New York - Part 2

In this second episode of the New York Trilogy we are joined by Izzy for a slightly different take on New York.  All the deep and meaningful culture that Malcolm didn't bother with.

We talk about Dumbo, the best sort of Diner breakfasts and why the big apple is obviously Green.

The highline, Twin towers memorial and we finally settle the dilemma about what is an acceptable Broadway musical to see.

And don't miss the definitive Yorkshire man's guides to tipping and how to let people who tell you Jazz is an art form down gently.

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_03 0:18

A proper diner breakfast, you know, pancakes, maple syrup, bacon, all those things. I know that's one of Izzy's highlights of the trip. Love that, yeah. Which one did you go to, Izzy?

SPEAKER_06 0:30

So when we stayed in um Times Square, we had a couple of years where we stayed in a hotel in Times Square, and there was a diner round the corner. I can't remember what it was called now, unfortunately. But it was the diner where Seinfeld was born. Uh-huh. The the makers of Seinfeld. So because we're really into curb your enthusiasm, and so that was that was wonderful. But yeah, love the breakfast. They're they're massive, you know. You've got enough, you're served up. I had the pancakes with bacon and maple syrup and everything. My friend had like fruit salad, being really healthy. But yeah, it's lovely. I think if you go, they've got to have a diner breakfast, and we really encourage the kids to do it as well, at least once.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Yeah, that was my one of my highlights of break. So what's the dumbo to the like me, the uninitiated?

SPEAKER_03 1:21

It's down under Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Dumbo. And Manhattan Bridge is the one next to Brooklyn Bridge, but there's this spot close to where you come off the Brooklyn Bridge Walkway, where you can there's a road, and at the end of the road is one of the pillars of the Manhattan Bridge, and in the gap at the bottom of it, you can see the Empire State Building perfectly through it.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

So it's like a framing of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

It's a fantastic and it's very busy.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

There's lots of people taking their photos of the Instagram, uh the Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

But a good idea would be to take the subway to you're just like cross-town traffic, so hard to get through to you.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Cross town traffic, I don't need to run over you. Cross town traffic, all you do is slow me down and I'm trying to get to the other side of town. Now, anybody know who that is? Since you chose it.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

It would sound much better if you're not.

SPEAKER_02 2:27

The next tribute band we're going to see is this guy. Yes, Jimi Hendrix. I didn't know that song was about New York, so good find Malcolm.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

I just guessed it was because it was about crosstown traffic.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Oh, so it could be about San Francisco.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

But then I looked it up and it is indeed about New York.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Well, I should introduce because we've got a special guest on today. Uh you might have guessed since I did mention Izzy. My uh partner Izzy is joining us for the second episode on New York. She's been there a few times herding young adults around New York, not an enviable task. Um, but say hello, Izzy, and maybe if uh you want to just sort of give us a bit of an overview of what your experience of New York to everybody else. Welcome.

SPEAKER_06 3:11

Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, I've been to New York a few times. I was there in February, going again at the end of June on a school trip, sociology trip.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

And I'd just like to add at this point that Izzy is not a pupil, uh, and I am not a paedophile, she is a teacher.

SPEAKER_06 3:27

Yeah, I go a lot.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Those two are not mutually exclusive.

SPEAKER_06 3:31

I'm quite young. Thanks. So, yeah, we take about 30 lower six students to New York, and uh, we do the usual, you know, the Empire State 9-11 museum, stuff like that, but it's all about the immigrant experience. So we do some really interesting places, you know, Ellis Island, um, how the immigrants arrived in America in the 1930s, 40s, and how they were processed, and then we see where they lived. They we go to this place called the Tenement Museum, which is an amazing place where they've preserved the houses as they were back when the immigrants were living in them, sort of uh whole families living in a single room sometimes. Um, Chinese families, Italian families, amazing place. We go to the United Nations, which is a fantastic experience. Uh, yeah, loads of amazing things, but we are also able to see that you know, if you were to go there as a couple or with your family, there are some amazing places to visit, which I'll I'll tell you what they are.

SPEAKER_03 4:29

That's very interesting because there are loads of pla all those places you listed. I didn't go. And in fact, I'd forgotten.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

GPT didn't think that they were up to scratch, did they, Malcolm?

SPEAKER_03 4:39

I I don't think I prompted it that way. I'd forgotten the UN building was in New York.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Well, that's probably because you thought that the US wasn't in the UN anymore. Probably.

SPEAKER_06 4:47

Yeah, it takes quite a lot of organizing to go in. I think you have to book well in advance as high security, because it is a state on its own, it's not part of America. It's like you you need a passport to get in, and yeah, high security. But once you're in, it's it's an amazing place to see. And there were conferences taking place when we were there, and that was quite exciting as well.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

What do the kids think of that? Because I that to me sounds a little bit dry, but that how do they find it?

SPEAKER_06 5:14

I think they really enjoy it, and it it's part of their, you know, that's the reason they're going over there. It's a sociology trip. So they're there to to learn and to to understand things. I mean, the 9-11 museum definitely not a jolly, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

I know that.

SPEAKER_06 5:26

No, the 9-11 museum is a very sober experience. It you know, you come out of there feeling pretty down actually. So we always do something like a long walk afterwards. So we usually walk down Battery Park and we go to Ellis Island after that because it's all quite sobering. Yeah, and then we take them ice skating in the evening.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

So just what's the high what do you feel is the highlight for the um how old are the kids, first of all? With 17-18, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:54

Yeah, yeah, we took up a sixth in February, we're taking lower six this time, 17, 18 years old, so young adults, really wonderful people to travel with, they're amazing.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

What's the highlight? What do you feel the highlight for them is generally?

SPEAKER_06 6:07

You know what? They whenever I ask them, firstly, it takes them a while to pick a highlight because it's also fantastic, but I think they love the ice skating. They really do. You take those you're thinking, you go ice skating in London, but it is wonderful because you're you're skating in Central Park and it's night time, and you've got all the skyscrapers around you, and it's quite beautiful, it really, really is. And actually, there was something that I noticed last time we were there. Uh, you were talking about the skyscrapers, Malcolm, in the last episode I listened to. And there is this one skyscraper that we notice, and it's one apartment thick, it's like a needle. Yeah, and we were my friend pointed out to me, said, Have you noticed that you know it's only lit to about the sixth floor, and all the rest of it is dark because they can't sell these apartments because these buildings sway, and I don't think I'd be comfortable going up a skyscraper that was one apartment thick. You know, it looks very, very flimsy, but um, yeah, it they are amazing in the flat iron building. All of the we saw some pretty amazing stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

And what are you gonna replace the ice skating with then when you go in June? We're cycling around Central Park.

SPEAKER_06 7:15

Uh so we're gonna hire bikes and electric. No real bikes, come on. We've got to work on the bike. Who has electric bikes?

SPEAKER_02 7:24

People over 50, Malcolm.

SPEAKER_06 7:25

Yeah, but the we we do eat plenty of junk food, so you need to cycle.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

We we've got two ways we can go here. I can go down the junk food and the food question, or there's uh there's obviously plenty of uh sites that we haven't covered yet. So, what was your favourite thing that you did when you were in New York?

SPEAKER_03 7:42

There's so many things it's difficult to decide.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Sounds like a six-former.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Yeah, and I don't know really. Um probably on as a collective, the art you know, we that was one of that was our main reason for going, really. And I mean we should talk about them all in more detail, but we went to the Guggenheim, MoMA, uh, Nagucchi, um the Whitney. Uh we sort of did a big art thing each sort of major day.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Do you need to book in advance for those? Can you just rock up uh you pay? You can just rock up. That's true.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Probably a longer queue. You pay for all of them, yeah. So it's quicker if you've booked in advance to get in usually, although not always. You know, they were all excellent. Uh I mean we did have a uh going back to the AI thing, it recommended the Nagucchi Museum, which is up in Queens. So we had a day when we didn't go into Manhattan and we were just in Brooklyn and Queens, and that was fantastic, and there was hardly anybody there. It looked like it sort of, you know, it was a sort of specialist thing, you only knew about it if you knew about it, sort of thing. But that was really interesting. It had sort of Zen garden. I mean the guy I think was Japanese by birth or family, with sculptures in and uh and they were limiting, you know, one in, one out, so there was a limited number of people inside, so it was quite nice and chill. And it and the excellent, really interesting sculpture. Um so that was good. But right next to it was uh the the Socrates sculpture park, which Chat GPT also recommended, which was shockingly terrible. So we got spent an hour on the bus to get to it, and it was just appalling.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Well, at least it was next to somewhere else that was good.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah, that's right. It was a you know enjoyable, like I say, contrast. One thing fantastic, one thing poor.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

When you say soccerist, I I can't help but think of the uh the Brazilian footballer from the 1980s. I'm assuming it was the philosopher.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Yeah, I suspect that's divided the room.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Have you been to any of those with the the school?

SPEAKER_06 9:43

Or uh yeah, we did MoMA and uh we're thinking about doing Met the Met as well, if we can this summer, because we've got a little bit of time that we haven't filled. But um, something I really enjoyed was uh the street art when you walk the High Line. So did you walk the High Line? Because that is quite brilliant, and there's lots of interesting street art along that, and it takes you into Greenwich Village, which is an amazing place. I love that. I love it there.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

It's funny because I was dissing it, I think, last time it was it was pretty cold and empty and flat when we were there. So uh we did a couple of things, but it wasn't it wasn't the the highlight really. But I yeah, the highline is excellent, isn't it? It but it's funny how these things divide people. Most people have told me the highline's fantastic, and one person just said it was shit. It's like hey what?

SPEAKER_02 10:34

You know, I I'm more of a wildlife kind of person these days, so I shy away from big cities, but you know, everybody has their thing that they uh that gets them. What do you like about Greenwich Village? Because I know you in the past you said you'd move there.

SPEAKER_06 10:47

Yeah, oh my goodness, yeah, Spring Street. Um, the first time I went, uh back in 2022, we when we arrived in uh at Spring Street station, I just turned to my colleagues and said, right, this is this is where I'm gonna move. And they laughed and said, you know, like when you're a millionaire, maybe. But it's it's so bohemian and it's so arty, and you know, just looking at people walking around there, it just felt it feels amazing. I loved it and I really liked it. And yeah, that's the whole feel of Greenwich Village for me. Like vibrant and bohemian and lovely, yeah. Lots of street art, lots of interesting little cafes and shops, and beautiful. Yeah, so the walking the High Line, that's that's what we do because we we we leave England at like I don't know, we leave school at 4am. We arrive in New York for say one o'clock in their afternoon, and then we do a sort of orienteering walk. So we just walk down the High Line with the kids. Um, and it's lovely because there is lots of nature there, it's a it's a beautiful garden, it's nicely planted, isn't it? Absolutely, it's really pretty. And then you know, we go into Greenwich Village, take them to this great restaurant called Cowgirl, which we love, and um, and then we're off to the Empire State after that. So it's a a busy old day, something like a 26-hour day by the time we're finished.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

We probably went the other way then because we started at Chelsea um market and walked up to Hudson Yard. Right. Um in fact we were in that area a few times, and the Whitney of course is right next to it, so we did that all in sort of one day. But yeah, it's a really I suppose it's weather highly weather dependent that we had glorious weather, but it's probably not so much fun when it's windy off the Hudson.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Yeah, what's the weather like in February? I've been there, so I kind of know what it's like in February.

SPEAKER_06 12:31

Absolutely freezing, freezing. Um, this year wasn't, I don't know, it was really cold, but last year it was like blizzards. There was one day when we couldn't leave a hotel. I mean, the the snow and and I I'd be wearing five layers and still feeling cold. And we were walking, so yeah, it's really bitterly cold, and going up the Empire State in that weather is is is painful. It's beautiful, but it's very, very cold.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

I get the the impression the best time to visit is April, May time in terms of and maybe the fall, as they say in America. Yeah, or September.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

We got very lucky, it was 30 degrees the first two days we were there, middle of April, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

When I was in New York one time, I had one day, uh I can't remember the order, uh, but we had a dusting of snow. This was in April or May, I think. Uh, and then the next day, like you said, it maybe wasn't 30, but it was T-shirt and shorts weather. Sort of literally back to back snow one day, next day you're out in your shorts. It can be a bit nuts the weather.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

You all listen to Unraveled Travel on the subject of New York. When you went down the High Line, did you go to Little Island? Is he that little sort of it's really interesting little thing? It's like these sort of white columns that come out of the sea with like little cups on top of them. They all mesh together and they've built an island on it, so it's like a sort of artificial suspended island. Wow. I think it was yeah, it was it was really interesting, and I mean to look at from a distance, but we also went out onto it and excellent views because it's sort of down into the river. Um, I don't know if it's built over one of the old jetties or something like that. But that was really interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:15

But something we want to do this time because you were talking about the Brooklyn Bridge, because we love doing the Brooklyn Bridge. So what we do is we walk along that and we're all told, don't turn around until you get to the centre. So we just walk to the centre, and then we turn around, and you just have this incredible view of the financial district, and it is so beautiful. I love Brooklyn Bridge, but there's also a photo opportunity, so we're taking our Instagram crazy young people to it's called the Dumbo or something. So you go under underneath and take the there's a really good one.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

You can see it on Facebook this afternoon, Izzy.

SPEAKER_06 14:46

That's what we're gonna do. So we're gonna do that this year, we're gonna walk them down. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

So what's the dumbo to the like me, the uninitiated?

SPEAKER_03 14:55

It's down under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, Dumbo. Yeah, and Manhattan Bridge is the one next to Brooklyn Bridge, but there's this spot close to where you come off the Brooklyn Bridge Walkway, where you can there's a road, and at the end of the road is one of the pillars of the Manhattan Bridge, and in the gap at the bottom of it, you can see the Empire State Building perfectly through it.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

And it's like it's like a framing of it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Yeah, it's a fantastic and it's very busy. There's lots of people taking their photos. And it's all the Instagram, uh the Instagram but a good idea would be to take the subway to Brooklyn probably and walk back the other way, then you get the excellent view the whole way.

SPEAKER_06 15:36

Yeah, we kind of accidentally did that last year. We accidentally ended up going to Brooklyn, and we were like, Oh my, it it was a little bit sketchy, I wasn't comfortable. We were there for like five minutes, but I was thinking we need to get these kids out of here. Um we were staying there, it was great. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

I was gonna ask that actually, I was gonna ask, uh, but I was gonna do it at the end. But since we've come on to it, how did you feel about the safety aspect of New York? Because obviously, if you go back to the 70s and 80s, it was uh a very different place then. I my when I went it was uh 2000s, noughties, and twenty tens, I guess. Uh and I felt it was very safe, but I'm not sure what it's like these days.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Yeah, I felt perfectly safe. Everyone was too stoned to do anything bad to you, really. As I said, in Brooklyn, it was I mean, it was a sort of definitely a more edgy environment. I mean, when we were quite a long way from downtown Brooklyn, it was lots of people standing around on street corners with spliffs and people on mopeds without any helmets on, and yeah, it was all that sort of thing like you might see in American city things, but I I felt fine. Um but I don't scare easily, I think.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

And what what about you, Izzy? Because obviously you're coming from it from a completely different angle because you're responsible for well, you and the other teachers. 20 kids, something like that. Um third. So I mean that obviously you're not thinking just about your own safety there. How have you found it?

SPEAKER_06 17:04

Uh well, we feel perfectly safe, but then we sort of stick together and we've got the kids between us, and we do this really funny thing where so it's three teams and we have coloured hats, and honestly, it's it looks amazing in the photograph. So we've got orange hats, I have a light blue hat, and uh the other team's got white hats. And so when we're going through the subway and everywhere, you just see this troop of hats going through. It's just the way we can count their heads, you know. So we know I can count my ten blue hats, and we know we've got all of the kids between us.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

But I'm planning on implementing it on my holidays.

SPEAKER_06 17:38

Honestly, I remember marching them through Grand Central Station, and the security guards were just stopping us and going, Wow, you know, are you a school? And we're like, Yeah, we're a school. And and he said, That's such a good, a good way to take care of them because we you can't lose them. And then, but last time, I think it was last year, and there were other you know, people in the you know, other people wearing bloody blue orange hats, and and I'm wanting to gather them up, you know. You're getting extra people in our group. You get over here, Arna, it's not one of our kids. Um, but uh no, it felt really, really safe. Um, but like if the kids have got free time, we don't give them very much because we want to keep them safe. Um, so you know, if you give them 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, we just say stick in a group of four, no, nobody goes around on their own, um, and we you know have a meet spot, and it's that it's perfectly safe. Never felt any no.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

I've got two things I w I wanted to say. Firstly, don't go for red hat. Although I saw I saw surprisingly few of them actually in New York. Uh and then secondly, just a story from the past. The first time I ever went to London when I was ten on a primary school trip from Fulsto, they left me behind at the Tower of London. Was that intentional? Well, you know, the question that's been dodged many times since they miscounted and put everybody else on the coach and went all the way across town, and I was just sort of wandering around on my own. And it weren't terrible. I I I went to a nice beef eater and uh yourself for steak dinner. I sat in the beef eaters' tea room and watched a test match with them on the telly drinking cups of tea while that sort of topping the school down.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

I literally thought you'd gone to a restaurant. David, Limey. How long did you live in London? Well, they used to have beef eaters, but in London. When you were 10, they did. I never went to the town of London.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

But I'm fully appreciative of a well-organised school trip.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

And and sort of like top on your list of things to do is to not lose anybody. Yeah, oh my goodness. Unless her name's West.

SPEAKER_06 19:46

No, and getting 30 kids through the barriers, you know, to get onto the subway. Just imagine that. And you're like, well, the train goes in seven minutes, we need to get through the barriers, onto the platform, onto the train. I mean, there have been a couple of occasions where one of us has been left behind. But with a kid. So a kid is never left on their own. There's always a teacher, because it's always the teacher that gets on last. But we have had that happen, so had to catch up and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Difficult to get on those packed carriages with certain people as a group, I should think.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

You're listening to Unravel Travel on the subject of New York. Shall we move on to food now? Malcolm, do you want to start on food? We've already said that you're eating lots of oh no, it was Izzy who was eating the junk food. I'm sure it's probably worked.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

We didn't eat much junk food, actually. Um the food, I think, was an unexpected highlight. Uh I mean we were quite worried about the food before we went. You know, you just think chlorinated chicken, cheese with more plastic in it than the plastic wrapper, just nasty, horrible junk food all the time. I mean, I like the occasional bit of junk food for the whole week, and and Petra would starve. You know, that's what you think of, isn't it? That's what you're led to think of, I think. But it was surprisingly good, I would say.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Um you've got from all around the world, don't you? You've got culture, you've got Mexican, you've got Italians, uh, Spanish, you know, you you've got all this melting pot of different cultures.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

Yeah, that's right, and we ignored most of them. So what did you what did you do for it? We had lots of w when we were out and about and needed something quick, we had lots of Mexican because of course the burger bars, you know, burger uh I'm just not eating that McDonald's out of principle. I just don't do that. That's fair enough. We went and used the toilets for free, but um but not eating there. And so Mexican is a quick an easily accessible option um pretty much everywhere. Always something good for people that don't eat meat. So that was a that was a common one. But we actually because you know, I like an Airbnb, we ate at home a few times and cooked breakfasts and the the local supermarket was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

I mean just Yeah, I r I remember the Dallas were something else. Uh you know, that was back in it was before 2000, just going to because I had a a self contained. Department as well, so I had a per diem. So you know they they gave me a daily allowance, and I could eat in restaurants if I wanted to, which sometimes I did, but when you're on your own, you're not less inclined to. But just the deli stuff, the the ingredients and the the ready-made ingredients were a bit of an eye-opener to me. They were very, very tasty.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

And you know, sushi and all sorts of different things, really good. So I was you know very pleasantly surprised, and we did that quite a bit. We had breakfast at a diner, a proper diner breakfast, you know, pancakes, maple syrup, bacon, all those things. I know that's one of Izzy's highlights of the trip. Diners. Love that, yeah. Which one did you go to?

SPEAKER_06 22:43

Izzy So when we stayed in um Times Square, we had a couple of years where we stayed in a hotel in Times Square, and there was a diner round the corner. I can't remember what it was called now, unfortunately, but it was the diner where Seinfeld was born. Uh-huh. The the makers of Seinfeld, so because I'm not really into Kirby enthusiasm, and so that was that was wonderful. But yeah, love the breakfast, they're they're massive, you know. You've got enough, you're served up. I had the pancakes with bacon and maple syrup and everything. My friend had like fruit salad being really healthy, but yeah, it's lovely. I think if you go, they've got to have a diner breakfast, and we really encourage the kids to do it as well, at least once.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Yeah, that was my one of my highlights collaboration. Uh and that obviously brings you on to the thorny topic of tipping.

SPEAKER_06 23:29

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

How did you go? How do you go about that?

SPEAKER_06 23:32

Well, we 20%, and we we tell the children, you've got to tip, you know, because if you don't tip, you it's like an insult, you know. Is there something wrong with my food? You know, that they're like they'll actually say, Is there something wrong? Have I done something wrong? Why haven't you? So they are we we tell them, you know, that that's part of the rules of the trick.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

We have a parents' evening where we just cross you there, Izzy, because I want to ask Malcolm. So Malcolm, how do you go about tipping? Because I saw his reaction when you said 20%.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

I give I give the least I can possibly get away with giving.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Because if you wear comfortable shoes.

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Because I think it's crap.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

So do I. I think pay give if you want to. But it should be included in the price. Yeah, absolutely. Very much with the reservoir dogs philosophy on this thing.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

I I did give 20% a few times, but when it comes up on the options thing, if it comes up as like 15, 18, 20, I'm gonna go for 15 or 18. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

I mean, how did you get away with that? Because I have heard stories of people coming up and nobody gave me any gip. Um they took one look at the big hairy guy and thought, uh okay, I'm gonna leave him alone.

SPEAKER_03 24:42

And if they had, I'd have told them where to get off loudly.

SPEAKER_06 24:45

Yeah, then just make sure you don't go and eat there again, because they might spit in your food.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

Go where uh well go and eat there again. Yeah, we were never gonna eat anywhere. I thought fairly safe about that.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

So shall we move on to entertainment? But what what did you do for entertainment while you're out there, Malcolm? So we we've done trips, but did you go to see any shows or anything like that?

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Yeah, yeah, we did. We went to see the Book of Mormon. Oh, I don't think you can take a school trip, that's showing in England, in London, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 25:14

It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

And was it good? It was fantastic. Uh and and I deliberately this was one of the things I asked for a recommendation. We said, well, we should maybe go to Broadway or do some music thing or something like that. But I fucking hate musicals. I just don't just hate 'em. Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate them. Me too. And anything by I mean, I I've unfortunately seen a few Lloyd Webbers and I wished I hadn't. Um but can't unsee them once you've seen anyway. Yeah. This is something quite different. It's uh irreverent, funny, totally inappropriate, written by the people that wrote South Park's David's than mentioned from last time. And and once I saw that, it was like, well, that's the one for me. How can I see that? And it was great, really good.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

You know, it wouldn't be a um one of our podcasts without a discussion about drugs. Izzy, obviously, you probably didn't take the kids to do any drugs. Uh so I'll I'll hand over to Malcolm here. And for those that don't know, uh marijuana is these days legal in America.

SPEAKER_03 26:18

Well, I didn't know the whole of America or just not the whole of America, it's certain states. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

So resident expert, Malcolm.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

The first evening we sort of went for a wonder to find something to eat, and and there were just people smoke I mean, in 20 yards I must have spoken past five people smoking spliffs. And and not just subtle ones, but ones you could probably smell half a mile away.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Amberwell carrots.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

Yeah, and I thought, okay. Uh well I hadn't seen any police around in that part of the town, and then next day we were we were just seeing it, you know, walking past people everywhere in office dress and stuff. And so I I checked online and discovered it was legal. So uh so I went and bought some. It didn't come up in your chat GPT search of things to do. No, it didn't, no. But chat GPT's gone all legal these days. It it it won't advise you on things like that. If it if I'd a sear when I searched it in in New York, it told me yeah, it's perfectly legal, and um and where you could buy it and where you couldn't. But if you searched in England, it wouldn't tell you. You've got to have a photo ID on you, you've got to be over 25, and then they just say, What would you like?

SPEAKER_02 27:22

And are there are you allowed to smoke? I mean, I you obviously could smell and see people smelling in the streets.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Uh in the financial district, there were people still at the bottom of skyscrapers in clear office dress having a big spliff.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

And then going back and betting the bank on uh oil futures because they've had a tip-off. And then that leads us on to well leads me on when I thinking getting a little mellow uh to music. Did you have a chance to listen to because when I when I was out there, I can't remember the square, although it might have been Washington Square. I just remember wandering around and there was some impromptu music going on just in the street. Uh, did you come across anything like that, or did you go to any jazz bars or any any any of me no, obviously not.

SPEAKER_06 28:06

No, maybe not.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

I mean, I was tempted, we were just a bit too tired for something late every night, but I wanted I mean, firstly, I should go on record as saying, I don't understand jazz at all, it's just pointless. I just don't get it. I don't get jazz. Blues, yes, absolutely. But jazz, just get on with it. I mean, I just don't why are you warbling off over there?

SPEAKER_06 28:28

But they are getting on with it, they're riffing.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 28:32

It's a conversation between instruments. Oh my goodness. I thought maybe you just said that.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

So I hate jazz, so it definitely wasn't going to jazz. But blues, uh absolutely would have done that. There were a few people playing instruments on the subway, guy playing the sacks on the subway, yeah, busking. Nobody had any cash on the subway. On the subway, yeah, going from carriage to carriage, yeah, yeah. On the subway, and nobody had any cash. People were paying him by tapping his phone.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

Oh really? Oh my god. Brilliant. So I mean, we we've got about five minutes left on this episode. So I just thought maybe wrap it up with a few other some of the other stuff. I mean, that one of the things I did was uh the Statue of Liberty. Uh just get the the ferry, I can't remember which island it was to Ellis Island. Is Ellis Island the what's that? Yeah, I don't think it was Ellis Island I actually got the ferry to because I we actually went past it and then turned round and came back. So we got the Staten Island ferry, yeah. Staten Island, that was the one. A pretty good way of seeing the Statue of Liberty. Yeah, of course. When I was staying there, my apartment had a window that sort of looked out on it. So every time I put my blinds down at night, I said goodnight to the Statue of Liberty, which is obviously a good way of doing it as well. Any other places that are worth mentioning?

SPEAKER_06 29:42

Ellis Island's a brilliant place to go. Um, if you want to go and sort of see if you've got any ancestors that landed in America in the 1940s, that you can go through the archives and stuff. That's a really nice thing.

SPEAKER_02 29:53

That was the place where they process everybody arrived, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_06 29:56

Yeah, and that's it that features in the Godfather 2.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

I think that's the only reason I know about it from Godfather.

SPEAKER_06 30:03

And it's quite an eerie place to be honest. There's something really odd about it. It feels like a lanatorium or something, but it's an interesting place to visit if you're there. It's worth going.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

One of one of the best places I went to, although I'm not sure it's there anymore, because when I was there it was pre-the towers coming down. Uh and I was staying in Battery Park, and there was a Native American museum, uh, which was really, really interesting. But it was pretty much where the right at the foot of the twin towers. It might be, it was a little bit further south, so I've I've no idea if it's still there. But I did find that very interesting. I'm sure if it's not there, there must be another Native American museum somewhere in uh in New York or Manhattan. Uh Malcolm, you want to add anything before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_03 30:46

No, I think we should wrap it up there. That sounds pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

And you, Izzy? Yeah, I'm good. Thanks. Okay, cool. Well, thank you, Izzy, for coming along and uh sharing a slightly different perspective on having to herd 30 children around. Thanks for the enjoying. I mean, I think New York's hard enough herding yourself around, let alone being responsible for other people. But thank you for coming and uh Malcolm great, great recollection, especially if you're not. I don't remember all of it, Dave. Okay, thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Thanks. Bye. Speak to you all soon.