Yesterday was pretty much a complete write off, it poured with rain all day long. The one time I did venture out for lunch I got absolutely drenched despite wearing a raincoat. Things were quickly turned around today though with a nice and sunny 30 degree day.

On my itinerary for the day was Lower Manhattan. I caught the subway down and got off at the World Trade Center station. I walked around the entire perimeter of the ‘Ground Zero’ site, it was for the most part shrouded in shade cloth and you could barely see through. The best vantage points were from the walkways through the World Financial Center‘s. The most striking thing about the site was just the massive area that the two buildings took up. Other than that it just looked like any other construction site. It didn’t really hit home what had happened there until later I went to Battery Park and saw the giant metal sculpture of the world that sat between the buildings all bent out of shape and torn up.

Battery Park was just a few blocks south of the WTC and the Manhattan viewing point for the Statue of Liberty. I was considering going on a ferry out to the island, and still might at a later date, but when I got there today the line was about 500 metres long, no exaggeration.

After lunch I went and checked out Wall St., it was a lot narrower than I thought. It was more like a one way laneway than a road. The front of the New York Stock Exchange doesn’t even face Wall Street, but that was the best part. After Wall Street I walked up Broadway to City Hall, took some photos and then caught the Subway back to midtown.

With plenty of time to kill I embarked on a huge walk all around Manhattan. First on my list of sights was Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Knicks basketball team. The funniest thing I saw there was an Amish family walking through the city streets, they looked out of place to say the least.

From MSG I walked straight up 7^th avenue and Times Square got closer and closer. It was by far the highlight of the day and I can’t wait to go back and see it at night. Inside the Toys ‘R Us there is a giant indoor Ferris Wheel, they have and M&M’s world here, just like the one in Vegas too. Towards the north end of Times Square and continuing up 7^th avenue they had the streets closed off and what I assume are weekly Sunday markets going. It was a lot of the same types of stalls over and over, but it was spewing with people. At the top of 7^th avenue is Central Park, I got there and turned back (I’m saving it for another day). On my way back down 7^th I stopped for lunch and then changed course and set sail for the United Nations.

When I finally arrived I was disappointed that the flags weren’t up, that was the image I really wanted to capture. I guess I left America for a few minutes when I stepped through the gates and onto international soil. The building is actually pretty run down and I’ve since been reading that they are renovating it. The most surprising thing (besides the flags not flying), was that there was hardly anybody around. It is right on the edge of Manhattan next to the river, but still I would have expected a lot more tourists. Although, I guess it really is a true reflection of how useful and respected an organization it is.

Well it turns out the wheels aren’t falling off my trip, because I had a great day today. Only to come back to this… This morning I checked out of the hotel I was in for the night and caught a cab to my permanent hotel, the Vincci Avalon. I checked-in, but I wouldn’t be able to get a room until 3pm. Expected, but an inconvenience all the same. They checked my bags for me and I set off on a huge walk of the city, I’ll blog about that when I’m in a better mood.

So I got back to the hotel at 3pm, greeted by a huge line at the front desk (only two people working it) because everyone wants to check-in at the check-in time. Eventually, I got attended to and am able to get a key for my room and things seem to be going well. They promised me reimbursement for the cab rides I had to take to get to the other hotel and back. That turned into a long drawn out process just to get $13 out of them. So I headed up to my room, expecting my bags to be delivered. Get to my room, of course the key doesn’t work, so back down I go to get that fixed.

Once I do get into my room the first thing I notice is the dirty bedspread and the smeared gross walls. It’s a little bit depressing and dated, but I can live with that. So the bell man shows up with… one of my bags… Even as I write this he still hasn’t brought my other one. He also handed me a plastic bag, what I thought looked like a gift bag, maybe a little something to say sorry for all the screwing around they’ve put me through. No… just someone else’s Macy’s shopping bag. I am really beginning to worry about my other bag, if they are this incompetent at checking bags and indeed operating a hotel it really could be anywhere.

Okay, I had to go down stairs and find the thing myself. I hope the universe isn’t trying to tell me not to stay at this place, because if it is, it is doing a pretty good job.

There is a lot to be learned from this experience, so far on this trip I have only stayed with reputable hotels. Actually, everywhere besides Vegas have been Hilton or Radisson hotel groups.

I started walking from the hotel, with no real plan in mind. My journey took me past Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station. All of which you will probably recognize in the photos. I went into a Barnes and Noble, which was buzzing with people picking up Harry Potter. I bought Phil Gordon’s Little Blue Book, I need to do some poker reading in order to get myself analyzing and improving my game again. His Little Green Book I got a lot out of, even if I don’t agree with everything he advocates I love his thought processes about hands.

I had dinner in a quant little Chinese place, I was the only one in there and it was super cheap and pretty good food. You see the last photo they had the streets roped off around Grand Central Station as that is where the steam pipe exploded the other day. After reading a few pages of Phil Gordon’s book my mind was in poker mode so I played a few $8 satellites to try and win an entry into the PokerStars Sunday Million. The Sunday Million is a $215 seat, and won one and came second for another in brutal circumstances. I can’t play in the Sunday Million this week so I cashed my seat in, I’ll probably try and win one next week and actually play it then.

The flight was a bumpy one; I was in the thirteenth row and the back row of the plane, so it wasn’t a big one. Once in New York, baggage was easy and I got myself to the AirTrain, a train that goes around the airport, terminating at a NYC subway station. I got there easy enough and myself onto the subway. There weren’t many people on the carriage when I got on, but that all changed soon enough and with two large pieces of luggage as well as my backpack it was a bit crammed. The subway took forever; I think it was because it stopped every single station, which it only does on weekends. It must have been at least an hour and then I had to push my way through the crowd with my bags like a battering ram. There were a few characters of interest on the train, a few homeless asking for change, but more interesting were the people trying to sell bootleg DVDs and batteries.

Once I got out of the ground and onto the streets my first glimpse of the Empire State Building just three blocks away. The streets weren’t as busy as I thought they would be, probably because it is a weekend. It was a fair walk to the hotel, so by the time I arrived I was drenched in sweat and disheveled. I was completely drained and just looking forward to getting into my room for some R&R. The front desk had trouble finding my reservation, eventually they discovered that they had it stored under my middle name and not my surname. Then, they informed me that they didn’t have room for me tonight and they would have to put me up at a hotel elsewhere, despite my having booked months and months ago. They said they would reimburse me for my cab ride to the other hotel (I’m going to ask them to pay for my internet as well, considering my room was supposed to have it free). They gave me the name “Plaza Fifty”, when I told the cab driver he had no idea, but I knew what streets it was between so I got him to drop me there. I walked up and down looking for it, but no luck. Eventually someone knew that it had changed its name and I got in. The room is nice enough, but it reeks of smoke and I have a grand view of a rusty old rooftop air conditioning system. Now my day tomorrow is going to be completely disrupted by having to move hotels and not being able to check in to my actual room until after 3pm.

I’m beginning to feel like the wheels are starting to fall off my trip a little; hopefully New York City can turn things around in the next few days. Time venture out on the streets and see what it has in store for me today.