Vodka in South Africa: February 2007

I came to a sad realisation today... my tan is gone, and i'm not going to get it back until I go back to South Africa! Now the only way to tell me apart from Americans is my accent and my passport.

As for what i've been doing... well today was a blur. It kinda just happened and i'm not quite sure what I did other than sit in front of the keyboard hacking away at it. Anyway, enough about that. I promised to continue with the weekend I had.

Rockefeller Center

Well on Saturday I also went to the Rockefeller Center. Now I didn't go up to Top of the Rock this time, but I went up a few weeks ago (before I bought my camera :/) and the view is insane! I can't compare it with the Empire State yet because I haven't been up.

The Rockefeller center offers so much more though. There's a myriad of shops and restaurants, Radio City Music Hall, NBC Studios and the Museum of Modern Art is nearby too (on 53rd).

Well, my battery is running low and I left my charger at work, so I'm just going to put some links here and the photo's I took:P Perhaps I can elaborate tomorrow some more.

PhotosImage 1: The center was really busy outside on Saturday. This is a pic of one of the ticket booths outside.

Image 2: Here's an AdWalker. This guy sells tickets on a system strapped to his body. Talk about getting creative. Although, I wonder why he's selling tickets right near the ticket booth!?

Image 3: OK, so here's a perfect example of what makes Rockefeller Center, well, Rockefeller Center. Prometheus and the ice rink. This place has always got people looking over it, or skating on it... even in the week. Oh, and I checked all the flags and didn't see South Africa's:/ I'm not sure which countries got there flags up here or why.

Links

Ok, If you're interested in going up to see Top of the Rock, check out www.topoftherocknyc.com
For more information on the Rockefeller Center, here's a decent link http://www.rockefellercenter.com/home.html. There's a web cam there too.

Apart from that, with 8% battery left, I say cheers till my next post. One last word, thanks to the comments on the last post. Keep em coming. Perhaps I will find some decent theme to follow eventually.

--Vodka

So I am a South African in New York for the Next two and a half months and won't be blogging about much in South Africa (I don't expect). While I am here though, I think it is only fitting that I blog about what I'm doing so that those back home can get a taste of what's happening 7 hours in the past:P

Now I'm not going to retrace everything that's happened in the last two weeks that I've been here(including the 27 hours of traveling!) because that would take a lot more effort. I suppose I could start with this past weekend, and if I include anything that has happened before, then consider yourself lucky (or unlucky, which ever you prefer).

On Saturday I was free to roam the city (yes I am employed:P) and go see a whole bunch of stuff... so I started with Central Park. Now in the past week New York has finally seen a decent amount of snow. Today was the first day since i've been here that it was above zero (8 degrees celsius:P). Needless to say, Central park was covered in snow / ice. I went relatively early in the morning, and walked through quite a large portion of the park. The snow had hardened to ice and I never even left footprints.

As a Capetonian, I'm used to being spoilt with a 15 min travel in any direction to either climb a mountain, scuba dive, paddle or if I want to spend a little more time in the car then go wine tasting. It is with this in mind that I can see the attraction to Central Park. It is the closest thing to nature that you can get being in this city.

The Park itself is quite kewl, lot's of statues of different things (including one of the characters in Alice in Wonderland.

As for things to do... there were quite a few people ice skating on a frozen lake. There was some good music playing and a lot of people walking around by

the afternoon.

As for life in Central Park, I saw a hobo.

Ok, just kidding, there's more than that there. Finches, swans, marsh ducks and a whole host of other birds which I can't identify (because I am too lazy to look them up).

The only thing that that I feel compelled to warn you about are the Central Park Squirrels!
Man these things are trained killers... they don't run away from humans, they run towards them! I am only assuming that they are gunning for food, but you should she the terror on a three year old's face when confronted with a gang of squirrels. I'm sure these guys are in with the mafia.

"Common kid... hand over the cashews, we don't wants no trouble!"

Times Square

Ok, so here's one place where I can't see what all the fuss is about. It's just a street where any monkey with enough cash can stick up an advert and put some lights on it. Granted, it's quite colorful and theres a billboard of Mama Mia that's big enough to be visible from space! Besides that, i'm not sure why it is so packed. It might have something to do with the fact that I went on a Saturday and it was crammed with people like me that were trying to see what the fuss is about.

Anyway, i'm not going to waste any more time on it. Here are the photos: