Welcome to New York

Always wanted to be consistent with the frequency of my blog posts and for some strange reason, never managed (read it as laziness). Was waiting for a trigger to give consistency another try and what better trigger than a visit to the Big Apple. 

Warning: This is going to be a really really long post. So read on, only if you have the patience. Anyone not with ample patience, I suggest to invest your time on more worthwhile (as per your opinion) endeavors.

Yesterday was the day, I probably had been dreaming for a long long time. A visit to the New York City. So many iconic places, so much history. So much to watch and so much to do. 

The length of this post can be directly related to my excitement of visiting New York. It is also somewhat different to all my other blog posts in the sense, it do not convey any deep or inner meanings at the time of writing this statement in this blog, in my mind. This is purely an expression of my state of mind after yesterday.

I had 1 whole day with me and was spoilt for choices. I am lazy, but I can be quite active when I want to. And I was on the day before the visit.

I made a complete plan of which places to visit, how much time to spend, how much time it would take and even the time I would be back at my place in Parlin, NJ. 

 We started off on train to New York Penn Station from South Amboy through NJ Transit. Anyone who knows anything about New York City knows that taking a car there can really be a pain in the backside. 

The train journey was uneventful and we reached by morning 9:40 and walked over to W42nd Street, which is usually famous for Times Square. But we went there for another reason. Here was the location of the world famous Madame Tussauds' Wax museum. Needless to say, it was an awesome experience. 

Next stop on our journey was the subway station on W42nd Street. As with most of the other places, the subway was something that I had heard about as being the heartbeat of this city. You shut the subway, New York might literally stand still. Took the tickets and entered the Subway towards South Ferry.

South Ferry is where you get down to go to Liberty Island. The island where THE "Statue of Liberty" is present. I had booked the tickets for the Ferry Ride in advance yesterday itself, so didn't have to wait in queue for getting the tickets. Unbelievably, the tickets to the crown and pedestal are sold out until September!!! Hence couldn't get tickets for that.

Had a good time in Liberty Island clicking loads of photos and doing my by now customary gift shop purchase (Small replica of Statue of Liberty and 2 medallion this time around). The summer heat was truly on, but we braved the heat and soldiered on. Once we reached back to Battery Park (from where the Ferry to Liberty island starts), we were parched and had to rest for a while taking in some water.

Our next destination was Wall Street. It is said that, pretty much the whole world runs on decisions made in this small street in this small corner of the world. I was excited to see the iconic Bull at the Wall street and we had our lunch (it was evening 4 pm lol) at T.G.I. Fridays. Once we did that, we went to New York Stock Exchange building (11, Wall Street).

After that, next up on our destination was 9/11 memorial. This was the only portion of the trip that didn't go according to my planning. I had planned to cover the WTC memorial in 15 minutes. And we were on track to that, until the rain came soaring down from the heavens. We were drenched to say the least and the line took 30 minutes for us to reach the pass counter. 

Once we got the ticket, there was Airport style security check (same case in Liberty Island Ferry) which took some more time and then once we reached the 9/11 memorial, we ended up spending a lot of time there, much more than we intended, contemplating the effect it had on this nation and its people. 

So what was planned to be a trip for 15 minutes ended up taking well over 1 hour. And I am glad it took the amount of time it did, as I could at least understand some of the pain which members of the family would have gone through during that period and are still continuing to go through.

After that, it was back to the subways for us to go to the 34th Street Subway station using Line 2. By the time we got down at our station, it was already 8pm. Next destination for us was Empire State Building (the tallest in this city and for a long time it was the tallest in the world). The plan was to reach the top before nightfall and have a view of the city in both daylight and at night when it would be illuminated with bright lights and colors.

Us spending more time than intended at the 9/11 memorial threw a wrench in our plans. Plus the exceedingly large crowd in Empire State Building meant that the whole process of purchasing a ticket, going through the Airport Style checking (our 3rd of the day), waiting in line for our Elevator etc, took us around 45 minutes and by the time we reached the 86th floor observatory, it was already nightfall. 

And what a view it was from the observatory!!! The chilly night air (fresh from the rain that plundered New York City in the evening) and the view were amazing. We felt like we were on top of the world. And we managed to soak in that view for a good part of 30 minutes. Then we went into the 102nd floor. Here we were not allowed an open air view but a closed view. It was only here we realized, how high we were as in New York City, most buildings are tall, making view from 86th floor, while amazing, less scary. It was up here, where we really felt high and some of us got a wee bit scared.

After that, it was time for the most talked about place in NYC and the last of our destination. It was time for Times Square. The place that never sleeps, The place which is so bright that one might even end up wondering, does it ever get dark here? We walked out of Empire State Building and walked along the 5th avenue till the W42nd street and took a left towards Broadway and once we passed the Broadway Street, the bright lights welcomed us into a world of its own. Taking a right along 7th Avenue towards higher-numbered West streets took us to the heart of the Times Square and I truly understood why they call this the place that never sleeps. It was 10:30 in the night and there were still people rushing about as if it is Monday morning rush hour! Only difference was, the public here was so multi-national, multi-lingual that there was a clash of color and sound in the air which absolutely brilliant to say the least.

Our plan (or rather my master plan) was to reach the New York Penn Station by 11 so that we could catch our 11:07 train to South Amboy to reach home. It was a little late for that and we decided to catch a breath and take in the magnificent view of high-rise buildings, bright neon nights, advertising screens and scores and scores of people walking past us. The next train was around 12 and there was no point in reaching the station early.

We finally decided to leave by 11:15 and decided to walk all the way to 34th Street (Penn Station). The walk took us 20 minutes and we were inside the Penn Station by 11:40. We ordered some refreshments from Dunkin' Donuts (Strawberry Lemonade Coolatta was awesome!!!)

Finally by the time we were about to board the train 12:05 from Penn Station, we were in for another surprise. For the first time, during my stay here in US, I got into a Double-decker train. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. After an hour, we pulled into South Amboy station, got into our car, dropped the co-tourists and reached home by 1:20 , even after a 1 hour delay only 20 minutes later than my scheduled arrival. Not bad I would say for a first time tour planner and a lazy one at that too. 

I will sign off with my favorite lines from an Alicia Keys album called Empire State of Mind.

"In New York,
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
There's nothing you can't do,
Now You're in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
The lights will inspire you
Let's hear it for New York, New York, New York!!!"

An awesome experience. Nothing more to say. Still tired from all the walking. Time to sleep. Wait. I don't sleep till 2 in the morning.. Okay.. some football streaming online then. 

Until next time.. Ciao..!!!

Ravi