I had contemplated travelling to the US for a week long holiday while living in the UK, but while this was easily possible it was time consuming and especially because my family I have in the States lives on the West Coast, not the more easily accessible (from UK/Europe) East Coast. In the end it just made sense to leave it until the end, especially as there was a lot Sasha and I both wanted to do in the States and it also lent itself to being able to travel across the continent in part by Amtrak train, something I would like to do. We had some friends from Germany, Sandra and Christian who had spent 6 weeks in the US while we were living in Berlin - in fact, we house-sat for them as it fell right between one of our last short-term lets and getting the long-term house. They started in New York, and drove across the US to the West Coast via a lot of National Parks and the Grand Canyon over the course of 4 weeks before going over to Hawaii for 2 weeks and then back to Berlin. We got a lot of US travel inspiration from them, and helpful information though we already had a whole lot we'd shortlisted to do. Perhaps of most notability at this juncture, was we knew we were starting in New York because of the QM2, but how we'd do the rest of the US was a blank canvas. Sasha was adamant on two points however - she wanted to do the Grand Canyon because she'd missed out last time; and she wanted to do Hawaii. It made sense then to work our way from East to West somehow, and end the North America portion of our trip in Hawaii - as I knew there were flights from there back to NZ & Australia, and it was almost halfway (at a stretch!) between the US and Australasia anyway.
We'd planned our travels by tracing out an amount of time, and then working through it from start to finish to book accommodation and travel which took a long time, months even. By the time we'd departed Berlin to begin our travels, everything was booked and sorted up until we got off the QM2 in New York. All of the accommodation and travel planning for North America was done while we were on the road - many things outlined, but some things not conclusively booked until much later. We'd originally had vague ideas of spending up to 2 or 3 months in the US, but midway through planning the Europe/UK travels we got a good feel for what was actually going to be feasible funds wise and we locked it in at 5 weeks - 4 weeks across the continent from East to West, and 1 week in Hawaii. Planning the nitty gritty while on the road wasn't easy as we didn't always have time, but by the time we'd arrived in the UK most things had been nailed down - except Hawaii, which was still proving a challenge but I will deal with that later, and that too got sorted.
But New York would be where our North American travels would begin, and what an introduction it would be to the continent. How did it go?
Day 1 - Welcome to America
Now with bags, we went to join the queue for immigration and somehow found ourselves being directed along what seemed like a bypass queue with a person in a wheelchair in front of us. When we got near the front of this bypass queue, a Lady asked to see our passports, and then she told us (in a thick Brooklyn accent) to join the line behind the person in a wheelchair - which was funny because we were already in a line behind the wheelchair person, of sorts. They had been told to go along slightly to the left, with a rope barrier behind them and so we sidled up next to them which was as close to "behind" them as we could get, in a line that now kinked 90 degrees at the wheelchair people. All along the rows were different agents trying to arrange people, and another lady kept taking exception to the fact that we were on the right of the wheelchair people and not the left and so not "behind" them from her perspective, except our bypass line only came from the right side and there was no physical way for us to get on the other side. This other lady then started queueing up people for our line on the left hand side of the wheelchair people, to which our lady objected to and a yelling argument ensued. Some people behind us had been told to get into the US citizen line (to our right) by the lady, who them marched away elsewhere and when she came back she pointed to the same people and accosted them for being in the US citizen queue instead of another. Meanwhile another "organiser" was having arguments with our lady, and the lady clearly got exasperated as at one point she suddenly goes in her heavy Brooklyn accent "Gettin' yelled at over there. Gettin' yelled at over here. I'm gettin' Mayid!".
When we did get to the front of the line and were talking to the immigration person at the counter, things were much smoother - we weren't asked too many questions, we just had to present our ESTA's (a kind of Visa) and our passports, and before long we were told we were good to go - "Welcome to America". We thought there might next be some screening of our bags for security, but there was none. First hurdle completed - immigration!
By the time our ferry had arrived at Staten Island, it was 5pm - QM2's departure time so that didn't give us a lot of time to try and find the right spot. I'd seen a wharf/park on my offline maps which I thought would do the trick, but when we found it to our dismay it was fenced and gated off. We tried walking down further but there were no spots and all of it too was fenced off, and further afield didn't look very likely either. We could see QM2 had left the wharf and the window of opportunity was not going to last forever - the most likely place we'd seen was a gap near the fenced off wharf, so we went for that. As we got there, we saw someone on the other side of the fence sitting down with a bike. Curious how they had gotten there, we went and asked - he'd climbed around the side of the fence was his answer, and offered to give us a hand if we wanted to get around. We didn't need a hand, but we rounded the fence and then headed to the end of the wharf - just in time as QM2 was now in the perfect position with Manhattan behind, just like we'd hoped for! We watched QM2 grow bigger, and then sail past us en route not for Southampton, but for St John in Canada, then to Boston where passengers would be able to watch the 4th July Fireworks from the ship's viewing decks before sailing back to New York and then onwards to Southampton. A number of our fellow passengers from Southampton would be aboard for the trip up to Canada and Boston and then back across the Atlantic to Southampton, while others were using the 5 days QM2 was going up to Canada and Boston to stay and explore New York before returning to Southampton on the ship. But for us, our QM2 adventure was over and we would be heading West across the continent in due course.
Day 2 - Getting into It
After lunch and a further wander, we headed to the queuing point and joined the line. We saw a wave of people go into the elevators, we moved up and waited for the next wave. While waiting, other people showed up into our queuing area - including Les and Christine, so we struck up conversation again! It was quite a long wait between waves to go up the elevators, I would say between 20-30 minutes and in that time the lift doors had opened a few times but the attendant had not let anyone go in the lift. Eventually we got in the lift, and prepared for our ascent. The ascent did not last long, and we hopped out - only to find we'd gone two floors up above the big entrance atrium, and were now being funnelled into a security queue with metal detectors and bag screening. We'd been waiting nearly 30 minutes in a queue to go in a lift which would take us to another queue. What's worse - behind the queuing area where we'd been waiting was a big curved staircase, which led to the floor where we were now. There were no restrictions on the staircase - we could have taken that at any time and gone straight to the security queue, bypassing the wait for the lift. How bizarre!
Day 3 - Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn
Day 4 - Lighting Up the Apple
Man: "I would like $1000 worth of stamps please"
Lady Clerk: "A thousand- A Thousand Dollars?"
Man: "Yes"
Lady Clerk: "You really want a Thousand Dollars worth of stamps?"
Man: "Yes, I want 2000 50-cent stamps please".
What on earth he was going to do with 2000 50-cent stamps I will forever wonder!
It was 2pm in the afternoon - we were going to have a long wait, but at least we could sit for it and no one would be able to stand in front of us. We settled in for the long haul, and a while later the other end of our long park bench seat was claimed by two guys. Before long, we're talking to them - and little bit by little bit, we learned that they were from Utah and were interns at the UN Headquarters for the UN Mission from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - in other words, Mormons. That didn't bother me as long as they didn't start talking religion, which they didn't. However later on Sasha brought up the topic of Theatre Shows and was asking various questions about the shows that they had seen, and they were asking the same for us. It was now that I realised Sasha might not have twigged that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Mormon church, and all I could think was "Please don't mention Book of Mormon. Please don't mention Book of Mormon". She didn't - because she had made the connection too. A little while later Sasha went to get her and I some alcohol to drink to help while away the time - public drinking is not legal, but others were doing it so we figured we might as well.
Day 5 - Departure
Summing Up
That's probably being a bit harsh, and as we saw more of the US it helped put New York more in context compared to the rest of the country, but I still can't shake that initial impression that New York is a powerhouse city despite itself, not because of itself. It is a very impressive city - it is a pricey city too - and yes I enjoyed it, but I don't love it. Not from just this first trip anyway. I would very much like for New York to change my mind about itself, and I dare say it will get the chance to do so in the future sometime. I do feel that now I've got some understanding of New York and have some level of what to expect for next time, it is more likely to endear itself to me. But I want to make it clear - I did not feel let down by New York, nor disappointed. There were certainly parts of the city which worked extremely well and were not dilapidated - The High Line is the one which comes foremost in my mind, and the renovation of Grand Central Station has transformed what was probably previously a run-down space has transformed it into a very well-designed, very functional and very nice feeling space. Perhaps both are a sign of "Modern" New York and if that is the standard upon which the rest of the city will adhere to for future and ongoing development, New York will certainly be on the up-and-up - a lot of what I had problems with upon reflection seems to be more legacy issues, though the attitude of some of the New Yorker's doesn't help - hopefully that changes too. It was certainly a great first city to be introduced to the US in, and that early morning arrival seeing New York grow ever closer on the horizon... just magic!
New York is a city I cannot see how I could not visit it at least once more sometime in the future, and hopefully spending longer there than we did this trip. But New York was only the very beginning of us visiting the States - there was a lot, lot more to come!