FUCK
Christ I just spent an hour doing up a new journal entry with pictures from my trip, ever so interesting anicdotes and the like, events, coincidences, drama, laughter, battles with christopher walken (ok that last one was a lie)...and then my PC restarts for no reason. I CREATED YOU! I CAN DESTROY YOU! HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME!
Lost everything. I had just copied it all to notepad and was clicking on 'File' to click 'Save As'...this is when it decides to sign it's own death warrant.
*sigh*
I want to punch something.
Hmmm.
I really don't feel like typing it all out again.
And fuck, I'm sure it was 10 times more interesting than what I could write now.
Right.
Right.
Well...
The highlight of the trip for me was the Museum of Modern Art. Not that I wasn't expecting it to be good, but it was so much better than my expectations. I was thinking that the Dino-Rwars! at the Natural History Museum would have been, mainly because I was obsessed with them as a child. But as I went in I actually got partially excited for the first time in years. Though it might have been hysteria brought on by the cold. I was glad to get indoors at this stage anyway, I couldn't feel my fingers and my genitalia had gone internal on me.
So in I went and snapped away like a japanese tourist on crack.
Having left there it was on to Central Park and the surrounding area. The entire place was frozen up, the ducks didn't look best pleased. But some kids came along and fed them bagels (yes, bagels) and they perked right up.
Walking around you manage to see all types of places but more than that, all types of people. There are some good looking girls in NY too I must say, enough to give you whiplash walking down the road if you're not careful. All out of my league of course, it was apparent that you had to have money...or at least look like you had money to garner any attention at all. Otherwise you were actually invisible.
Though I did have one woman wink at me. She was a tall asian woman in the MoMA, weirdly she gave me a big beaming smile and winked at me...all while still holding hands with her boyfriend/husband.
That was about the extent of my interaction with the opposite sex for the week, so if you were looking for some lurid details and tales of passionate trysts then I suggest you read some black lace novel or the like.
Anyway, so Central Park and the area around it...
The next day it was time to venture towards Jersey Gardens to see if some shopping was in order. I'd heard it was a place to go from a few people. Dear god was the trip depressing. That part of New Jersey is a complete hole. Even the people got uglier and more ill tempered 
Not saying that all of NJ is like that, it's just the part I saw was covered in industry, rotting buildings, steel, concerete, litter and seedy motels.
The shopping center was just that, a large shopping center. The only picture I was willing to take was that of the bus that got us back to Manhattan.
Grand Central Terminal is a fantastic building where if you need to get a train or on the subway, you do so in opulent surroundings.
The Port Authority Bus Terminal is it's polar opposite. A complete and utter shit hole filled with people you'd rarther avoid.
That over with it was time to snap some night shots while we wandered around for a place to eat.
We ended up eating at the Hawian Tropic Zone, where you're served by girls in bikinis and sarongs....which sounds tacky...and it was placed in Times Square. But the place was plush and the food was utterly fantastic. I nearly exploded with delight eating the dessert.
I'd reccomend it, espeically to girlys because it's ladies night every night. Half price drinks and some nights half price gourmet food.
Also ate in a BBQ place one night where I ordered some spare ribs and I recieved half of an entire cow. American portions. Kinda like their sizes, if you want a large, order a medium. Goes for clothes, drinks, food.
So the next day it was off to the Natural History Museum.
Went to an 'Irish Bar' later that night to try and get a pint, didn't go so well. Expensive. Got talking to the barmaid, she had a thick NY accent on her till she heard us talk. Then she reverted to a big ol farmers Sligo accent. Apparently eight years in Manhattan doesn't dampen it for long. She still couldn't pull a pint to save her life though.
The next day a hangover cure was in order.
Right, this is lonnnnnnnnnng.
So let's start condensing things shall we?
Empire State Building:
Random New York photos:
Ground Zero:
Liberty Island and some green statue thing, I dunno:
Wall Street:
So not alot more to tell. Was walking through Chinatown to get the subway to JFK when my trolley bag's wheel stops working.
I turn it on it's side to fix it and the other wheel breaks off and hits some poor chinese woman square in the head. I had to carry the bastard from then on and it nearly killed me. We got somewhat lost..well we walked the wrong way along Church Street and ended up having to walk the entire lenght again.
Got there in the end and eventually got to the airport. Agony had decended on me at this stage, agony and exhaustion.
The flight back, well I thought it would be bad. Two couples sat in front of me, both had newborn babies. Babies who cry like they're dying.
But they went to sleep and didn't stir the entire trip, thank god.
Some old orthodox jewish rabbi decided to scare the shit out of the flight attendants by getting up while taxiing, putting on his coat and big hat and then proceeded to pray against the emergency exit standing up. Rocking back and forth like it was the wailing wall. They didn't see him till he was in the middle of it and they thought he was having a panic attack or something.
After that he tried to use his mobile phone while taking off so they had to confiscate that from him. Then he passed out.
From there on it was a quiet flight.
New York was a nice place alright, full of couples for Valentines Day too as well, which was somewhat nauseating and/or annoying at times. But overall not a bad trip.
Glad to be warm again though.
I took way more photos than all those, most are on my Flickr
Oh and to Valentines Day, my feelings are as follows:
Anyway, its better than for a bit, it's for GOOD