New York City! Big. Bright. Beautiful. Bloody awesome! What more is there to say? We-ll, Nat's writing this post so of course there's plenty more to say!
Knowing that we were facing our first Christmas away from home and on our own, we figured we may as well get out of Houston and do something fun. Four days to NYC was booked departing on Christmas Eve and after a small hitch involving missing our flight, we arrived starry eyed in the Big Apple.
Our hotel being near the intersection of Broadway and 49th street, our first tourist targets were Times Square, Rockefeller Center and ice skating rink. After an hour or two of wandering through the intense crowds taking a few happy snaps and gazing in awe at the Rockefeller Christmas tree, we were beaten by the cold when the temp dropped below freezing and we lost feeling in our fingers. A retreat was hastily ordered to the closest and warmest restaurant!
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| One end of Times Square |
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| The Rockefeller Xmas tree with a couple of tourists in front |
Christmas Day saw us full of hope for a white Christmas but unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. We cabbed it the eight or so blocks up to Central Park and The Plaza Hotel, the very fabulous venue for our Christmas Day lunch. Reservations had been made weeks earlier for The Oak Room and we were happily rewarded with a window table and a lovely Australian couple at the table next to us. Details were of course traded and plans made for dinner on our next visit. However after receiving the bill, we decided that the next time might be a little less extravagant!
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| The Oak Room overlooking Central Park |
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| Nat enjoying her perfect NYC Christmas lunch |
The indulgence of Christmas lunch required we walk it off in Central Park where we watched the ice skaters on Wollman ice rink. Once again the cold and loss of light dictated our return to the hotel to defrost before heading out again on to Broadway to see Chicago the musical. Simply spectacular. Only in New York City would the theatres still open on Christmas Day!
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| The Plaza Hotel |
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| A very chilly NYC scene |
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| A classic NYC shot |
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| Wollman iceskating rink |
We upheld an interntational Boxing Day tradition and headed out to shop the sales! Well, shop and check out 5th Avenue. Whilst we were viewing the gorgeous window displays in Saks, our Christmas wish was granted and it started snowing! Then it started snowing in earnest. Not having been watching or reading the news, we were unaware that this was the beginning of a snowstorm, so we continued to plow in to the storm heading north towards Central Park taking refuge in stores along the way. The fight was worth it though as Central Park was magical. And cold! Once again it was back to the hotel to warm up.
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| Outside Saks 5th Avenue |
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| Vince unsuccessfully attempting to keep warm |
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| Central Park pond |
Not having learnt our lesson, some hours later we were lured out to Soho by a Sydney friend for dinner and drinks. The cab ride there was certainly an experience. More like a trip through the Antarctic than NYC, we felt like extras in the “Day After Tomorrow”! The city was deserted, the cab drove at a snails pace and lost traction at every traffic light. But we prevailed and enjoyed a long night of good company, food and lots of drink provided by Matt, the Kiwi bar tender.
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| Sillyness. It was one of those kind of nights.. |
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| With the fabulous Dhulshan in NYC from Sydney |
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| Vince bonding with Matt the Kiwi bartender. They did the haka next ;) |
Getting home was an inconvenient after thought, which if we were more sober might have been a cause for concern. Around two foot of snow had fallen and the roads were yet to be ploughed so we opted for the subway that brought us to within 5 blocks of our hotel. Fortunately we found a private cab driver who was crazy enough to agree to drive us there for $25, as I wasn’t exactly sensibly dressed in stiletto boots and stockings! This ride was even crazier than the first; the driver had to take several different routes as roads were impassable (we were kindly made aware of this by the cars that were already stuck!) and it took almost as long to do five blocks as it did earlier to do twenty! We should have packed a roady!
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| Testing out my inappropriate footwear and modelling my glove's mittens feature |
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| Our first subway ride |
We awoke the next day with the addition of two mighty hangovers and lacking two flights home! The storm had closed all airports and after some furious self-research (as the Continental phone lines were so jammed they were playing a recorded message that basically told you to get lost before hanging up) we realised we were stuck in NYC until Thursday afternoon. One of us was ecstatic, one of us not so much. But he worked from the New York Macquarie office for the next couple of days, so got over it ;) Our extra days allowed us to hit the post-Christmas sales and visit Top of the Rock at Rockefeller together and for me to hit the post-Christmas sales (hehe), visit the New York Public Library and explore more of the city on foot.
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| St Patricks Cathedral |
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| New York Public Library |
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| The Empire State Building viewed from the top of Rockefeller Centre |
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| Looking North over Central Park |
So, after a fabulous week we returned to Houston and the game called "has our shipping container arrived yet?". More on that next time..
