Advertisement
Published: June 18th 2008
Very much New York City
We recognise this from many films set in New York City.New York City - The capital of the World
Our favourite travel weather is anything that is better than what it is at home. We are happy even if it rains as long as it rains more at home. We say this only because we were happy about the weather we had during our trip in the United States. It was sunny and nice most days but more importantly it was raining a lot at home.
In New York City we spent quite some time in various shopping centres and clothes stores. The exchange rate for the US dollar has over a period of several months fallen against most of the European currencies. Therefore it is very cheap for a European to go on a shopping spree on Manhattan right now. And that's what we did. Or at least Emma did. Ake's shopping was limited to only two pair of trousers and a costume for a masquerade. Ake actually won a prize on this masquerade for wearing the best costume. But you won't see any photo of Ake wearing the costume simply because it is slightly indecent. It's not X-rated or anything, but you are better off not seeing
Very much New York City
We recognise this from many films set in New York City. it. Because if you do you might get funny ideas about my sexual orientation.
Shopping in the US really is cheap for us Europeans right now. The dollar is actually so weak that for a while we thought about buying Manhattan. But instead Emma decided to try to clear out Macy´s department store in Herald Square and Century 21 department store next to the World Trade Center Site. Thinking about it, that was probably better than the first idea. It saved us the problem of trying to bring Empire State Building through customs. Not to mention getting it on board the flight. We don't think SAS would have agreed to let us have it as carry on luggage.
Walking through Manhattan is like walking in a movie or something. We have seen so many movies and TV-series set in New York that we recognise not only many of the places but when we see certain phenomena in the city they make us feel that this is the New York we know. For instance it's the boxes where you can insert a coin and buy a newspaper. They feel like very much New York to us. When we see
Very much New York City
We recognise this from many films set in New York City. a street where hot steam escapes from a broken pipe and goes into the air. That feels like very much New York to us. A house with the fire escape on the outside of the building is also very much New York to us. We have seen it in so many movies. In fact also heaps of trash we recognise from movies and TV. Also that feels like very much New York to us.
For a New Yorker it is very easy to spot a tourist in the street. The tourist is the person who looks upwards all the time. New Yorkers can't be bothered looking at all the high buildings. New Yorkers look at the street and what it is that goes on there.
Tourists keep looking towards the sky all the time. And it is for a good reason tourists look at the buildings. Because not only are they high, they are often also splendid architecture. And we are not only talking about the well-known buildings such as
Empire State Building,
Flatiron Building,
Woolworth Building and
Chrysler Building. When you walk around on Manhattan you can find hundreds of other buildings that in any other city in the World would be
Very much New York City
We even recognise this from many films set in New York City. a popular tourist sight. But in New York they are reduced to being just another building.
But when you visit New York there are a few places and sights you just have see. If not for any better reason so just only to tick them off from the list of things everybody
expect you to see in New York. The must-see-places are
*
Grand Central Terminal - It is a transport hub basically but the building is spectacular enough to make it a tourist attraction on its own.
*
Times Square - where Second Avenue meets Broadway is the curiously shaped Times Square. It is easy to recognise for the large number of theatres and the many TV-screens covering the houses around the square.
*
United Nations Headquarters - home of the UN. One of the reasons why you can call New York City the Capital of the World.
*
Ellis Island - a border station built to take care of immigrants arriving to the US.
*
Statue of Liberty - a gift from France. Isn't it a bit ironic that one of the most famous symbols of New York is made in Europe?
*
Chinatown - a few blocks
Manhattan the way a tourist sees it
Tourists always look to the sky in New York. in the southern part of Manhattan is dominated by Chinese people and consequently by Chinese shops and signs written in Chinese.
*
Empire State Building - one of the most famous skyscrapers in the World. It was for many years the highest in the World. Since the World Trade Center towers collapsed in 2001 it is once again the highest building in New York. But worldwide it is not even among the top 10 highest buildings.
*
Flatiron Building - a building famous mostly for its odd shape. It looks like a big wedge.
*
World Trade Center site - was the place where the twin towers of World Trade Center stood until September 11 2001. Today it is a huge construction site.
*
Wall Street - there are a few streets in the World that has a name that symbolises more than the street itself. A few examples are
Fleet Street i London,
Abbey Road also in London,
Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles,
Reeperbahn in Hamburg and
Champs-Élysées in Paris. But as far as we know there is only one place in the World where two such streets cross each other. In the south of Manhattan the streets Broadway and Wall Street meet each other.
Manhattan the way a New Yorker sees it
New Yorkers never look to the sky in New York *
Brooklyn Bridge - once the longest suspension bridge in the World. Today it is an important bridge in the road network of New York City as it is used not only by cars but also by pedestrians, bicyclists and subway trains. Today the Brooklyn Bridge doesn't even qualify among the top 50 longest suspension bridges in the World. But it is a strong candidate for the title the Most Beautiful Bridge in the World.
*
Woolworth Building - a spectacular skyscraper at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.
*
Central Park - a huge park in the central of Manhattan. Being over four kilometres long and over 830 meters wide it is a large and important recreation area for the New Yorkers.
*
Strawberry Fields memorial - a part of Central Park dedicated to the Memory of John Lennon. Strawberry Fields memorial is often symbolised by the Imagine mosaic, simply because it is the only feature there you can take a good photo of. But the memorial is a lot bigger than that. The rest consists of hundreds of trees, flowers and plants donated by various embassies and institutions representing more than half of the countries in the World.
Humour Hard Rock Café style
The fork on the Hard Rock Café sign does a classic Rock 'n' Roll-signature Earlier in this entry of the blog we mentioned that we feel that we already know Manhattan. We have seen so many movies and TV-series based in New York that the city almost feel like home. A few examples are
Spider-Man,
King Kong,
CSI: NY,
Taxi Driver,
Spin City and
Panic Room. One of the TV-series set in New York we have followed rigorously is
Friends. In one episode there the two characters Phoebe Buffay and Rachel Green decides to jog in Central Park. Now jogging is a form of exercise Emma and Ake enjoys too. So when we were in New York we also went for a jog in Central Park one day. Central Park is popular among joggers and we enjoyed running there. In this episode of Friends (
Episode 7 in Season 6 in case you are interested in seeing it) one of the jokes is that Phoebe looks extremely silly when she runs. So when we ran in Central Park we ran like Phoebe. We know we are silly, but it was fun. When we go Philadelphia we are going to
run like Rocky Balboa while singing
Eye of the Tiger.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.132s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0607s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Ahmad
non-member comment
Cool Manhattan
What good pics of Manhattan, Ake....I enjoyed to see them!!!