Last night was an evening of many beers, barmaids dancing on the bar and beating New Yorkers at Pool... but more on that later...
Since we're spending quite a while here, we figured that it would be possible to check out some places a bit further afield than Manhattan. Top of my list was the coastal fairground attraction that is Coney Island, which - since we're slightly out of season right now - is only really open on weekends. So, it being a Sunday an' all, we decided we'd take the subway over to Brooklyn and see what all the fuss was about.
We head straight for Astroland, home of the infamous 'Wonder Wheel' and the 'Cyclone' Rollercoaster. We arrive at about midday and the place is like a ghost town. We make our way through the low-rise alleyway-like throughfares (It really is SOOOO like that movie, The Warriors, it's surreal!). We go straight up to the wheel (I am in movie heaven by now!) but I'm thinking that I really need a pee and there's no restrooms in sight, so we head to the nearby Aquarium in the hope there might be somewhere to go there...
The Aquarium is pretty cool once the bodily extresions are taken care of. We check out some fish, and then some more.... We watch a Sealion 'Training' session - they stand on their flippers and clap on queue etc. Very funny. We watch some Sharks and Turtles (all in the same tank) being fed. Damn, don't sharks look evil!
After that we go have a beer at a bar/cafe type thing that's on the street. JC doesn't wanna go on the Cyclone, purely on account of it looking, sounding and actually being about 80 years old (It says so on the tshirts ffs!). We go on the wheel though. Having decided on the option of going on the 'swinging' carriages (as opposed to non-swinging), we're quite suprised when swinging turns out to be more than the simple 'rocking' action of similar rides we've been on before...
We chatted to a New Yorker who turns out to be an NYPD officer. She says we should probably leave the area before 7pm cos it gets a little rough and our accents are a dead giveaway. So we get back on the subway and head back to Manhattan. We go back to the hotel via the 'Deli' next door and load up on snacks and breakfast materials (i.e. Apple Jacks cereal and Pop Tarts).
And so at about 7pm we freshen up and head downtown to the Meatpacking District. After a bit of a navigational fumble we eventually find the Steakhouse we were recommended by our travel guidebook. It's $40 for a steak, so opt for the place next door which is half the price, but the food is still amazing. After collecting the cheque we ask the waiter where we should go next. He recommends a place called 'PM' and we head off in the direction he points out but can't find it.
And so we wander around 13th and 14th street a bit until we find 'Hoggs and Heifers' which looks from the outside to be some kind of Biker Bar. Sure enough, when we get there the barmaids are dancing on the bar and screaming at the patrons through a megaphone. We play some Pool and end up playing 'for the table' with a bunch of New Yorkers who tell us they're on a Bachelor Party for one of their number. JC gets the number of one of the girls, Susan, who works at the Natural History Museum. She offered to give us a guided 'behind the scenes' tour later this week. Me? I got the number of a girl who JC advised me was 'a bit of a slag'.
Anyway, gotta go. My time is nearly up. Heading towards Grand Central Station in a bit...
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