New York - Part 1

In this episode we take our first bite out of the big apple.

We talk about musical influences, first impressions and getting around.

Walking is good, too much walking is bad.

Visa applications pitfalls, the worst immigration (unless you have had the rubber glove treatment).

Bridges and other assorted architecture and David's love of South Park.

If you have a story to share or some feedback to give just contact us at contact.unraveltravel@gmail.com

Our theme music is Traveler's Blues by Jerzy Gorecki from Pixabay (with licence)

https://pixabay.com/users/jerzyg%C3%B3recki-2233926/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Unravel Travel, where every journey has a story.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

But there's a lifetime of preparation because you've been watching all these movies and TV programmes and stuff. It's just you you've got a long list of cultural references, haven't you? I mean we wanted to go and see to the So which ones were you chasing? Friends. We did go to the Friends Building, yeah. Well we were only I actually said that as a joke. Yeah, I know. And we sort of cringed a bit. But we were in Greenwich Village anyway, and it was like one street over, so it's like let's go. I'll take a picture from Megan, she'll like that. That if you've been to Cuba within the last three years, you can't apply for an Esther. You have to go to Visa, but you've got to go to the embassy or the consulate and get one. Exactly. So they're they're really making it awkward for people that have been to Cuba.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

So that actually is probably one of the best pieces of travel advice that we've given on these podcasts is be aware of that, because I had no idea about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

If you're planning to go to America and Cuba, go to America first.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

Yeah, exactly. Or keep three years in between it.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Well, I don't know if it's a rolling three years, it had a it had a particular date on it, so I don't know if the law has changed or not.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

Oh, right, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Up to a brownstone, up three flights of stairs. Everybody's eyes pinned you, but nobody cares. He's got the works, it gives you sweet taste, but then you've got to split because you've got no time to waste. I'm waiting for my man.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Classic bit of Velvet Underground there. If ever there was a New York or a band that have epitomised uh New York, then it's probably for me the Velvet Underground.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Yeah, I would say so too. I mean, I I've I think we might well do two episodes here, so I've picked another one as well, which is probably slightly less less obvious, but I mean there's so many iconic bands.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Yeah, I know, because I I'd seen what the reading is and I didn't realise that was about New York, but I won't spoil the uh the surprise. You know, there's so many iconic bands from New York, aren't there?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I was just watching a documentary about Blondie the other day, of course, New York talking heads, Beastie Boys, where we were No sleep till Brooklyn. Where we were ste sleep staying in Brooklyn was very close to where the Beastie Boys were from, so yeah, some very good strokes bands.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Yeah. So yeah. Uh Interpol. I don't know if they're from New York. They certainly sound like they're from New York though. One of my favourite bands.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

A television from New York, I think they might be.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

Yeah, I think they might be. Iggy Pop. Iggy Pop, of course. Although actually he's not from New York, is he though? He just moved to New York and became famous while he was in New York, but not actually from New York originally.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

I was telling a story the other day about somebody famous who I know who's in a very famous rock band. I'm not going to mention his name, and he was telling me that he's Radiohead. No. Yes, no, maybe. Um he was he was telling me that he ha he had breakfast in a diner when he was in New York and were in the next booth having breakfast.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

That's yeah. That's that's became a fanboy. And he didn't go over and say hello because he was too embarrassed. Sorry, that's what I was meaning by fan. You know, he was sort of like cowled by their brilliance, as the rest of us would be, despite the fact that he's in an amazing band who we won't mention that it's Radiohead, and it wasn't Tom York.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Yeah, so we're gonna talk about New York. I was there that the worst kept secret ever.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Uh I was there but it was obviously kept well enough because they let you in last month, yes, on honeymoon, uh, which was very good.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

So we're gonna talk about that, and you've spent quite a bit of time there for work, Dave, I think.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

I have. It was some time ago now. I think I'm trying to remember the first time I went, but I think it was something like ninety-seven. And I was actually sorry to steal your thunder, but I was actually hugely reluctant to go. I ended up it was actually New Jersey, where they were doing a course that I needed to do. Uh, and they said, Oh, and if you want, you can sort of like because we're there, it's all week, we'll pay for you to spend the Friday night in New York, and you can wander around New York Saturday and get the red eye back Saturday. And I was, why the hell would I want to do that? It's just another city. And then I eventually got talked into it and I was blown away. It was sort of like, okay, it's not just another city. And then after that, I went back several times with work, probably spent a couple of months there in total, but always work. So you spend the weekends, you spend the evenings, so it's not like two months of holiday, but you know, I I got to know it parts of it reasonably well.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

It was Petra's choice in particular to go to New York, and I was a bit hesitant because of my view of Americans. Um but um in general.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

New Yorkers are different. I kinda I've always kind of liked New Yorkers.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Yeah, and the current political situation and the worry of whether we'd get a visa, that all worked out okay, and actually it was great, and I'd definitely go again. So yeah, it it was really good. Uh but I had the same sort of hesitations and was won over pretty convincingly, I think. But I I guess we might not have I I mean I've spoken to lots of people about New York in the sort of lead up to it, people that have been there lots. But f firstly I I did something slightly unusual, I mean not unusual, I suppose some people are doing this nowadays, but but I asked ChatGPT to give to create a plan for our stay. Good idea. Never I wouldn't have thought about doing that. I like that though. I I told it what sort of things we like and what sort of things we've done in other cities, and said, look, we've got six full days and a couple of half days. You tell us what we should do. And it came up with a plan and you know, I guided it a bit like you do with an AI, and I spat it all out into a document and gave it to one of my good friends who's been there a lot, uh and he said it was remarkably good. But actually, we I wouldn't say we exactly stuck to it, but well, as we've done a lot of episodes about planning, and that's the whole point of a plan.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

You don't have to stick to it rigidly.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

But there's lots of things you want to do in a big place like that, and you want to make sure you can fit them all in logistically sensibly without always go back and do the things that just didn't fit logistically. But what I mean is you a particular thing we want to do is go and see loads of bits of architecture. Now you've got a list of you you sort of come up with a handwritten list of 30 buildings and locations that are famous for various people, and you then try finding a route around with with the maps that's optimised, but we just gave it the the picture of the handwritten list of things and said, right, organise these into sort of three blocks of geographically close, walkable routes, and it did those and dropped them into the plan. You know, that that's the sort of thing that you would take ages to do. You'd miss things, you'd go backing backtracking all the time and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Yeah, you you wouldn't end up with as good a route, definitely. And actually, you've hit that hip pub and one of my favourite things to do in New York, which is just to walk. Yeah. I I used to get the the subway up to sort of Central Park area, and I was staying down in Battery Park, and I would just this would be on a Saturday, I'd probably have breakfast, uh, watch a English football match, and then I'd spend the whole of the uh soccer, yeah. I'd spend the whole of the afternoon just walking back to my apartment and just exploring and stumbling across stuff you you would never find. So if you've got the plan to see all this architecture, it's often it's the stuff in between that you come across, which is uh the l little gems. Absolutely. I can't even remember where it was, but uh there was just some impromptu music going on in this square, and I just ended up sort of chilling out there for an hour just in enjoying the vibe.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah, totally. But you know, this ChatGPT gave me for each of these blocks a Google Maps pinned walking route. Brilliant. You just you know swing in your pocket just following the directions, which made it super easy to do those things without wasting a load of time. Uh which gives you more time for the other impromptu things because you're not aimlessly doing things quite so much. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

So I'm just very glad I'm retired because I'm just thinking the more I use the likes of Chat GBT, the more you realise that there's more and more jobs that are not going to be needed anymore.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Yeah, but then again, it got a couple of glaring things wrong. I mean, some of the highlights of the trip actually it suggested, and nobody else had suggested them to me, and the places that nobody I know has been to, and they were definitely two of the highlights, big positive. But then again, but then again, uh probably the worst thing we did on the trip it suggested as well. So tell me the worst thing we did. We'll get to it later.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Teaser, teaser. So well we'll we'll we'll use the worst thing as the uh the exerc at the start, so everybody hears it.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Right at the start. And the thing it said definitely don't do was the first thing we did and it knackered us out. So So it was right about that then. So that that was Did you do the New York marathon? No, the first full day we were there and it said had us, you know, recover from your jet lag, have a bit of a just uh you know, explore these bits but take the subway. We just walked out of our house and it was a lovely day, and we just said, Oh, let's walk it. Yeah. We we walked all the way from quite a long way into Brooklyn to Chinatown. It's about 12 miles on concrete, and it was thir 30 degrees, and we were both dead on our feet by the time we got there.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

So yeah, that's a lot further. When I said I was walking around, that's a lot further than I was walking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Yeah. On co as you say, on tarmac and tarmac, and we both had terribly sore feet for the rest of the time. So it was that was a bit silly, to be fair. And it had said, don't do that. But what does it know? It's not even human. Yeah. It doesn't have feet. So maybe we should that's a few sort of intro reminiscences as yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 10:25

Can we bring some structure to this episode next?

SPEAKER_02 10:28

I've got some structure and things divided into into sections, because otherwise it'd be a bit mad. Um and we'll I'm sure we'll jump in and out of them. Um and we won't get through them all today. We'll probably cover the sort of arty feature sort of things maybe in the next episode, probably. Yeah. But just some of the practicalities and things today, maybe in a and a talk about architecture, I think. Yeah, sounds good. So, yeah, a good friend of mine was telling me that because I'd heard about the Esther, you know, the US travel visa which you apply for electronically online, that they were changing the rules and they were going to be starting to examine your social media posts.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Yeah, yeah, I heard that. Yeah, my partner Izzy, she went to New York in February and uh she was a bit I mean, she doesn't even have much of an online presence, but she was a bit worried about it. And she's going back in June, I think it is, June, July. So how how was that process for you? Because you've got a little bit more, nothing untoward.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Well, some of it's untoward in an anti-Trumpian way for sure. Um and that's exactly the stuff they don't like.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

She's trying not to throw you under the bus.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

No, no, it's it's okay now.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Yeah, but you didn't do everything, you might want to go back.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

But they so they changed the visa application process a couple of months ago, so that now you have to list your social media as part of the application process, and they say they will review them. I guess they probably use AI to do that. Some automated tool. Yeah. But we applied for our visas two weeks before that came in. Um so though it was optional whether you list your social media or not. The other thing to note in that process is whether you've been to Cuba. And of course you have. And we have been to Cuba. Yeah, because we went together. But that was ten years ago, and that if you've been to Cuba within the last three years, you can't apply for an Esther. You have to go down to the You can get a visa, but you've got to go to the embassy or the consulate and get one. Exactly. So they're they're really making it awkward for people that have been to Cuba.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

So that actually is probably one of the best pieces of travel advice that we've given on these podcasts is be aware of that, because I had no idea about that.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

If you're planning to go to America and Cuba, go to America first.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

Yeah, exactly. Or keep three years in between it.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Well, I don't know if it's a rolling three years, it had a it had a particular date on it, so I don't know if the law has changed. Oh, right, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

So how did you find the visa process? And uh admittedly, you were before having to tell them about all your dodgy social media.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

It was fine, actually. I mean, you know, not totally straightforward like some of them are, the Australian one being very much easier than that, I remember. But yeah, it was okay. They they took a little bit longer thinking about us because we had been to Cuba. We we got about within a day or so, I think, something like that. And then it's all obviously online and synced up, you don't need to print out anything or take it or anything like that.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Yeah, that is what uh that's the thing I'm finding about international travel these days. Indonesia was very much the same. We we we completed the application, it was virtually an instant reply, and then when we got there, we just had to put our phone on a barrier much like the tube. It it reads, I think you do your passport and then you do your phone with a V. In fact, it might have been linked them up and you just had to do your passport. Can't remember. But we just had to swipe and we were in.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah, our Esther was in it was in their system linked to our passport ID, so we didn't even have to print out or show anything. They just looked at it from your passport, basically, I think.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Whenever I went to New York, it always felt intimidating going through immigration. You know, you you're not doing anything wrong, you're there for work. I was working for American banks, and yet you feel like you're a drug smuggler or something. They just treat you. They nowhere else in the world have I felt been made to feel so unwelcome at customs. The the process was immigration.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Yeah, the process was terrible. There's a sort of shutdown at the moment, isn't there? And we we got landed in Termile through British Airways and we sort of shuffled down to the immigration area and could hardly get down the stairs because the the the room was rammed with a snaking path of people trying to get through. There was like twenty-five kiosks along the wall, and only three of them had people in. Manning manned because there's a shutdown so I think it was just it took It was never good anyway. It took an hour and forty minutes to get through that queue. Oh my word. And go and yeah, terrible. And everybody was having to stand well, that's not strictly true. People on wheelchairs and crutches and stuff, they were putting through a shorter queue. But there's a separate queue for Americans, so the Americans, you know, they sort of close off the booths and stick all the Americans through it, and when they've gone they open up to everybody else again. You get back home, and the Americans are sharing the short queue with the British people. I just don't understand that why why you're not doing reciprocal arrangements, you know. But anyway, it was very annoying to say the least, and then you get you know, part of the reason it's so slow as well is photographs and or full set of fingerprints. It's not like the European entry system, recent one where it's just right hand, you know, four fingers. It's both hands, thumbs, inside leg measurement. Which side do you address? So um a bit much, really.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

So after all, anyway, I'm realising we're having a bit of a downer at the moment, we should move on to more positive things. Yeah, yeah, there's lots more positive. It's worth all of that rubbish to get into it, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 15:53

But I knew there was somebody going in a few days, so I was just letting them know that you might be in for a long queue. Uh and travelling and getting around, like I say, don't try and walk everywhere, it's probably a bad idea. But walking is also a very positive thing. We wanted to ground ourselves on that first day and understand the situ you know, the circumstances and actually walking from a very residential area, uh a not typical Manhattan, New York area, down into that. Um was very interesting just how it all transitions, the type of buildings and some old buildings, and you know, you see all the old cars and school buses driving around and all that sort of thing. Walking that gets a different feel.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

I only ever stayed in Manhattan, so you know I've not seen the broader New York, so I always think of Manhattan as New York, but obviously it isn't, there's far more to it than that.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Yeah, we had a couple of days where we didn't go into Manhattan, yeah, and and that was quite interesting. I I really enjoyed actually the other bits, Brooklyn and up into Queens, because they're different, you know, and that's yeah, like that sort of variability is good. Um, we used an Uber from the airport, the first time I'd ever used an Uber.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

So there's a TV series called Super Pump, and if you watch it, you'd probably never use an Uber again because of their terrible, you know, predatory uh way they do business and how they look after people.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Yeah, I'm sure I know some Uber taxi drivers from my cricketing here. The guy was very nice and chatty and telling us all about, you know, stuff, and it was nice to get again, not to use the subway, but to get a sort of ride to get a ride. Oh my god, I just said that. Gone all native on us just you know, through the areas just to see what different housing areas were like and you know, people playing baseball and you know that sort of s in the park and all that sort of stuff. And the guy was very informative. But on the way back to the airport at the end, we took the subway because we were subway masters by then. Which uh which airport's linked with the subway? JFK. Well you get to almost to JFK, then there's a slightly separate airport line, which you pay a bit more for, but it links straight from the same subway station. So it was the subway line, because it was a subway line that we were on, which goes out to JFK anyway. That was unplanned, but it just happened to be the case. It was like half an hour on the subway and then 10 minutes on the special training.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

Because I've always taken a taxi because it's work, but it's it can be slow, it can take a long time at all of the airports.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

It probably took from the airport to our accommodation 40 minutes in the taxi, and the on the subway back to the airport it probably took 40 minutes. Yeah, and it cost a lot less.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Um good yeah, good advice, that one.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

I mean, I think you know, when we first arrived and we were jet lagged and we'd stood for freaking nearly two hours at the immigration desk, it was the right idea, but I think next time I would take the subway for sure. Good advice. You've been listening to Unravel, Travel, and the Big Apple. But the subways are great. Once I realised I had to call them subways, I kept going tube, underground.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

You know, just call it just looking blankly at you. Well, I'm probably just ignoring you full stop.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Well, just we were talking amongst ourselves, just referring to it as everything other than the underground. Underground subway. Subway, God. So it's important to get the language right now, isn't it, Dave? It's important to get the language right. Yeah, kayak and canoe. We used it a lot after that to do sort of big distances and then still sort of sauntered around. We were like buying the ticket each time, like it was like seven dollars for two tickets, but one ticket takes you as far as you want to go, so if you're going long distances, that's good value. But actually, I just I noticed on a poster just as we were leaving that if we'd have used our you know, just tapped a card, it like on the underground, it keeps a track of it and it maximum charges you thirty-seven dollars for a week. When you say a card credit card. Yeah, so you just tap a card on the way in and out and it just builds them up until thirty-seven dollars and it doesn't charge you any more.

SPEAKER_03 19:57

That's really good value. That's not a lot of money, is it? I mean that that's pretty good for the competition. For a week of doing that.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Yeah, for a week. I mean, you know, and you could get a long way around on on the subways, of course. So So that would be a a strong hint. Do that. If you're gonna be there for more than a couple of days, just do that. It's just so much simpler than standing at the machine and oh you said when you were there you um you walked around quite a bit and subway'd, or were you taxiing because you were on company dollar?

SPEAKER_03 20:23

I walked because it was I guess I couldn't use taxis, but I discovered cabs. Sorry, cabs. I did use the odd cab, the yellow ones, back in the day, there was no Uber. But as I say, I quickly realised that as long as it was dry weather, it was a really good way of discovering New York. And you know, it's not difficult to sorry, Manhattan, I should say Manhattan, because I was only in Manhattan. But it's not that difficult to navigate because of the I mean, I think you alluded to it, but the grid structure, yeah. Uh, and then the avenues, so you know, you can you can sort of you can't really get lost because you sort of make sure that you keep one avenue, street, whatever, on your left and one on your right, and as long as you don't cross it, then you're going in roughly the right direction. And it's all rectangular anyway.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Up two across three.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

Yes, exactly. So yeah, I did I just did a lot of walking, but as I say, that this was really at weekends and just my way of exploring Manhattan and discovered like you know, I came across the Chrysler building like that. There's just so many things that you know they're quite famous, but I didn't actually go out with the intention of finding them. I just stumbled across them.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Some of those, unless you're uh because other buildings are always blocking you, you sometimes can't see these big um if the Empire State Flatiron building being a good example because it's not you can't really see it.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

I think that that thing that well, down the very bottom of Manhattan, the old bit, like around Battery Park and Battery Park, that's where I stu I stayed there for five weeks once. And um and Greenwich Village and uh up those bits, they are still a a bit more sort of traditionally European laid out, you know, they're not on a grid, are they? Yeah, grid starts just above there and goes all the way north. So obviously down a bit further down, it's a bit more tricky to negate to navigate.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

But once you're in the grid, it's also narrower down there as well, so there's less area to have to navigate.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Yeah, that's true. The thing it took me a while to cotton onto, but then once I had what made that grid system very easy is at all the intersections you've got the you know traffic lights, the walk, don't walk. I mean, firstly I Jay walked all the time because I should just do that. I refuse to be bowed by stupid rules until I get knocked flat by a truck, in which case they are quite big, those trucks. But the thing about those crossing points is that you know when one is open to walk, the other one is closed off on uh and then and then when that one opens the other one closes. So if you're going diagonally, if you've got to go across three and up two, whenever you get to a junction, you can either walk, you can either one of them will be open. If that does that make sense, one of the crossings. Yeah, yeah. So you just always take the one that's open when you get to it, if you're going diagonally, and then you're not just waiting all the time on the wrong side of the road twice, absolutely. Yeah, and those sort of things, just when you get the hang of that, it suddenly becomes a much slicker process. But that's why the cars and cabs can take bloody ages, because there's ever you know, they drive 50 yards and then they've got to stop again. Yeah. Not like that in the movies, is it? They just keep going. That's right, yeah. But I suppose them uh they might be I mean, on some of those longer avenues, it might be a bit easier like that. The gaps might be a little bit bigger, I guess. So they can flow between the timed, but not at any sort of speed. You're right, they it's never quite like the movies, is it?

SPEAKER_03 23:44

Exactly. Do you see what we did there? We actually got back in the lingo. Movies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Do you want to talk a little bit about the architecture? I mean, that was one of the particular things we wanted to do, partly because we're a bit stingy. We did quite a lot of things we paid for, but the architecture, I mean, like I say, we did some research with Chat GPT, but there's a lifetime of preparation because you've been watching all these movies and TV programmes and stuff. It's just you you've got a long list of cultural references, haven't you? I mean, we wanted to go and see to the So which ones were you chasing? Friends. We did go to the Friends Building, yeah. Well, we were only I actually said that as a joke. Yeah, I know, and we sort of cringed a bit. But we were in Greenwich Village anyway, and it was like one street over, so it's like let's go. I'll take a I'll take a picture from Megan, she'll like that. I mean, I think the first thing, bridges. Yeah. A lot of bridges, big bridges, impressive ones. Obviously, we were staying in Brooklyn, uh, and we walked all the way to Chinatown. So we walked down to Brooklyn Bridge and Dumbo and stuff and round there, and then over the bridge. It's a really nice walk over the bridge, and it's free. You know, it's like probably one of the one of the I don't know if you've walked over it when you were there. Never, no, always taxis when I went over the bridges. And you get some amazing views from them, and the Brooklyn one in particular, because it's got those sort of stone pillars and all the supporting wires, you know, it's quite iconic, and you get some excellent views of the financial district, and then you know, up to um as as arriving as we were, you didn't see the sort of Empire State Building until you got onto the bridge. So you don't see that sort of spread of Manhattan until you get to there because the bits of Brooklyn High Rise are in the way. Yeah, it was really good that. The other bridges we didn't walk across, but we saw them. They're all a bit different, but they're all I mean, obviously, they're not on the same level as the Humber Bridge, you know. Obviously. Obviously, obviously. But but they're pretty good, pretty impressive. And Clifton Suspension Bridge I've been to recently in Brazil. That one is impressive. That is impressive. Iron Bridge. But they're you know, they they're they're big quite big spans on them, and they were built a pretty long time ago. And just uh you know, they've got wooden walkways, you know, it's sort of quite a traditional thing. You could climb up onto those metal gantries, they're not particularly well protected apart from the signs that say you will spend ten years in jail so I didn't climb onto any of them, yeah, even though I was tempted to get a better view. But the so the bridges are very interesting, I think. The rows and rows of brownstones, yeah, because that's where we were staying in Brooklyn in a brownstone on on those classic streets of big high steps away from the houses and like four-story brownstones.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Were there were the water hydrants spewing water out at the time?

SPEAKER_02 26:36

No, there weren't, but there were water hydrants. There were lots of people sat on their steps having spliffs and uh group groups of course it's legal, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 26:43

Yeah, groups of maybe not I I'm not sure of the exact law, so maybe sat outside your property isn't legal, but anyway.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

No, it's legal everywhere, Dave. I was gonna talk about that. That's sorry, we had a drug reference in our reading. That's a sort of an iconic view. And interesting, they're all very interesting buildings, actually, those. I was really quite surprised by just how sophisticated some of them were, you know, stylish. And those then apartment blocks. We watched a couple of documentaries actually about architecture in New York before we went as well. But the those apartment blocks are really interesting, some of those old ones lining Central Park, and then they're dotted around. I don't just mean the Friends building, but I mean the sort of the the big early part hotel type ones. Just the John Lennon. The Dakota building, yeah. Dakota, that was it.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

Exactly into that category.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Yes, it does. Yeah, like that sort of thing. Yeah. The famous hotels. We went to the Plaza Hotel, which is on the top end of or the sorry, the bottom end of Central Park, and Hotel Chelsea, which was the first one.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

So Dave. Just a line from a Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel. Uh we went into the the public bar that It was also where um Sid Vicious uh killed Nancy or allegedly.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

Yes, he can't he can't sue, so you're probably fairly safe to say what you want. Um but that was really interesting. Oh, it's an impressive building, but you can go into the public bar, you've got to get your timing right, and sit in the public bar, which is full of art from people that that lived there. It's really nice.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

This is the Chelsea Hotel. Yeah. No, not been. Um, but yeah, if I went back, then uh I think I probably would seek out that place. All those brick buildings with fire escapes, you know, that classic that was one of my you know, that might have been the thing that I fell in love with was sort of seeing these fire escapes, this the steam coming out from aircom. You're thinking of Dillon album cover, aren't you? Freewheeling Dillon. Exactly, but you're there and it's actually happening in real life where you see the fire escapes and you see all of this uh steam coming from well it's not steam, but vapour coming from the air conditioning and it it and big trucks hurtling down uh the wide uh boulevards and it's you know it it to some extent it is like the movies. I said earlier that the cars aren't going as fast, but there's other bits of it that is just like the movies.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Yeah, it is very much so, which is which is unusual, isn't it? You go to lots of places and they don't quite live up to your expectations, but and you think, oh come on, they've dramatised all that. Yeah, but but that is exactly what it's like. And we haven't even talked about all the skyscrapers and stuff yet, have we?

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Well, exactly, yeah. I'm just looking at that on our notes, all the lists of the famous places.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Yeah, so skyscrapers, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Woolworth Building, the Rockefeller Centre, and we went we went up the Rockefeller Centre to the top of the rock, they call it. You get up to the top of that building, which is I think six sixty-seven stories. And you walked. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

And I sailed down. I jogged it. You'd only done twelve miles that day, so you thought you needed a bit of extra.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Um yeah, we took a very big lift packed with loads of people. I mean, it was busy because we went up there at the sunset slot. Again, that was something but it suggested very well, but everybody else was doing the same thing, of course. Yeah. Did you have to pre-book? Yeah, you can't always guarantee to get tickets out for that slot. But once you're up there, you can stay as long as you want. And actually, we it it forecast to maybe rain, but it didn't in the end. But it was we were up there for probably nearly two hours from sort of six o'clock to late o'clock, something. Slightly because once it got dark, you know, you it was very nice in the light. You could see all South Park uh Central Park and South Park. South Park. You could see all Central Park and all those things. And uh and all those things, and then as the lights started to come on, you know, in all the buildings, that was fantastic as well. You get all that everything lit up, Empire State Building, loads of these and the modern buildings have got light patterns built into them.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Uh that copper at the top Hong Kong.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Yeah, exactly, just like Hong Kong. And so that was fantastic, and probably an hour and a half is perfect, but then everybody wanted to get down at the same time, and there was a massive queue for the lifts. So we were there for plenty ages trying to get back down. Um told you you should have upsailed. Yeah, parachute would have been a good idea. Um what was the sunset like? The sunset was great, but yeah, it was really good. And some of the I mean, like it was shining off, you know, um Quaisler building and a couple of the others were just picking up that.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

I remember light. It's not something you necessarily expect. You get you know, you go to beaches for great sunsets, but I do remember them being good sunsets in New York. Uh but then one of the locals told me it's probably as much well, it was explaining, so I think we were looking out towards is it La Garda Airport? Uh and it was saying that it's the pollution creating haze, which then makes the sunset look so good, which took the edge off a little bit, but it still looked very pretty.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

No, the sunsets were great actually, on and on other days as well, but we were very lucky with the weather, so that's probably part of it. So I I'd definitely say the top of that building was very good. There's another you can go to the edge, it's called the Edge, which is at Hudson Yards, and on a new skyscraper, which is even higher, and it's like a big ledge that sort of hangs off the side of the building. You can see it from miles around, and the view is supposed to be spectacular, and it's got a glass floor, and you know, you're you're sort of out in the middle of the space. So that's I think for the sort of braver people, but it doesn't have quite the same view onto Central Park, and it's a bit offset, it's not you know Empire State Building Central Park, that sort of classic thing. So that was very good, the Rockefeller top of the rock, definitely. Apart from that, that's where the photo was taken of people sat on the beam as they were building it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

That thing is okay, yeah, yeah. I know the photo.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Yeah, I didn't know what the building was called. So they've got this cheesy thing where you can sit on a beam and it lifts you up and twirls you around, so it looks like you're in the middle of nowhere from the photography. Oh god's sake. Yeah, we didn't do that, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Yeah, obviously. Show me the pictures later.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Yeah, I I think we're probably I mean, about there for this first half. We've only just scratched the surface, Dave. We've got shitloads more to talk about on New York.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

We might even have a three. It might be a triple header.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

It might even be I'm only halfway in again to find out exactly. And then there's food to talk about, which was good, and entertainment. We went to Broadway, and and I'm gonna talk about drugs. Drugs are bad, okay. And South Park. I'm gonna talk about South Park. It is, it's South Park. I'm gonna talk about South Park. Screw you guys, I'm going pen. Right, great. Well, you're doing the next reading then, David. It's gonna be something from it's gonna be from South Park.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Which is nowhere near, even though it's fictional, it's nowhere near New York, got nothing to do with New York, but we managed to bring it in. It does have something to do in New York, and you'll find out why next time. Oh, oh, excellent. I did buy Kenny, uh a little soft toy Kenny on uh one of my visits to New York. Way well before you could buy them in the UK. Uh so that's in my mind what it's got to do with uh New York. I'll I'll raise you on. Okay. Right, good. That was very good reminiscing there. Uh looking forward to doing the second episode. Cool. Thank you, Dave. Speak to you. Cheers, everybody. Bye-bye. Bye.