Day 2 – 30th August 2011
Very early local time but I’ve had a lot of sleep in a bed that seems incredibly comfortable after two nights on the sleeping mat at Will’s. Despite my late onset nerves, I got here without disaster and everything worked as it should with the exception of US immigration where the queue lasted two hours! They might well have been getting back up to speed after the ‘hurricane’; there were certainly lots of inundated fields as we came in to land, but such a long wait after a seven hour flight seems cruel. I briefly contemplated a taxi but was put off by the price and then met the line waiting for the Express bus; even longer than the immigration queue! Just as I was resigned to my fate an enormous black man came up and asked if I was headed downtown and offered to take me for $20 if we could find some more passengers. In moments we had four passengers and I was duly delivered to the door of the Latham Hotel. Bonus! He clearly made a good living from his enterprise and was even set up to accept credit cards.
The hotel has clearly seen better days but is superbly located with the Empire State building round the corner, but the staff are helpful and the room is clean. The electrical sockets all seem a little hit and miss but I can set up my various chargers with the help of a few props. Major let down was my phone which has worked throughout Europe and even Morocco but not here. The remedy was a $5 phone card which gives me more talk-time than I’m likely to use in a year; the first (and probably the only) thing that’s cheap here. By contrast, 24 hours access to wi-fi costs $9.
With the five hour time differential the night was young even though my body was ready for bed so I set off for an orientation walk to get used to the street numbering system. It is as easy as I’ve been led to believe. Streets running east to west are numbered from the south so my hotel is on 28th Street which is somewhere to the south of the ‘middle’. North-South roads are numbered from the east with Sixth Avenue being the mid-point. So, my hotel at East 15, 28th Street is the 15th building from Sixth Avenue along 28th Street. Easy!! Anyway, the short walk turned into quite a long one as I went past the Empire State and headed all the way to the river to the west and then back to the hotel. I was surprised by the number of trees along many of the streets, lots of Plane trees like London but others that I couldn’t recognise.
There was an old railway line that had been converted into an urban walkway which seemed to attract lots of people.
I also came across a unique (to me) parking system where the cars are all stacked up on a hydraulic lift system. I asked the operator what happens if someone whose car is at the top wants it back and he confirmed that all the cars underneath have to be lowered and put to one side, the required car is released and then the other cars all have to be put back. Labour intensive but a good use of limited space.
Finally got back and had a meal at a street-side restaurant; it was still pretty warm. Too expensive and much more than I could eat, but overall a long and successful day.
Rose today at six o’clock – Chris will find this hard to believe but I had been abed for 9 hours. I’ve just enjoyed a New York breakfast at the Birch House, a little café around the block from the hotel. It’s attached to the public library. I had my first New York beer there last night - an organic pale ale that might easily have been brewed in the UK so there is beer in the US if you look for it. I suspect it might be less readily available as I head inland! Lots of customers already and I’m not the only one on a laptop. Two large coffees (I’ll be peeing all day!!) and scrambled eggs in a bagel and I’m ready for what the day brings.
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