Our plane arrived on time at around 5.50am in New York. This is incredibly early and we were both shattered after not sleeping a wink on the sat-by-the-loo flight. We managed to negotiate getting on the AirTrain and then the NY Subway to Penn Station in Manhattan. It was time for food as we hadn't eaten either and we found a coffee shop not far from 34th Street and took the opportunity to clean teeth and waste some time before attempting to check-in.
The stairs to the prison cell...only another 8 to go...
Eventually we had to leave our bags at the Latham "Hotel" on 28th Street as it was only 8.30am when we arrived. Check-in was 3pm. Oh how excellent. We thought we'd just go for a walk and we ended up on 59th Street! Nearly 30 blocks later, on the edge of Central Park we turned around and headed back and found ourselves in Times Sq (42nd St) - by this time we nearly extremely tired and feeling a bit dizzy. Jo had a great idea of going to the movies so we found a place nearby and opted for Iron Man 2. It was perfect, only us and 1 other person there so Jo and I lay down on the seats for most of it! After that, it was time to walk back and check in.
The Social Service Directors office - in the "HOTEL"!!
To say that the Latham "Hotel" is a hotel is being generous to say the least! It's more like part prison, part high school. It smells of disinfectant, we had to walk up 8 flights of steep steps to our cell and the accommodation is shared with the Dept of Social Services so there are young mothers with small kids everywhere (who cry all night)! It sucked. The bed was small and awful and it didn't feel safe at all. On the first night, the toilet roll holder fell off, the taps came of the shower, the shower is like a hose attached to the wall, there were bugs and the front door handle is hardly on the door. Terrible!
Now I know it was cheap (for NY which is known as the most expensive place to stay for hotels), but honestly this takes the cake. It's nothing more than a half way house. Anyway, we won't let it ruin our visit to the big apple.
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