Oot & Aboot: New York, New York

Today I am going to use my CityPass tickets and check out the Natural History Museum located alongside Central Park. I catch the subway to the museum and see all the droves of kids going into the museum. Frickin’ school holidays. The museum building is beautiful and always reminds me of the movie 'Night at the Museum' that was filmed there. I head in and start at the African Animals section which is basically a heap of taxidermy animals. Having already been to a Natural History Museum in Boston I kinda felt I had already seen a lot of the animals and I didn’t find it all that interesting. The museum is huge and you can easily get lost on any of the three floors. There is a section devoted to Indian history, one to the beginning of man, and what about what makes us human. The last section did actually interest me as it was fascinating to see what makes us different to the primates, like our creativity, the origins of language and written word and much more. One section was devoted to the Asian Pacific region where Australia sneaked in with our Aboriginal history.

After spending about 3 hours at the museum I headed to the ground floor food court and got some lunch. One place that wasn’t full of kids was the health food section of the food court. By health food, I simply mean not fried and not a hamburger. You do see quite a few obese kids but I’m not sure it’s all that much worse in NYC than it is to Australia.

After my trip to the museum I was on the hunt for Dylan’s Candy Bar. I had read about the store in articles about New York and told it was a must see candy destination. I think it’s NYC’s answer to an upscale candy store. Dylan is actually Dylan Lauren, who is the daughter of Ralph Lauren, and has proven a big success with her candy stores. I find the store on 5th Ave and it’s like a candy paradise. The term, ‘like a kid in a candy store’ comes to mind when I step down the candy covered stairs. The candy is a little on the expensive side but I grab a glass of pick and mix and some Willy Wonka goodness before I head back to my hotel. Try and check this place out if you are ever in NYC. There isn’t stores outside of the city, but I’d put money on a bet that there will be more stores.

I head back to my hotel and treat myself to an afternoon kip and quickly check my emails. Having WiFi in my room is really good as it would be hard to find a Internet Kiosk in Times Square.

It’s getting on towards dinner so I decide to head to Planet Hollywood on Broadway. I’m thinking that it might have some good memorabilia as it’s in New York. Turns out I was right. I saw Ferris Bueller’s very 80’s vest, all the Grease outfits, James Bond weapons, the giant keyboard from the movie Big, and the list goes on. I head to the bar and order some food and drink. Whilst I’m at the bar I get to talking to four Canadians (aye) who are here on holidays and we end up hanging out for quite a while. It gets late and Planet Hollywood is closing up so we head out to find a bar elsewhere. We get to a dive bar on 9th Ave called Rudy’s and have a few drinks. By 3am we decide to call it a night as they were flying out the next day. I had a great night with them and they may have convinced me to check out Canada on one of my travels.

What I learnt in New York City today:

Perhaps it’s better to visit NYC when school is in not out. You get really sick of groups of kids at camp getting in the way of your visit!
It’s good to open yourself up to meeting people because you can meet some great people along the way.