World Trip 2002 - New York

Day 23

New York, New York. The big apple. I just had to see the place. Everything I had heard about New York though wasn't good. But admittedly that was from the media and television. A lot of what I had seen of New York was from the television show NYPD Blue. Being a show about crime, naturally you see a lot of crime in it.

New York ended up being fine. I walked around it with no problems, I caught busses and the subway. I talked with locals, I walked through Central Park. New York was okay. I would have liked to have spent more time there than the three days I did.

But, once again, thanks to the ineptitude of Greyhound, I almost didn't make it into New York. Catching the bus at Washington we were full up, not a seat to spare. So I counted myself lucky to be on the thing. The driver hot rodded it up the interstate past Baltimore and on into New Jersey. We had problems at the toll booth because it turns out that Greyhound hadn't been paying their tolls. The toll collectors wanted the driver to pay the toll. But the driver didn't want to pay the toll because he said he'd never get the money out of the company again. So we had to pull along side the road and wait for a state trooper to come sort the mess out. The state trooper just told the drive to keep on going. So we went.

After passing by Newark Airport we could see the lights of New York, I could even make out the Empire State building. It was great, I was finally going to see New York. Then we came to a toll gate, slightly too fast for my liking. The lane ahead of us was full of cars stopped to pay their toll. The driver swerved into the lane to the left. Bang! I saw a big van bounce off of the side of the bus. I wasn't sure if we had crashed till I saw the van stop and the driver get out to pick up his rear bumper. Then, to my amazement he got back into his van and drove off. I was thinking, hey, that wasn't your fault, why are you driving off?

The bus driver got on his mobile phone then called some one and started to hand out these little cards to us, asking that we fill one out. I began to get quite worried that Greyhound had these little cards all prepared in a little booklet along with instructions to the driver. They must have had a lot more crashes than I realized.

I contemplated writing up how the accident occurred. I would have liked to have put "The driver approached the toll booth too fast, wasn't paying attention and stupidly drove into the side of a van." But I figured he might read the slip and put me off the bus. So I wrote "The driver merged into the side of a van on the left side of the bus." Instead.

So anyway a state trooper shows up and the driver is urged to park the bus by the side of the road Instead of the middle of it. This way he got to skip paying the toll too. We are told nothing about when we might get moving, nothing about if we were going to have to change to another bus. In short, we were left in the dark.

After a while the state trooper gets back on the bus, asks us if we had filled in the forms and then says the bus can get back moving in a while. Then he asks if anyone was injured. To the utter amazement of almost everyone on the bus this big woman in the seat in front of me says yes. "My back hurts." She said. I couldn't believe it, most people didn't even feel the crash. Many slept through it. "Do you mean your back hurts because of being on a bus for a long time or because of the crash?" The state trooper asks. I could see he clearly didn't believe this woman. "Because of the crash I think." The woman replies. The trooper really found this to be quite skeptical. "Did your back hurt before the crash or just after the crash." He asked. The woman started to realise she'd have to be a bit more decisive and said "After the crash, I was just uncomfortable before the crash but now my back hurts."

The state trooper then looks at this woman like he is real pissed off but regains his smile and says to us. "Oh well now that makes everything completely different. Now I gotta take down every one's details."

There was a big groan as we all realise this is going to delay us for a lot longer. From the back of the bus this woman with a broad New York accent stands up and yells down the bus. "Your back hurts. How can you live with yourself. These people want to sue for everything." The woman in the seat in front of me turns around half in her seat and yells back "My back hurts." I was right there and I didn't believe her. I've been in busses that have stopped harder for lights and I never suffered a thing.

The state trooper starts walking up the bus to take people's details. There are some people on the bus who obviously don't want their details taken so they get off on the pretext of having a smoke or something. I eventually get my details taken and get off the bus to examine the damage. I consider photographing the damage but the bus driver was agitated and besides, there was nothing to see, hardly even a dint.

So we stand there by the side of the road, looking across this swamp to New York. People are cracking jokes about backs being hurt. One guy is on his mobile phone to relatives to tell them he'll be late. I chat with an English girl who had been on the same bus with me traveling from Washington to Blacksburg, the Greyhound that broke down for four hours. She was concerned her relatives would be waiting for the bus. Finally the state trooper gets off the bus and tells us we can go now. He doesn't bother asking if anyone hadn't given him their details. I figure he didn't want to waste more time. So we get back on the bus.

The driver asks if anyone hasn't filled out a little slip of paper. The fat lady with the bad back says she hasn't so he hands the booklet up to her. I take the opportunity of grabbing an extra slip as a souvenir. The bus driver looks at me bemused as I ask. "Are these copyright?". "No of course they're not copyright." He says. "Who the hell would want to copy that?" He rolls his eyes at me and then waits for the fat lady to hand him back the slip before returning to the bus.

Now get this. After being delayed by the side of the road for over an hour it takes us less tan five minutes to drive east, through the Lincoln tunnel to the bus terminal. I couldn't believe it. I could have got there faster if I had walked.

I hailed a cab, shoved my baggage into it and asked for the youth hostel on Amsterdam. Forget all that crap about New York taxi drivers taking you for a ride. This guy knew his stuff and got me there in a few minutes. I booked in, went up to my room, snuck in and put my gear into a locker. I asked if anyone minded if I turned out the light and several said they had been waiting for someone to do just that. In short order I was asleep.

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Day 24

September 11, New York city. Scary shit. I didn't want to be in New York on September 11 but it was the only time I could fit it in to my schedule. It was spooky walking around town on that day. Just down from the youth hostel was a police station and fire house. They were holding a memorial service in front of the fire house. I felt out of place and uncomfortable being there. I didn't share the loss that these people had suffered.

I caught a bus heading downtown, on sixth avenue I think. I wasn't game to ride the subway yet. I rode it down to 96th street where I got off and walked west towards the Hudson River. I walked past brownstones, terrace houses. At the end of the street I could see a big gray shape. When I finally got to the end of the street my target for the day was seen. The aircraft carrier Intrepid, the 'Fighting I'. Sure it was a museum, but I had never been on an aircraft carrier before and was keen to explore it.

I spent a few hours At the Intrepid, exploring what I could. Trying dozens of doors. I found two that opened and eventually led me into parts that were obviously not for the general public. I even made it into a room that I had seen through a perspex doorway. There were dummies on display here, one bent over a radio set. I hurriedly stuck a sticker behind a panel where it should remain for years, then I snuck out again. I thought it would be a bad day to be spotted hanging around some place you should not be.

I also explored a submarine on display there, getting some nice photos before joining a tour so I could work out what I had photos of. After spending my time there, I headed back into the streets of Manhattan where I caught the subway south to Times Square.

Times square was freaky. The big television walls were displaying pictures of September 11. Other walls read out the names of those that had died. People all around the place were stopped, looking At the screens. There was a good seven or eight television crews in place doing on the spot reports. I headed back into the subway and caught the shuttle over to Grand Central. From there I caught a train over to Newark to explore an abandoned subway station there.

The Kresge station on the Cedar Street subway was pretty cool. I had heard about it from elsewhere on the Web. There was some trepidation At entering it, because I figured it would be an ideal place for bums to live. It was dark, and it took my eyes a while to adjust to the darkness. I walked in, half expecting to be rolled by a bum or drug addict. There was no one down there though. I walked on in to the tunnel, and soon came to the station. It wasn't like any subway station I had seen before. It had display windows. It had Christmas decorations, it had furniture left on the platform. It also seemed to have just one platform, with a dividing fence along the middle of the tunnel, blocking access to the other track. There was no platform on the other side of the tunnel. I looked, and did not notice one. I suppose if I looked harder I might have found traces of one as I later read there had been another station on the other side of this tunnel. Perhaps it was more fully sealed up than Kresge.

I explored the station, checked the passages to the surface which were sealed up. There was one corner that was piled high with junk that I did not explore. It would not do to get an injury down there. Soon enough I left the tunnel and walked back to the City Subway where I had caught a light rail out from Newark. I could not help but notice the side street I was on, Warren Street I think, had vents very similar to those found along a subway along it. I followed these for a couple of blocks to a major shopping street then returned due to strong winds. Perhaps there was another long abandoned subway down this street that people had forgotten about?

I rode the train back to New York and made my way downtown as far as Canal Street before walking back through China Town to Greenwich Village. I met up with a friend in Washington Square park where we listened to some air hostesses and air stewards from United Airlines talking about September 11. I stopped by his apartment for a late lunch before we headed north to check out a spot on the subway where I could film trains going past in relative safety. From there we made for Central Park.

I ended my first day in New York by walking through Central Park, eating take out and then walking up to Riverside park to look for the tunnel featured in the movie 'Dark Days' and the book 'The Mole People'. I found plenty of vents but no entrance. The following day I found an entrance to this tunnel after walking it's entire length, above ground that is. There were a lot of homeless people around there who were not keen on letting a stranger in. I mentioned I just wanted to take a photo but they were adamant, I had to leave. I wasn't about to argue the point so I left.

I liked the youth hostel in New York. The staff were nice, polite and helpful. They did their job but were happy and polite in the way they went about it. They took the time to make me welcome. Yet they also managed to serve the large number of people without having to make them wait too long. There was a shop to buy food at, a nice courtyard around back to eat in and the rooms were relatively cool. I did have to put up with a really loud snorer the first night but after another American poured a bit of water on him he woke up and wandered off to return later and go to sleep with no noise. The youth hostel was also close to public transport and cheap eateries. My only gripe was the weird smell coming from the laundry room of pressed linen but it was not worth mentioning as a problem. The place was great. The second best hostel I stayed in. The best one was at Liverpool.

Day 25

I spent most of the second day in New York riding the subway and trying to locate abandoned subway stations.

In all I was quite happy with New York. It wasn't as scary as I thought, I saw the things I wanted to see and the food there was quite cheap.

Day 26

From New York I traveled on to Toronto.

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