Thursday 5th February 2020
We flew in to a very rainy New York City at about 2:30am local time on Thursday morning, and arrived at our Air BnB at 3:30am. We are staying in Chelsea in Lower Manhattan in a really nice Air BnB. Like San Francisco, our Air BnB hosts also live in the (penthouse) apartment we are staying in. They are a gay couple and Arthur was lovely enough to be waiting up for us when we arrived. He even gave us something to drink to help with Michael’s cold he could feel coming on.
We ended up going to sleep at about 4:00am NYC time (so 1:00am San Francisco time which we were still operating on). Due to the late night, we had a sleep in and woke up around 12:00pm. After getting dressed, we ventured out on the high line – a 2.3km long elevated linear park created on a former New York Central Railroad. Our Air BnB overlooks it, and when we look out the windows we always see people taking photos of our building. Turns out there is all this anti-Trump memorabilia and signage in every window of Art and Ed’s townhouse! We would come to learn more about their political views over the coming days.
The high line is lovely to walk, so we walked that downtown towards Chelsea Market – a well-known boutique market, for some eggs and toast in a cute café. Because Michael had developed a bad head cold over the previous 24 hours, he decided to head back home and sleep, so I ventured out in the other direction of the high line on my own. After picking up a hot drink from Starbucks (they are everywhere here), I made my way to Times Square. By this point it was raining a lot! I walked around for a little bit, overwhelmed by all the lights and people! After making my way back to the Air BnB Michael and I got ready to head to an NBA game I had booked.
When I got back Ed was home and as we got ready he asked if we would like some chicken soup that he had just made. So we enjoyed that (particularly Michael who wasn’t feeling too crash hot) before heading out to the game. I’m still not sure if Ed made that just for us, having known Michael wasn’t feeling well. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did – as Air BnB hosts they really go beyond the call of duty, which is probably why they have been given ‘super host’ status on Air BnB.
Because we had the soup and were chatting with Ed, we had to rush to Madison Square Garden for the 7:30pm game. We got there just in time to catch part of the national anthem being sung and the teams running out. Already by this point, due to the magnitude and scale of the stadium, lights, performances and general vibe, we could tell it was going to be a show more than just a basketball game. Throughout the game there was lots of cheering, loud music, interaction with the crowd and even interactive games on the big screen. They also do a ‘celebrity watch’ and there were quite a few American sporting heroes in the audience. The biggest celebrity (in my opinion) was Lana Condor (star of the Netflix movie To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before). It ended up being a close game, but the home team (New York Knicks) took the win over Orlando Magic, which was great (as we were rooting for them). We really enjoyed this experience of typical American culture (we even got a hot dog at half time). A lot of fun to see and very glad we went.
Friday 6th February
After a late night getting home after the game (about 1am bed time) I woke to the sound of my alarm at 6am. I had set it because, on my friend Kirsten’s recommendation who had done this exactly a week before, we were going to try and get tickets for Jimmy Fallon. This meant us lining up in town until 9am, then coming back at 3pm to see if we were being let in. I would have gone, but I knew Michael was still not feeling 100%, and with no guarantee of getting in I didn’t think it worth the risk (plus it was so cold!). Jennifer Lopez was due to be on the show that day, and I imagine after the Superbowl it would have been unlikely we would have gotten in anyway. So back to sleep we went. We woke up at about 11am and caught a bus to a lovely café for a nice coffee and bagel.
Because of the miserable weather, we decided to go to a museum in the afternoon. So we headed to the MET via the metro and a walk through central park. Arthur and Ed let us take their museum membership cards, so we didn’t need to pay the entry fee (yay). We spent a good few hours in the MET, taking in all the different exhibitions and the beauty of the museum’s architecture. When we emerged at 4pm it was bitterly cold. We caught a bus to the Rockefeller Centre, got a Starbucks drink to warm up then went to Central station – which is simply beautiful inside.
Afterwards, we made our way to Broadway (in Times Square) to see Wicked! We ate a very rushed dinner at Shake Shack (another recommendation from my friend Kirsten) which was good, before rushing in to Wicked. Although it’s the fourth time I’ve seen it, it was simply wonderful. Michael really enjoyed it as well.
When we got back to the Air BnB Arthur and Ed were up, and we stayed up and chatted to them for over an hour! They told us of the famous people they see around in Chelsea, notably Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban who live around the corner, as well as Blondie, Sarah Jessica Parker and others. It is clear whenever we talk to them that they are very passionately opposed to Trump (hence the signage overlooking the High Line). Almost every conversation comes back to Trump and how he is ruining the country. So much so they told us they are planning to move to Canada later this year for fear the U.S may become a dictatorship! As we were chatting, Art heated up for us an almond croissant for dessert. I really did not need to be eating this at 1am in the morning – but I couldn’t say no. And it was yum. Both Art and Ed gave us lots of recommendations for places to go and things to do in New York. We were desperate to go to bed but they kept talking! Eventually we escaped, had a shower and crawled into bed at about 2am.
Saturday 9th February 2020
We awoke on Saturday to our first non-rainy and clear day! So we got up at about 9am (these late night conversations and jet lag are really not helping), and headed off on the metro to downtown. Our first stop was the 9/11 memorial. Very surreal to be in this place and to think and reflect on the tragedy and devastation that occurred here. Art and Ed both knew people who died (especially Art who works for American Airlines) and Ed said he recalls the day when it happened. He was living here (not too far from The World Trade Centre) and he was woken up by what sounded like (and probably was) hundreds of sirens. The memorial itself is very a appropriate way to commemorate all those who died on that horrific day.
After visiting the memorial, we took a walk around the financial district and saw St Paul’s Church, Trinity Chapel and Wall Street. In Wall Street Art and Ed recommend we find Stone Street (a cobbled street with lots of taverns), so we went there and ate in one of them, which was nice and cosy and warm( (today was the coldest day we have had so far, with temperatures reaching a top of only 5 degrees but windchill made it felt like below freezing the entire day). After lunch we walked down and caught the Staten Island Ferry which takes you past the Statue of Liberty. She was great to see, and we also had some great views of Manhattan from the ferry.
Afterwards, we caught the metro to Brooklyn, walked through some really cute and quiet streets down to the Brooklyn Bridge, which is such a great piece of architecture. We walked back across it into New York at sunset – which was so cold. For dinner, we headed to a place called Pete’s tavern which Art and Ed recommended to us (which lots of famous people frequent, which we could see by all the photos of famous people on the walls). Then we came back, had a shower, and now are sitting by the fire in the living room of Art and Ed’s place, before we go to bed – although Michael is sitting next to me, asleep (of course).
Fell's United States Trip 2020 