New York City! (18th-20th Feb)
Last weekend (18th –20th Feb) was a real wonderful weekend! Taking advantage of the public holiday, President’s day on Monday (20th Feb), I went backpacking for 3 days 2 nights in New York City! Here a list of places I visited in New York City:
Day 1:
Madison Square Garden
Empire State Building
New York Public Library
Rockerfeller Center
St Patrick’s Cathedral
United Nations’ Headquarters
Chrysler Building
Grand Central Terminal
Times Square
Day 2:
World Trade Center site
Wall Street
Statue of Liberty
Ellis Island
Brooklyn Bridge
Chinatown
Small’s (not a landmark but a great Jazz club!!)
Day 3:
Central Park
Armed with the thick Lonely Planet, USA, I planned my itinerary a few days before setting off and made all the necessary online purchases. Interestingly, almost everything on the trip can be settled by online shopping… I bought a cheap DC-NY Chinatown bus ticket by Eastern, made a two-night hostel reservation at Bowery's Whitehouse Hotel of NY and booked the Observatory Tour of the Statue of Liberty online in one morning!
In the early Saturday morning of 18th Feb, I was on my way… took a bus to the metro station and went all the way to DC Chinatown (Chinatown buses goes to/from Chinatowns!). Almost immediately, I was shuffled into a fully packed tour bus on a 3½-hour bus ride to New York City! Although there was limited leg space (due to my backpack)… the bus trip was comfortable enough. This is probably the cheapest and best way to get to New York!
The Chinatown bus
We were dropped off at Penn Station, which is in Mid-town NY (Basically New York City’s center is the Manhattan Island and it is subdivided into 3 regions: the Down-town, Mid-town and Up-town). I have say, despite all my complaints about Maryland being cold… New York City is way colder! Penn Station is just right where the Madison Square Garden is… there’s nothing much going on there. After a quick lunch at a McDonald’s, I was off queuing to get to the top of the Empire State Building! Man… it was a long long wait… I should have bought the tickets online earlier too but I wasn’t sure if it was worth it until I came here. It took me all of an hour to finally get to the elevators and I am finally on top of New York City! The view was awesome… However, the strong winds plus the winter made it so cold up there! Interestingly, I met two Singaporeans up on top of New York City! Guess how we know each is Singaporean… we spoke the same Singaporean English! (i.e. Singlish)
The Empire State Building
We are Singapore! (on top of New York!)
After a couple of hours, I was on my way walking along the 5th Avenue. Along the way, I dropped by the New York Public Library (cool architecture!) and then to St Patrick’s Cathedral. The interior of the cathedral was simply awesome… I really liked stained glass panels and the peaceful feeling that I got in there… said a quiet prayer for a friend before I left.
St Patrick's Cathedral
After St Patrick’s Cathedral, I made my way to the United Nations Headquarters on the east side of Mid-town NY. It is closed to public on weekends so I didn’t stay long there. After that, I walked past the Chrysler Building (not opened to public) and finally boarded my very first New York subway ride in the Grand Central Terminal! New York’s subway system is very old and complex… however you can get to any corner of the city in a subway (which means you never really need to surface!) and it runs 24/7! There’s this unique flavor to New York’s subway that I couldn’t quite describe… the buskers, the antiqueness and the passengers… this is New York City!
This is the subway of NYC!
I dropped off the metro near West Houston’s Street (do you know that SOHO means SOuth of HOuston’s Street?) and found my hostel after much difficulty (it was getting dark and colder!). The hostel is an old building in the Lower Manhattan area (I mean old as in probably 100 years old!)… The room was tiny, dark, and cold… quite depressing actually. After dropping my stuff, I quickly left for Times Square.
My tiny little room... probably worse than an army bunk!
Times Square is all bright lights, big city as seen in TV. The Broadway shows are mostly located here too (Broadway is actually a road here in New York City and there are numerous theaters along this road in Times Square!) It was really cold on that Saturday night and I had to go into shops after walking every couple of blocks to get myself warm again! Most people hang out in this district after dark and you could see tons of people around despite the cold! I made my way back to see Rockfeller Center’s outdoor skating rink before retiring for the night.
Me in Times Square!
Sunday morning, I took off to the WTC site in Lower Manhattan early in the morning. The whole area is almost all cleared up now (it has been 5 years), but there were information put up on the fences, telling the story of 9/11… Despite many tourists around here looking all so curious and kinda cheerful, I couldn’t help feeling that bit of sorrow… that so many people perished in the very place I am stepping on….
The WTC site
After breakfast, I walked a few blocks to the famous Wall Street and took a short 15mins walk along the street. I couldn’t quite imagine how this seemingly normal, short stretch of street could be the most important street in the world economy! I soon walked the whole street and made my way to Battery Park to take the ferry to Liberty Island.
Thats's Wall Street behind me! Isn't it a small, short street?
Despite having an online ticket, I had to queue for about an hour for the ferry to Liberty Island (where the Statue of Liberty is in). Of course, the ferry ride was crazily cold… However, the view of the city from the ferry is really great and in fact, you could get a better view of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry than on the island itself! The crown of the statue is closed to public after 9/11 and we could only go up to the feet of the statue for the Observatory Tour. It was nevertheless a very educational experience (though somewhat cold!). The ferry ticket also includes a stop at Ellis Island that is historically the immigration center for the United States.
The Statue of Liberty!
I quickly took a subway to the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge before sunset to catch the view of New York City lighting up from the bridge. Needless to say… the view was awesome… beautiful… It is really quite an experience to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (took me ½ an hour).
Brooklyn Bridge
At the Brooklyn side, I had to frantically search for a subway station to get me back to Manhattan and to New York City’s Chinatown (I am surely not going to walk back that bridge to Manhattan!). The Chinatown is quite like the place I imagine it to be… the messy, dirty streets, the old-looking buildings with all those Chinese signboards, yet lots of good food, cheap Chinese restaurants. I went into a random Cantonese restaurant and finally had a BBQ duck rice in months!
The small restaurant I ate in, in Chinatown. Simply good! (and cheap too!)
Finally for the night, I decided to go to listen to some good live jazz in a jazz club after a short break in my hostel (notice I don’t hang in my hostel much?). The jazz club (Small's) was small, cozy and had amazing good jazz! I really enjoyed myself a lot and I had to say this is the highlight of my trip! I even had a nice little chat with two guys from UK (strangely enough, both don’t follow soccer?!).
The nice little jazz club, Small's!
Monday morning, I checked out my hostel and went to the Central Park for the final piece of my trip. The park is pretty normal… but it is pretty big for a park in New York City! I only managed to walk half the length of the park in an hour before catching the subway back to Times Square for a quick lunch, then the Eastern bus back to DC. However, as per my manager, Anthony’s recommendation, I got myself a hotdog from a streetside stall in the park. Wow, a warm hotdog with mustard and ketchup taste really great in the cold winter!
Central Park!
I had great fun in New York City and I will surely be back for more!
Day 1:
Madison Square Garden
Empire State Building
New York Public Library
Rockerfeller Center
St Patrick’s Cathedral
United Nations’ Headquarters
Chrysler Building
Grand Central Terminal
Times Square
Day 2:
World Trade Center site
Wall Street
Statue of Liberty
Ellis Island
Brooklyn Bridge
Chinatown
Small’s (not a landmark but a great Jazz club!!)
Day 3:
Central Park
Armed with the thick Lonely Planet, USA, I planned my itinerary a few days before setting off and made all the necessary online purchases. Interestingly, almost everything on the trip can be settled by online shopping… I bought a cheap DC-NY Chinatown bus ticket by Eastern, made a two-night hostel reservation at Bowery's Whitehouse Hotel of NY and booked the Observatory Tour of the Statue of Liberty online in one morning!
In the early Saturday morning of 18th Feb, I was on my way… took a bus to the metro station and went all the way to DC Chinatown (Chinatown buses goes to/from Chinatowns!). Almost immediately, I was shuffled into a fully packed tour bus on a 3½-hour bus ride to New York City! Although there was limited leg space (due to my backpack)… the bus trip was comfortable enough. This is probably the cheapest and best way to get to New York!
The Chinatown bus
We were dropped off at Penn Station, which is in Mid-town NY (Basically New York City’s center is the Manhattan Island and it is subdivided into 3 regions: the Down-town, Mid-town and Up-town). I have say, despite all my complaints about Maryland being cold… New York City is way colder! Penn Station is just right where the Madison Square Garden is… there’s nothing much going on there. After a quick lunch at a McDonald’s, I was off queuing to get to the top of the Empire State Building! Man… it was a long long wait… I should have bought the tickets online earlier too but I wasn’t sure if it was worth it until I came here. It took me all of an hour to finally get to the elevators and I am finally on top of New York City! The view was awesome… However, the strong winds plus the winter made it so cold up there! Interestingly, I met two Singaporeans up on top of New York City! Guess how we know each is Singaporean… we spoke the same Singaporean English! (i.e. Singlish)
The Empire State Building
We are Singapore! (on top of New York!)
After a couple of hours, I was on my way walking along the 5th Avenue. Along the way, I dropped by the New York Public Library (cool architecture!) and then to St Patrick’s Cathedral. The interior of the cathedral was simply awesome… I really liked stained glass panels and the peaceful feeling that I got in there… said a quiet prayer for a friend before I left.
St Patrick's Cathedral
After St Patrick’s Cathedral, I made my way to the United Nations Headquarters on the east side of Mid-town NY. It is closed to public on weekends so I didn’t stay long there. After that, I walked past the Chrysler Building (not opened to public) and finally boarded my very first New York subway ride in the Grand Central Terminal! New York’s subway system is very old and complex… however you can get to any corner of the city in a subway (which means you never really need to surface!) and it runs 24/7! There’s this unique flavor to New York’s subway that I couldn’t quite describe… the buskers, the antiqueness and the passengers… this is New York City!
This is the subway of NYC!
I dropped off the metro near West Houston’s Street (do you know that SOHO means SOuth of HOuston’s Street?) and found my hostel after much difficulty (it was getting dark and colder!). The hostel is an old building in the Lower Manhattan area (I mean old as in probably 100 years old!)… The room was tiny, dark, and cold… quite depressing actually. After dropping my stuff, I quickly left for Times Square.
My tiny little room... probably worse than an army bunk!
Times Square is all bright lights, big city as seen in TV. The Broadway shows are mostly located here too (Broadway is actually a road here in New York City and there are numerous theaters along this road in Times Square!) It was really cold on that Saturday night and I had to go into shops after walking every couple of blocks to get myself warm again! Most people hang out in this district after dark and you could see tons of people around despite the cold! I made my way back to see Rockfeller Center’s outdoor skating rink before retiring for the night.
Me in Times Square!
Sunday morning, I took off to the WTC site in Lower Manhattan early in the morning. The whole area is almost all cleared up now (it has been 5 years), but there were information put up on the fences, telling the story of 9/11… Despite many tourists around here looking all so curious and kinda cheerful, I couldn’t help feeling that bit of sorrow… that so many people perished in the very place I am stepping on….
The WTC site
After breakfast, I walked a few blocks to the famous Wall Street and took a short 15mins walk along the street. I couldn’t quite imagine how this seemingly normal, short stretch of street could be the most important street in the world economy! I soon walked the whole street and made my way to Battery Park to take the ferry to Liberty Island.
Thats's Wall Street behind me! Isn't it a small, short street?
Despite having an online ticket, I had to queue for about an hour for the ferry to Liberty Island (where the Statue of Liberty is in). Of course, the ferry ride was crazily cold… However, the view of the city from the ferry is really great and in fact, you could get a better view of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry than on the island itself! The crown of the statue is closed to public after 9/11 and we could only go up to the feet of the statue for the Observatory Tour. It was nevertheless a very educational experience (though somewhat cold!). The ferry ticket also includes a stop at Ellis Island that is historically the immigration center for the United States.
The Statue of Liberty!
I quickly took a subway to the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge before sunset to catch the view of New York City lighting up from the bridge. Needless to say… the view was awesome… beautiful… It is really quite an experience to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (took me ½ an hour).
Brooklyn Bridge
At the Brooklyn side, I had to frantically search for a subway station to get me back to Manhattan and to New York City’s Chinatown (I am surely not going to walk back that bridge to Manhattan!). The Chinatown is quite like the place I imagine it to be… the messy, dirty streets, the old-looking buildings with all those Chinese signboards, yet lots of good food, cheap Chinese restaurants. I went into a random Cantonese restaurant and finally had a BBQ duck rice in months!
The small restaurant I ate in, in Chinatown. Simply good! (and cheap too!)
Finally for the night, I decided to go to listen to some good live jazz in a jazz club after a short break in my hostel (notice I don’t hang in my hostel much?). The jazz club (Small's) was small, cozy and had amazing good jazz! I really enjoyed myself a lot and I had to say this is the highlight of my trip! I even had a nice little chat with two guys from UK (strangely enough, both don’t follow soccer?!).
The nice little jazz club, Small's!
Monday morning, I checked out my hostel and went to the Central Park for the final piece of my trip. The park is pretty normal… but it is pretty big for a park in New York City! I only managed to walk half the length of the park in an hour before catching the subway back to Times Square for a quick lunch, then the Eastern bus back to DC. However, as per my manager, Anthony’s recommendation, I got myself a hotdog from a streetside stall in the park. Wow, a warm hotdog with mustard and ketchup taste really great in the cold winter!
Central Park!
I had great fun in New York City and I will surely be back for more!
