They Say What They Say

Yeah, so we didn't make it to Washington after all.

We woke up, turned on the TV and immediately decided that given the prevailing conditions, which included things like Blizzards and record Snow Falls, going to Washington would not be a very good idea after all. The trains were still running so we could get there, but we might not have been able to leave and once we were there, pretty much all we could do was sit in our hotel room because it would be impossible to get around. So yeah, no Washington for us.

Having made that momentous decision, our next problem was accommodation. We were supposed to have checked out of the Chelsea that morning, but now we were staying in New York we were effectively homeless. Or at least possibly homeless, unless we could stay where we were. So we ran down stairs to reception and gave the concierge our most pitiful look as we explained the situation and asked if we could stay on for a extra couple of nights.

"Heh, I knew we'd get at least one!" he sniggered as he checked the bookings.

Fortunately there was room at the inn and we didn't even have to change rooms, which was a blessing. Thank god for travelling during the off season, that's all I can say!

After breakfast we made our way over to Penn Station to see if we could cash in out tickets. Judging by the length of the queue we weren't the only ones whose travel plans had been disrupted by the weather. We stood in line for aaages, enough time for me to ready two newspapers cover to cover, including the Sunday supplements, and then some. Finally we made it to the ticket booth and the kindly gentleman who served us completely understood our decision to stay where we were and was more than happy to refund our tickets, less, of course, the administration fee.

After that were were both in desperate need of some lunch so we went to TGI Friday's of all places where the giant frozen margaritas aren't blue, but HUGE and excellent none-the-less, as are the Long Island Iced teas. The Fajitas are also pretty great :~)

Our next stop was the post office for stamps. Both of us were mightily impressed with the building, although Helen was less so with the number of stairs we had to climb to get into the place. I wouldn't be surprised if New Yorkers had the best legs in the world, given the number of stairs they have to climb every day!

We were also rather impressed that the post office was open on a Sunday, something that would never happen down under. Most PO around here only open Monday-Friday 9am-5p, with a few that do Saturday mornings. But Sundays? Fugeddaboutit.

We weren't sure what to expect once we got inside. Marika had told us that every time she went to the post office, the postal workers were mean to her because she was a foreigner, so we weren't sure what to expect. However I had no problems with the woman who served me and I manged to procure more than enough stamps and airmail for my postcards. Maybe Marika always got the lady who was PMSing or something? I don't know.

Once we'd done our business at the post office, we had the rest of the day to fill. Since our New York passes got us discount tickets for the Gray Line sightseeing bus tours, and it was something that didn't involve a lot of walking (something we were pretty over by then), we decided that that is what we were going to do! It would also give us a chance to have a look around some of the places we hadn't been to yet, like Harlem and most of Brooklyn, so we could kill several birds with one stone. Of course to get to the ticket office we had to walk all the way up Broadway to somewhere around 47th street, but it was a beautiful sunny day for a walk and we knew that once we arrived, we could spend the rest of the day sitting down!

First off was the uptown loop that included the Upper West Side, Harlem and Museum Mile. We took in the Apollo Theatre, Strawberry Fields, the Cotton Club (or what's left of it) Columbia University, the Dakota Apartments (where Yoko Ono lives) and the Lincoln Centre.

We finished up in Times Square and and immediately hopped on the bus for the Downtown tour that took us to places like Broadway and the theatre district, Chinatown, Little Italy, Washington Square Park, the United Nations and the Rockefeller Centre. We'd already seen a lot of those areas on our travels, but the tour guide had such and insane inflection on the end of his sentences that we spent most of the time silently cracking up as he enthused about the old tenement buildings around Delancey street.

It was getting dark by the time we hopped off the Downtown bus, but we decided to call it a hat trick and take the Night Tour as well. That took us around much of the same territory as the Downtown tour, but also included Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn. On the way back the bus took a detour through Chelsea and we half wanted to ask them to drop us off near the hotel because we were exhausted, even though we'd been sitting down for most of the day, gwad! We didn't, though, so home we schlepped on the subway and into bed we tumbled, ready for another day and glad we were snowed-in in Washington.