Qantas sucks

As the flight was due to leave at 6:00 pm we hung around our private wing in the hotel until midday checkout time. Handed over the bags for storage and went for a wander through Central Park up to the Museum mile on 5th. Spotting seriously expensive looking apartments on the way.

We saw famous museums such as Metroplitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim. Well we saw the outside of them at least - assume that is all that's required to say we've seen them. Using the hop on hop off bus to get back down the avenue (passing a few girls...) we headed back to pick uo the bags. Get in our pre-booked taxi (at 3:30)and got the the airport on time. Checked in and then.... Flight delayed leaving from NY Flight delayed landing in LA Now we have to fly by Sydney 16 hours quashed in between others. No explanation as to why they have stuffed it all up. Just making excuses. Treating us like cattle. My word of advise is do not spend your money flying on this airline. Go with someone who cares. Update: just arrived in Sydney after a very cramped 14 hours in the air. Question: What sort of a person gets into thier seat and lays it back as soon as they can and for as much time as they can? Answer: An inconsiderate, selfish one. Doesn't help international relations when you generally notice people of a particular culture behaving in this way. For the bloggers reference : lay it back if sleeping only. That way everyone gets along and you may find people not so keen to play push button games on the screen at the back of your head. Thanks to our carrier still being useless the flights we were all to connect with in Syndey were missed, then rescheduled, then re-allocated, then seating arrangements changed. This must be costing them a fortune. And the whole shamozzle could have been avoided if the original vehicle had've arrived in JFK on time in the first place. Root cause unknown - however totally over their excuses and inefficient ways of dealing with it.

Sydney is grey, raining and dull. Have transferred from International to domestic and we got to sit around there for 2 hours instead of recovering at home. The trip down was uneventful and obviously domestic. Arriving in Melbourne is always a joy!. Great to see the reintroduction of charging for the luggage trolleys - Now $4!! what a bargain and what a great way to great vistitors to our town - when they are a free service everywhere else in the world. Just to top off a great trip - the luggage took ages coming out - by the time some bags decided to limp out onto the carousel - they had in their wisdom decided all incoming flights should be on the one belt - so the crowd was exceptional. 3rd last bag out before the whole thing packed up (which was obviously due to the person putting them on incorrectly in the first place so they were getting jammed in the door) was ours. So we left to the sound of the PA apologising to the crowd and say their luggage delivery will be delayed pending an engineer looking at the problem. Yay Qantas - great work again! Finally arriving home 32 hours after leaving (with no sleep) we faced the prospect of nicely sanded floors and thus the need to vacuum up the dust over everything and put all the furniture back in place. As well of course of unpacking all those baggs we lugged half way around the world and wash the 3 weeks of dirty laundry contained therein.

Subterranean travellng

Lower and middle class travelling always seems to be about getting up early. This is why we were all up at 3:30 am. The girls were shutled off to the airport leaving the lonely bloggers behind to swan around in 2 adjoining rooms. 2 beds. 2 bathrooms. 2 desks. 2 TV's, 2 vistas and a private corridor connecting them. Almost upper class stuff - maybe in the 1500's perhaps but not now ( the tacky dull veneer, lack of fridges, kettles and antique electronics sort of brings it down a notch or two). So we did the obvious and went straight back into the usual collapsed state of exhaustion that is also known as sleep on this trip. Take out coffee and muffins in the spare room for breakfast whilst we made the most of the free WiFi which somehow leaks into this room and we were off to hit the town. It was all planned out based on what we'd learned so far and pretty much went to according to it. First stop was Tiffany's. Here they are so cool they do not show prices off the items on display. They did let us into the store ( which was nice). They correctly assumed we would not be needing to stop at the 2nd floor but would have the gall to walk around on the 4th and 3rd. Got some great designs ideas for the 3D printer though.

Surely the beauty is in the design - not so much the material. Time will tell. A stroll down 5th Ave and then Park Ave (yes blazon name dropping here) poking our noses into a spectacular Catholic cathedral with mass underway. A little weird as they had the doors open, swarms of the usual NY tourists streaming through - most showing the typical disregard for others. Still, the guys up the front were doing their thing unperturbed. Unfortunately it looked a little bit like a religious tourist attraction than the real deal. But what do we know? maybe its just a case of get 'em though the doors whatever it takes. Onto Grand Central Station to soak up more grandiose architecture and using that portal to plunge for the first of many times into the strange underground world that is known as the subway. Emerging to a view of Macy's in the foreground and the Empire state in the back one we wandered around in the former for a while seemingly unable to escape from the men's dept. Eventually we did and popped across the road to Stretchers to spend a riveting hour selecting shoes and writing blogs (2 people/2 separate tasks).

Then it was straight back into the subway and off downtown to Greenwich Village for a coffee in the very famous Regio's. Amidst the original Caravaggio's, the first espresso machine in NY (1927) and the standard NY milling throng the coffee was good. It was once the best in town - others may have passed in since. All very enjoyable though. Retracing our walking tour steps we went straight to John's Pizza. By now it was 4:00 pm so after scoring one of his prized booths ( somehow the doorman saw and booted out the people who jumped in ahead of us - yay for us again) we indulged in a fabulous coal fired oven pizza of which only 3 are allowed to operate any more.

So whilst the carbon footprint was pretty high the result really did seem worth it. Especially as it has been scientifically proven that NY water creates the best pizzas and bagels in the world. This of course means just in the USA as the majority of mindsets here cannot comprehend anything being better anywhere else. Then it was back into the grimy, noisy subways again to be able to luxuriate in our two bedroom alcove for 90 minutes before bouncing out again. In the crisp cold air we found our subway line closed so we up and downed a few steps until we found one working in the direction of Broadway. Finding the theatre was pretty easy as was the red guy who handed us our personalised tickets to the show. We have cinema complexes here they have theatre complexes. There is a lot of theatre being acted out here.

Shear Madness was a real hoot. Many satirical lines thrown in amongst very good and funny acting. Audience participation in solving the whodunnit plot. Leaving feeling quite uplifted our buoyancy was somewhat deflated by the how long (3 trains) subway journey home. Saturday nights sees the system slow down. The lack of information and confusion due to closed lines along with the dregs of the town does take the shine away from the whole experience. Despite that it was a great day. The subways did get us around the huge metropolis quite well and in the end (once again) we collapsed into an exhausted and extended sleep - ignoring the ever present sounds of sirens echoing around the concrete canyons. Tomorrow the long trek home begins.

The day after

Almost being on a first name basis with the café next door now. Today was French toast, fruit salad, pancakes and hangovers.

Heading back to the same park of last nights revelries we took in the southern end. All is quiet on new years day. also a bit chilly with the sun trying to break through the cold grey clouds. Early enough to avoid the major queues (QWT 15 min) at the museum of Natural History we spent a couple of hours wandering the halls looking at stuffed animals and the planets place in the universe as well as the changes its currently undergoing. Really interesting stuff. Fully expecting (hoping ?) the various creatures to burst out of their realistic 3D enclosures and start consuming the (ever increasing in numbers) prey staring at them - we kept moving. Time was against us so we probably missed a significant slice if the place. Upon exit the queues were significant (EQWT up to 1hr) stretching out into the street. Little did they know that there were also queues (EQWT 45 mins) in the subway entrance just below them as well. Grinning we walked past them all and travelled down under to the square precinct to collect our hop on hop off bus passes. The queue was EQWT 15 minutes. Due to our priority status we were waved through much to the chagrin of those standing there. We certainly don't look important. More like stressed, worn out and ragged. With tickets in hand we headed into the vastly less populated but still chaotic place they call a square which which is anything but. QWT for the double decker bus was 30mins.

However it is almost impossible to be bored in this particular spot. The digital signage is world leading and incredibly distracting. Must cost a fortune to run. Apparently it costs $1m per month Just to be on the H&M sign!!. Feeling a few drops of snow (not powder - so for all we knew it may have been from a high flying 747 - yeech) we still decided to sit in the open air to get the views and the uninterrupted shots. 2 hours later we'd circumnavigated downtown, seen all sorts of famous places, landmarks, learnt about architecture and gotten frozen to the bone.

Shivering uncontrollably we alighted uptown near our historically named hotel ( which, as it transpires, the facilities were also installed in the "Renaissance" period) walked the few blocks in the dark (4:30 pm) to get in and then had a hour to warm up and get ready for the next excursion. Harlem for diner. Yo Bro - this is where the cool black people hang out and create their own unique slice of NY culture. Music, dialect, art, history and most importantly - food (well for us anyway). So we went to Red Rooster. Now just to clear this up. This is NOT the fast food chain we have in Aus.

This is the highly popular restaurant in the centre of Harlem. We hung around in the bar for our reserved table to become clear. Without this reservation we would not have got in at all. Queue jumpers that we are. The food was great and yes - some chicken was had. Feeling very pleased with our choices of restaurants, preplanning and general cleverness in getting around we shot back down 1st Ave in taxi to get the girls packed and grab what sleep we could (barring blogging time of course).

an NYC NYE

And we thought the day before was big.... Up early in the hope of beating the crowds was the aim. Breaking fast in our (well its ours now as its the second visit) eatery/café next door to the hotel - the subway beckoned. Diving down into the dirty, gloomy tiled corridors ( as are most subways around the world) we navigated the ticketing system and journeyed downtown below town. Efficient system: really, really long trains (compared to home) full of a wide variety of people of all classes, creeds and mindsets (aka: characters). Popping up around the corner from the World Trade Center we joined the queue for tickets. This is what everyone does in NY. Stand in queues. Well the visitors do anyway. Generally the queues are sort of efficient and most of the big queues are related to security. The longer the wait - the more likelihood of a thorough security check being performed. This had a QWT of approx. 30 mins. This was just for ticket purchase. then we had a QWT of 10 minutes to get in and through the security checks and we were into the 9/11 Museum at Ground Zero.

This was as tastefully done as possible considering the subject matter. Very moving and would be well received by those close to the event and the consequences. Much better if it had not have happened at all of course. There is no doubt that there is now a huge industry booming (security) as a result of the stupid situation. The few hours were there was not really enough, however time was pressing as were the as were the crowds. Extracting ourselves from the our first of many presses of the day we then subwayed a few stops north for a walking tour of Grenwich village. Lunch in a traditional diner (complete with short order chefs) beforehand set us nicely for a 2 hour stroll around this Bohemian historically story rich part of town. From the gentry to Hendrix, the Friends apartment to the smallest house on the island. The locals make claim to many facets of the town. Vowing to return we rushed back uptown to get ready for the big night. Starting with a (free) return to the Top of the Rock the night was clear and we got all the snaps we wanted.

From here we also saw the ball go up in Times square. The security and the crowds were quite simply insane. All roads to the square were blocked off. Unless you had a pass or proof that you should be in the zone - you were turned away. Little did we know this beforehand as our restaurant was indeed in the zone. Needless to say we managed to penetrate it couple of times without either. Our fine dining diner was very enjoyable, however as they had two sittings ( no advice beforehand) we were ejected at 9:00 pm. People just outside were being frisked by the cops so we stayed in the zone and went up to join the party on 6th for a while. All we could see was a sea of people all looking at the temp tv screens showing the action on the stages set up in the square.

A full on variety show going on. After getting the vibe we left the building crowd of a million people(!!) and went to a pub to while away an hour or so. couldn't believed out luck. The pub wasn't busy at all. No one could get near it. So after a fun build up we grabbed our plastic party hats an hightailed it to Central Park. Passing on the way thousands of people queuing to get into the zone. Had they have got in ( which they wouldn't have - they would not have seen anything anyway). So while we stood on a hill watching the fireworks in the park they stood in a queue on the sidewalk watching... nothing. Yay to us.

So a stumble back through the crowded yet joyous streets to the hotel. Where we had a very confusing time getting back into our rooms due to access cards being cleared, stupid policies and a faulty door. Eventually collapsed into bed about 2:00.