New York - Day 1

Prior to leaving Brisbane, New York was going to either make or break the trip. New York was the going to be the first time I would fly into and airport and have no idea what to do or where to go. I also had nobody to meet up with and nothing planned for the 5 days I was there… How quickly all of that changed!

After leaving Sam and Amanda’s at what can only be described as Stupid-O-Clock (6:00am – I know that is a normal time - but it was still pitch black outside AND was about -1oC or -2oC) I arrived at Toronto and lined up in the queue with the hundreds of other people. As you may be aware, security in Airports across the world – especially ANYTHING flying into USA has been stepped up since the attempted bombing on Christmas Day.

“Hello, and thank you for choosing to fly American Airlines. We just want to let you know that we actually don’t care about you at all! Due to the new terror levels and heightened security, please allow extra time for check in as we haven’t added any extra staff. Please also note that although there are over 200 people waiting to check in and it is only 7am, we will still only have 3 staff working. Once again, thank you for flying American”

Well, nobody actually said that but it was what I am sure they were thinking!!!!!!!

So I had my first full body search! I didn’t look dodgy – EVERYONE was being padded down and they went through my whole carry on bag. I had to even turn my laptop on to prove it was fine! Anyway, this whole process actually went quite well. A good thing about flying from Toronto into New York is that you get to go through customs in Canada so when you arrive at JFK it is like walking straight off a domestic flight.

Nothing to describe on the flight really. Our flight attendant looked like Bubba from Forrest Gump! He was probably about twice the size!!!!! We were only in a tiny tine aircraft so that was an experience as he walked up and down the aisle serving our drinks! I celebrated, with a Pepsi, that that would be the last American Airlines / small domestic plane I would have to be in for a while! Bring on the A380

Anyway, 400 words in and I haven’t made it to New York – this could be long! I will warn you now that I have decided to not really ‘review / talk too much about the shows I saw in this entry – they can all have their own special one!

The great thing in both Toronto and New York is that a cab ride to / from the airport is a fixed price so it doesn’t matter what time it is it will always be about the same price. Just a tip for those traveling here. I checked into the Four Points by Sheraton – thank you Sam!. It was on 40th between 8th and 9th. To put it into proximity for you, the Times Square / Theatre district area runs from 40th to 50th and from 6th to 9th, so I was in the bottom corner. It was about an 8 minute walk and I was standing in the middle of Times Square!

INSERT MAP OF WHERE I STAYED
After checking in it was time to explore the town! I was in the foyer just chatting with the concierge about 1) where I was, and 2) how to get to where I wanted to be. Another guy was there and he was asking the same thing. He was over from the West Indies to visit his girlfriend who had been working here for about 3 months now and still had another 3 months to go. I tried to ditch him at all costs. His first questions to me was “hey man, mind if I hang wit;’ chew for a bit. I am tryin’ to find my way too”. So far so good. A little how’s the weather chat on the way up the street and he then asked me if I smoke – NO! and then preceded to list of about 8 other illegal drugs and if I did them or if I knew how to get them… MISSION: Ditch this guy! This proved a little harder than expected. I told him I was here to see Musical Theatre! He didn’t know what I was talking about but latched onto the “music” element and preceded to tell me how much he loves singing… this was going to be much harder than expected. I started walking into every theatre I could – just to get an idea of performance times and costs. I thought after I walked into West Side Story I had succeeded… but NO! Grrrrr…..

We then walked all of the way up 7th avenue to Central Park. I then thought I had got rid of him when we walked past the little carriages on the back of a bike – he tried to convince me that we should ride one. I declined the offer and said he needed to take his girlfriend on one. Anyway. I just kept walking, occasionally loosing him as he would try and chat up anything female that passed us but he still managed to catch up. I finally had success when I went in to buy my Avenue Q tickets. While I was down stairs at the theatre getting cash out of the ATM he decided he needed to go to the toilet! Instead of finding the toilet, he decided the lift was a great place! He was escorted out and must have gone back to the hotel. I bought my ticket and kept exploring the awesomeness of the Big Apple!

I have found the worlds 2nd greatest collection of sheet music (the first one is amazon.com). You name an artist or musical and the music was there. A lot of the musicals were available in Vocal Selections or even Full Score format! I was very calm and only bought 4 books. A couple of musicals and I found the 2 Billy Joel Anthologies I have been wanting for about 10 years. They cost about $100 each at home… I only paid $30 for each of them – A great deal

I headed back to the hotel – I hadn’t gotten lost so was very proud of myself! A quick shower and then out to dinner and my first Broadway Musical – even if it was Off-Broadway… Avenue Q!