NYC 4th July

We were fortunate enough to be in NYC for 4th July. We were determined to do all things Americana. Ryan, an Aussie mate, was kind enough to let us stay with him and he had the public holiday off Friday, so we walked around town and saw lots of landmarks:

Flat Iron Building

We walked the Highline which is a reclaimed service train track that is now a great green space on the west side of Manhattan. 

We saw some places we had seen in movies or tv shows (Ghostbusters and Law and Order)

We walked across Brooklyn Bridge, it was crazily crowded and so many people had selfie sticks, it was nearly hazardous!

Times Square was crazy busy also, we only lasted about 5 minutes and we were ready to leave. It's impressive in every sense, noise, lights, people, traffic, hustlers, people in costumes, tourists. I'm guessing if you live in NYC, unless you work at Times Square, you avoid it at all cost!

Sol was able to taste his first slice of NY pizza. He has since learnt to call a pizza a 'pie' and is a fan.

The 4th was a Saturday, and we had heard of the hot dog eating competition. It seemed to sum up a lot of the clichés people think about America: unhealthy food, lots and lots of it, the hype around something so silly, and they actually call eating fast a 'sport'!  Of course on the most American of days, we had to go see it! 

We caught the train to Coney Island and there were thousands of people there for the competition. Nathan's hotdogs is the restaurant that has been doing this race since early 1900's. It started off as a thing amoungst friends and now is truely an international event.  Nathan's is now a chain in the USA but the Coney Island one is the original. It is a massive store, and has service on all four sides of the building. 

The atmosphere was fun, but the competition itself is really gross. It is not at all about enjoying food. 

We timed ourselves eating one Nathan's hotdog - we took our time and enjoyed it, and we finished ours in just under 4 minutes. These people eat more than 60 hotdogs in 10 minutes! To our surprise most of them were slim people, so we are not sure how that works, but we are not that interested to look into it. 

We met some locals who we shared a table with and spent half a day with them. We hit it off with them when we were surrounded by animal rights protesters and one man who was protesting alone as there is no hotdog emoji for smart phones. We checked and he is right, sushi, spaghetti, fries but no hotdog! As he was alone in his protest, he joined the animal rights protesters, much to their disgust. 

Along with super size sodas, Nathan's sells super size beers, after a few of them with our new friends we ended up staying to watch the fireworks on the beach. 

Sunday, we were feeling a little bit delicate, but we went to see a Yankees game in the afternoon. It is such a great few hours. Lots of fun and entertainment for the crowd. We sang along to 'Take me out to the ball game' and the sweepers on the pitch lead the crowd in YMCA. 

On our return home we got off early and walked through some of Central Park.  It is such a massive green space, so much is going on at any one time. 

Amy and Tom in upstate NY had given us a contact for getting a car, but he doesn't have any that match our needs at this time.  We are now heading south to see Skye's cousins Shaun and Locky as they are training motor cross in Georgia. We are heading there by bus with the plan to buy our own car in the next few days. It will be great to be under our own steam. 

This is our bus route we are on now, 25+ hours and 1099 miles!!