New York, New York: Pt 2 (Irene)

It’s official: I am a hurricane survivor. So are Lucy and Matt, apart from the inevitable psychological trauma caused by two days’ confinement with me. Physically, we’re fine. Well rested, even. We slept right through the main event. The whole thing failed to live up to my expectations. It was, in Lucy’s words, “a lame storm.”

Despite Fox News’ rational and entirely non-sensationalist predictions, New York survived Irene. When Lucy and I escaped the apartment for twenty minutes on Sunday afternoon, there were some scattered branches around, and that was it. There were, however, a million police cars on patrol, about twelve for every pedestrian in the neighbourhood. I think we may have chosen the dodgiest possible area to live in.

The worst part of the hurricane was the fact that the whole city went into hibernation for the whole weekend. No subway, no Broadway shows, no restaurants – nothing. It was severely uncool. We spent the whole time reacquainting ourselves with the internet, skyping people until they made up bad excuses to leave, repacking our suitcases, eating stuff, watching youtube videos, etc, etc. Below is an accurate depiction of how we spent our time: plugged in and silent.


It felt really, really good to leave our crappy flat and do something today. After spending hours battling post office queues – you’d better appreciate your birthday present, Mel! – Lucy and I made our way downtown to Ground Zero.

It was covered with cranes.

So instead, we went to this mega-awesome store called ‘Century 21,’ which contained many pairs of cheap shoes, most of which we bought. I now have double the amount of shoes that I originally brought. I’m still trying to figure out how to dupe the baggage check-in people on Thursday.

After a trip to Starbucks – and a random chat with an Aussie ex-pat, who recognised our accents – we visited the 9/11 memorial museum around the corner. (The real memorial site is opening on the tenth anniversary in about two weeks.) Afterwards, we took the Staten Island ferry to get some good (free!) views of the Statue of Liberty, and then met up with Matt in Soho. More shopping ensued. We ended the night with dinner at a Thai restaurant.

The most notable feature of this restaurant was the one-way mirror bathroom. It freaked me the hell out. I went in, fumbled for a light switch, failed to find one, asked the waiter how to turn on the lights, and was told that turning on the lights would allow everyone in the place to see me use the toilet. So I left the light off. Trouble was, even if nobody could see me, I could see everyone outside, and it was an incredibly unsettling experience.

Also, the thai green curry burnt my tastebuds clear off.

And so ends my New York adventure, and my travels with Matt and Lucy – unless, of course, my train is cancelled by Irene-related nonsense tomorrow morning. Boston, here I (hopefully) come!