So, got up on New Years Eve and met up with Alice and Bonnie again, for a trip to the Top of The Rock observation deck. so, there are two observation decks in New York City - one at the top of the Empire State Building, and one up top of the GE building at the Rockerfeller Centre. Now, I'd never been up the Rockerfeller Centre one, but we all knew that we didn't want to wait in line for hours to go up the ESB (Literally hours - every time I went past, the line was out the door and halfway down the block). The Rock Observation deck has a timed entry system, so the night before I went and got tickets, and we walked right in at midday, no queues or lines at all.
Unfortunately, between the time we went inside the building and the time we got to the top, the snow which had been dusting the city most of the morning really set in. From the top, we could still see the buildings arround us, but not much else - no Central Park, no rivers, no downtown. That said, it ws hardly disappointing - in the place of clear vistas, we got an eerie, Gothamesque view of the city which made it look like the whole thing had no beginning and no end.
(pictures are returning, however only in a limited capacity - I'm uploading these directly rather than via Flickr)
So, after a spot of lunch, we took a little time to rest before heading down to Times Square to finagle a place for the big New Years Eve celebration. Arriving just after 4PM, we got a place relatively close to the action - relative being the key term here - in fact, we were 6 blocks back from where the famous New Years Ball drops, at the intersection of 48th St and Broadway. The next day, I would speak to someone who had an even better position - she was 3 blocks forward of us, at 45th - who arrived at 10 in the morning. Our 8 hours standing in the cold seems like a pittancee by comparison :P. Anyway, after a long and sometimes difficult wait (it was -10 degrees through much of the evening), the big countdown came, and made it all worth it. A couple of minutes before midnight, they played John Lennon's 'Imagine', then the big screens counted down from one minute, the ball dropped, a tonne of confetti was released (literally one metric tonne of confetti), a million people yelled "Happy New Year" (again, no hyperbole here, there were literally 1 million revellers in and around Times Square), and they played Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" - and I think I really understood what 'ole blue eyes meant by "I wanna wake up in a city that never sleeps". So, after stumbling, stiff and bleary-eyed, back to my hostel, I slept soundly, with a truly once in lifetime experience (never again!) under my belt.
Waking up the next morning was somewhat difficult, but I managed, packing up my stuff, checking out and hauling my bags down to New York's Pennsylvania Station. As I may have mentioned earlier, my whole trip back across the country via Boston and Chicago is happening on Amtrak trains - after a good experience from LA to Berkeley, I figured I'd give the cross-country thing a shot. So, first leg being the shortest, I hopped the 1 O'clock train to Boston. I've gotta say, if this trip was anything to go by, I don't think I'll have any problems with the trains, thankyou very much. Unlike at an airport, I didn't have to take off my shoes, belt, jacket, watch, Ipod, wallet, coins etc before boarding, and we left within 15 minutes of our scheduled departure. The cars were warm, had big seats which reclined generously, and there were power points next to every seat for me to plug in my laptop and tap away. Plus, I could get up and walk around as I pleased, or look out the window at the beautiful New England scenery. 5 hours passed by in a flash, and I arrived in Boston safe and sound. Overall, a very positive experience.
Today, then, I got started on exploring Boston, on the first of my 4 days here. Without knowing too much about the city, I wanted to have a bit of a wander, get a feel for the place and generally try to get a handle on the city. The snow of the last couple of days wasn't falling today, but it was still thick on the ground through much of the city, and it just adds to the beauty of the place. There are a couple of insights that I gained in my walking today. Firstly, Bostonians looooove themselves a good statue, plaque or memorial trail. As a very old (as in early 1600s, about as old as you can get on this continent) and traditionally important city, Boston can lay claim to a great deal of firsts and historical events. They've got a Freedom Trail, which walks visitors through important Revolutionary points of interest (remember the story of the Boston Tea Party?), and a great number of historically important people and buildings to memorialies - a task which they tackle with vigour. Another key realisation about Boston is that it really is "America's College Town", as the literature goes. The storied institutions are, of course, Harvard (first University in America) and MIT (home of 56 Nobel Prize winners), but really, there are universities and colleges scattered all over the place. As such, there are all of the wonderful things you expect in a college town - lots of book shops and record stores, lots of upwardly mobile young people, and a really impressive public library (All of these were very familiar from my time in Berkeley). In the afternoon, I got up to the observation deck (I'm a sucker for these things - there are two more on my 'must see' list, in Chicago) on the Prudential Centre, which gives a great view of this rather lovely city.
A walk along the frozen Charles River topped off a thoroughly enjoyable day, and cemented my impression of Boston as a pretty and very pleasant place - it's not as exciting and hustle-bustley as NYC by any stretch of the imagination, but neither does it have the sheer, overwhelming (even alienating) hugeness of its bigger sister to the South.
And that really is an awesome accent.
'til next time,
Jono.
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