Friday!

Friday then. I was up at 7:30am, and in the bath shortly after. I'd peeked out of the window when I woke up, and it looked as though it was going to be the first really hot day. By the time I was dressed it was really warm, sunny, with a gorgeous blue sky. In typical New York fashion though, along with the heat came a stifling humidity, and I soon closed my window and turned the air-con on again. I sorted out my money for the day and settled down to watch some TV until it was time to met Daniel at 9:30am. An episode of "The Golden Girls" started my day off nicely - I used to watch it about 20 years ago, and had forgotten how good a show it was.

At 9:30, I called Daniel's room, but there was no answer. I didn't think much of it, thinking that he was probably in the bathroom, having overslept, and just tried again a few minutes later. Still no answer. Hmmm. I tried on and off until about 10am, then waited a bit longer, before trying again at about 10:15am. *Still* no answer, so I went and knocked on his door - no reply. By this time I was beginning to wonder if everything was OK. He'd been fine the previous evening at midnight, but I wondered if maybe he was ill. I thought it was unlikely, but I didn't think he would have just gone out somewhere without letting me know, as we'd had plans. I went down to the lobby, and used the payphone to ring his mobile - I couldn't text him, because my phone hadn't worked since we'd been in the US, although his and Debbie's had. He didn't answer his mobile, and I guessed that he was rejecting the call so that he didn't have to pay to take a call, as you do when you're roaming on a foreign tariff. At that point, I gave up, rang Mum as I had been doing each day (only $1 for a 3 minute call to the UK) and told her what was going on.

After I rang Mum I went back up to my room, and tried calling Daniel's room a few more times. It took a while, but eventually when I tried knocking again, I realised the "Do Not Disturb" sign wasn't on his door, as it would have been if he was still in there, so realisation dawned that he *had* in fact got up, gone out on his own, and not bothered telling me. I was *not* happy. I'm not the most independent of people at all, and almost everything scares me, so having been left alone in a city of 8 million people, in a hotel of all places, three and a half thousand miles from home, with no way to get hold of any of the three people I was travelling with, had me alternating between seriously *seriously* p'd off, and on the verge of a full blown panic attack. I#ll admit it - I was upset, hurt, and downright furious. I get more emotional when I'm angry than when I'm sad, so I stuck the DND sign back on the door, closed the curtains, laid on the bed, and had a good cry. By the time I was done with that, it was after 11am, and now I was just mad. How *dare* he be so inconsiderate and rude as to go off without even calling me to let me know? I thought after being friends for nine years he would know me well enough to *know* that as well as being annoyed, I'd also be worrying ...

Anger was definitely the predominant emotion as I pondered what to do. I had two options, as I saw it. I could either stay in the hotel all day, only going out for meals, which would be McDonald's, as it was the closest place, and effectively waste a day. Or, I could grab my bag, realise that people travel alone all the time, in far more dangerous places than central Manhattan, and spend the day exploring, and doing *exactly* what i wanted to do, without any concern at all about fitting in with the others. I was really in no mood to be considerate of others at that point anyway, and I knew that Dom and Debbie would think I was with Daniel, and he would either try and find me at the hotel at some point, or assume I'd gone out. I did write a note that I considered sliding under his door, but decided against it, and just left. I was still mad though, and I really had no plans as to what I was going to do. I waked down 8th Avenue to 42nd Street, then along 42nd Street to 5th Avenue. I'd decided that as Central Park was only 14 blocks away, I might as well go and explore. As I walked along 5th Avenue, I kept seeing groups of police officers and firefighters, all either in full dress uniform, or with their caps and jackets over their arms. At first I saw them in ones and twos, then in groups of ten and more. I didn't know what was going on, but soon I found that a whole section of 5th Avenue was cordoned off, around St. Patrick's cathedral, Realisation still didn't dawn, but later that evening I would discover that it had been the funeral of Robert Beddia, one of the two NY firefighters who had been killed in a fire at the Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero a week earlier. The building was in the process of being demolished, as it was so badly damaged in the 9/11 attack, but a fire had broken out, killing Beddia, a 23 year NYFD veteran, and survivor of 9/11 and another firefighter. The funeral was at St. Patricks Cathedral on 5th Avenue, and as is traditional, thousands of uniformed firefighters from all over the US and Canada had travelled to honour their colleague.

I turned off of 5th at this point, and walked along 46th Street to 6th Avenue, where I carried on along to Central Park. When I got there I think i breathed an audible sigh of relief - it was lovely just to be among trees, and away from the city for the first time in days. While I loved the buzz and high-energy feel of New York, for a small town girl like myself, it was a bit of a shock to the system, and I found the peace and quiet in the park restoring. It's amazing how quiet it is there. Apart from the clip-clop of the horse drawn carriages that give rides around the park, and the shouts and laughter of children playing, it's a place where there is barely any sign of the city surrounding the park, save the skyscrapers peeking over the tops of the trees. You can here the birds singing, and actually feel as though you're completely away from the city despite being only a few hundred yards away.

I had no set idea of where I wanted to go, but I did want to find Strawberry Fields, the memorial area to John Lennon that Yoko Ono designed, paid for, and still pays $1million a year to maintain. I knew roughly where it was, and headed over to the left hand edge of the park, making my way out onto Central Park West, where the Dakota Building is. The building where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived, and where he was killed at the entrance as he left, it stands opposite Central park, and I knew that Strawberry Fields was just inside the Park, more or less opposite. Unfortunately, when i went back into the park, I searched for a while, even looking at the maps that were dotted around, but managed not to find it. I pressed on, and on ... and on. I eventually found myself walking around the reservoir, which I knew was towards the top end of the park. I didn't know how far I'd walked, but I guessed that I was somewhere between 90th and 100th Streets, and when I eventually found my way out of the park (there are no signposts!) I was back on 5th Avenue, where I wanted to be, but on 97th Street. I was 52 blocks up from our hotel, and three blocks over, so having walked probably 3-4 miles at that point, I was still a minimum of 3 miles from the hotel, *if* I walked straight down 5th and over to 8th where the hotel was.

It was heading towards 2pm by now, and I hadn't eaten. I had taken a bottle of water with me, and refilled it at a water fountain in the park, but kept thinking I'd get a hot dog at a street vendor, then realised that I only had $20 notes, and decided to get one when I broke a note, rather than give them a $20. I walked down 5th, stopping in at the Guggenheim Museum, which was free with my New York Pass, and found that although the building's spiral design makes it architecturally breathtaking, the art that was currently on display was ... boring. Hey, it was free though, and the building is gorgeous! Sadly there is no photography allowed above the ground floor, so I couldn't get a shot from the 7th floor, looking down into the spiral.

I left the Guggenheim, and realised how hungry and thirsty I was. Despite that, I pressed on, and stopped at 86th (I think, definitely 80-something!) street to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's *massive*, and although I paid $20 to get in, I never did find the Impressionist galleries that I had wanted to see. I wandered through the Roman and Egyptian galleries, and realised how beautiful the whole building is, before deciding that it was heading towards 3pm, I still hadn't eaten, and I was flagging, so I should move on.

Continuing down 5th Avenue, I re-entered Central Park at 64th Street, for the zoo. It's only 6.5acres, and it's really a children's zoo, but it was free with the New York Pass! I saw my first polar bear, as well as the penguins, puffins, seal, turtles, and the brilliant rainforest exhibit (note to self - don't go into an indoor, artificially created rainforest on a day when it's pushing 100F, and 90-odd percent humidity!) After that, I decided enough was enough, and headed straight back to the hotel, via McDonald's where I bought a very late lunch, getting back to the hotel at 4:30pm to eat it. Around 5pm Dom and Debbie knocked on my door, and let me know that they were back from their day, and getting ready to go out for dinner. They hadn't heard from Daniel either. I sat and watched TV - an American comedy called "Hope and Faith" that I watched on and off all week" and then at 6pm my phone rang. Guess who it was?

Yes, the winner of the "Best Disappearing Act 2007" award. I didn't flip out, having not only calmed down a lot since the morning, but being tired out after what had turned into a pretty pleasant day, though I wasn't about to tell him that just yet! It turned out that he'd got up at 8:30 and gone straight out, without even thinking about letting me know. Around midday he had gone back to the hotel and called my room, hoping that I wasn't there - partly because he knew what sort of reception he would have had if I *had* still been waiting there, but also because he had hoped that I would have actually been brave enough to go and explore and not waste the day. While I was still peeved, if you know Daniel you know that that's just what he's like ... he gets an idea, and just goes with it, then thinks about it later! We talked for a few minutes then he came along to my room, and we decided to go and get dinner. Although I'd only had lunch a couple of hours earlier, my body's meal clock and my blood sugar were all out of whack from not eating until so late, and I was hungry again already. Daniel said he wasn't feeling brilliant and probably wouldn't eat much, but was happy to go out with me for dinner, and told me to decide on a destination, as he didn't want to pick somewhere, look forward to eating something nice there, then not really want or enjoy it when it came.

I picked Planet Hollywood, where we had eaten on the Wednesday evening, and we were there in about ten minutes. We didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes for a table, and were soon seated, with menus, and a *very* cheerful and attentive server, called Jonathan. He told us all about the menu, recommended drinks and food, and was generally great, as well as being very on the ball with refilling drinks, clearing plates etc. Considering he hadn't wanted much, Daniel made short work of the huge burger and fries meal he ordered, as well as two beers, and ice cream for dessert, while I started with an "Oatmeal Cookie" shooter - a blend of Baileys Irish Cream and Kahlua hazelnut liquor, which was not only gorgeous, but I got to keep the shot glass as well. My main course was great too - Jonathan's suggestion of grilled mahi-mahi, which is a white fish similar to cod, served on jasmine rice with seasonal vegetables and a pineapple and coriander salsa. I decided to push the boat out and have Key Lime pie for dessert as well, which was fantastic. it was probably my favourite meal out of the week, and turned what started as a no good, horrible, very bad day into a really nice evening.

After we left Planet Hollywood we looked in some of the gift shops, and I managed to get Debbie a rubber duck. Not just *any* rubber duck though - a yellow rubber duck with a Statue of Liberty crown and torch! I realise this doesn't sound like much of a present for a 24 year old, but you have to know the back story, which is that for several years there has been a rubber duck in the office at work, who was christened Ducky. Ducky liked to travel, and went on holiday every time Debbie did, as well as other trips with office staff. Somewhere along the line, he acquired a girlfriend - Doris. Doris and Ducky were looking forward to their trip to New York, until tragedy struck, and they went missing a few days before we left. Nobody at work has seen them, and Debbie was quite upset, so when I saw a "New York" duck, I had to buy him for her!

We headed back to the hotel after that, and were back there before midnight. I was shattered by then, so it wasn't long before I was off in the land of Nod ....


That's Friday for you - five days down, three to go!

By the way, the map shows my route from the hotel, and back to it again. Outward in red, return trip in green!