Despite having lived a total seven years in the United States, I had somehow avoided New York. This astounded Barry and so many of my friends who all felt that New York epitomised the very essence of the United States. The trip itself from Melbourne to New York is gruelling taking a total of 22 hours which doesn’t include travelling to and from airports and waiting time. So despite the luxury of business class travel, we were still extremely exhausted by the time we arrived at our lovely Park Avenue accommodation at the Hotel Giraffe.

I was shocked that New York hotels were so expensive yet The Hotel Giraffe was good value because of the included buffet breakfast and the three hour Happy Hour every night that came with house wine, cheese and other snacks.

The sheer size of New York is shocking to the senses. The variety of people, from the obscenely wealthy to down and out homeless and street beggars put ‘people watching’ into a completely new category. The hardest thing for me to get my head around was that in the wealthiest city, in the wealthiest country in the world, so many people of all ages, from teens to the elderly, had nothing and lived on the streets begging for change from people with blinkers on.

18th APRIL, 2018 – BROADWAY

I had searched for some good shows to see on Broadway and when I saw that Denzel Washington was starring in ‘The Iceman Cometh’, I thought that I had struck gold. OK, we were obviously jet-lagged and were falling asleep, but I don’t think we would have enjoyed it under any circumstances. Despite having paid over $500 for the tickets, we skipped out after the first act.

19TH APRIL, 2018 – CENTRAL PARK

Central Park was absolutely delightful. Covering 843 acres, it is huge. In the park are many lakes and ponds, theatres, carousels, sports fields, gardens, children’s playgrounds, ten kilometres of drives, monuments, fountains, statues, and even Cleopatra’s Needle from 1450 bc Egypt. People from all walks of life and from every corner of the globe congregate here to ride their bikes, jog, stroll, walk dogs, busk, take horse and buggy rides and simply to have fun or to relax.

Some of the areas under bridges and walkways provided fabulous aucustics for some very talented buskers. I could have stayed and listened to them for hours but we had a mission to sample what was reputed to be the best New York Cheesecake in New York.

20th April, 2018 – THE MET AND KATZ’S DELI

The MET Museum of Modern Art has the greatest collection of Impressionist art that I’ve seen outside of Paris. Not so impressive, was the Margaret Mead collection on the fourth floor depicting Australian and Melanesian traditional culture. The collection looked like something from the 1950s with many serious inadequacies and much misinformation. There was even a photograph of an aboriginal man wearing a red ‘nappy’ and lining up at Harry’s Cafe de wheels for a meat pie! I was quite disgusted. A happier discovery was at the end of the American collection and the only thing in the section that appealed to me at all, the Tiffany collection. I absolutely loved it!

Despite planning to go to Katz’s famous Jewish Deli for dinner, we couldn’t resist the temptation to go back to ‘Lady M’ for another piece of the best cheesecake in New York and possibly the world. Dinner at the famous Jewish delicatessen made for great people watching and the quantity of meat served was so enormous that I contemplated becoming a vegetarian.

21st APRIL, 2018 – CRUISE AROUND MANHATTAN

We spent the morning taking a harbour cruise around Manhattan Island. We passed Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and went under both the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge.

Then it was time to experience the world renowned shopping in New York. Macey’s is said to be the largest department store in the world and I think I pretty much covered the lot. As usual, American ‘sales’ give astronomical discounts on everything imaginable, but I was only interested in clothes. I had heard about ‘Century Twenty One’ but wasn’t quite convinced that the reputed 80% discounts on genuine designer labels could be completely true. I bought a classic black pant suit by DKNY and gorgeous white cotton shirt all for around US$100. I was delighted!

Then it was off to dinner at ‘Churrascaria Plataforma’, a traditional Brazilian Steak House that Barry fell in love with on a previous visit. It is possible to eat only from the cold selection, to call it a salad bar would be a misnomer. Although the table groans under the weight of every imaginable vegetable turned into a salad, it also contains sushi, sashimi, smoked salmon, prawns, octopus, chicken, fish stew, cheese and fruit. Diners are given a coloured disc, those opting to eat solely from the bountiful buffet are given a red disc, but for an extra $15 you get a disc that when turned over, becomes green. You can keep going back to the buffet as many times as you want, but as soon as you turn your disc to green the ‘Passadores’ (meat cutters) spring into action and start arriving at the table with various skewers of beef, pork, lamb, and chicken. Amongst the selection are short ribs, top sirloin, chicken, pork loin, filet mignon, lamb chops, sausages and rib eye, all beautifully seasoned and barbequed Brazilian style. If all that wasn’t enough, there are also several ‘sides’ offered: mashed potatoes, fries, rice, beans, polenta and plantains. Is it any wonder that I gained weight?

22nd APRIL, 2018 – EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

No trip to New York would be complete without a visit to Herald Square to ascend the 102 floors to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. The length of the lines to get in snaked down the block and rivalled the lines at Disneyland, no doubt worsened by the tight security and strict bag checks.

23rd APRIL, 2018 – PHILADELPHIA AND AMISH COUNTRY

We had been looking forward to our day trip to Amish Country and we certainly weren’t disappointed. Less impressive was the visit to Philadelphia. It was mildly interesting to see the Liberty Bell and where George Washington worshipped, but we were stunned that high priority was paid to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum where ‘Rocky’ was filmed running up the top on a training session in the 1976 movie. We allowed the other tourists to make the pilgrimage up the steps and get photographed next to the statue of ‘Rocky’, but we found the Washington Monument opposite far more interesting. We sampled a local delicacy, the ‘Philly Cheese Steak’ and it was absolutely disgusting, greasy, tasteless and all but indigestible.

The Amish have managed to live a simple life, almost devoid of technology. Our tour was conducted in a horse drawn buggy by a delightfully candid and down to earth young woman. She willingly answered questions about life in the closed society. Young people are given two years to live in the wider world (this is called rumspringa) and then must choose which life they want to lead. If they choose to leave permanently, they may never return. Honeymoons and special holidays are enjoyed in other Amish communities such as those in Florida and California. Young people get around on scooters without seats which prevents them going any distance. We noticed a Downes syndrome woman, probably not so uncommon in a community who value large families which means that women give birth to usually 12 to 14 children until an age much older than would be the case in the wider community.

24th APRIL, 2018 – WALL STREET

The money heart of the country didn’t especially impress me. It was, however, an eye-opener to witness the economic might of the president. Clearly not everyone is a fan as evidenced by the security blockades in front of his building.

25th AUGUST, 2018 – NEW YORK GARDENS AND KING LEAR

It was a lovely calming day just walking around noticing, photographing and appreciating the gorgeous winter flowers of New York. The last thing that I had expected here was to see the lovely floral displays that were evident, most especially, in front of expensive New York apartments. It was such a pleasant reprieve in a cold, drab winter city.

One of the very best Shakespearien productions that I have ever seen was when Sir Anthony Sher came to Melbourne to star in Richard the 3rd. So when I discovered that he was in New York at the same time as us and starring in King Lear, of course, I had to get tickets. We spent a few hours making sure that we would know how to get to the venue on the Brooklyn side and we arrived with a feeling of great optimism. The production was superb, yet just as with our disappointing inability to stay the course for The Iceman Commeth, we were simply too exhausted to stay longer than the first act. This time, however, it was not because we weren’t enjoying the show, it was undeniably world class, but we simply couldn’t stay awake.

26th AUGUST, 2019

We spent another great people watching day. What better place to do this than Central Park?

28th APRIL, 2018 – SIKH DAY PARADE

We were fortunate enough to be in New York for the Sikh Day Parade where Vaisakhi is celebrated. This is a recognition of social justice and selfless service to all mankind. The wearing of the turban is central to Sikhs faith and stands for equality, justice and humanity. Ironically the wearing of the turban makes them easy prey for discrimination and hate crime. The parade is hoped to foster understanding between cultures. The Sikh tradition of ‘langar’ providing free food for all who want it, is usually provided in temples, but during the parade the streets were lined with an overwhelming array of food that the Sikh community had provided, cooked and served to what seemed to be the entire population of New York. The parade itself was led by the police band, then Sikh’s serving in the emergency services, followed by Sikh’s from every walk of life. The street were awash with colour orange and turbans.

29th APRIL, 2018 – HARLEM GOSPEL CHOIR

The only time that I felt the least bit of trepidation in all of my time in New York was when we went to Harlem to see the Harlem Gospel Choir perform at the B.B King Blues Club. It felt like we had gone to another country, the shops were different, the people were different, the way people dressed was different and I didn’t feel particularly welcome. Inside the Blues Club was another story. Brunch was served and included every conceivable African-American delicacy and the singing was classic African-American gospel. Not to be missed!

Next stop Denver….