NY Squared

There are two things about New York City in August that you need to know.

1] It's expensive. I paid $20 for a salad last night and $6 for a coffee today. Let's just call it practice for London prices.

2] It's hot. Really hot. Actually it's not so much hot as very humid. Like being back in the tropics but with a lot more carbon monoxide in the air.

I've not fallen completely in love with New York yet. I thought I would but not yet. It may be because I've been travelling for so long now and I just need to stop and have a holiday from my holiday for a while. Maybe it's because the hotel is a bit crap. Especially considering how much I'm paying for it. Some advice: avoid Sheratons if you can. Over priced, tatty and with staff who are so unprofessional it made my head hurt. I can see why the one in Perth lost it's stars.  Pity as I was hoping this was going to be a nice place to finish off the trip. Still it's only a place to sleep I guess and at least I'm not in a hostel.

The city seems to be full of Europeans at the moment, I'm guessing because their Euros are pummeling the dollar so much. It's interesting to see that the orange fake tan still seems to be extremely popular in some parts of the world. I've also rediscovered the fact the the Italians and Spanish seem incapable of standing in a queue. It was fairly hilarious seeing the staff at the Museum of Modern Art trying to corral then into a line this morning to buy tickets. An impossible task by the looks of it. MoMA was packed, just like the one in San Francisco. I wonder when the popularity of contemporary art is going to peter out again so I can get a good look at the Matisses and Wharhols? It was here that I had the $6 coffee, no wonder it was the only part of the gallery that had no people in it.

I went up the Rockefeller Centre as well today which was great. A tip from Andrew and Kath who rightly pointed out that if you go up the Empire State Building then the only building you can't see is the Empire State Building. There was security to get in, obviously, with more of those rent-a-goons in charge. I've noticed that the US has taken on one thing from it's German immigrants and that's a love of uniforms. The security guards at the Rockefeller were decked out like Soviet Field Marshals: big hats, brocade, stripe the works. It's the same with the doormen and bell hops in the hotel. I have no idea who are cops, security guards or just the guys who get taxis for you. This could lead to trouble.

When you are 70 floors up you notice that nearly all the new buildings in Manhattan have got spires/spkies/phallic projections on them. It looks like the whole place is trying to win the tallest building competition until the Freedom Tower gets built (which also has a big spike on the top, presumably to say "Up yours, you knock down two towers and we build an even taller one!" to the world).

You do see some interesting sights in New York, for example today I have seen a gaggle of Drag Queens outside the Today studios in full rig at 8 am, three different Elvises in different places and two Hispanic ladies having a massive Jerry Springer moment in the middle of Fifth Avenue. I also saw Matt Lauer - he's the American Kochie. If you watched the Today Show this morning you'd have seen me walk by looking lost and wondering what all the people were doing out at that time of the morning.

Should pay more attention to that guide book.