It’s Sunday night and we arrived in New York City. We are on the first leg of our journey in the USA on our way to the Vision by Design congress. Chris Eksteen and I have been invited to present a paper on advance Orthokeratology at the Vision by Design congress which is the annual academy meeting of the Orthokeratology Association of America.
Arriving at the Kennedy Airport after a 22hour flight via Dubai from Cape Town, we took the Sky train to the Best Western Inn in Jamaica, New York.
Charl and Chris standing in front of the Best Western hotel in New York
Settled in we decided it’s time to go and experienced the famed night live of New York City! After some friendly instruction from the receptionist at the Inn we took the Sky train to the New York Underground connection and then another 45 min trip on the Underground E train saw us arriving at 42nd West Street.
New York Underground
Emerging from the Underground station the fabled New York energy greeted us and didn’t disappoint!
View of the New York Empire State Building at night
Walking down a block we arrived at Times Square.
Charl standing in Times Square, New York
What a sight. At 9h00 on a Sunday night the energy in the air was electric. It felt like the fan walks in Cape town during the World Cup soccer. As far as the eye could see were crowds of people and littering the skyline was lit bill board on bill board.
Times Square on a Sunday Night
Amazing billboard view in Times Square
Charl standing at the famous broadway theatre district
All the shops are open, some of them till 1h00 in the morning with their shop keepers excitingly inviting you in. On the sidewalks were hundreds street vendors offering their goods, anything from hot dogs , CD, Photos, clothing to street artist drawing face portraits.
Times Square street artists at work
Times Square didn’t disappoint with its imagery and we got to see the horse drawn carriages and hundreds of yellow cabs.
Horse carriage in Times Square
New York Yellow Taxi Cabs
Also roaming the street were New York police officers and some really colourful characters, probably why there are so many police officers.
NYPD officers keeping an eye on Times Square
Typical all of them allowed you to take photo’s with them. The police officers are no charge and the colourful characters $1 a photo.
Charl making sure he stays on the right side of the New York police
Spiderman stopping for a quick photo in Times Square
Has anyone seen Batman around?
Walking around we decided it was time to eat. From all the choices we finally settled on a Pub and Grill called TGI Friday. We had an awesome waiter, shaking our hands, making good suggestion on the menu and keeping our bottomless sodas filled to the brim. I had some chicken and Cajun prawns which were really good and Chris had the famous New York Beef Strip. Getting the bill they print the following suggestion on tipping the waiter according to his service. Bad service no tip, good service 10%, excellent service 11% and awesome service 12%. Our waiter got his 12%.
Back on the street we saw the famous Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Madame Tussaud’s and literally a McDonald’s on every block.
Ripley believe it or Not
Madame Tussaud and McDonalds in New York
Feet sore we finally rounded the evening off with a Starbucks coffee and honey dipped doughnut which we enjoyed sitting at one of the many public tables in Times Square absorbing the night live energy.
An hour later taking the F and E Underground trains, sky train and hotel shuttle saw us back at the Best Western Inn and a much missed bed.
