New York - Day 4

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Central Park

We start the day early. The hostel organizes some great events. Some of the events only cost $10 and others are free. The tour of Central Park is free. Our tour starts at 10 am, but starts a little bit later.

Damn. Central Park is big (843 acres)...hmmmm...I think there is going to be a lot of walking here...lol. It turns out that Central Park is a lot smaller than Stanley Park in Vancouver. I always thought it was bigger. Another myth busted...lol. Stanley Park is roughly 400 hectares, so, you can fit over 400 Central Parks in Stanley Park. Note to self: explore all the trails in Stanley Park.

It's a short walk (3 short blocks, not the long ones 😊) to Central Park where we are starting. Our tour guide gives us a history lesson about the park as we tour the park. The park is very impressive with all the gardens, walk ways, bridges, ponds, etc. I've never seen such a well designed park in my life. In some places in the park, you don't even know you are in the city anymore. You can't hear the traffic or the noise of the city. In fact, you can't even see the buildings in some parts of the park. And I thought New York had towering skyscrapers...lol.

An interesting note about the park. On all the lamp posts, there are markings telling you what street in NYC you are on and whether it's East, West, North East, North West, South East, or South West. These marking come in very handy if you get lost in the park. At least you know that if you walk in one direction, you should hit the city...the key word here is should...lol.

The tour takes us a little less than 6 hours to finish. We took a 30 minute lunch break at 1:30 pm. Good thing I had a good breakfast or I would have starved to death. Our tour group is very diverse. People from Brazil, Japan, Argentina, USA, and even Canada. My god, there were two other Canadians there. I couldn't believe it. And to top it off, one of them was from Vancouver as well...lol. I think the pictures will tell you a better story of the park. Enjoy!

Dinner in Times Square

I'm heading out for dinner with two new friends I met on the tour. Andrew (The other guy from Vancouver) and Priscilla (from Brazil) are really eager to go eat in Times Square. Mourad decided that he wants to cook tonight and doesn't come with us. We jump on the subway and pop out in the middle of the craziness that is Times Square. I remember seeing a lot of people the other night when I was with Mourad, but there seems to be a lot more people down here tonight; most of the people are tourist. Wonder if this is a tourist trap?

Before, we hit the restaurant, we end up shopping. The restaurant we end up at is TGIF; yes, yes I know what you are all thinking. But at that point we were all starving and it was the only place we could all agree on. The foods okay and my diet is shot to hell, but at this point, I don't care as I'm too hungry...lol. I don't think we actually ate till 8pm. That's really late for me considering I didn't eat anything between lunch and dinner 😞. Note to self: eat snacks and order more healthy food.

Priscilla and I head back to the hostel after dinner. Andrew still has energy to explore and decides to explore on his own. Who knows what mischief he will get himself into...lol. We bid him adieu. Priscilla and I have a nice conversation on the way back to the hostel and we trade contact information. Woo Hoo! I have another friend I can go visit on my trip around the world 😊.

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Photos

The Wall
The wall that goes around all of Central Park

Dog Walkers
One dog is a dog owner. More than one dog is a dog walker.