New York - It's a hell of a town!

As the cab driver rolled into Gene's driveway at approximately 4.30am, both Jordan and I both looked at each other knowing this would be the beginning of a memorable 5 days in New York. At 6.30am we boarded our Southwest Airlines flight which would take us via Baltimore (Washington DC) before arriving in Long Island New York a little after 11am. With limited sleep from the night before, it wasn't long before my eyes were closing over in an attempt to recharge my batteries.







Landing in Long Island we were still an hour and a half from our ultimate destination, Penn Station New York. So grabbing our bags, we boarded the train and headed south experiencing the local commuters along the way.



Rolling into Penn Station we shuffled our bags off and followed the crowd to emerge at street level. A mass of buildings, concrete, sirens, taxi horns and of course people - we loaded our bags into the cab and experienced driving New York "cabbie style" and pulled up at our hotel Washington Jefferson - small room but approx 2 blocks from Time Square, Broadway and a great bar called the House of Brews!


A quick refresh and we were off, first stop Time Square and amazing place with thousands of tourists and even more sprukers trying their best to lure your tourist dollar to the newest comedy club or tourist destination. Continuing on, we walked the 6 blocks to the Empire State Building purchased the upgraded tickets (102nd floor observatory) and headed for the lift.












Uninterrupted views of Manhattan Island, New Jersey and beyond greeted up upon the doors opening. After spending quite a bit of time "on top of the world" Jordan and I headed back to street level and headed for lunch.


Aimlessly walking around the streets of Manhattan taking in the sights, it wasn't long before we realised it was pushing 7 o'clock and time to get ready for dinner at the House of Brews (80+ beers from around the world) - upon reading the menu I noticed 2 beers under "Australia" and 1 under "Tasmania" - looks like New Yorker's too consider the apple isle not apart of Australia.


After doing my best to sample the beers from all continents, we headed out to the bars of New York after the 2 waitresses happily clue Jordan and I up on the local scene.

The 15 minute taxi drive takes up both away from the tourist hub and into the small yet distinct burrows of inner city Manhattan. The television in the back of the cab distracts me and it's not long before we arrive at our destination 1st Street & 1st Avenue - one to remember.

Walking into a bar called "One and One" we sat and ordered and started chatting to a group. Amazingly the group Jordan and I had introduced ourselves to turned out to be not only the owner of the bar, but the nightclub two doors down and the french restaurant between the two.


Keeping the bar open well past closing time & with the threat of seeing the sun rise Jordan and I left the group and headed home. Enjoy New York - all you have to do is walk out your door...

It's now Wednesday mid morning, and today should hopefully see us climb the Statue of Liberty as well as visit the famous Rockefeller Centre and Wall Street.

James.