USA Travel Thread - The Bert and Wotto show begins - for anyone interested.....

[tonyt]

Hahahaha - there isnt a Dennys in all of Manhattan mate - dont worry I checked long and hard before we left 

Great to hear at least one state of the US has got some taste

Ice Hockey looks cool, very physical sport.

[studley67]

ac/dc back in black playing in the background,excellent.looks like you had a great time.

[Wotto]

Morning all

Traveled the subway today to the East Village area to visit a music store and also Reciprocal Skate and Pinball.

This 'journey' saw us having to change trains 3 times on 3 different lines - and we NAILED it ( somehow  :unsure)
There is still a large 'security/ military' presence at certain places, we had a '1' Red train canceled/delayed , and then later found out some nutjob had done something and they were still ( quote) "looking for the guy".............

In a city where people LOVE to walk the streets having their entire LOUD conversations heralded publicly for everyone near them to hear ( whether they are discussing the weather, their jobs, or their very personal family stuff ) , we were able to deduce that it was either a bomb threat on the line, or a stabbing. We had lunch at Union Square and I asked a local and they said in a VERY 'blase' fashion..... "oh it's probably just a stabbing, it happens all the time" ( like no big deal )

So this , once again , put Kayla at complete ease as we had to use various subway lines still throughout the day.

Anyway - we didnt get stabbed or blown up - but there was a couple of uneasy moments today with some REALLY NASTY looking 'gang guys' being on the station at one stage, so we left and got another train just to be safe. There are HUNDREDS of people down there , but it just 'felt' wrong' so I thought it best to leave

FINALLY - we made it to Union Square and headed for The Guitar Centre in the hope of getting some good drum deals on parts I need to buy
The guys at the shop were super cool but didnt have a lot of what I needed.
For those of you that know drum stuff and realise we pay $25 for ONE set of decent sticks and around $30- $40- for a drum head , I walked out with 3 sets of sticks and 4 heads ( 10,12,16 and a 14 snare ) for $90 in total

They had a very cool looking 'fish bowl' kit in the store





Someone asked earlier in the thread if Kayla was getting to see what SHE wanted to see and do, I will answer that by saying that she came here wanting to see all the touristy stuff as well as Seinfelds etc, the ONLY thing that she wasnt keen on , but still laughed along on the day was The Warriors stuff uptown the other day - we have taken her to Macy's shopping a few times as well as along 5th Ave and she has been able to buy some nice 'girly stuff' that they like and we ( as blokes ) just dont get.......today she wanted her nails done , so we sat and got that sorted for her as well......the language barrier here can be tough , I mean WE speak English and THEY speak English and they dont understand us :o Kayla said she went to The Ice Hockey last night and they had NO IDEA what she was saying, she proceeded to repeat ICE HOCKY 4 times .......... nothing ......... she then showed them a picture on the camera and they said " oh, Ice Hockey"  - WTF   



After that it was a short subway ride across town on the L Line to get to the area where Reciprocal is - it is JUST left off one of the main streets, it may appear like it is in a seedy part of town , but it isnt. In actual fact, to me .....most of this city looks like this so it aint as bad as it may appear.







Inside - it is actually a really colourful and arty design , incorporating pinball and skate art , products and trinkets etc. Its pretty niche and cool to be honest










The roof...........




And instead of mods and loads of stuff on games, he has quirky things like this actual ticket from a WHO concert sitting on the TOMMY pinball.




You can see the games he had there today - a few were off but we played a few games , but actually had a great time talking to ( John? - damn I am HOPELESS with names )......anyway we spoke for about half an hour about anything from pinball to being in the city during 911, to Pinside bitchfights and anything in between ( he is Bigehrl on Pinside )

The body language should tell you I was having a GREAT game !



In the few hours that we were there , there was a fairly constant flow of 'players' coming and going






Kayla even had a few games - and she NEVER plays pinball at home



And here I am with Bigerhl behind the counter
Oh and obviously he had no WOZ there - but he has one on order.



At least Union Square was not busy on the way back 




COMPLETELY exhausted at the moment and going to crash out for a while.




Oh and TonyT - this ones for you - WE FOUND ONE ( well its close aint it ! )

[swinks]

awesome wotto, cheers for the update on the skate shop, he has a few pins there

[Caveoftreasures]

And your daughter picked a AWESOME pinball machine to play, a minty looking STARSHIP TROOPERS !
(Kill em All - Warning, Live Fire Exercises - Load your weapons - Rough necks hoo- rah, Fire ! - )

Glad u guys are having fun.

[Strangeways]

You can tell Kayla does not play much pinball. There's a CV all on it's lonesome 

How did you know about the reciprocal ? Nice setup !

[tonyt]

Oh and TonyT - this ones for you - WE FOUND ONE ( well its close aint it ! )

Isn't there any cool 50's Diners in NY?

[Wotto]

Tony - there are ZERO that I have been able to find.
There WAS one called Prime Burger I was going to go to - and guess what , in keeping with our NY experience - its CLOSED 
The BRILLIANT Empire Diner was re-opened late last year - and guess what - its CLOSED.
There is nothing like that here - and we have walked a LOT of the area's.

Nino - Richard ( RGR ) went to Reciprocal and spoke to me about it at a few Sydney meets throughout last year.
It's a quirky place and the owner is an awesome guy.
I wanted to go to The Guitar Centre on 14th Street anyway and this place was just 2 subway stops, 3 stabbings, 4 spit dodges, 3 shootings and 26 street bums down the road , so I figured we could get there - and did.

See they caught the Boston bombing 'kids' ( well they looked like kids to me ) about an hour ago.
We walked back from dinner tonight and 2 blocks from where we are staying there was ( no joke ) around 25 cop cars/ vans......half a dozen of those little single seat cop vehicles they have here and 4 Ambulances.....no idea whats happening but hey THATS this city 

We got to our corner and I had to shove Kayla out of the way of a walking Zombie - this dude all in black , in a black hoodie, SLOWLY swaying and staggering towards anyone that came near him...........I doubt HIGHLY that we will be buying a good old I LOVE NY shirt  - this place is seriously like The Walking Dead ( which we both watch and keep referring to )

 

[tonyt]

Here what you say about NY mate, been once, but don't think I would return - definitely a place to visit at least once though just for the experience.

[Wotto]

Here what you say about NY mate, been once, but don't think I would return - definitely a place to visit at least once though just for the experience.

Actually mate - I will be telling anyone that asks me about coming here that is is NOT worth seeing even once and to stay well clear

[swinks]

wotto, can you snap a photo of the single seat cop cars and anything else cool, funky or retro - if any

[Wotto]

Yep - will do that tomorrow mate.

[Wotto]

For now Swinksy - just for you - some random shots of anything.......
Most may not be what you are looking for but are just 'stuff' I have photographed.
Some with explanation - others will need none

Yellow Ribbons along a church fence



A very typical subway wall - all numbers done in mosaic tiling.



So all these HUNDREDS and HUNDREDS of streets are all very bland - then you enter this ONE street ( 25th St near 7th Ave ) and all of a sudden it is like the entire florist population of NYC has made their store here. Just about the entire length of this street is like this - then it just stops 




An Obama Wobbler




A busted Taxi




A shot from Battery Park




Some of NYC's oldest residents - The Trinity Church in lower Manhattan ( near 911 area ) - some graves 1786 and earlier.




Smack in the middle of Central Park they built a 3 or 4 storey castle - of course they did 
I was still in my Warriors 'can you dig it ' mood on that day 
See if you can spot me 



The large church from the other day had dozens of these sculptured books outside



The typical look on my head every time someone walks through a photo shot




ummmmmmmmmmmmmm?




And finally - for anyone that hasnt ever seen a map of it - here is the middle section of the NY Subway system
We have used the Orange, Yellow, Red and Grey lines so far.
Not only do you need to make sure you are on the correct platform for UPTOWN or DOWNTOWN direction , some trains in the SAME colours are LOCAL , and Express, meaning they run the same line but dont stop at all stations , and THAT can also differ at different times of day / night - confused yet ?





Did you know that Americans consume 3 Billion ( BILLION ) cups of coffee every week !
These New Yorkers are TOTALLY addicted to thier mobile phones and coffee - combined
I will NEVER go off at my kids for thier phone time EVER again

[swinks]

thanks wotto, nice for us to experience yours travels through you words and lens

some interesting things there, love the florist street

[studley67]

this tour thread has been so interesting wotto,i have always wanted to go to NY and fly around it in a chopper.but my feet would not touch the ground,underground subway no way.i will stick to sleapy old adelaide,me thinks.keep the updates coming,mate.a real insight.thanks