I have dreamed of visiting New York for years and I never thought that I would actually get there so soon. I'd hoped that I would be able to go while on my year abroad but the fact that it was on the other side of the USA made it feel not so likely that I would get there. So when it was actually booked it was surreal, and that feeling continued until we were there in the city at the end of May. I was so happy that we got to go in the springtime so we could see Central Park at its most green and beautiful and experience the city in warm weather. NYC completely exceeded my expectations and I absolutely fell in love with the place. I'm going to do several posts instead of one
very very long one as there's a lot to fit in!
We flew into Newark Airport in New Jersey as the flight times from LA were much more suitable for us compared to JFK and we also got to cross off another state in the process! We got the train into Manhattan and headed to Times Square to pick up our New York Passes which allow you to go to most of the attractions and museums in the city for a set price. We found it to be well worth the money as we saved about $100 on tickets over the week we were there. The pass includes some things you wouldn't think to do such as hiring bikes to cycle around Central Park and also guided tours which make the experience much more interesting. After collecting the passes we decided to stay in Times Square to get some dinner at Planet Hollywood before getting a yellow cab to our apartment in Brooklyn which we had booked through website, Airbnb.
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| Cast-Iron Architecture of SoHo |
30 May 2014
For our first day in the city we had booked a walking tour of SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown which are in Lower Manhattan. Our guide was very enthusiastic, an aspiring actress, and she told us all about the areas. SoHo gets its name from being South of Houston St. and it is well known for its Cast-Iron Architecture which gives the buildings their decorative facades. The area has had an interesting and constantly changing history going through periods of affluence and decline. It has now become a trendy neighbourhood with sought after property. We also found out on the tour that it is the birthplace of a recently very popular pastry in America, the Cronut, a combination of a croissant and donut, created by Dominique Ansel. We saw the bakery, which is known to have queues around the block when the Cronuts are available and people often queue for several hours. Unfortunately there weren't any available when we were there but I'm not sure I'd wait that long for one anyway!
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| Cast-Iron Architecture |
Next on the tour was Little Italy where we were shown many Italian restaurants, most impressive of which was Lombardi's, the first pizzeria in the USA. The tour guide also told us stories about the Italian Mafia which she named "The Family" so as not to offend anyone. She also pointed out a few places on the tour where there used to be Speakeasies (bars which illegally sold alcohol) during the Prohibition of 1920-1933 and a few still exist in the city today. That night we headed back to Little Italy for dinner at restaurant, Da Gennaro, where I had some really tasty ravioli!
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| Lombardi's |
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| Little Italy |
The tour also showed us Chinatown and the guide pointed out all the best restaurants and gave people the opportunity to try some of the food. After the tour had finished we walked to see City Hall and the very grand Manhattan Municipal Building and then decided to visit Ground Zero and the new 9/11 Memorial Museum.
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| Manhattan Municipal Building |
Being at the World Trade Center site was surreal. Although I was only eight on 9/11 I remember the day and how scary it was, even thousands of miles away. I can't imagine what it was like being in the city on that day. The two water fountains at the site are a powerful and beautiful memorial to the victims, and to the loss of the towers which were so iconic in Manhattan's skyline. The newly built World Trade Center building stands tall, an impressive structure; I liked how it almost blended into the sky with its reflections.
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One World Trade Center
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| 9/11 Memorial Fountain |
The 9/11 Memorial Museum had opened to the public only a week before we went and had been surrounded by controversy. I was interested to see what I would think about it upon visiting. We spent nearly 3 hours in the museum as there is a vast amount to see. It was gut-wrenching to see the devastation that had been caused and such personal items of those who lost their lives. I had mixed feelings while walking around, wondering whether it was right to be there, whether it was disrespectful to have these artefacts on display to the public. The museum can be seen as positive in that it educates generations to come about what happened on 9/11 and is a place of remembrance, however this notion was hard to fully grasp in the first part of the museum where photography is allowed. It seemed that people, in this technologically absorbed world, were more interested in taking photos of the place than actually stopping to think about what they were looking at, the tragedy of 9/11 and what it all meant. Also, being the USA where there seem to be gift shops in every attraction and museum you go to, perhaps it should not have surprised me so much that there was one in there. It felt completely out of place, even if the proceeds go to a good cause, it felt too commercialised for a place which is supposed to honour the victims of such a tragedy. However, the parts of the museums where NO photography was allowed did seem to really effect people. The personal stories of those involved, about their lives and not just their deaths are told and artefacts from the day bring home the reality. People from all over the world can connect over the tragedy; I may have been eight years old and thousands of miles away on the day of the attacks, but the memorial museum made me feel a sense of loss. I think to an extent that day changed everyone, it certainly changed the world we live in.
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| Quotation made from the steel of the towers |
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One of the artefacts in the area where photography is allowed: The Survivor's Staircase
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Sorry for the kind of sad second half of the post but you can't really write about 9/11 without it being sad. My next entry will be about Day 2: Uptown TV and Movie Tour, the Rockefeller Center Tour, Top of the Rock and Times Square!
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