After almost 3 months of travel, it was finally time for the last leg of our journey. And we certainly ended it on a high note.
New York is just as intense and exciting as it seems in the movies. Buzzing streets, tall buildings, bright lights and barely intelligible taxi drivers.
We landed at JFK Airport around 12:30 at night, and after a rather stilted exchange with our taxi driver, we arrived at our lodgings (a comfy rented room in a stylish loft apartment). The next day we woke up and hit the Hop-On Hop-Off bus in order to squeeze in as many of the city's sights as possible.
Our first stop took us to the Natural History Museum. Thankfully there was no sign of Ben Stiller, but the dinosaur display was really impressive. Many of the skeletons were made up of actual fossils, rather than just moulds. A number of other displays, from meteorite specimens and early human remains, were equally fascinating. The museum is so large that you'd need repeat visits to see it all. So after two hours or so, museum fatigue began to set in and we took a stroll through Central Park back to our apartment.
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| Grrr! |
That evening we hopped back on the bus for a night tour through the city. Starting out with the bright lights of Times Square we continued through to China Town, Little Italy and over the bridge to Brooklyn, finally ending up on buzzing Broadway Boulevard.
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| New York skyline from the top of our hop-on hop-off bus. |
The next day we went up the Empire State Building. The crowds were intense but the view was worth it.
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| On top of the Empire State. |
That night we went out for the obligatory beer and burger. Delicious, artery-clogging goodness.
Day three saw us ticking off a trifecta of New York tourist must-sees. We started off with a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, followed by a walk through Wall Street and a tour through Ground Zero. That evening we met up with Sally, an old friend from Erik's Teddington days, and had a fantastic Vietnamese dinner.
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| Erik tucking into a tasty hot pretzel from a sidewalk stand. |
Our final day was spent shopping in Soho and taking a walk through the High Line Park, which is a very cool elevated park built on an old railway line.
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| BA pities the fool who loses on the stock market. |
With a few hours to kill before our flight, we had a nap in Central Park under some shady trees then headed off to JFK. As is our luck, the flight did not go off without a hitch. While waiting for our plane to arrive at the airport, it was struck by lightning and had to undergo extensive safety checks before we could board. In the end, our 11 'o clock flight was pushed out to 3am.
After 32 hours in transit we landed back in Cape Town. Tired, inspired and happy to be home.
