We arrived from Boston in the afternoon to spend 3 nights in NYC.
For those who don’t know I’ve tried to work out a reasonable budget for this trip. Well, boy was I feeling smug when I found NY accommodation at 80$ a night within walking distance of Central Park! Now imagine my disappointment, and that of Hanika, when we walked into what can only be described as a closet. Let me paint a picture for you. The building and surrounding neighbourhood were fine. There was 24 hour reception which I thought sounded good. The room… dear God the room. Below is a video showing the room.
In front of the chest of drawers was the sink (not located in the bathroom). There was barely enough room to move let alone have kids roaming! Not quite sure what I was expecting. On the bright side the bathroom was spotless. I can’t say the same for the rest of the building. I think it functioned as a long term hostel for being doing it tough. There were signs about for case managers to assist their clients. There were shared “kitchens” with signs warning not to brush teeth in the sink but instead to use the shared bathrooms. Again, we had the ensuite so we were fortunate.
The location was convenient too. It wasn’t the downtown NY experience that Hanika was looking forward to but it was a grittier, more real NY experience of West Harlem. We were 3 blocks from a subway stop, 2 blocks from the grocery store and only 3 blocks from parking.
I decided to book parking ahead of time online. It almost as much as the hotel to valet park the car. Sounds fancy but what it means is once the car goes in you don’t have access to it until you take it out days later. It was still a great idea.
Anyways, after settling in we went for a walk in search of an authentic meal. I got the brisket and Hanika had a burger (not so unique to NY). We ordered enough for left overs the next day which was great.
The following day we did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We reserved tickets ahead of time which meant we jumped the queue for security. If you don’t know, which I didn’t, you have to clear airport like screening to get on the ferry to go to the island and again to enter the statue! Our reserved tickets allowed us to bypass the security line to get in the boat which probably saved us 30 minutes, well worth it. We paid to get to the pedestal of the statute which gave a nice view of the city. The crown had sold old and in peak season needs to be booked months ahead of time. The whole trip takes 4-5 hours and we raced through Ellis Island unfortunately. We wandered back up via the 9/11 Memorial pools.
That night we got another babysitter and headed out to dinner with more McGill friends. The poor sitter was accustomed to tiny NY properties so wasn’t too shocked with our “hotel” room.
The next day we wandered around Times Square before catching up with Martin and walking the High Line Park. It’s a disused elevated freight rail track. It was a bloody hot day, 35 degrees in October! Moose gave up for most of it so I ended up carrying him and a backpack on my sweaty shoulders. We stopped for lunch at the Chelsea Markets for a NY bagel. We spent the afternoon in Central park before catching up with friends again for a pizza dinner.
As usual we didn’t spend enough time in one place and the next day we headed to Philadelphia.