Our holiday in New York: Tuesday, 2nd May 2006
When I (Robert) went to sleep last night (midnight South African time), 6pm New York time; I was wondering whether I would sleep through the night. It turned out sleeping through the night was no problem! There was a semi-regular flow of drunken (?) noises from the street.....ah, it's difficult being away from civilisation! This morning I gave up on trying to find an international adaptor which fits South African plugs and eventually found a store which sells laptop plugs...so here I am, happily catching up on our diary for yesterday and today.
Karen decided that her number 1 aim for the day was to get breakfast (& my number 1 aim was to go to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum), and we decided to look for breakfast spots near the World Trade Centre and Time Square.
World Trade Centre
There's not much to see at the World Trade Centre site. It's more of a spiritual experience than a "seeing" experience.
World Trade Centre - Ground Zero 
I felt an intense sense of needless loss, while reading about what happened here to the firefighters, the innocent civilians and all others who died.
World Trade Centre - Ground Zero 
Times Square
The neon of Times Square is dazzling, and one can feel the buzz, the place is packed with people. As you walk around people are trying to sell you tickets.
The neon of Times Square 
Father Duffy watching over Times Square
We bumped into the Mayor giving a speech on Times Square 
Walk to Intrepid
After Times Square, we went for a looooong walk along 46 Street towards the Intrepid floating museum. It was interesting seeing the changing nature of the street. At Times Square there are loads of neon advertisements and the broadway theatres.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Imperial
We thought of TomKat as we passed the Church of Scientology 
Then there is a restaurant district with loads of Italian (& some other) restaurants, the street then changes into an industrial street and ends up with H&H Bagels and the Intrepid.
The bridge over the street to the Intrepid Museum 
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
The highlights at the Intrepid Museum were climbing up a climbing wall, going on a fighter jet simulator, walking through the submarine there (I remembered Adolf having said he did this when he was in New York) and it was interesting reading about the fierce fighting at Iwo Jima.
Click here to see the photos we took at the Intrepid Museum (including one of Rob rock climbing!).
Yellow Cab
We decided to catch a yellow cab back for the experience. We sat at the back and there was a little window through which we could communicate with the driver. The driver wasn't very talkative - I noticed a little picture of his daughter stuck on the front of the cab. The minimum cab cost is $2.50 and they add $0.4 per 1/5 mile. The total CAB cost was $3.70, and I paid him $5 including tip. We stopped at TKTS, where you can buy discount tickets to the theatres, and bought tickets to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels for half-price (which came to $118).
David Blaine in a fishbowl
In the morning's newspaper (which is handed out for free on the subways) I had seen that David Blaine was planning on spending 7 days underwater at the Lincoln Centre. We decided to go and have a look at the man.
David Blaine under water
David Blaine under water having a liquid (red) meal 
Most people were interested in how he went to the toilet (through a catheter). Somebody had a sign which he showed David saying "Everybody poops". What is dangerous about this stunt is what it does to his skin. His skin absorbs the water, becomes like the skin of a grapefruit and then anything that rubs against it rubs bits of skin off - and his skin then becomes very thin. As I write this, it's difficult to believe that he's still in that water!
Glory Glory Glory
We decided to go back to our hotel to rest a bit before the theatre. As we were getting back there was somebody preeching out loud "Glory Glory Glory".
Dirty filthy rotten Scoundrels
Our tickets were at H6 & H8 (I'm not big into theatre, but I've realised that for there to be any enjoyment I need to be near the front). Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a hilarious story. Even though I was exhausted (play ended at about 3am South African time) I enjoyed it. I enjoyed getting home and sleeping a lot too! These next two photos show the two ends of Times Square on the way home.
Times Square at night
Times Square at night
Subway moment of the day
We were sitting on the train and there was somebody rapping out loud. Next, a preacher got on the train - the two were in competition!