New York August


Today is the last day we had to use the bus tour. We went on the Uptown and Harlem tour. The tour was about an hour and a half. The Uptown tour includes a lot of Central Park, Columbus Circle where there a few high end stores, Upper East Side including pointing out apartment buildings of several famous people including John Lennon and Jerry Seinfeld, Columbia University and Julliard Performing Arts School, we then we made our way to Harlem a predominately black area within Manhattan. We passed the Apollo Theatre which has a lot of historical significance, there were several brownstones in the area too which are simply terraced houses much like the ones in Notting Hill but evidently brown in colour. After Harlem we passed Central Park on the opposite side, the Upper West Side, and several museums including the Met and Guggenheim.

We then took the subway to Broadway, the subway is pretty easy except the machine didn't want to accept my subway card every time which was annoying to say the least. We did a bit of shopping on Broadway and Canal Street where Chinatown begins. All clothing items are tax free if they are under $100/£65 in New York which is more of an incentive to go shopping not that I needed one. The tax in New York is about 8% so you're not saving as much as you would in England at 20% but still a saving nonetheless.
After shopping, we took the subway back to the hotel. I got changed then met a friend on 5th Avenue and we went to this hotel bar at The Hudson on 356 West 58th Street. The lobby is really cool with ivy behind the reception desk and 3 grand chandeliers. There happened to be a ping pong tournament  in one of the bars when we were there which Grey Goose was sponsoring and they had made their own complimentary drink for the occasion, so we had a few drinks and some food which was delicious. I had a lobster roll and my friend Amanda has a fried chicken burger and fries.

The Hudson has 3 bars, two are inside and there is a large outdoor terrace bar area with lounge chairs.  The other bar inside bar is like an antiquated library with old books, pool table and leather chairs. After a few drinks we made it down the escalators and made my way back to my hotel.

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