[ Living In The Fairytale ]

Sunday, June 11, 2006

First leg of Summer Trip - The Big Apple!

After having gotten to used to life in Seattle, it felt a little strange leaving my "familiar" lifestyle behind and gradually, the thought hit me that I would probably not be coming back to Seattle again. All of a sudden, I felt like doing so many things, like visiting the Cascades, Mount Rainier, Portland etc and I regretted not having done them when I had the time. Oh well.

On a happier note, leaving Seattle means that my summer trip on the East Coast has finally started!

The flight from Seattle to JFK New York was a harrowing one. I thought that Northwest Airlines was bad enough, but Delta is even worse. I had a massive headache straight after takeoff, the first time this had ever happened to me. The guide who picked us up at the airport was pretty rude and kept hurrying us (our current tour guide is also like that, sheesh!). That's why I prefer to travel free and easy, tour groups are always not as fun and we are herded around blindly like sheep all the time.

Well anyway the first place we visited in New York City was Chinatown, where we had breakfast that was surprisingly cheap and tasty. The Chinatown here is the largest in the whole of USA, but like all chinatowns, it was dirty and dilapidated.

The Confucius statue - landmark of Chinatown

After that we went to the Empire State building, currently the tallest building in NYC after the twin towers were demolished. We took 2 elevators to get to the 86th floor and there were LONG queues everywhere - to get up, to get down, to the toilet (guess everyone wanted to use the city's highest toilet haha). The observatory was basically packed with trigger-happy people stuck to the walls and we had to squeeze our way through. I guess the New Yorkers are generally less polite and friendly than the people in Seattle (and there's also probably no such thing as good service here).

Panoramic view from the top of Empire State

Interesting road sign

The next stop - Broadway! Not enough time to snap some proper photos, much less watch a musical. -_-

Look at all the chocolate signs!

After that we went to the Intrepid Sea and Air Museum, where we went into an old battle submarine and battle ship. It was a rather boring expedition for me as I have no interest in such things. Haha. What did interest me though was this:

A fragment of the Berlin wall next to a tank

Next we took the NYC water taxi from the South Street Seaport to look at Manhatten from a different point of view, the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and a couple of islands whose names I've forgotten. =P It was kind of surreal looking at the Statue of Liberty so close up - I've seen it many times in the movies before and it felt like I was in a movie myself when I saw it up close. Haha.

Brooklyn Bridge

The famous bull that supposedly grants wealth and hence everyone clamours to take a photo with it. Garr didn't get to go into Wall Street because it's closed to traffic - must make a mental note to go there during the last 2 days in NY.

As we were behind schedule, we had to make a mad dash to the United Nations general office. However, it was in vain as we reached at exactly 4.30 pm, which was the closing time. The guards were kind enough to let us in for some quick photos though.

That is the reason why I hate going on tours with groups. -_-

In The Fairyland On|11:26 PM|