New York trip on a X'mas weekend...
Fri 22nd Dec 06
We head on down to NY by bus via Boston... the bus trip was kinda long... about 4 hours... the longest so far since we haven really been further than Boston... so by the time we reached NY... it was already near dinner time... first thing was to unload our stuff at the hotel.. hmm.. not really a hotel.. but an apartment for short stays... it has 3 bedrooms... 1 bathroom.. and an mini kitchen (or food prep area) and a mini living room... it's near Lincoln Center and thus has the name... Lincoln Apartments... then it's heading over to our first destination... to watch Phantom of the Opera at Broadway! Super excited can! my first musical ever.... ok... mountain turtle again.... but it was really an experience... i actually quite like doing stuffs like tat....
Sat 23rd Dec 06
We set off pretty early in the morning... managed to do a fair bit of walking... taking in the sights of everyday NY streets.. in its quieter moments... with buildings with the fire escape ladders that u see on tv...
it was quite a lazy and carefree morning... with no rushing around to go to places... just wondering in the streets and stopping every so often to take lots of pic of watever... we even had time to visit one of the church.. or was it a cathedral... can't rem wat its name was though... but ya... we took pics all the way from the road to the large garden outside it... to the steps at the door... the inside... and out again to the garden on its other side...
then in the early afternoon... we went to the Julliard School of Performing Arts for a free session of violin... piano... and wat nots... recital... apparently our appreciation levels for such arts are limited... cos most of us fell asleep... haha... we finally decided it was too much for us... walking out in the streets wandering around would be better for us... more movement.. more fresh air... and the cold wind to perk us up... we even walked past the Trump World Tower... and by tat time... it was already evening...
so we went over to Times Square... and all i can say is... I LOVE IT MAN!! afterall i came from a city... and the bustling of city life... the hustling of pple in the streets... the large billboards.. the bright advertisements... the lights... the distant sound of siren of police car... ambulance or fire engine... tat's so New Yorky... just like on TV... totally cool man.... just so full of energy.... feel very revived to be in a city setting becos everyone is just hustling by... compared to the more slow paced life we are used to back in NH...
and it's a must to take a pic at the super huge x'mas tree near Rockefeller Center... and visting the shops in the area... our all time favourites... Hershey's... M&M's... Toys 'r' Us.... Nintendo World.... lots of souvenirs to get...
Hershey's World... everything's big...
Sun 24th Dec 06
Got up early to go to the Liberty Island... with the thought tat.. if we are early... we would be able to get the tics to go up to the statue... but to our disappointment... they were out of it... super faintz.... but nonetheless... we made the most out of it by taking photos... again... we had every possible angle of the statue... since we started taking even before we boarded the ferry... so it's before we board the ferry... when we were on the ferry.... when we first set foot on the island... while walking towards the statue... we had the side... the back.. the front... full body... zoomed in... with pple... with diff permutations of pple... every aspect was covered...
On the ferry to Liberty Island...
Statue of Liberty!
Statue of Liberty... With us....
after we were satisfied that we got every shot possible... we took the ferry again.. which brought us to Ellis Island... which had the Immigration Museum... which showcases the heritage of immigrants in America... how they were screened prior to setting foot on America itself... pretty informative and interesting... kept us entertained for the whole afternoon... longer than we expected...
In the late afternoon... we decided to drop by Wall Street... but the faintz thing was... we weren't able to locate the Wall Street Bull... which means... we missed out on 1 photo taking opportunity.. and acting touristy... haha... the walk led us to Ground Zero... where the World Trade Center twin towers used to be... there was nothing much there... just an area of bare land where reconstruction seems to be on-going... the atmosphere was pretty solemn... so much so tat.... i feel even a smile on ur face would seem inappropriate... the tributes showed photos of tat day... and drawings from kids who lost their loved ones in 911.... pretty saddening.... but we din get to see the night skyline of NY from afar where they situated 2 beams of light that shot straight up into the night sky... where the twin towers used to be...
on a lighter note... we decided to walk across Brooklyn bridge... though our legs were all tired.. from the daily walkings in adverse conditions of cold and rain... we still decided to give it a shot... other than sore feets... it was a pretty relaxing walk... we could take in the night view of NYC... and adjacent bridges.
Mon 25th Dec 06
X'mas morning... most shops were closed... there's nothing much for us to do... so we end up walking in the streets again... today we are going to take a walk in Central Park... to me.. the 1st thing tat came to mind was an episode of CSI.. which they found dead bodies in the Park... hahaha... well.. we followed paths... past waters... and up to a point tat had a 'castle-like' structure called the 'Belverdere Towers'... it oversees the rest of the park... a lake... and a baseball field... after that... we extended our walk along the peripheral of the park... along a street tat has quite a few museums... then we went to look for this place called 'Tom's Restaurant'... which according to my fren... is the cafe tat was featured in the sitcom 'Seinfield'... i haven really watched the sitcom much... so i weren't really familiar with it... but wat the heck... it was featured in a show.. so it's a good place for photos... so u see the bunch of us taking photos outside this place tat wasn't even opened... hahaha...
Belvedere Towers...
in the early evening... we went over to Madison Square Garden... which brought me back to the time when i used to watch NBA basketball matches... and NY Knicks used to be one of my favourite team... but i've long lost touch with it... the pple on the team whom i'm familiar with... some are already in another team now...
later when we were passing by Grand Central Station... there was a lights show there... it was nothing more than snowflakes-shaped lights being shone on the walls and ceiling... with music to give a more x'masy feeling...
Tues 26th Dec 06
Last day of our stay in NY... we were pretty pressed for time... but we managed to squeeze some time to pay a visit to the Empire State Building... but when we got there.. we figured it was too foggy... we probably wouldn't be able to see much of NYC's view even if we went up... so we were satisfied just taking pic with the miniature statue of the Empire State Building... getting all touristy again... next we pop by Times Square for the last time... doing some last min shopping.. getting watever souvenirs tat we hesitated on getting the day before... and by the time we are done.. we were kinda behind schedule... rushed back to the apartments in time to check out... and it's the long bus ride back to Boston again...
and i actually planned to meet up with Esther when she came over to NH... but we didn't had a chance... so we figured we could meet up in NY.. since we were both gonna be there... but somehow.. we just din manage to do tat... it's the same when we were both in Aust... we didn't get to meet up either... i think we really have to meet up some time when we are in US man... somehow.... hahaha....
-jiahua
