So Jenna describes New York, and she’s not far wrong. We met a lot of ‘folks’ up at 5.15am in the biggest hostel in the world, all of us dealing with jet lag from the four corners of the world. The hostel experience – our first of many – has been better than we could have ever hoped, and the kids are loving bunk beds, making breakfast in the communal cellar and eating outside in a courtyard full of squirrels, 85 degree sunshine, music pumping out from the upper west side gospel churches and tenement buildings.
Four days into the trip and we have just about acclimatised to the heat and the time zone, with the kids sleeping through the night (hoorah!). We have of course done the tourist bits … empire state, statue of liberty (“is she evil?” says Jenna), riding an interminable open top bus around the downtown neighbourhoods (2.5 hours of which reduced us to genocidal thoughts about tour guides in general and ours in particular), grand central station, times square, wall street, ground zero, central park, Chrysler building, riding the subway in rush hour and much more. The kids have walked from 103rd , near one end of central park to 34th street, and back again, which is no mean feat. They are thriving so far – not a mention of TV or playing games on the laptop. As I write, they are all sitting in our room drawing and playing.
Its not necessarily the tourist wonders, considerable though they are, that provide the best moments. Joe snapped away while we played around Isamu Noguchi’s amazing, teetering red cube outside a bank in tribeca. The kids spent a very happy hour in a playground in central park, soaking themselves in the fountains and showing that incredible talent for making instant friends. I had no idea New York was so well set up for children: every block has a playground and basketball court … Rhys and Rowan were determined to go and shoot some hoops with the late-teen local dudes since we got here. It’s our reticence, not theirs, which means this hasn’t happened yet. After a day of incessant walking the city in the heat, we literally stumbled into the most fantastic Italian restaurant just a few blocks down from our hostel, which is by no means in a foodie neighbourhood. You can easily fall in love with a place that brings you five iced waters and endless bread the moment you sit down. It was the best meal we’ve ever eaten with the kids … everyone cleared their plate, and we even got coffee and desert in. Its amazing what sheer exhaustion and 12 hours of walking can do for kids appetites.
Jenna, Rowan and Rhys loved grand central station best, and say the big apple makes them feel small. Jenna added itchy, as well, for some reason.
Getting here was not quite the nightmare we had anticipated, despite the so-called London terror plot all kicking off a week before we flew. Yes, the security is up at Heathrow with some fun bits like shoe x-raying, and it did take 2 hours to get through check in and security, but we sat on the tarmac for only a short time while US immigration checked the passenger list, and arrived only an hour late. We have definitely done more than our fair share of queueing … for the statue of liberty ferry, for immigration, for the empire state elevators, for flights, buses, cabs and subway trains. Think we’re going to have to get used to that.
But tomorrow we leave, going onwards and upwards to Canada. It has been a fantastic start to the year, and as Joe said, hey, it can only get worse!
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