Chapter 5: Dun dun dah dah dun*

*You know what this is, admit it.

Oops. This whole weekly recap of a trip I took 15 years ago is going well.

Here’s a confession: I don’t actually remember too much about my first visit to New York. Possibly because I was staying with the brother of a friend of my Mother’s in New Jersey, so I was travelling in from god knows where every day.

But there are two things I do remember – seeing Jonathan Pryce in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on Broadway, and this:

New York is the sort of place where you can take several wrong turns, get vaguely lost, and end up wandering into the set of the movie Enchanted. (That’s James Marsden’s back, for those playing along at home). To this day I still haven’t seen that movie, but I do remember turning a corner, seeing the above and going WTF is that?

(These sorts of things happen to me quite frequently in Melbourne, but it’s never a movie and almost always someone has had 36 pints of beer and wants to play 9-5 by Dolly Parton on the spoons at 8 o’clock in the morning)

(Yes that is a very specific example, isn’t it?)

I’ve been to New York twice now, and I am very fond of it, largely because New York doesn’t give a shit whether you like it or not. New York (and New Yorkers) are getting on with business and don’t have time for niceties, and I respect that. For a long time, New York was one of my favourite cities in the world, but Hong Kong has beaten it out. Apparently, my vibe is living inside a tetris game, who knew?

I wish I could remember more about the first time I went to NYC, but the photos are lovely.

I heartily recommend a trip to NYC, if you haven’t been. The museums are amazing (and plentiful, there’s still so many I haven’t been to), Central Park is beautiful, and of course Broadway for all the musical nerds like me. Last time I was in New York for my friends Meg and Matt’s wedding, I treated myself to see Cabaret at Studio 54. When I tell you it was a hell of a time, it truly was. Also, New York is the home of the cronut, and that is enough of a reason to visit.

Back in 2006 though, little Briony buzzed from landmark to landmark on the hop-on, hop-off bus, made a very excited doink doink noise to herself when she passed the Law and Order courthouse steps, and accidentally went to the airport a day early for her flight to the UK. Much like in coronavirus times, days tend to blur together when you’re on the road for six months.

Next…er time…we’ll find out how much I remember about hitting the ground in the UK and stopping in Bath on my way north. Rumour has it that Melbourne will be back to stage 3 lockdown in three weeks time, so keep your fingers crossed guys!