This is part two of my disjointed and probably futile attempt to describe our time in NYC. In the last post I covered most of what we did during the day so here I'll do the evening activities.

One of the most iconic of New York City's night time attractions would have to be watching a Broadway show. The Broadway Theatre District is a concentration of theatres on Broadway (a street that runs from the top of Manhattan to the bottom) located roughly around Times Square.

The girls were all very keen to see a show but I couldn't make up my mind. There is a big booth in Times Square that sells tickets for reduced prices. The catch is that you have to wait in a long line and only once you get to the front do you find out what is available and for what price. I ended up making up my mind at the ticket window and decided that I would see the show. We ended up with tickets to Kinky Boots at around $80 per person.

The show is a musical about a young man who inherits a struggling shoe factory. The music and singing was really fun and well done, as was the costumes and the set. It was definitely worth the price and I'd love to see some of the shows here in London.

Kinky Boots

Another famous evening attraction is a visit to one of New York's comedy clubs. Jean recommended one called the gettComedy Cellar in Greenwich Village and had booked us in for a Friday night. We arrived and went straight inside and as the name implies it's down below street level. The venue is very intimate with a small number of tables and the comedians standing just metres away. We got to see four comedians perform, the highlight being Aziz Ansari. We had heard that it's quite common to get famous celebrities performing unannounced (Aziz is a famous comedian and is a main character on the show Parks and Recreation) so it was cool to see one ourselves. A friend had seen Louis CK and Chris Rock when he visited a few months earlier so it's definitely worth it! There's a strict no phones rule so I wasn't able to take any photos.

Rounding out our evening activities was a harbour cruise. We got cheap tickets on a daily deals website for a sunset cruise that visited the East River, the Hudson River, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island. It was a really nice and relaxing way to see the city after soon much walking. It also gave a better impression of just how big the city really is. I had only really been in the bottom half of Manhattan and suddenly Brooklyn and Queens was looming on the far shore. The cruise was on the same rainy day that we had visited the museums and we were very lucky to have the weather clear up somewhat before our cruise started. There had been thunder and lightning just a few hours earlier and we half expected that we would have to postpone.

Jersey City

Brooklyn Bridge

Following our cruise we went to Chinatown and had dinner at a place called Joe's Shanghai. The food was good and pretty good value too. However when it came time to pay the bill we found out that they only accepted cash. Between us we managed to come up with the money with literally less than a dollar to spare! After eating we wandering around Chinatown for a bit and then crossed into the adjacent Little Italy. The others were tempted by Gelato but I was scared off by the price. I was feeling a bit like my spending was out of control by this point in the trip and was probably being a little too cautious. There was a good reason for that however.

Chinatown

We had taken the car to a mechanic the morning after we had arrived to get the gear change grinding sound looked at. Annoying they were never able to replicate the issue, even when I took one of their guys for a drive (there was so much traffic that it was impossible to get fast enough for produce the sound). They had a few suggestions which included changing the transmission fluid. Long story short all the work they did (over $400) had absolutely no effect at all. It was a tough situation for me because I didn't want to just keep driving without having tried to fix it but at the same time I was suspicious about whether or not the work was actually necessary. I guess it might have helped stop the problem from becoming worse but we'll never know. It proved to be an annoying distraction that further stretched my budget.

I really like what the city has been doing transport wise. The majority of the streets are numbered with East to West roads called streets and North to South routes called Avenues. It makes it easy to get around when you know that in order to get somewhere you just have to find the closest subway station (which generally take the name of the street that they are closest to) and then go from there. The city is also doing some cool things to improve the pedestrian experience with several roads being closed and intersections being made smaller. The vast majority of people are getting around the city on foot so it makes little sense to give so much priority to those that choose to drive. The Subway might not be the most glamorous metro system in the world but it is extensive and does the job well.

Having written all of this I probably should have titled in as Manhattan rather than New York City. There is so much to see and do and I really only scratched the surface. What I did see was so vibrant and alive, with each area having its own distinct flavour. It would be great to go back again with a bit more time and a lot more money and perhaps visit some of the famous restaurants as well as exploring some of the other boroughs a bit. I could spend days just walking and not get bored.

There's so much more I could write but I'm concious that this is probably already lacking focus so I think I'll end it there. Next up is an early morning trip to Boston.