Top Of The World

I am in New York! One of my favourite cities in the world!

Upon arriving at the new, mammoth Bangkok airport after 9 hours of flying, I received texts from home giving me the details of the latest Hawk victory, which made the prospect of getting on another jet for double the time I had just been sitting all the more bearable. I walked the length of what I assume was one section of the airport for the hour layover, passing every shop imaginable (they have Boots, Jen!), before finding my next seat.

The screen on this next flight was plotting our flight path as the crow flies, from one side of the world to the other, and I had assumed that that was just sat nav gone wrong - but then our pilot confirmed that we would be flying over Mongolia and then Siberia, the North Pole and then down over Canada. Very cool!

I glimpsed out into the dazzling brightness to catch roads snaking through a snow covered Russia, and then fell in love with Juno all over again, before a well timed peek outside had me squinting out at the top of the world! Big cracks through the surface, and absolutely no movement, it was eerie and magical. At one point the view outside turned pink...although that could have been my eyes objecting to the brightness after the dim cabin interior!

Landing at JFK airport, and following my instructions on the subway, I met up with Talia here in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I haven't seen Talia since her visit to London back, September 2005....wow! So cool to catch up with her again.

In a cloudy-headed state, I headed over to the Musuem of Modern Art (MoMA), which has been one of the NYC things that I have not done in past trips and wanted to do on this stop, and wandered around the many rooms and floors of art, design and light. Pushing my sleepiness to the limit I left MoMA in the rain to grab a massive caffine hit, and then met up with Tali at Rockafella Plaza.

Despite reservations about the weather and the view, we headed up to Top Of The Rock, which is the on the rooftop, and with full views of the city and beyond. Looking out over Central Park, and then walking around to the other side and taking in the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the bridges, and staking out the other many sights of this awesome city, the view started to clear as we were up there. Awesome.