http://tinitravels.blogspot.com/2010/08/big-apple-bite-1.html
OK I will start this one by a little bragging!! Why not...after all this is the first time I am travelling business class. So for scribbling the second bite of the big apple, I am lounging in the Admiral's club lounge at Chicago, waiting for my next flight. Ya but the bragging stops there....It is a freakishly expensive lounge and so I am just lounging :)
OK I will start this one by a little bragging!! Why not...after all this is the first time I am travelling business class. So for scribbling the second bite of the big apple, I am lounging in the Admiral's club lounge at Chicago, waiting for my next flight. Ya but the bragging stops there....It is a freakishly expensive lounge and so I am just lounging :)
Lets get down to business...after all this post is not about Chicago airport...
After an exhausting yet entertaining first day, I was all kicked about where I would be taken the second day. I was told by my friend tat he was bunking office (how long has it been since you read that term?? :) ) and hence could not take me to see the Financial District lest his boss or more so his clients catch him touristing New York :D
So it was natural that come weekend I would like to go to Financial district and walk around. More so the fact that to go to the much talked about statue of Liberty one has to take the ferry from the port in the Financial District. So like all tourists do, target one was the Statue of Liberty....Financial district walks could wait.
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| Crumbs |
But wait...as usual I woke up late enough to have just missed the breakfast and the last day's talks of the famous bakeries in NY did not help. So the first stop on the journey of day 2 was "Crumbs" a bakery famous for its cupcakes. and boy oh boy!!, were they cupcakes or what!! each one could have passed off as a mini cake! Did I mention is some earlier post about the massive appetite of Americans? If not I will mention it now and if yes, I will reiterate it again.....they hog!!!! Give them something sweet and they will gobble down any amounts! Well the cupcakes did look very tempting. So me and my friend took 2 different flavours in the hope that I would get to try a little bit of both...and I was confused about where to start :) Soon enough I realized that in 1 year though my appetite had increased substantially, it was still lagging far behind in comparison to the Americans. One fourth of the first cupcake and I was gasping for breath! So quite religiously we got the cupcakes packed (knowing fully well that at least mine would be thrown away!!) and lugged the packet along...onwards to the next stop...
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| Ya right!!! |
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It has been so long that I think I am beginning to forget the course of events...
So before they are just blurred incidents in my mind let me string them together!
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| Me at Battery Park |
So well...stuffed with cupcakes...we walked to the Financial district. Strange how much we were walking...or did we take the subway?? (see this is what happens when you don't write on time!!!) anyways what matters is we reached Financial District.....oh wait I remember we took the subway for some part and walked some part (Phew!!!) Where the walk started was someplace called Battery Park, which if I remember is at the tip of Manhattan. This is where we were supposed to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.
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| Battery Park |
Please pay attention to the phrase "supposed to" in the above sentence, cuz I was in NY on the weekend when half the world had decided to visit the Statue of Liberty...so the queue to the ferry was long enough that if they let us put a handkerchief in the line like we do in the state transport buses in India, we would have had time to take a leisurely lunch (maybe even back at Times square), ride back to battery park and still have to wait an hour!!!
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| Me against Manhattan |
Naturally I was disappointed....you come all the way to New York and go back without seeing THE landmark??? But then...there was this ferry ride which would take you around the Statue and back...the Hudson river cruise...I remembered people telling me that was good enough...and that you really would not want to go all the way up the statue...etc etc....OK the real reason I was so kicked about this ferry ride was because there was no queue!!!! We bought the tickets and we boarded the ferry and 10 minutes later, with a prime viewing spot (turns out later that this spot was bang opposite the actual prime viewing spot for the statue) we parted from the banks of the Hudson.
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| the Other skyline |
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| Colgate Island |
The Manhattan skyline and another skyline (cannot remember the name now even if my life depended on it....curse the bad memory!!!) witnessed the historic event of me clicking them...oh how I wish I would have taken this cruise in the evening time...the pictures would have been priceless (the ones I took now can be purchased for a handsome amount though!!!...interested buyers please email me :) ). The cruise took us around the Statue of Liberty and thankfully I got plenty of clear shots to take back home that I was there!!! But other than the statue let me jog my memory to see if I remember all that we saw....Ellis Island (for some reason I thought it was LS island....), Governor's Island, some kinda hospital....a huge Colgate clock on a place called Colgate Centre (how uncreative!!)....and.....I give up....
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| Statue of Liberty |
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| NYSE |
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| AIG 70 Pine |
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| The Charging Bull |
Having disembarked from the ferry we needed to finish those cupcakes lest the cream turns into malai! So we found a restaurant in the Financial district...bought water...and took out the box....well I don't know bout the other cupcake but mine surely had turned sour....punishing me for making it swing in the NY heat (the ungrateful cupcake I tell you!!!). Finally getting rid of at least a kilo of weight we walked the Financial district...saw the Hyatt on Wall street....why do I mention it? Because the name of this speciality hotel was Andaz!!! yes yes the urdu waala andaaz!....saw the steam rising from the manholes (like I had always seen in the movies....yay!!!), NY Stock exchange.....and some building which was inaugurated on 30th April!!! (for those who are lesser informed...here's a bit of trivia...30th April is my birthday!)....and also not to forget, the Trinity Church...which unfortunately I could not see from inside but would have loved to!! Oh yes and of course the 'must see if you are a tourist' destination...the Wall street Bull....another bit of Trivia there (thanks to my secret sources!!)...the bull, alos called the Charging Bull is not on the Wall Street as most of us 'tourists' think...it is on Broadway (its been 2 days and I still do not understand the naming conventions here....oh but how does it matter!!!)
Does it all sound tiring (keep in mind we were walking ALL the time!!!)? Yes...then add more pity to it cuz we had completely forgotten that we had not had lunch! So on our journey to finding a good lunch place...we landed up (or rather I was tricked into this huge mall with tonnes of discount!!!! why do guys derive pleasure in testing our will power when it comes to shopping????). There were $400 worth shoes on sale for $60 (and that's just an example!)....but I strengthened myself and tried on many a pair but bought none (and it was not because I did not like any mind you)!!! (BRAVO!!!)
And before I could be lured into another shopping mall (I would not be able to resist it that much would I??) I started cribbing about being hungry (he he...). So the cute little Italian restaurant we went to....(and I remembered to ask my friend before I started typing this out).... was called Barbarini's. Loved the cheese platter there and ate so much that I could nothing more than nibble at the main course! A must it at for anyone going to NY!!
Anyways...this evening was far from over. It was one of my friend's birthday and I was invited to the party knowing no more than 2 people at that party (one being the host!). Anyways with the hope that I would not get bored there, I returned to my hotel...changed into something a bit more formal and headed off to.....again I cannot remember where he stays!!!! forget it...my friend's birthday party...(stopping by on the way at a shady looking kebab shop to buy some food as had been popularly requested...I could have sworn I was standing in Chandni Chowk!!).
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| 2 known faces |
At the party I had the fortune of discussing with a budding (drunk) author about her upcoming children's story book...along with a nightful of interesting conversations.
It was finally time when my feet were crying out and my eyes refused to keep open any longer than was necessary to reach back, did I decide to head back and rest for yet another long and hopefully as eventful a day as this trip had been till now!
