The end of Friday and on to see New York!!

Well i stayed in Ginger's exhibition until they came and said it was time to lock up ;) the guy doing the lockup was impressed with my combat trousers (of all things haha) mainly because the pattern on my trousers matched his jacket, he asked where i got them from and then when i said i got them at home in England that bought me a few more minutes to look at Ginger hehe, he was however far more impressed that i'd travelled all this way just to see the exhibition and he also recommended a trip upstairs to examine the archives, apparently they have a lot more stuff that they just couldn't fit in the exhibition ;)

On leaving the library i realised that calling a cab was out (no number for a start lol) so i asked a couple of guys outside where the nearest T line was, fortunately it was only just accross the street, just in the middle of the road :) I then somehow managed (as ya do) to get into a really interesting conversation with one of the train staff on duty, he and his colleague appeared to be there to remind people they had to pay and to let them swipe their cards in advance of the train, the conversation mainly focused on comparisons between the UK and the US but it was fascinating for me and somehow i didn't get the train until 6pm

I then unfortunately missed my stop so had to back track and so got back to the hostel around 7pm, then came the realisation about how slow their wi-fi is, it took half an hour for the banner photo to upload, which is why the post on the exhibition and the photos post were done separately!

After that i decided dinner wasn the order of the day and went to find Boston's Hard Rock Cafe,
only to find when i got there that the restaurant was closed for a private event :( The shop fortunately was still open so i was able to get a small gift for Anneliese (using my all access points hehe) but i'd really been looking forward to comparing Boston's restaurant to all the other's i've tried..

As it was getting late i decided i might as well just go back to Wendy's hehe and go to Hard Rock Cafe in NYC
Not quite the steak i'd been hoping for but my bacon cheese burger was very nice ;) I'd almost got to the hostel though when i realised that teddy had been left behind, so back i went and fortunately he was still there waiting :)

With an early start bed was really the order of the day after that, being me i somehow got to bed at 1, with an alarm clock set for 7!!

Saturday 31st March

Woke up on time thankfully! I was able to add my shopping to the suitcase without disturbing anyone and then got myself and the bags downstairs to reception to check out :)

For some reason i'd convinced myself that the train departed Boston at 8.45am and put this down in my phone, i thought i'd better check which station and realised with a jolt that the train was departing at 8.15am!! Fortunately it was still 7.40am so i had enough time to get a cab and get to the station on time to catch the train but i'm so fortunate that i thought to check! As it was the train was slightly late and even getting there with 15 minutes to spare was more than enough time :)

The train from Boston to New York was pretty uneventful, it was snowing/raining all the way to NYC so there wasn't much to look at. I'd paid extra (or so i thought) to take the Acela to give myself a little more time in New York, but when i booked the train back the North East Regional worked out more expensive so in the end it worked out that the Acela and the NE Regional came out at the same price more or less and the Acela is 30 minutes or so faster :)

I was able to get assistance at NY Penn Station and so getting a cab was pretty simple, the hotel had confirmed that i could store my suitcase during the day so the first thing i did was exactly that
I'd booked the Gershwin Hotel which is situated at 7 E27th St by 5th Avenue in the former Tin Pan Alley Area, i've stayed here everytime that i've stayed in NYC itself and i thoroughly recommend it

After i dropped my suitcase off i went and got the 4 train to Woodlawn and Woodlawn Cemetary, Vernon and Irene Castle are interred there as is Irving Berlin and i try and visit to pay my respects everytime i'm in the city
Fortunately by the time i got there it had stopped raining, i was able to get a map, even with this being the 3rd time i visited i got lost trying to find the spot where Vernon and Irene are situated, once i'd found the circle they're located off i found them straight away though ;) I just need to remember how to find that main circle (this has a really impressive maseolum in the middle like a small church)

After that i took the subway back to Manhattan, i'd been in New York around 2 hours and was ready to do some shopping ;)
As i'd come to the US without Anneliese i'd agreed that i'd visit the American Girl Doll Store and she'd picked out the outfit she wanted for her Bitty Baby on the internet before i came, I picked up a couple of leaflets at Grand Central that entitled me to free items if i spent so much money at Build a Bear and American Girl, i hadn't originally been intending to go into Build a Bear at all but it's so much cheaper in the US than it is in the UK (thanks to costs of shipping and the exchange rate) that i found myself drawn in, I was able to replace an outfit that part of had been lost on last year's long trip accross the US so i was pleased about that and a pyjama outfit, $25 inc tax with an easter set and a free bag (because i'd spent $25) was a much better deal than anything i could have got at home, plus both outfits were exclusive to New York so definitely can't get them anywhere else!

After that i moved to the American Girl Store where i ran into problems upon discovering that the outfit that Anneliese had picked out has been discontinued. She'd asked for the outfit for her doll and also the outfit in her size and they only had it left in a small.. To make up though i got two outfits for her baby and the matching outfits for her so hopefully she'll be more than satisfied!! I's a good thing i can't go shopping at American Girl very often, i couldn't quite believe the total they gave me at the cashier desk hahaha. i also got a book though for spending over $40 so that was pretty good :)

I then decided it was more than time to go and do some shopping for me! And headed for Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Materials Store at 253 W35th St between 7th and 8th, i was a little worried that they might have been victims of the recession but thankfully they are still there :)
I got a couple of photos of Ginger that i hadn't seen before and also a few of Ginger and Fred, when i get home i'll scan them and share, but beautiful is a good way to start describing them ;)

After that i thought that with all the shopping i had that it would be a good idea to go back to the hotel and then think about what to do this evening, I it took rather a long time to get back because i stopped at Penn Station on the way for a Krispy Kreme donut but by 6.30pm i'd managed it :) I was able to check in ok and retrieved my bag and got it upstairs, when i booked it said i'd got in a 4 bunk room but instead i was in a 6 bunk room, but this suited me fine, was a slight comedown as last year when i travelled with Anneliese i'd had to get a private room as they don't allow under 18 year old's in their dorm rooms, but it worked out much cheaper this way!

I decided to go and see if i could get food at Hard Rock Cafe New York because i'd missed out on Boston last night, the store's always pretty busy but i thought with the all access card that i might get lucky with the restaurant :)
For some reason i decided to hop down rather than taking the subway so it took a while but i got some photos of New York City Library which i liked, last year it was all covered with scaffolding but the work has now been finished so it looks just like it did in Sex and The City - The Movie!
I got to Hard Rock and they warned me that even with the all access card i was looking at a 25-30 minute wait, i'd brought my book along anticipating having to wait a little so i didn't have a problem with that, 25-30 minutes isn't long compared to how long you can wait in London!!

I'd just sat down and got settled when my name flashed up on their now seating screen, from entering their system and getting to the front of the queue for seating took 4 minutes, they encourage you to get your photo taken with the guitars but even that only took a moment so i was really impressed with the speed of being seated! I was right by the kitchen which turned out to be in my favour and the waitress i got was absolutely fantastic, i opted for steak and smashed potatoes, which i have almost every time i eat at Hard Rock Cafe, i tried something else once but have since gone back to tried and tested!

I got my food pretty quickly, tasted as good in New York as it has anywhere else i've had it :) I didn't get to look much at the memorabilia they have, thanks to being on crutches i'm slightly limited, but what i did see was pretty cool, i was amused to see the words Judas Priest on a plaque near my table, it would appear it was also someone's name but it made me think of Kitty ;)
I was able to use the rest of the money saved on my all access card towards my bill which impressed me, in London they insist its all or nothing

I was tempted by the Hard Rock Cafe bear dressed as the Statue of Liberty but somehow managed not to buy it! I then took a small trip to the Disney Store where i was disappointed to find that they no longer do Pin Trading, they'd stopped doing this at home a while ago and now it would seem that it includes all Disney Stores :( They did still have a NYC pin set on sale and it appears that the sets will keep being sold in stores just no pin trading..
They have a new Disney scent out which so far hasn't got to the UK, so i got some of that (as ya do) plus 4 minnie mouse t-shirts, 1 for me and 3 for Anneliese, how that worked out i'll never know haha
I succummbed to buying Minnie in her Statue of Liberty outfit but she was a lot cheaper than the Hard Rock Cafe version so it wasn't so bad (i'm trying to convince myself of this still lol)

I turned back for the hotel just after midnight, very busy but hey it's a Saturday Night in Manhattan, i shouldn't expect anything less! I did think of walking back but in the end i hopped back over to 5th Avenue and hailed a cab to take me the remaining 15 blocks!

When i got back to the room and the hotel, it was a hive of activity so i didn't have to worry about disturbing anyone thankgoodness!

I got chatting to the people i was sharing with, all around the same age as myself, it turned out the only male in the room was doing film studies and had just done a paper on 'The Gay Divorcee'!!! of all the coincidences in the world it was a good one for me ;) They loved the photos that i'd got from Jerry Ohlinger's and thought it was great that i'd come all the way to the US for Ginger's exhbition, the guy who'd written the paper was from Canada and the two girls who were in the room at the moment, one was from Germany and the other from France so a wide variety of nationalities!

As it was pushing it for 1am, sleep was all in order, i'm meeting my cousin for brunch at 11, so get a little lie in!! first of the trip :o