Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Day 27: New York City

 

So I finally arrived in NYC and unfortunately I was quite sick the first day.  I was hot and the weather was hot.  But… because check in wasn’t till some time in the afternoon I went for a walk with another hosteller I met on my way in.  The New York HI hostel is located in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, almost in Harlem; this is the largest HI hostel in the world with 670 beds!  Unfortunately since I didn’t book my bed well in advance I could only get 2 nights instead of the three nights I needed.  On my third night I stayed at Hostel 104 which is in the Upper East Side, maybe in East Harlem.

Anyway, New York was pretty cool.  After I had a long medicated sleep I was ready to start exploring the city.  I took a tour of Lower Manhattan and learned some of New York City’s history, first the Dutch city of New Amsterdam, then as the English city of New York.  New York was actually the very first US capital for one year before moving to Philadelphia and finally Washington.  On the tour I also saw Wall Street, Battery Park, City Hall, the World Trade Centre (WTC), and a handful of different neighbourhoods in the area.

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At the WTC there was still construction going on for the memorial site which will consist of 2 sunken fountains where the buildings used to be and a new, taller WTC building.  It was interesting to see some of the artifacts that have been pulled from the wreckage such as the globe that sat in between the two buildings and one of the many cross shaped beams that have given people lots of hope.

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The neighbourhoods of New York City are fairly segregated in terms of style and feel.  The Financial District is all about money whereas Soho is all about art and Greenwich Village is bohemian.     

On Friday I visited Tom’s Restaurant for breakfast before taking a trip on the Staten Island ferry (To see the Statue of Liberty).  Tom’s Restaurant is the famous restaurant that is featured in the sitcom ‘Seinfeld’.  The outside is the same, but the inside is very different.  It was cool to be in New York and recognise scenes that have been used in movies and TV shows.  Other examples that I can remember are some areas of Central Park and the Fire Hall (where Ghostbusters had their headquarters).  I didn’t see the Friend’s fountain or the Seinfeld ‘Soup Nazi’ restaurant, but they do exist apparently. 

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In the afternoon I briefly visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a few hours… Not nearly enough time.  This place is huge and has a ton of art from all over the the world and time.  I could probably spend one or two days to fully explore it. 

But I had to leave because of a concert I had to go to.  I bought a ticket well in advance of my trip for one of my favourite bands ‘Stars’ which were playing in NYC on the 24th.  The Stars make great music and put on an awesome concert.  One of their songs, ‘Ageless Beauty’ was even used during this concert as a marriage  proposal for two special concert goers!  Stars hail from Montreal these days but had their beginnings in New York. 

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On my last day I took the subway out to Brooklyn (Williamsburg to be specific) to people watch (Hipster watch to be specific) Hipsters do exist and they live in Williamsburg!  I didn’t take any pictures of them to show you what a hipster is, but you can look it up on the internet; they really do all look like that!  Finally I stopped in at Grimadli’s Pizza for a pizza.  New Yorkers wait for nothing, but they wait for Grimaldi’s Pizza!  I waited for an hour and a half to get inside this place for a pizza.  This was Frank Sinatra’s favourite pizza place in New York and has a reputation for great pizza.  But after eating it for a while, I didn’t see what the big deal is.  Half the time my toppings fell off the pizza, I hate that!  But other than that it tasted good. 

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Till next time folks!

1 comment:

Gail said...

New York seems like a cool place to visit. Glad to hear you're feeling better.