Day 17...New York New York! - 13th July

Couldn't really get to sleep last night and for some reason we both felt really wrecked and out of sorts this morning. Wandered the city like lost souls for looking for some shoes for Nathan in Midtown Manhattan as his b
blisters are now turning into callouses. We decided we needed to have an aim and be preoccupied so I suggested we go to the American Museum of Natural History as I had seen it in dozens of movies. After following the useless signs into the museum (talk about directing you the long way round - I love the efficiency of the States) we started at the top of the museum and worked our way down.

The top was the dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals. I thought it was great!!! Man, there's been some weird stuff on this planet that you'd never have known existed. Arrow shaped headed fish mammals and the like. If you wanted inspiration for a Star Wars movie or something, you'd just come here eh! And the best part was that a lot of the dinosaurs and mammals and stuff were the original fossils and bones, not casts. I like that. So you were looking at the real deal. It felt kind of weird and humbling to know and envision this massive creature walking and eating and pooing so so long ago. It makes more sense to have larger planets on the earth I think, I feel that we have been shrinking. When you gauge the size of the planet compared to the size of the animals and trees we have currently, we are nought but moss I think!

Another freaky moment for me happened in the ancient civilisation section. I was staring at a Mesopotamian pottery bowl decorated 4000BC. And it was like I could half see through that persons eyes - that someone was staring at this bowl just like me when he/she made it, but it was 6000 years ago!!! Can you imagine? I can't comprehend it, as much as I try. And when I do faintly get it, I get a thrill of excitement, amazement and spookiness.

We saw heaps of American Indian stuff, such as spears, pipes, bowls and clothes etc. There was a small scale model that showed all these Indian women grinding corn and stripping bark and shit while a male Indian sat back watching them all and having a pipe! Respect. hee hee.

Another good bit was in the stuffed animals section. I had seen these models and glass windows and the elephants in soooo many movies, it was such a weird sense of de ja vu. It was almost like revisiting a dream I once had or something. I remembered a movie I saw years ago, during the stoner era where I watched some big CGI creature lived under the museum and was eating people. I can't remember its name though.

Then, as we had gotten there late, the museum shut down at 5.30pm. It was hot and muggy and we felt like wrestlers nutsacks so we headed home for a shower and then set off to Little Italy. The sun hadn't set yet, but the fairy lights were all on as we walked down Mulberry street into it. It was weird, first it was just shops and stuff (we even saw a Tsubi store with an Aussie guy in it) and then - bam! Its all restaurants suddenly side by side. It reminded us of Lygon Street in Melbourne. We had no idea which restaurant to pick so we just looked for a busy one and took a blind guess. Nate was really hot and uncomfortable and wanted to sit inside, but I forced him to sit on the sidewalk as the seat I had had views all up Little Italy with the Empire State Building in full view in the distance! Now that's what I call travel! I just had one of those moments of happy contentment. The pasta was good and cheap, but we blew our budget on the bottle of wine! But we chatted and laughed, and Nathan had fun at my expense when singers played above my head. We watched the sun go down, the sunset reflected on the Empire State Building, and all the little fairy lights getting brighter and brighter. After that we wandered aimlessly looking for a bar. After avoiding a karaoke joint, we asked a local (always a good idea) and she sent us to a busy little bar on a corner that had stuffed sharks everywhere (which is weird coz I had a dream about them the night before - it must have been fate!).

The back corner of the bar was free, but kind of dark and empty so I asked two guys if we could share their table and they were lovely and said yes. They ended up being great fun to chat to! They both worked in the financial district, one in finance, one in IT. Patrick was raised in Queens and lived now in Brooklyn and was really funny. He just laughed enthusiastically at whatever he himself had said! Steve was a New Jersey guy and worked in the same business as Patrick. He was great fun, and empassioned but a bit more serious than Patrick. He didn't seem to get the AUssie humour too much, but perhaps he had a chip on his shoulder as he had short man syndrome or something (he was a dwarf). I don't know. Nate said that when they went to get a drink, his head didn't even reach the bar! But anyways, they were both really lovely guys and taught us many things. We had already learned a bit about the Republicans and Democrats (remember - R for Republican = r for rich people, democrats is more like the labor party in Oz I guess) from Tina and Earl in Las Vegas, so we expanded on that with Patrick and Steve. We also discussed the health system, insurance and smores! We now know what a smore is! A smore is a gram cracker (a gram cracker is kinda like a sweet cookie) then chocolate (approximately 4 Hershey squares Patrick informs me) then a melted marshmallow from the fire as a smore is an outdoor eating activity, then it is followed with another gram cracker on top like a sandwich. mmmm!

Patrick told us his favourite bar was down the street so after a few drinks with them we said farewell and headed down there. The bar was literally a hole in the wally and really cute and funky. It had about 6 seats and set up with red lighting. It also had 2 for 1 drinks, so we liked it even better! We got chatting with another guy called Steve who was a contract fashion photographer and was a bit serious with himself and slightly bonkers. He said the best lay he ever got was from an Aussie girl - right on! He had a miniature pinscher dog with him, which was one of those jittery fuckers like it was on crack or something. The bar chick was also cool, her name was Rachael and we shot the shit for a few hours. At one point who should turn up, but Patrick again? So he chilled with us for a while as well.

After feeling quite pissy we giggled and meandered our way back to the subway and back to bed around 4am-ish.