The Home of Marky Homez: More to See in NYC

Friday 2/12 (local)

Today was another intense day of sightseeing. Hmm. I'm saying that way too often. I'm not really getting alot of sleep, but oh well - not oveseas much and I won't get th oppoortunity to do so once I start full-time work.

Went for a morning stroll down to the Rockerfeller Centre as I needed to check out of the Vanderbilt YMCA that day. Needed to have a quick stroll around the area before departing for another New York locale. It was quite a nice stroll in the end. The overall atmosphere of New York City is fantastic, and the morning stroll showed me why. It's great to have a short holiday here.

So first off it was time to move hostels - from the Vanderbilt YMCA to Swiss 1292. Again another hostel that is not quite so near a NY subway station. Although i'm not too sure why i'm complaining... there's more coverage in NYC than in Sydney. The hostel lies on West 54th street however the nearest stations are 59th St Columbus Circle and 50th Street (on the blue line). I got off at 59th St Columbus station and walked down to the hostel. (Map for the entire New York City subway).

Everything didn't quite go to plan. It was 11:00am and the friendly lady at the desk told me that check-in was at 2:00pm. Damn. Luckily luggage could be dumped there and that's exactly what I did before heading out for some more sightseeing. Note: the luggage storage was a shed out the back.

I was interested in both the helicoptor tour and the Intrepid Air-Space Museum. As I really didn't have time for both before 2:00pm I chose to go to the Intrepid Museum, primarily because it was closer.

The Intrepid Air-Space Museum was fantastic. Being a sci-fi fan and highly interested in military history it was quite a treat. Not only did I get to be on an aircraft carrier deck, I also got to see a variety of planes, and I also got to check out the captains deck. Truly amazing. Not for everyone, but definitely for me!

After the Intrepid I needed to head back to the Swiss 1291 hostel to pick up the room key. The collection of the room key was easily done and then the room was shown. A 6-bed room (more like 3 double bunks), fairly spacious and not too cold. Reasonable.

Following getting the room keys it was off to explore the Upper East and Upper West of Manhattan as they have been left largely untouched. So I hopped onto the Uptown Loop of the Sightseeing tour.

This was quite a good tour as the guide was very knowledgable and quite charismatic. We went up the Western border of Central park - where some of the New York City elite reside. The buildings along the park were not only expensive but were also quite majestic.