believe Kat and I mustered about six or seven hours of broken sleep (NOTE TO SELF: MAKE SURE WE HAVE TWO TRAVEL PILLOWS FOR THE FLIGHT BACK).

There were many empty seats in the middle sections, and we enviously observed several people lying over multiple seats. We had great leg-room and the regular visits to the 'loo or the tail of the plane for secret snacks (take note you uninformed!) kept our circulation top notch.

Owing to the recent DETROIT BOMB SCARE we had new regulations for our flight - we all had to remain seated for the final hour, no blankets, no hand luggage, and no toilet breaks. The landing period was exhilerating for me - I got to see the sunrise in the air and witnessed speckles of lights as we neared mainland USA - the final approach revealed a spectacle of development and electricity like I've not seen in years. The entire East Coast was visible as one massive burning light - it really was inspiring! The houses and suburbs we flew over were just as I think I should have remembered them from the movies and my pervious trip (as a toddler) - and there was snow! Upon landing we all entered JFK and it was a sight to behold! I have never seen such a massive airport and it felt like we were in a different world - at least, it did for me!

National Lampoon's The (New) Johnstons Hit Manhattan

The immigration officials were surrounded by security personnel with hands on their holstered firearms, beadily watching us as we approached. My first introduction of USA was with two officials who politely asked me for my VISA forms, looked them over, asked me if I was British, and then officiously said "you're good to go" and ushered me ahead. The ladies behind me (including Kat) were then told to follow me.

Hilariously for me, I got a real "Noo Yawker" police woman doing my final processing, and she was talking to her buddy in the next booth about a suspicious Italian dude they had just turned around and her accent was so typically "Brooklyn" it was quietly amusing for me. Their words, their tone, their accent. Just like I'd have expected. An example was when she asked if I was married to Kat ... "Yew tew tagetha? Ya mawwied? Come over ear lady!" ... walking through and collecting our bags we chatted with the Dents a bit before going on our way. Loads of security guards everywhere, the rumble of American accents, and we were through to the "public terminal" section. This is where I encountered my first glimpse of New York demographics, when I asked a Spanish-speaking lady for some assistance, and then this Indian guy for further help. I learnt later that there's a LOT of asians in NYC and a LOT of Spanish-speaking people (who struggle with English!). We also had quite a few Italians and Portuguese people on the plane with us, and I spoke to some in Portuguese which was fun - I also wanted to help translate for the family when they reached USA because their official was having difficulty communicating with them.

The airport was also home to some US Army types armed with micro-machineguns strapped to their legs. I didn't take a photo although I wanted to.

Okay enough with the introduction narrative: ON WITH THE NYC visit!

The weather arriving in NYC was BEAUTIFUL - the best we could have hopped for! Sunny and 8'C - in fact, the sunny weather made the entire first day very warm and cosy!

We took the air-train out of JFK to Jamaica Train Station. This air-train flies along at some crazy speeds and is like a monorail going through the airport terminals before bulleting out into the "suburbs" and underground, then overground. It's completely automated with some pre-recorded announcements to let you know you're on the right track. We caught our first glimpse of Manhattan while riding the air-train, and we couldn't hide our excitement and giggled incredulously, to the bemusement of our fellow train riders.

From Jamaica we had to pay $5 each for the air-train plus tax ($11.50) and then head to the metro. In the metro we bought metro cards (7-day unlimited for $27 each). This was our first encounter with the subway system, and while we were waiting to chat to the toolbooth guy, a subway train somewhere above or below us rumbled by and we knew we were inside the belly of an industrious beast.

Another NYC anecdote for me was just before and while we were boarding the elevator, this sparky (AKA electrician) walked up to the toolbooth guy, and said "Who ya callin'? Ya callin' me?" and then later "Ok, I'll tell ya what we gotsa do - we gotsa turn awf all the services fer those secshuns, ya gawdit?". Then some other dudes rocked up and pointed to us and said "Ya telling us we godda fix this elevaduh? The elevaduh's gone on the blink too?" and it went on a bit, but for me it was a genuine NYC experience and I don't even think Kat picked up on it :)

In the metro elevator going down, we got into a cabin with about five people before a bunch of indian kids and some Mexican women got in. At this point we encountered our first taste of New Yorkers in action. The woman to our right said "You've got to be kidding me! This elevator's full!" as the Mexican woman pushed in. "Can't you see I'm pregnant here? You're pushing up against my baby! Get out!" and an African-American woman added "she's not kidding. This is crazy" and the Mexican woman just ignored them. We got to the bottom, and the pregnant woman said "excuse me" and shoved the Mexican woman out of the way. It was crazy! They got into a shouting match outside while they walked away in opposite directions with no resolution.

After arriving at the wrong stop, we trekked a bit to our hotel, but we made it, and it was fun to explore a bit while we trekked. We met some San Diegons in the lobby who chatted with us and concluded "we've so got to do stuff together". Friendly people these San Diegons :) ... our hotel for the first three nights is HOLIDAY INN LONG ISLAND CITY.

The hotel is lovely, and although I was cautious of our Manhattan view on the 10th floor, we've got it, and it's wonderful :)

View at night from our room.

They forgot to mention the "new" hotel blocking our view :(

We took the subway (one block away, about two minutes walk) and went into the local deli where I ordered some soup (the guy inside thought we were from England). Great soup, but it cost us about $4.

We surfaced outside 7th Avenue by Central Park, and wandered around a bit before Kat bought a sidewalk hot dog (you just gotsa dew it) for $2. The rat tried to sell us a $4 hot dog "because the sausage was bigger" although there was no mention of a $4 'dog on his menu, so we told him to return it and took the $2 option. It tasted nice, but not worth the +/-R16 it works out to. The water in Central Park is starting to thaw but portions of it is still frozen. There were also people skating on a section of the ice, just like in Serendipity (the movie).

This picture is cool. We were trying to do one on our own together, and this guy walking past with his wife said "Come on guys..." and took the camera and shot it for us :) Friendly people these New Yorkers! We're in Central Park in this shot.

We decided to walk down to Planet Hollywood in Times Square to get our Citypass booklets, and this turned out to be a mammoth journey, but worthwhile!

We popped into Starbucks, got a Mocha Frappucino (which the attendant tried to point out was a cold drink, and he was surprised that we wanted one in winter) for $5 (Kat was surprised to learn that all their menu items exclude the +/-9% VAT that in South Africa is intelligently already added in, although I suppose in the US each state has its own sales tax so it's easier to compare apples with apples before tax).

Trekked some more down the street (along sixth avenue) and explored the windows and a few side shops. Kat got very excited at an 80% off winter sale (post-Christmas), and we went inside the store only to discover they sold $500 handbags!! Even with the 80% discount, that's R800 for a freaking handbag!

We finally landed up in Times Square, which is a sight to behold. People prepared us to be underwhelmed by the experience, but I thought it was awesome! Maybe the Christmas season makes it better, but there were all sorts going on, and the whole area is wifi enabled now thanks to Yahoo!

We asked two traditional NYPD guys for directions to Planet Hollywood and they were helpful and polite. We got our Citypass cards from Planet Hollywood ($115 each, for 3 days, access to loads of attractions) and then did the hunt for Times Square McDonalds (part of our master plan for day one). Inside Planet Hollywood we met two people from Durban who also had arrived on the same flight as us - talk about small world :)

All I can say is, McDonalds in NYC is TERRIBLE compared to home - the queues go on forever, with no formal structure at all, and the eating facilities are even worse. People cram next to each other and fight for eating space. There must have been easily one hundred people in the tiny McDonalds from what I could see, and I pulled Kat out of the toilet queue simply because it would have taken us about twenty minutes to get to use the 'loo and I was as desperate as Kat to purge the Mocha Frappucino.

We ended up using very quaint facilities (with next to no queues) in the Times Square Information Centre. Here, I encountered an African American painted silver arguing with another dude in the restroom. They got aggressive but never actually touched each other. In the end they both left. Really funny.

The local guy at the information centre thought we were Australian, and thought my Springbok beanie was a kangaroo. Sigh.

We walked for a long while later, explored some awesome sights (and MASSIVE skyscrapers - Kat was in such a dwal I kept having to tilt Kat's head and every time she looked up she went "wowww..."). There was a free breakdance show going down by some locals trying to get the crowd going (they were really good, but unappreciated). We ended up at another McDonalds where we ordered our "third pounder" burger to share and sat down upstairs (we had to negotiate with some Spanish tourists to share the four-seater because none of us could find a place to sit). During our lunch there was some anti-Israel protest going on outside and we saw probably three hundred or so Jews and Palestinians (presumably) marching together protesting against Israel. The Jews had placards saying "Judaism is against Israel" and the Palestinians had their typical "remove racist Israel". That was a free one we weren't expecting!

Afterwards, we decided to head home so I could figure out the address for Redeemer Presbyterian Church and also pick up my Blackberry (I figured out I can just use my Blackberry on WIFI mode and I'll have free internet and access to GOOGLE MAPs etc. in Manhattan). On the way home we had another couple on the subway get into a fight. This Spanish were tuning this caucasian couple, and the caucasian guy walked up to the Spanish guy and was saying "just relax man, relax" and it looked as close to a fist fight as I could have expected to see without any punches being thrown. For those really angry people that are around, the New Yorkers seem to show a lot of restraint at the last moment because I really expected a fight to break out, but eventually they all just walked off.

We weren't sure where to go to get home, and at that point Kat asked this old african woman next to us for help, and I again squeeled with delight when the woman responded JUST LIKE I EXPECTED her to! "How can I help ya sweetie?" - I can't explain it (I'm already dragging on), but she was ilke the Oracle in The Matrix, all dressed up for a warm day out and just like the movies.

Anyway, a very long story short, we had some very nice people help us out on the train - such stereotypes of what you see in the movies; we had some Spanish woman chatting to us and warning us against going to the stop we intended to because someone was killed there a few weeks ago, and then some Jewish guy with his daughter and wife who walked us to the right station when we were lost trying to find Redeemer later on. We also had some guy on the train say to us "you aren't South African, are you?" because of my beanie, and turned out this guy was a Cape Town guy - and he had his Springbok jacket on - we chatted briefly before hopping off at our stop. Beanie strikes again!

We came home to get the street address for Redeemer, when I hooked up my Blackberry on WIFI. I received the most devastating news I could have expected - Oli Bray - the 21 year old kid that worked for me, and had just kicked his long-standing drug addiction habit, had died the day before from a skateboarding accident. I couldn't believe it. It still feels surreal now, probably because we are so disconnected from what's going on back home. I received confirmation from a few sources while we were in the hotel room, and numbed by the news, we stayed behind for about thirty minutes to collect ourselves, communicate with others about what happened, and then departed again (exhausted, and still very much in shock - we are so sorry, and so sad ... every time I think about it I want to cry but I still don't think the reality of the tragedy has fully hit me yet).

We went to Redeemer on 68th Street (Hunter College Auditorium) - half asleep at this point but fighting to stay up until 9pm - and I went to the 'loo and had some dudes in there swearing full-tilt, which I found a bit odd for a church service. We fought through the service half-asleep (the worship was a JAZZ style which was interesting), and missed out on Tim Keller, who's probably on holiday now (although this was typically his session to preach). The auditorium slowly filled up during the service, and it seems a lot of people attending were Asian. We left afterwards because we were exhausted, and this guy came up to us and asked us if we were from South Africa. We said yes, and chatted, and discovered this guy's name is James, he's from Morningside, studied at UND '92 - '95 and is an accountant working in Manhattan. He offered to show us where we could get a really reasonable bite to eat this late at night (I said we had a limited budget and wanted reasonably healthy food). He walked us to a deli nearby, but it was closed, and then another place but we thought it was too expensive, and so finally he took us to a Burger Bar joint. Here, we were quite shocked at the cost of food - around $9 for a burger meal! I awkwardly sat there for a long time trying to figure out what to order (and had asked for tap water to drink), when James chimed in that he'd pay for our meal since he can afford to and he'd like to treat us, so awkwardly I had to accept, because in all honesty, it was a bit over our budget.

He ordered me a cheese & bacon burger and chips with coleslaw (about $11) and he had the same; Kat had a plain burger. Man, that meal was AWESOME - but not quite what I had anticipated as "healthy". We chatted for some time, and concluded that he's into his XBOX and PS3 stuff, and he invited us over to his place for New Years if we'd like to come! It was really great to be made to feel at home by James, and we exchanged email addresses, and we invited him to join us on the USS Intrepid trip on Monday since he'd never been there before and he needed to take his friend from the UK somewhere. James was really an awesome guy - so friendly and hospitable and he took us for a meal out and showed us around a bit; we really felt like we were "home" in NYC. As he said, God intended for our paths to cross, and we were very humbled and grateful for meeting him. Heck, he's even suggested if we return to NYC we can use one of his bedrooms in his Yonkers flat he's about to buy! How crazy is that!

Afterwards we went home, with a promise to meet up with James again during our stay and the possibility of joining him and his friends for New Years. We finally got to sleep about 10:30pm NYC time, with Kat not feeling so well. It is now almost 10am on Monday, with me blogging away like crazy while Kat sleeps because she's not feeling well. We think she has food poisoning - she has a fever and has vomited three times, but is now resting and feeling much better. She blames the burger from last night but I don't see how that could be the cause if she hardly digested it and it came so suddenly. My brother suggests it was the hot dog, which seems more probable since I had one bite of it and Kat consumed the rest... and the incubation period was about 10 hours before she felt really sick.

Anyway, that's a VERY long account of our first day in NYC - hopefully the detail interested some and didn't bore others too much :)

A few notes:

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  Our hotel is located here.
  
  
  
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  Redeemer Church is located here: http://www.redeemer.com/sundays/service_info.html
  
  
  
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  We saw steam rising from street manhole covers :)
  
  
  
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  I saw some subterranean network underground, and will try to investigate further!
  
  
  
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  Internet here is rather fast :)
  
  
  
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  I saw Elmo, Spongebob Squarepants, Mickey Mouse, and Winnie the Pooh in Manhattan.
  
  
  

Kat is on the mend so no-one has to worry just yet - we also have medical insurance and she's feeling much better, but prayers are always welcome nonetheless. We are also still very saddened by the news about Oli Bray.