The trip to the airport was pretty uneventful. There was a notice in the bus saying a tip for the driver would be nice, but he was demanding for it.

Decided to upgrade to World Traveler Plus (cattle plus) as there’s a deal at JFK where it only costs $250. Well worth it in my mind.

Arrived over 3 hours early, as recommended. 10 minutes later my bag was checked in and I had purchased the upgrade, so I went to security, where the time problem is. 5 minutes later I’m beyond there looking to kill almsot 3 hours. Couldn;’ find a wireless spot (though it would probably have been T-Mobile and thus chargeable), so I watched an episode and a half of Twin Spica, split up by a game of Age of Empires 2.

The flight was pretty uneventful, and now I’m bak, tired, but not sure about hitting the sack unless it’s jsut for a few hours, else I’ll not sleep tonight.

Took me almsot an hour to walk up there (actually it was only about 45 minutes), but I went to Carnegy’s Deli for lunch. Got there just in time as well, about midday, I managed to get a table straight away.

When I left about half an hour or so later, having half consumed a Woody Allan inspired sandwich (think it was called a Broadway – half and half brisket and corned beef), the queue went outside and half way down the block.

Noty a cheap lunch, the sandwich was probably good value at $15 if I had managed it (there’s a $3 surchase if you share), but $8 for a small coffee was a rip off.

I went down to reception to book a shuttle to the airport (I could equally have skipped out for breakfast), came back up to find that despite having about 75+ minutes till I need to check out, my electronic door key no longer worked.

I hope I can find some online review sites so I may express my opinions.

For some reason I thought I had a 8 p.m. flight, meaning leaving the hotel at ~3.30. Checked when I got up and it is an 18:30 flight, need to be there by 15:30, which means leaving here by 2. Not sure if I have enough time now to head up to Carnegies to eat. Might head south tro Union Sqaure and eat round there intead.

My views on the hotel ? Not good. I most certainly will not be staying here again.

Initial impressions were good. Nice looking lobby with friendly staff. The room was small but cozy. Also the hotel was just north of Madisson Square, so well located (though alas too far from Central Park).

The reality. The windows to the room are single pane wooden affairs which look like they are starting to rot. There is always a cold (icy at night) breeze coming through them, and they keep out no noise. The bed was comfortable, however as a partial insomniac it was hard getting to sleep, and once woken by noise outside (about 7 a.m. on both mornings) back to sleep it was impossible to get again.

The room facilities were really poor (considering it is a nearly new hotel). There were no tea/coffee making facilities, the bathroom was very small, the shower was tempramental (see my previous edit about scalding hot water suddenly coming from the cold supply), making it unusuable, and the toilet was in such a tight corner you had to be a contorsionist to use it. There was a safe, but it was so high up I had to use a chair to check I had removed everything from it. There was a small coffee table and a pair of chairs provided, however the cponstant draft made for a chilly experience using them.

The hotel’s restaurant is none existent. For breakfast I had to hit a deli round the corner.

The staff proved to be a mixed bunch. For some things, like fixing the TV remote they were helpful, foir others such as where to get stamps from, or postage, they were clueless.

I’m not sure on whether to blame the hotel for the really really poor wireless ‘Net connection or not. It is not advertised on their website, but the reality is the service is truly poor. I did get through to the provider’s customer support and their view was to move the laptop to the reception. I should ahve just camped out in the nearest Starbucks instead.

Was recommended this place by Rob, who due to work could not make it to Manhatten this evening. It’s the top rated Italian restaurant in Little Italy in the Zagat survey :-
Il Palazzo Food rated 24 for food.

Little Italy 151 Mulberry St. (bet. Grand & Hester Sts.) New York, NY, 10013 (212) 343-7000

A “solid performer in an ever-shrinking market” describes this Mulberry Street Italian that’s one of the “best on the block”, offering cooking that’s “better than grandma’s” plus “attentive”, “thought-the-waiter-was-going-to-feed-me” service; the “beautiful”, newly glassed-in garden might explain the slightly “higher-than-average cost.”

Started with a starter portion of pasta – spaghetti tossed in a tomato, basil and garlic sauce. It was very nice though it was spaghettini (thinner).

Main course. Saltimbocca. Not sure if this is the American style of it, since most Italian restaurant dishes are interpretations, but it was not rolls of veal with proscuito and sage leaves, intead it was flat. It was, however, very very nice, and a large portion as well. I had ordered a vegetable dish, not realising it already came with vegetables. Needless to say I was barely able to touch the spinach.

For a sweet I went with Rob’s recommendation of the Tirramasu. This was excellent and well worth it.

Service was great – European in style, not the overly fussy and attentive American style I hate. Over all – well worth the taxi rides to and from Little Italy, I would strongly consider going back there next time.

If I ever meet the head of Starbucks UK I must ask him one thing. How come it costs us almost twice as much to buy their coffee and snacks in the UK as the US. Yes as per normal is looks like they have done a straight dollar->stirling conversion. Thus in the UK it would cost me £1.95 for a tall (small sixed) Cafe Americano and 95p for a biscotti. Here it just cost me $2 and 95c respectively. With the dollar being worth not much more than 50p, that meant my drink and snack cost me the grand total of about £1.50.

I always thought New Yorkers were like the people of most big cities, i.e. unfriendly, rushed and in their own world. Now I’m not sure.

Earlier I needed stamps for my postcards. The hotel were useless, couldn’t even really tell me where to get them from, so I went out looking. After a few blocks I approached a business woman having a cigarette outside a cafe. She was not only helpful, but also while trying to work out where the nearest post office was, looked in her handbag, found she had a book containing more stamps than I needed, then insisted I had them all, plus was unwilling to take anything for them.

Next I’m in the local starbucks. Ended up in friendly conversations with two of the locals. Perhaps there’s hope for Manhatten yet.

Well been in Manhatten for 3 meals now and I’ve had Japanese (sushi at Mindao), English fry up (at a deli round the corner), and now dim sum at The oriental Palace in China Town. O.K., strictly speaking I did have a chicken gumbo for lunch yesterday and I do plan on going to Carnegies Deli tomorrow for lunch, but tonight I half fancy Italian.

Not impressed with the Gershwin. The bigger rooms maybe o.k., but this one is a bit too small, and the bathroom is near unusuable. The shower works badly, with scalding hot water suddenly coming out of the cold water supply (!!) and you need to be about 7 foot tall to take advantage of it’s jets. The toilet is in a tight space, and the toilet roll holder requires a contortionist to reach it.

Just got back from lunch to dump some stuff down and put some charge in the mobile phone. there’s somethign wierd about the power supply here, I jsut don’t seem to get enough charge to help batteries. the laptop was only used without an external power source for ~10 minutes, but even now, when plugged in, the battery does not want to charge, ans after half an hout my mobile phone failed to get any huice as well. Hoping now it’s flat it might be able to draw some.
I’m rather unhappy with the fact that my room has still not been done. O.K. I didn’t ask for my sheets to be changed (the americans seem to think that by not changing the sheets regularly except when asked they will save the rain forrests or something), but I do expect the bed to be tidied and the used towels to be replaced – the old ones are still soaking from the shower.
For a near new hotel in the middle of one of the world’s busiest nad noisiest cities, it does not have double glazing in the rooms. made getting to sleep fun, and i was woken early by noise outside. Also the wireless internet connection here is a shambles. I got hold of the support guys and their solution was to try and connect in the lobby – so much for ebing able to reliably browse in my room, and I’m paying for this service.

Next time I go some where else, I’m shortly goijng to be be having it out with the manager over my room not being cleaned. Fortunately I’ve only got another night and day here.