Hello, lovely readers! The next few posts are going to be a bit different from normal... they're going to cover the two week trip to NYC that I just returned from! I decided to go largely on a whim! I had always wanted to visit NYC but the right opportunity hadn't presented itself. But looking at tickets from my island, I found it would be quite a bit cheaper to fly to NYC than home plus I wouldn't have the hassle of having to spend the night somewhere, shaving a bit more money off the top. Of course NYC is expensive (and definitely was rough on the wallet) but hey, you only live once! So I decided to go! Admittedly, the couple of weeks before my trip I was growing increasingly nervous about it and actually thinking about ducking out and just going home... but I'm so glad I didn't! NYC is a great place! I wouldn't necessarily want to live there permanently, but what a place to see!
I spent most of my time in the city with a friend from college. I crashed at her apartment and the majority of things I did in the city we did together. One of the first things we did was just to help me get my bearings a little bit and so to downtown Manhattan we went! We of course visited the super famous Times Square! This is where the big New Year's bash is every year! This day it was surprisingly not crowded (must've been quite early still, it seems like most things in the city aren't up and running until 10 or 11!), but normally it was quite jammed with people!
And of course, Broadway was right there! I was actually really surprised about Broadway. I kind of figured all the theaters would be lined up on the actual street, one after the next all down the road. Not even close! Many of the theaters aren't even on that street! The two musicals I was lucky enough to go see, "Once" and "Phantom of the Opera," were actually both on neighboring roads. It seems kind of strange to me that they say you are "seeing a show on Broadway" or someone "made it to Broadway" when the theaters aren't even there! Maybe the older or more original ones were, but it still seems pretty crazy to me! But Broadway was of course amazing. Other than seeing some friends, seeing a couple shows was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Such amazing talent! More of that later, I'm going to try and keep this kind of sequential!
There is definitely an assortment of different things to see around the Times Square/Broadway area in Manhattan. I actually never went into this place, I think it was a bar and restaurant, but I just loved the sign. :)
The Shake Shack was one place near Times Square that had been recommended to me! Famous for their burgers, fries, and milkshakes, I thought we had an In-N-Out type situation on our hands! Like everything in NYC, we had to wait in line a bit to go in, but it was so worth it! I had missed American food so much! I definitely got a little spoiled, eating out the majority of the time for two weeks. Even fast food was a treat though, so yummy!
Looking back on my pictures, it seems I spent quite a few days in Manhattan! The next few pictures are from a bit later in my trip, but they are also from Manhattan so I decided to include them here! (I think despite my best intentions, this may get a little bit unorganized! I do have over 300 pictures though, so there's only so much I can do!)
First, the Natural History museum! I had heard a lot about this museum from numerous friends from the city area so it was of course one of the first I wanted to check out! I guess to a certain extent I didn't know what to expect to see.... "natural history" is of course a pretty broad term. The museum was famous for dinosaur bones and that was definitely one of my favorite exhibits (more pictures from that in a later post, I'm going to try and keep this kind of chronological in terms of my pictures). They did have a lot of different things though including an exhibit on human origins, a sea-life and whale exhibit, different geology and space exhibits, and numerous cultural exhibits which admittedly seemed more like art or culture museum stuff but was cool nonetheless!
And they had giant, ancient turtle remains! Turtles! My favorite! Though these things were quite giant. I had a really great time at the museum, though I was definitely frustrated by how big it was and how after a few hours I couldn't appreciate everything as much as I wanted to. But never fear! I actually went back with my cousin when she came to visit me and had a chance to check out my favorite exhibits again.
Heading to lower Manhattan then, one of the things that I wanted to do was check out the 9/11 Memorial and the new WTC1 or Freedom Tower. All politics aside, since that is really not the purpose of this post, 9/11 was just such a critical event in our world that even my life will always be divided into pre-9/11 and post-9/11. So much changed that day for US citizens and for people around the world.
This is the new tower. It is 1,776 feet tall and is the tallest building in the United States, the third tallest in the world. I actually think it's a beautiful building, and for me it was so nice because I could see it anywhere from the city which was quite helpful in orienting myself. It was a bit interesting how you have to visit the memorial, which is near the base of the building. You have to go get passes (and go through security pretty much like an airport, no photos allowed of that of course) and then walk to the memorial. Admission was a suggested donation (which I did not pay; I find that highly questionable. It feels too much like profiting off of massive destruction and all of those people's lives), and then you could head to the complex. They are building a mall right at the base which I find pretty interesting too, but the memorial itself is definitely eerie. As it probably should be.
The monument takes the form of two deep pools where the bases of the old towers were. There are two levels, the inner one drops so deep that you can't see the bottom. For me, it kind of created the effect of drowning in sorrow, bottomless. I'm not sure what the architect thought, but that's what I was thinking when I was there. Surprisingly, the sculpture was actually quite similar to one that was at my college which was unexpected. Both my friend and I thought so, very strange to me; I don't believe it was the same or a related architect (based off a preliminary search). It was interesting to me how many people were there. US citizens, business-people walking by, and tons of foreign tourists as well.
To continue the day, we headed to the very lowest tip of Manhattan to Battery Park where we got on the Staten Island ferry! We decided to not actually go up into the Statue because apparently it's quite expensive and the lines so long, but we did take the ferry to go see the statue and surrounding area between Manhattan and Staten Island.
We got a great view of lower Manhattan! You can see the WTC1 again, the tallest building towards the left side of the picture.
We also passed by Ellis Island! I really wanted to visit; I'm pretty sure I have relatives who have signed the book there, but unfortunately it was still closed for repairs and renovations following Hurricane Sandy. I didn't realize it was so close to NYC though, definitely cool to see, even from a distance!
Then of course we got to Lady Liberty herself! It was kind of funny when we were going by the Statue-- it was smaller than I expected! It always looks so huge in pictures, and I mean it really is, but compared to the Empire State building or WTC1 it's so tiny! It was still pretty awesome to see though! I'm not sure I could've gotten a more all-American vacation in!
I'm going to stop this post here, but I'll get to the next one shortly! :)
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