Trip to New York

Our trip to New York was great! We went for three nights and three and a half days. It was me, Anna, Carlos, Martin, and Veronique. New Zealand, Ukraine, Spain, and Germany (x2) :D We had a tight schedule, so we mostly just saw the greatest things in Manhattan.

Overall feeling of New York. It is a very diverse city. There is a lot of old and historical architecture mixed with the huge skyscrapers. There are a lot of parks, even in downtown. I was very surprised by the amount of trees and generally green and space around there. It's a contrast to San Francisco downtown for sure. It is also much bigger than San Francisco and much cleaner than I expected. If only they maintained the subways properly/better and got the homeless people who trade in souveneers on every corner....

I liked the subway, because we could get to anywhere we wanted in a reasonable time. It's a very comprehensible system of tracks. We bought a seven day pass that got us free access to all subways and regular buses in NY. It saved us a lot of money!

We took an overnight flight on Friday and arrived in NY at around 7. We dropped off our bags at the hotel in Brooklyn. We had to leave them in the lobby but the receptionist told us it's ok, but he "is not liable for anything". The hotel itself was much better than expected. Everything was neat, tidy, and new. We were also just a few meters from the subway.

Day one, Saturday. All day it rained so we decided to make it a day of museums. We saw the Metropolitan museum and the National Museum of Natural History. We tried going to the Guggenheim, but it was closed at 6 pm. We also did not get to see the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). For most of us it was enough of museums for that day and the rest of the trip. Luckily the next two and a half days were sunny (but cold, around 10 degrees celsius and down to 3 at night! it was warmer on Tuesday though..).

Day two, Sunday. Walked through Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan downtown, wall street, Twin Towers memorial. Staten Island ferry. China town. Little Italy. Musical Chicago on Broadway. World's best cheesecake. Search for clubs, bars, and roof bars was unsuccessful.

Day three, Monday. After a late night we left the hotel only at 9.30 in the morning. The first destination was the Empire State Buildig. It opened at 10, but when we arrived at 10.30 the lines everywhere, outside, inside to the tickets, inside to the lifts were huge. We spent around one hour in those lines. It wasn't that long. The view from the 86th floor is awesome. It is an open space viewing area. See photos. After that we set out to see the Grand Central train station.

Day four, Tuesday. Central park. Ice skating rink. Nice barbeque place in Times Square.

Our flight was at 18.00. After the barbeque we set out at 16.00. Unluckily for us the subway wasn't functioning well so at 17.20 we were at the point from where it would have taken us at leat 50 minutes more to get to the airport. We got out of the subway and took a taxi, which took only 15 minutes. We were at the airport 15 min before the flight and were in sitting inside the plane five minutes before take off! It was a lucky break for us, very lucky.

In the news on the plane we saw that one hour later there was a breach in security at the JFK airport, where we flew from. Someone was discovered to be walking inside who did not go through the security check. Two terminals with almost 2000 people was evacuated and 18 flights were cancelled or delayed for at least 2 hours. While in we were in the air, there was also a 5.6 earthquake in San Jose. People said it was relatively a big one --- you could definitely feel the shaking! So, it was crazy day, but everything turned our way and we made it home!