New York - Day 6

My last full day in New York. Oh well, it will be an unwashed one unless I want to wait until 11:00 to get in the bathroom! The set up with this dorm is quite ridiculous and now I have seen it in action – it did conform to my suspicions.

I went to the diner just round the corner and had a lovely breakfast.

I returned to the dorm to see how bathroom access was going. I reckon my estimate of 11:00 was about right. I couldn’t afford to waste any more of my day so I headed back out again. I’ll have a shower when I get back.

I had a short walk down the road to the Subway station and caught the red line #2 express downtown. I got off at 34th/Penn Station. This gave me an opportunity to walk through Pennsylvania Station – which as one might have guessed, is huge. My intended destination was Madison Square Garden or “The Garden” as it is known in the vernacular. This is the scene of many famous gigs and events but none more so in my eyes than the Rock Gods themselves – Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately I could not complete my pilgrimage properly because the “Access All Areas” tour was not running due to the New York Knicks home game that day. (They are the local basketball team if anyone’s interested.) The ticket office – well ticket concourse, as there are about a hundred ticket offices – was jammed with people queuing, milling about or just gazing about (like me).

I got a coffee and then headed back onto the Subway where I took the #1 local service to Rector Street.

I made the short walk to Battery Park with the intention of getting to the Statue of Liberty. That plan made a rapid exit when I saw the queue was the same length as yesterday. (I have to admit I did not check to see if the same people were still in it!) Oh well, it looks like Lady Liberty will have to make do without a visit from me this time.

I decided I had better at least see the UN building before I left New York, so I decided to walk there. I have made several mistakes on my journey so far, and this was another one. I did not realise how bloody far it was from Battery Park to United Nations Plaza. I walked the length of Park Avenue South and turned off into East 42nd Street before it became just Park Avenue. It is only three blocks down 42nd Street but by this time my feet knew every one of them.
Nevertheless I got to the UN Headquarters and joined the queue to get in. As I was here I thought I’d better take the tour. I also had to get a picture of the sculpture outside as I liked it.

After clearing security screening I entered the building proper and got a ticket for the next tour. I took the opportunity to have a look around and then sat down to wait the rest of the time. In looking around I viewed the paintings on display for the International Children’s Painting Competition and was most pleased to see that the winner was 11 year old Charlotte Sullivan – it made me quite proud to be British.

The tour was most interesting and took us through all the chambers of the UN. I have included a photograph of the Security Council Chamber – you can all speculate on why – because it also gives a superb example of a total prick! The cretin in the light jacket with the baseball hat was a prime example of “photographus spasticus”. Every room we went in and every point we stopped at for the guide to explain something this dork had to be photographed in front of it. The reason I found the bastard so annoying was that we usually had to wait for him to catch up because the little turd was being photographed in front of everything which remained still long enough.

At the conclusion of the tour I returned to the streets, which were now dark and cold. I made my way back to 96th Street station and hit the diner for some food.

Nicely full and warm I returned to the dorm and found it blissfully empty. I had a refreshing luke-warm shower, sorted out everything I would need for tomorrow with a contingency that I might or might not get a wash, put my MP3 player on to charge (I would need it for the bus) and crawled into bed.

Tonight and tomorrow morning was almost an exact copy of last night and this morning, but with the addition of two more Spanish speaking blokes who rattled and banged locker doors several times and a Japanese girl who was occupying the bunk above me and appeared to go through a short Olympic trampoline winning routine before settling down to sleep.

I thanked the deities that this was my last night here, ensured that my alarm was set (I would let it go off for quite a while before stopping it I thought) and settled down to get as much sleep as I might be allowed.