NYC Highlights, Post 1: Times Square

Well - New York, New Yorrrrk! It's hard to know where to begin - it's already our second last night here! We arrived on Tuesday 23rd and will be flying to Seattle on Tuesday 30th. We're here with Susie B and Lisa B, staying in a youth hostel in upper west Manhattan. It's great to see Susie again and to meet Lisa! I've decided to do a few posts of the highlights rather than a day by day account, although knowing me there'll probably end up being just as many! :)

I thought I would make the first post about Times Square, because Susie said (and we agree) that it took walking out out of the subway station and into Times Square to really bring home the fact that we are in New York! I don't really know how to describe Times Square in a simple phrase - Wikipedia calls it a "major intersection", which seems like a massive understatement!! However, it does add that it is "at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets, [and] ...consists of the blocks between Sixth and Eighth Avenues from east to west, and West 40th and West 53rd Streets from south to north, making up the western part of the commercial area of Midtown Manhattan"!!! So yeah, a pretty major "intersection"!!!!

Times Square at first glance (and second and third) is overwhelming to the senses - particularly the eyes and ears! It is a street filled with cars, yellow taxis, sirens, blaring horns, and absurd crowds of people, and everywhere you look are unbelievably enormous moving/flashing/scrolling digital signs and neon lights on very tall buildings. Even the signs for MacDonald's and the Subway station were flashing and digital, and the Police Dept was neon! Some of the digital signs are multiple storeys high, and one above the other... most of them are advertisements, and some we saw tonight were "make 2009 your time to quit smoking", with a live feed showing pictures of people on the street who had just pledged to quit smoking in the last few minutes! Today we were handed cards inviting us to text a new year message or email a photo to be shown on the screens too - and to bring along our "distasteful, embarrassing or downright depressing memories from 2008" (i.e. on paper) to take part in a mass shredding!

Along the streets are cafes, theatres with all the Broadway musicals and plays, attractions such as Madame Tussaud's and Ripley's Believe It Or Not, souvenir shops including Planet Hollywood, clothes shops, grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, etc etc. Click here to see a [somewhat dark and fuzzy] video of Times Square - try to imagine the real thing. :) And below are a bunch of photos taken on various days or nights when we were in Times Square - although there's no way they can capture the actual feeling of overload and awe (and packed sidewalks) experienced in real life!! Today we were given free promotional boxes of chocolates on the street - the new M&M Premiums, which are delicious!



Another thing we did today was to discover the Charmin toileting experience...! On the street were some staff members, including one dressed in a furry toilet costume, encouraging the crowds to take the elevator upstairs into the building, which we did. At the top was a line-up in the midst of a festive Charmin-toilet-paper-themed playground, with a Charmin theme song playing, and staff members hyping the crowd up with whoops and spontaneous dancing. A guy with a microphone was at the head of the line, and he would send each person forward in turn as other staff members communicated that a particular cubicle number was ready for use. There were at least 18 cubicles so the wait wasn't long! Inside the cubicles were a few labelled types of Charmin toilet paper to choose from, as well as a cheerful decorating theme. In the second photo below, you can see a bit of the festive atmosphere in the background. Only in New York!!!!



Anyway, that's an introduction to New York for you. :) More about our sightseeing in subsequent entries. And in case I don't post again before then - Happy New Year!!