North America 4

"Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today, I want to be a part of it..."
New York New York!

After much harrasment again by the customs officials I arrived in New York. The plane flew in as the sun was setting and we got a spectacular view of the city with the lights twinkling. A little voice did appear in the back of my mind though saying "aren't we a little close to these buildings?" but it just turned out JFK was close to the city.

I expected not to enjoy New York, and thought it would be more crazy and busy than LA. I was to be proved wrong. New York turned out to be an easy place to get around, with lots of things to do, a minimal amount of homeless people and I actually felt the most safe out of all the American cities I'd visited. I did only stay in Manhatten though and admittedly most of the places I went to were the touristy ones, but hey it was great. I kept having to remind myself I was in New York, as it often didn't feel like I imagined it would. I also met a nice pair of fellow travellers who I'd like to mention as we had such a giggle wondering the streets of Manhatten. Thank you Sarah and Mat!

My highlights of New York:

The Met - Metropolitan Museum of Art. A huge place with many exhibits ranging from gothic sculptures to Egyptian tombs, 1800's clothing and amazing paintings (Picasso, Monet, Gaugin to name a few.)

Central Park - A huge park right in the centre of Manhatten, and probably the only thing that stops people from going mad in the city. It was a bustling place full of dog walkers, rollerbladers and people sunbathing. There was even an area dedicated to John Lennon called Strawberry Fields.

Guggenheim Museum - An odd place with an even odder building. It spiralled up to a round windowed ceiling, and there were displays all along the corridor. Most of it was modern art which didn't do anything for me, but the displays on Picasso, Monet and Boccioni were spectacular.

Empire State Building - Hurrah! It seemed like a place of myth. After the initial search and scans in case you'd brought any bombs along we were herded up to the observatory level. I'd been up many tall towers on the trip but the view of New York was different to any of the others. There was a great view of downtown (minus Twin Towers) and you could also see Central Park and Times Square. The Bronx was off on one side and the Brooklyn Bridge to the other. I spent about 3 hours there watching the sun go down, which was a spectacular red colour. Manhatten at night was just as beautiful with the lights flickering on and cars trundling around in the streets. You could hear sirens resonating from below, now that was New York.

Times Square - Billboards flashing up adverts and news, even stock market information. There was a huge Toys R Us with a ferris wheel inside and a walk in Barbie house. Plenty of tacky shops with rubbish to sell, and a great ESPN sports bar that had 3 channels showing constantly (baseball, basketball and ice hockey) no matter where you sat you could see a screen of each channel. Even the toilets had TV's in them so you didn't miss out! The Fashion district was nearby, as was the New York Public Library as seen in Ghostbusters!

Broadway Show - The Lion King was Fantastic. Beautiful costumes, amazing singing and mindblowiing that I saw it all for $15. Feeling jealous?! Well ok it was standing room only bought at the last minute but we had a spectacular view and I would do it again.

Godzilla - Ok, so not a famous thing to do in New York. An independent cinema was showing the original Japanese 1954 version of Godzilla with extra 'never before seen' footage. 4 of us trundled along to see it. Me and another girl loved it. The other two fell asleep! And ok so I did giggle every now and again at the special effects, but in 1954 it must have been superb.

Statue of Liberty - A 'must do' in the city. I paid $10 to go to the actual Island the statue was on, Liberty Island, and I was glad I did. From the shore the statue looks tiny and you think "that's it?" Standing beneath the statue made it seem big and much more impressive. As a statue it was good, what it represented I wasn't so sure. The 'Land of the Free' wasn't as free as they thought. Did you know it is a federal offence not to give up your seat to a less able person on the bus, or to jaywalk, or to spit? I met 2 people that had been fined, one for spitting and the other for jaywalking. Both were travellers. The ticket also allowed a visit to Ellis Island, the island where immigrants used to be vetted before being allowed into America. The museum building was pretty but the actual displays weren't nice. The immigrants had a horrible time and had to go through lots of tests (sounds similar to today's customs officials!)

Ground Zero - Lots of people advised not to go to Ground Zero as it was just a building site with nothing to see. I'm not sure what they expected! I found it a very sombre place, and it really hit home the scale of the disaster. It made you realise how horrific it must have been to have seen/been a part of it. There were some people trying to sell tourists photos of the towers collapsing, by shoving the photo albums into their face and saying 'look'. I found that incredibly bad taste, but then all the tourist attractions were still selling souvenirs with the twin towers on in an attempt to get rid of old stock. I didn't see anyone buying them though.

And that sums up my visit to the Big Apple, Capital of the world (as it was called by the Americans). And I loved it!

Canada (again!)

I took the night bus to Toronto from New York and passed through the wonderful customs at the border again. Arrival into Toronto was welcoming from old friend Damien and his girlfriend Camille. They looked after me well and took me to do some typical Canadian things. We spent one evening first having Gelato then beer and wings at 'Duffs'. After that it was off to the drive-in to see 'Van Helsing'

I also went up the CN tower, the highest manmade structure in the world. The view was spectacular (it helped that it was a lovely sunny day!) and the glass floor a bit hairy.

Niagra Falls was a couple of hours away so I got on the greyhound and headed over for a day. The town was right next to the falls so it was all very much for the tourists. At first the falls seemed a little small, but after I paid my $13 to go on the 'Maid of the Mist', got my sexy plastic waterproof and stood under the raging water and spray. It made you realise how amazing they were. The wind off the waterfall threatened to move you across the deck and the mist rained down on you, it made it hard to take any pictures! I also took a wonder 'behind the falls' where you could stand in a tunnel looking out at the back of the waterfall. The noise was an immense thundering from above, and the water swirled around creating strange patterns in front of you. Above at the top of the falls you could stand just where the water tumbled over the edge. It made you realise just how much water went over every day.