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Published: July 21st 2009
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The ball of the Bull
There are so many things I can say about this I may be a little bias, but it is NEW YORK CITY after all. I lived here for a little bit after graduation. Let's just say that it is humanly impossible to ever be bored in NYC. There is something happening all the time - sun, rain, snow, droughts. So my lovely wife and I visited in July 2007. Again just a long weekend, but a couple days none-the-less.
We landed at Newark and took the subway to Manhattan and off course our Manhattan stop was right next to the once WORLD TRADE CENTER (soon to be replaced by the FUTURE WORLD TRADE CENTRE). So that was the first thing we saw entering NYC. Just a big hole. I never saw the WTC in person. I was there a year after the Towers went down. It is a bone-chilling reality when you stand there and all over the place all you see are people putting up things on the fence. You see people who see it for the first time and without hesitation they break down and cry. It is one of the hardest things to witness. I was not born in the States and on 9/11 it was just
kind of another thing that happened, but when I saw these scenes of people just crying and crying it touches a part of you and it makes you understand that this was not just another event.
NYC has too much to do. Period. You can probably live in NYC for a year and not even scratch the surface of what it has to offer. We were in NYC for the 4th of July celebrations (one of the best places to be for 4th of July). The fireworks are the big thing. So the advice is to take the train across to Brooklyn Heights and walk down to the East River bank and watch it from there. Nikkie absolutely loves photography. At the time we both had a small camera (our batteries ran out halfway through) and I had a 35mm film camera that I have not used for years so our pictures were just not up to par. But the fireworks is a must. It just goes on and on and on to a point where you just go "Enough allready".
Our first adventure in NYC was HISTORIC DOWNTOWN NEW YORK (financial district) where you are just surrounded
by some of New York's finest ARCHITECTUAL LANDMARKS. I am a finance guy so Wall Street and the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE (NYSE) always holds a special place. I can not tell you how many times I walked down Wall Street to job interviews. Again you just have all the tall buildings, but looking back up Wall Street you have an incredible view of TRINITY CHURCH. Across from the NYSE you have Federal Hall where George Washington was inaugurated and where they have a nice GEORGE WASHINGTON STATUE. Walking down you will see BATTERY PARK. There are statues and memorials all over the place (the best probably being the BRONZE SPHERE SCULPTURE that stood at the WTC plaza. From here you can also see the Statue of Liberty. Walking east a little further you will see South Street Seaport. It's a nice little shopping area with all kinds of restaurants to just sit down and watch people move about (you also have an awesome view of the Brooklyn Bridge). That same visit there were also fairs and markets all over the place so as I said - there is always something going on.
We also went to CENTRAL PARK.
Who have not heard of Central Park? Too big to do in one visit. And you really don't want to do too much walking in NYC in July. It is hot, humid, disgusting. We just wandered around. Our final destination was BETHESDA FOUNTAIN. It is a neat area with a million things going on at the same time. We just sat down and put our feet in the fountain. NYC is an incredible people watching city. It is fascinating to just look at this melting pot of people and observe how each and every one go about doing their own thing. Again we did not even scratch the surface of Central Park (just one thing of thousands in NYC). From Central Park we headed to Grand Central Terminal (Grand Central Station). If you take the subway it is almost impossible not to run into GCS. An incredible building from the outside and even more so from the inside.
Now to get to the part that was the best and will always be the best in NYC. THE FOOD. The food in NYC is incredible. Just think about it. Millions of people have to eat every day. There are so
many options. If food at one place suck then they can go somewhere else. I love the food in NYC. You name it and you will find it. We wandered around Little Italy one day. The street is closed and tables are thrown on the sidewalks and you are hustled by every owner to come and eat at their place "because the food will be better than you have ever had". We sat down at one place - could not tell you the name if my life depended on it. I had the seafood linguine and it was the best Italian I have ever had. Just a little hole-in-the-wall place. we will definitely go back for more. Nikkie and I both love food so NYC will be visited many more times.
Our last visit was to the UNITED NATIONS complex. We did a tour (some advice - hang on to your school ID because in almost every big city you get discounts if you are a college student). The tour was fascinating and is highly recommended. Nikkie can fill you in more on this.
So that was NYC in short. We can cross off a couple things from
our books. In the end we can cross off 6 things that included NYC in general, historic downtown NYC, Central Park, NYC architecture and the WTC.
7 DOWN - 3,037 TO GO.
Till next time.
From the Big Apple.
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