The People Ride In A Hole In The Ground...

In the previous 2 trips I have spent in New York, I haven’t ridden the Subway – much preferred to walk and take in the sights. But today was different… it was time to see the famous Green Lady (Not Elphaba).

ATTENTION QRAIL: It costs $2.75 for a single trip in New York. No matter how far you are going! Once we got out it was onto the FREE Statton Island Ferry (Brisbane City Council take note). It is amazing how much of my American History and knowledge is through TV and Music.

So over to the island and the obligatory photo as the ferry goes past the Statue. It isn’t until you are actually there in person you realise a couple of things:

1) It really is a magnificent statue and what it stands for

2) The picture-ness of the whole experience with downtown in the background is pretty amazing

3) The statue wasn’t destroyed as X-Men movie would have you believe

A quick lunch and a drink in the pub before heading back to New York. When we walked into the pub it was meant to be a quick drink. We didn’t expect to meet a Scottish Man who was born in Perth and had Bob Hawke as a lecturer when he studied Economics… He had been drinking since 8am that day so I am not sure what exactly he learnt from Bob but I am sure it was something useful.

Dinner tonight was actually at our hotel; Yotel. I will save hotel description for later for when there is a less crazy day. (also, I am on the train back from Washington trying to catch up on 6 days worth of stuff so I can leave hotel details till later)

Then it was off to the Broadway Opening Preview Performance of Beautiful: The Carol King Musical. After that it was time to check out another Piano Bar called The Duplex. It is downtown and is actually right next door to the “Stone Wall In”. This gives you an idea of the clientele that were there. This was a fun night though. Once again, Lucy was up to sing. No Piano Playing for me as they are very precious about their pianos…

I have discovered some differences between Australia and America that I feel are worth sharing:

#1 America ACTUALLY has Piano Bars

#2 Americans know ALL the words to American Pie

#3 America keeps places like this open until 4am

#4 In “Sweet Caroline” the ‘bom bom bom’ is secondary to the ‘so good’ echo

#5 Nobody here requests Khe Shan

So, once again it is 4am and we are only just climbing into bed… I am going to need to sleep some time soon.