New York continued

Day 2

Arrived to hotel last night about 9.30pm and was dog tired. Nice area, but boy this place is beyond belief. I paid extra for a Milford Club room = aAll I got was a double bed in a smelly room, oh with my own bathroom. The stench nearly knocked me out, it was like the door had not been opened to this room in 3 years!! But I didn’t care, I was stuffed, so threw on my Qantas PJ’s (yes they really give you pajamas if you fly business class, haha) and crashed.

Woke up feeling rather alert but a head full of snot (sorry but that is how it is). Breakfast was included in the room price (well thank you) so had something to eat and hit the track. Bigger in day light! You look left and right and you cannot see the end of the road either way and the buildings just go on and on. I headed uptown (I didn’t know that at the time) and found that Columbus Circle was closed. The NFL season is starting so they closed off all these streets and put on a big concert for 60000 people. Usher was going as was our very own Keith Urban. Not into either so didn’t hang around and kept heading to Central Park.

One of the first things I see are the softball fields – 6 of them right in the middle of the city, unbelievable! And they even have their own ‘Ballfield Café’. Walked and walked and walked and I reckon I covered 2/3 in length of the park but about 1/6 of the park in general. It is beyond comprehension. Think Sydney Botanical gardens and Lady McCarthur’s chair and times it by about 50!!! Beautiful though! I experienced my 1st NY hospitality too. Asked this guy, before realizing he was a homeless guy (nothing wrong with that but did stink a bit), but he was so nice and went to great lengths to explain the answer to my question (which was simply was it worth my while to keep heading up the park). No was his answer so I headed back down 5th Avenue (thank you very much) and back towards hotel. This was 3 hours by now and I had drunk about 5 litres – so bloody hot here!! My cold was pretty bad at this stage, so came back to hotel and had 2nd shower for the day before dressing and heading off to check out Times Square. Oh I forgot to mention, when walking back through Columbus circle, there were about 200 cops, probably more, hanging around for the concert. Like we all know they do things big, but I guess they have to here!

Anyway back to Times Square. Fuck!! That’s all I can say – I have never seen anything like it. Unreal!! Millions of people, millions of light bulbs flashing on and off (not so great for green gas emissions), pretty overwhelming actually. Found one bar and paid $8.50 for Malibu. WTF? I thought America was meant to be cheap! Left after that one with Roger up 1 set in his quarter final (he didn’t do it easy though).

Kept walking and every 2nd shop is a gift shop. I guess they need them because you don’t hear much English when walking around – so many tourists! I wonder if they pisses the locals off??

Found another bar and had one drink there watching 2nd set. Roger won that too. God love him! Headed off and pounded the streets again and found last place where had one more Corona (only $6) and watched Roger win last set. He made it! I am going to see my man in the flesh – can’t wait!!!

Went to Charlie O’s for some dinner – so embarrassing having to sit by yourself but I am by myself so what can I do? Had some Southern styled chicken and then asked for a half rack of ribs. It was MASSIVE. Was told the servings here are big but not that big did I ever imagine!! Had half and took the rest home, which is where I went so I could load up my photos from the day and crash – still a little tired. Watched some baseball and went to bed