I (heart) NY

New York City, the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, or more accurately the city where the stores never close. We arrived on Christmas Day expecting to be unable to find anything to eat and having very little to occupy us for the afternoon and evening. How wrong we were... Alas nothing can stop the consumerist steamroller that is the United States (or more to the point - the majority of the Western world).
We ventured into Times Square expecting a ghost town only to find shops open. We weren't complaining as it was friggin' freezing outside. So cold in fact that the water left near an open window in our room gave us ice-cream-headaches upon consumption.
We were in the city for 10 days. 10 days of basically wandering aimlessly, soaking up the atmosphere of the metropolis. This time, unlike on our visit at the end of May en route to London, we were fortunate enough to have my friends from Japan, Nichole and her hubby Justin act as tour guides... and friends (for a small fee of course). We were actually able to venture off of Manhattan into Queens and Brooklyn. Wow!
New York has captured the imaginations of generations of artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians and the like and when you're there it's easy to understand why. She is a vibrant, living and breathing thing with a personality of her own. A city of endless possibilities. How can I do justice to New York on a weblog without slipping into cliche like I just have. I fear I have failed miserably. So I will end my rant here by saying - if you haven't been, then JUST GO!

The highlight of this trip to NY for me: walking from Brooklyn Heights across the Brooklyn Bridge onto Manhattan. And of course the cheap cheap shopping - how wonderful to be travelling with the Pound, it goes so much further than the little Aussie Dollar.

FINALLY,
Wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
I hope wherever and however you celebrated it you had a brillant time.
Bring on 2005 - the year of the Gold!