Saturday, December 15, 2012

2012 Holiday To London-NYC-Niagara - Day Twelve

Got a reasonable night sleep. No plans for the day so we headed for the Rockefeller Center. Breakfast on the way, at a place called Villa, was pretty terrible - don't know who tortured the chooks but the scrambled eggs were quite bad, pancakes were like Frisbees and the water was very dear (nice, thin style cap though). The missus, surprisingly, enjoyed the coffee.

Looked around the base of the Rockefeller Center and the Lego shop. Found the tourist info near Times Square - they pointed  me in the right direction of T-mobile. I found Mobile Best Buy, who carried T-mobile, which wasn't such a crash-hot idea - $50 + tax for mobile services. Was just about to buy when I asked if the guy had a friend at the tourist info. No. Turns out there was a T-mobile on the next block but he asked me to come back if the price was the same. And he assured me that it would be. Deal. Found the original shop that I'd been looking for and they wanted only $30 + tax (US$32.66) for a 15-day 2G plan that would do me. 3G was about another $20. Mobile charges are quite a bit higher in New York than London. The guys in the T-mobile shop even inserted the SIM cards to test that they would actually work which was something the first guy wouldn't do. Better service and much better price.


By this time The Boy was hungry so we bought him lunch at McDonald's. The girl who served me had as much trouble understanding me as I did her. Bought an iced coffee which was basically a watered-down coffee with ice. Certainly not what I was expecting, horrible and not like back home.


Returned to our apartment to plan our attack on the city and the NY City Pass looked to be a good deal.

Took the subway down to Soho to do some clothes shopping for the missus. Ended up buying three shirts and a pair of jeans for me - that always happens and annoys the missus greatly. One gourmet style food shop in the area was selling a small Vegemite jar for US$13.50 which would go for about six bucks back home. The Boy and I had hot dogs from one of the myriad street vendors.

By this morning I had already heard more horns tooted than in my entire stay in London. NYC is really busy with a huge amount of traffic whereas London generally suits just the buses and taxis. Got back from Soho reasonably late and the missus decided to use the lobby entrance instead of the service entrance. Of course, we were challenged by the guy on duty. Ignored him be he wasn't going to relent and demanded to know which apartment we were going to. Had to tell him, which was something we were warned against doing, and at that point he opened the door for us. Weird. And ultra scary.


Bought groceries from Food Emporium which is located nearby. I reckon the fruit and veges are twice the price of back home. They want US$3.99/lb for gala apples. Yikes.

Photo Album Vol I
Photo Album Vol II
Photo Album Vol III
Photo Album Vol IV (Final)

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