nyc day 2: i learned about the london underground from sherlock holmes

Day two has acted as an orientation day of sorts. Long sleep, sugar breakfast and a lengthy walk. Got to the end of 7th avenue by Central Park and a man tried to hard sell me a ride on a bike (giggity). He mentioned Sherlock Holmes so I liked him very much but he didn't get my money. He also told us that the same architect who designed Hyde Park designed Central Park, and while I don't know if that's true (not that I don't believe him) it's weird how in the right places, you could almost fool yourself into thinking you're in central London. New York is much noisier and more humid though. Not a patch on ye olde London.





Took a long walk to the Guggenheim only to find it closed on Thursdays. We walked back down 5th Avenue and Keely submitted to her Forever 21 wishes.
I cannot get over this claustrophobia I'm feeling. The streets are intimidating and the general attitude of the locals is something totally alien to me. I think we've met every stereotype possible in the last 36 hours but the buildings still tower and my loss is exaggerated. You feel small in England then you get here and it's all the more intense.


We didn't see much today, only sought out Times Square, descended on Hershey's and stocked up on American candy, and walked many, many blocks. Everyday we are discovering more Irish pubs, New York seems to have many Irish fans, and today we found the Scottish restaurant with "kilted waiters"! I'm intrigued by what the menu would comprise.





After a few hours getting our bearings, we returned to our hotel to chill (spending an hour watching Dr Oz which apparently is 4pm Embarrasing Bodies for the US, with admissions such as "I orgasm when I have a bowel movement". Truly amazing teatime telly). We then headed out to see Daniel Radcliffe on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It's only a few blocks down from our hotel at the Al Hirschfield theatre, which was surprisingly small. What I thought was a small theatre didn't ruin any sense of grandeur inside though, even if we were sat one row from the back. Generally speaking I don't "do" musicals, in fact, usually I'd rather have a large cup of bleach poured down my gullet. But I enjoyed this thoroughly, Dan Rad's American accent was brilliant even if I do get homesick for his English one, and well is there anything more "American" than a musical that includes a song about there being no coffee in the machine? It was all very Broadway, and I regret nothing.

On our trek back, overwhelming tiredness subsided temporarily, just enough for me to realise I much prefer New York at night. I believe Keely agrees. This may mean we grow steadily more nocturnal over the course of this week. I find the streets and the heat easier to bear when the blanket of night descends, maybe because seeing the sky reminds me how big this city is. I am beginning to understand why London is described as London Town.