the first thing that came to our mind when we stepped out of the JFK airport was, damn, its freezing cold! and twas suppose to be autumn! unlike europe where autumn is the perfect weather to walk around with just a light jacket and a scarf, here in nyc due to higher wind chill factor, you need the full nine yards of extra sweater, scarfs, gloves and warm boots! which obviously none of us were prepared for! luckily, this is only mainly required during the rainy days, on bright sunshiny day, its more tolerable :p
we arrived late afternoon, and after a drop of at the hotel to check in and freshen up after the long almost 24 hrs flight, we decided to immediately hit the town!
we stayed at queens area, about 40 mins subway ride into the city, the subway was easy peasy enough to figure out, but one downside is that because the subway is so old, some does not have escalators so you kind need to walk up at least 3-4 storeys high stairs AND also, because they kinda 'add-on' to the existing subways, sometimes a simple thing such as to go on the otherside of the track, to go in opposite direction, u need to walk back out into street level and find the entrance to other side! and mind u, the entrances to the subway can be easily missed! some so hidden and obscure we kinda really need to know the street address!
and yes, the street addresses was kinda confusing at first, east and west, and the numbers, but like all other big cities, once you get the system, the rest will fall into place :)
we stayed at a hotel called Ramada Queens, and like i said, its 40mins into manhattan, some people do think its kinda far, but i guess to us, the distance is not a problem as we only need to make one trip out and one trip back, and since we all are early risers anyway, seriously no problem with the extra time and the cost its saves us rather than staying in the city.
okey, moving on with the pictures!
this is Times Square! and the first sight that greeted us the minute we stepped out of the subway! the place was bright and alive with vibrant lights and for a moment we were speechless with the aliveness of the place and it was at first like being in a movie, it was so surreal! it took us a couple of minutes to gather ourselves and we were like grinning to each other and like ohmygod ohmygod, we are in NEW YORK! like OHMYGOD!!! and then excitedly and with much glee, we took out the good ol camera and started snapping photos away :)
almost on every building is HUGE HUGE screens where from everything and anything is on, advertisements mainly obviously! Times Square is where you can find Hard Rock Cafe, the biggest Toys R Us in the world, they even have ferris wheels inside! you can also find as you walk down the street, a huge M&M's shop and a Hershey's shop, each a couple of storeys high and just filled with candy and candy and lotsa of candy! Times Square is also where Madam Tussaude is and of course, where most of the theaters are too! you can either book your theater tickets online or take a queue at the bottom of the red stairs at times square, there are also theater adverts peeps who walked around promoting the tickets, an egyptian to promote priscilla, people wearing animal headdress promoting lion king, there's also people promoting comedy acts and shows and live bands, there's so many activities going on around you, u will really get your head spinning trying to absorb as much as u can!
Times Square is also the start of the hop on hop off buses, and our advice, get the one operated by grey line, as they cover both updown and downtown routes and its 54 bucks with 48 hrs validity. the best part about this hop on hop off is their on the bus tour guides! they ranges from seriously funny to seriously weird but ALL very knowledgeable about all that you need to know about nyc, and they give fantastic advices about where to go what to do when to do it and its really a great start to your nyc trip!
one of the best advice we got, was to check out the view on the Top of The Rock, which is located on top of Rockerfeller Center. most people will go on top of Empire State Building but logically, if you do that then you wont get a gorgeous view of the Empire State Building, get it? hehe but actually we only had time for one climb up a building so decided on top of the rock, but if you have the time, go on both! try to work out the timing so that you are on top when its both light and at night, they said the view was super gorgeous at night, but since we are pressed with time, we make do with just the day view, and even then, it was enough to blow our mind! i will save the night view for a romantic trip later hehe
view of the central park from Top of the Rock!
the famous wall street bull!
the above building is the Flatiron building, isnt it gorgeous? as you go nearer and passing by it, the building suddenly will look like its totally flat! super cool!
the Empire State Building!
the Fashion District, where they shot project runaway at a nearby building..
Times Square on daylight, some people commented its prettier at night, and i agree! at night the place becomes a wonderfully amazing place! at day, its just another big city :)
the first few days we were kinda intimidated with the fast fashionable crowd of the new yorkers, they walk fast, even a simple thing like crossing at the lights! hehe yes, we were that silly! but after a few times, we became attuned to how the city works and we tut tutted when folks were slow when crossing, "tourists"! we muttered as we rolled our eyes at them :p another interesting thing we noted was that we actually had some trouble understanding the Americans! i mean, we practically grew up listening and watching american tv and had all the slangs and accents picked up from them, who would have thought we would have actual problems when in real life?!! i think its because they speak quite fast but still, my theory is, i dont speak American, i only speak England. :p :p.
next post, Statue of Liberty, Mary Poppins and shopping at Tiffany's! (^_^) stay tuned!
i did wish for a better camera when we were there, but i think the pics turned out quite well :)
the place is HUGE! seriously tiring to walk from one shop to another, for example, to get from the Fossil shop to Coach takes a good 10 minutes walk, so you can imagine how huge this place is. it has about 200 plus shops and we did not manage to even make a dent into it. the minute we get there, we were given a map, and we decided which shops to go too, and make like a route for it and stick to that, otherwise, it just gets too overwhelming!
me with my new red samsonite!
the damage after just two hours! two hours! and we were there from 9am to 8pm!! yes!! that long! hehe i need not go into details of my purchases, suffice to say, its really worth it!
