The city of skyscrapers where people are rushing in every direction almost all the time but definitely also a city where whenever I asked somebody a question they stopped helped smiled back and left so it was an interesting crowd which was always running but still was human enough to stop by and smile.
I decided to spend my weekend at NYC before I head to Atlanta for work and I am glad that I chose to do so. I arrived at the airport and after all the immigration check when I came out , I realized I am not able to book Uber as my network had issues so I went to the information centre and booked a cab by dialing in a number for 57$ to Brooklyn that's where my hostel was located.
I had already informed my hostel that I will be arriving late so there were no hick ups around that. I checked into my room which was a small dingy room for 52$ per night but the hostel had many other amenities and I anyways knew that I am not gonna spend much of my time in the room so I was ok with the dinginess of the room.
After talking around with people, I kind of decided that I don't want to take hop on hop off buses which were available for as much as 29$ to 59$ and more based on the places covered etc. I instead bought a week pass for 10$ for metro and used it to go around.
Next day I woke up early in the morning, walked around, had my cup of coffee and started my Voyage of NYC. I generally like to do off beat stuff, go some local places and try some local stuff but for some reason I wanted to keep this trip very 'touristy'.
I downloaded the NYC train map, bought a 10$ for a week train pass and headed straight for Statue of liberty. I walked around and reached to the place to take Ferry to the statue. Now there are 2 options one is you take the free ferry to the statue and Ellis island which passes through the statue and island but don't stop there so you can't get down go around and take photos and then you have an option for private ferries for different prices. You can get reserve, pedestal and crown. With crown you can walk all the way upto the crown of the statue but this one is booked at least 3 months in advance so I took pedestal where I could go inside the statue and to Ellis Island for 18$. In my opinion it was definitely worth it.
The Ferry to statue starts from 8:30 am till 3:00 pm. After enjoying the vastness of the status for an hour or so, I took the ferry to Ellis island. The Ellis island tells about the immigrants from all over the world to America and how different cultures have got imbibed in the heart of America. After walking around 3-4 floors of Ellis Island, I went back to the city to check out some Sky scrapers.
Practically everything is at a walk able distance so first I went to the NYC stock exchange to take the photo with the iconic bull but finally I chose to avoid it due to the mad rush of tourists around it to take photos.
I kept walking around at Wall Street, times square, Rockefeller center building, Empire state building and kept admiring the super huge sky scrapers and then I took my tickets to the 'Broadway show'.
I would have liked to see something else but due to weekend at this time of the day only 'Aladdin' was available and because I wanted to experience the Broadway show I bought tickets for Aladdin. There are shows available at 2 pm and 7:30 pm for as much as 50$ and all the way up to 500-600$. I got mine in Mezzanine for 79$.
If the heights give you a thrill then you must experience either of Empire state building or Rockefeller center. The tickets for both of them can be bought at
https://www.rockefellercenter.com/
http://www.esbnyc.com/buy-tickets
I chose against them because I had already spent a huge amount to check out the Broadway show.
Next I headed to 9/11 memorial museum. The 9/11 memorial is free of charge and is open from 7:30 am to 9 pm.
My final destination in the touristy places was China town. Once you are in China town , you are literally in China. The place is full of Chinese food, people, language , temples and everything. There are many bakeries which serve very interesting and colorful Chinese pastries and yet again you can find exotic , colorful sea food also in the market and then continue walking further and in few minutes you are in Little Italy with restaurants serving Italian cuisine and the cafes which are very Italian.
After this I sat at a cafe in Times square and waited until my Broadway show began. The show I must say was an out of world experience. I have seen people act and I have seen people dance but this was my first time into a musical and it was really beautiful, witty and perfect. Hats off to all those artists who put their heart and blood into it. It definitely was worth the experience.
Being a Salsera how could I not go dancing when I am in NYC! so finally I headed to Salsa mania on 34th street and well I am glad I went there. I also met a friend from India and did some on 2 and Cuban dancing. If you love salsa there are 2 places to be in NYC for salsa socials, one is salsa mania on Saturday and Candela on Friday's. For any information on salsa in NYC check out http://www.salsanewyork.com/calendar2.htm
After dancing till 1 am in the morning, I finally headed back to my hostel just to sleep for few hours because yet again I got up early and went to Central park for my morning run. What's interesting about Central park is definitely the greenery but more than that what was striking in my opinion was this mass of greenery in the middle of skyscrapers. I am sure when people look at central park from those closed windows in those tall buildings, they imagine fresh breath and a break in their daily hectic schedule. I totally loved running there also because there were so so many people running who were a motivation to me and also because, I generally run on a flat surface and Central park had many highs and lows to offer and that was a new experience for me in my running.
Next I straight headed to the Grand central station. Well being from India and knowing the condition of our railway stations, it definitely was amazing to see the central station like a five star hotel!
Finally after hogging all the veggies at Chipotle, I headed back to my hostel as I had to take a flight back Atlanta. As I had hardly slept, all through the flight I was sleeping and falling around but hopefully not snoring!
I decided to spend my weekend at NYC before I head to Atlanta for work and I am glad that I chose to do so. I arrived at the airport and after all the immigration check when I came out , I realized I am not able to book Uber as my network had issues so I went to the information centre and booked a cab by dialing in a number for 57$ to Brooklyn that's where my hostel was located.
I had already informed my hostel that I will be arriving late so there were no hick ups around that. I checked into my room which was a small dingy room for 52$ per night but the hostel had many other amenities and I anyways knew that I am not gonna spend much of my time in the room so I was ok with the dinginess of the room.
After talking around with people, I kind of decided that I don't want to take hop on hop off buses which were available for as much as 29$ to 59$ and more based on the places covered etc. I instead bought a week pass for 10$ for metro and used it to go around.
Next day I woke up early in the morning, walked around, had my cup of coffee and started my Voyage of NYC. I generally like to do off beat stuff, go some local places and try some local stuff but for some reason I wanted to keep this trip very 'touristy'.
I downloaded the NYC train map, bought a 10$ for a week train pass and headed straight for Statue of liberty. I walked around and reached to the place to take Ferry to the statue. Now there are 2 options one is you take the free ferry to the statue and Ellis island which passes through the statue and island but don't stop there so you can't get down go around and take photos and then you have an option for private ferries for different prices. You can get reserve, pedestal and crown. With crown you can walk all the way upto the crown of the statue but this one is booked at least 3 months in advance so I took pedestal where I could go inside the statue and to Ellis Island for 18$. In my opinion it was definitely worth it.
The Ferry to statue starts from 8:30 am till 3:00 pm. After enjoying the vastness of the status for an hour or so, I took the ferry to Ellis island. The Ellis island tells about the immigrants from all over the world to America and how different cultures have got imbibed in the heart of America. After walking around 3-4 floors of Ellis Island, I went back to the city to check out some Sky scrapers.
Practically everything is at a walk able distance so first I went to the NYC stock exchange to take the photo with the iconic bull but finally I chose to avoid it due to the mad rush of tourists around it to take photos.
I kept walking around at Wall Street, times square, Rockefeller center building, Empire state building and kept admiring the super huge sky scrapers and then I took my tickets to the 'Broadway show'.
I would have liked to see something else but due to weekend at this time of the day only 'Aladdin' was available and because I wanted to experience the Broadway show I bought tickets for Aladdin. There are shows available at 2 pm and 7:30 pm for as much as 50$ and all the way up to 500-600$. I got mine in Mezzanine for 79$.
If the heights give you a thrill then you must experience either of Empire state building or Rockefeller center. The tickets for both of them can be bought at
https://www.rockefellercenter.com/
http://www.esbnyc.com/buy-tickets
I chose against them because I had already spent a huge amount to check out the Broadway show.
Next I headed to 9/11 memorial museum. The 9/11 memorial is free of charge and is open from 7:30 am to 9 pm.
My final destination in the touristy places was China town. Once you are in China town , you are literally in China. The place is full of Chinese food, people, language , temples and everything. There are many bakeries which serve very interesting and colorful Chinese pastries and yet again you can find exotic , colorful sea food also in the market and then continue walking further and in few minutes you are in Little Italy with restaurants serving Italian cuisine and the cafes which are very Italian.
After this I sat at a cafe in Times square and waited until my Broadway show began. The show I must say was an out of world experience. I have seen people act and I have seen people dance but this was my first time into a musical and it was really beautiful, witty and perfect. Hats off to all those artists who put their heart and blood into it. It definitely was worth the experience.
Being a Salsera how could I not go dancing when I am in NYC! so finally I headed to Salsa mania on 34th street and well I am glad I went there. I also met a friend from India and did some on 2 and Cuban dancing. If you love salsa there are 2 places to be in NYC for salsa socials, one is salsa mania on Saturday and Candela on Friday's. For any information on salsa in NYC check out http://www.salsanewyork.com/calendar2.htm
After dancing till 1 am in the morning, I finally headed back to my hostel just to sleep for few hours because yet again I got up early and went to Central park for my morning run. What's interesting about Central park is definitely the greenery but more than that what was striking in my opinion was this mass of greenery in the middle of skyscrapers. I am sure when people look at central park from those closed windows in those tall buildings, they imagine fresh breath and a break in their daily hectic schedule. I totally loved running there also because there were so so many people running who were a motivation to me and also because, I generally run on a flat surface and Central park had many highs and lows to offer and that was a new experience for me in my running.
Next I straight headed to the Grand central station. Well being from India and knowing the condition of our railway stations, it definitely was amazing to see the central station like a five star hotel!
Finally after hogging all the veggies at Chipotle, I headed back to my hostel as I had to take a flight back Atlanta. As I had hardly slept, all through the flight I was sleeping and falling around but hopefully not snoring!
No comments:
Post a Comment