Ok! The first thing I have to say is, if you do not have a bladder of steel you are F*****! Yes, you read right! Every new years eve, Times Square shuts down traffic and corrals (yes, those similar to what horses, cows and sheep are penned in) are set up. Hundreds of thousands of people head up to Times Square to watch the ball drop (this year was the first time that the number reached over a million people). Now, you might be thinking - Looking at previous pictures I thought there would be more than that. Well, Times Square is not that big, really! I mean, it's big but not big, big, if you get me.
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| People selling New Years party hats, glasses, air horns and poppers. |
Bryan and I decided to start walking up to Times Square at around 3.30pm. Now, we only live about a 15 minute walk away from the Times Square but because the Police had sectioned it off we could not get beyond 38th street, so we decided to take the subway beyond Times Square and walk back. This turned out to be the trick! If you catch the train up to around 50th (and 7th Ave) then start walking back you are inside the closed off section. You can then walk all the way down 7th Avenue to Times Square.
By the time we did this, it was about 4:30pm and the closest we got was 45th street, due to the number of people.
Now getting back to the corrals...... the police open up each corral when the previous one is full, letting people into that section of the street - but be warned, once you are in that section you cannot get out! Well, if you do have to get out, you can but you cannot get back in! In other words - no toilet breaks.
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| Wooden barriers used to redirect traffic. |
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| Seventh Avenue is normally an extremely noisy and busy street with cabs, cars and trucks. This afternoon the traffic had been redirected. |
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| NYC Policemen waiting to open a corral |
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| One of the many corrals (not yet open) coming up from Times Square |
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| Bryan and I on Seventh Avenue. In the background is Times Square. BTW ladies this photo was taken by a hot looking policeman (*wink *wink). |
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| Empire State Building in its Christmas colors. |
We hung around enjoying the atmosphere until around 6.30pm then headed back to the subway for home. Once home, we opened the windows to listen and soak up the sounds of celebrations outside. Like millions of other people in the US, we watched the festivities on the TV and at midnight counted down and watched the ball drop.
I can't say it was as much fun as the Sydney New Years Eve celebrations but at least it was colder!
