El Manzana Grande

[The long process of gathering pictures, this post and even more pictures has been completed, and here I present the final NYC work. For the pictures accompaniyng this post, go to my New York City Pictures, and the more artistic ones can be found at my Flickr site.]


Been there, done that. Again. Fall break came and went, and inbetween I found myself in New York City, which for some reason is called 'The Big Apple', with 5 of the other Norwegians from Augie.

The day of departure was Friday Oct. 21st, and the time chosen was 5:05 a.m, to optimize the time spent in the enormous city. We traveled through Minneapolis/St. Paul, and were in NYC around 10:30 a.m. That was breakfast time, so after surveying the 3 star hotel, the Homestead in Secaucus NJ, we all went to a nearby Subway and had a bite to eat. Then we all decided (note this: 6 energetic Norwegians on the same trip spelled decision trouble from the beginning. Some were distinct 'followers', and more than the healthy one were 'leaders', so decisions were made after very weird democratic patterns throughout the trip) that it was time to explore Manhattan. After a somewhat catastrophic trip to what was supposed to be a shopping district in New Jersey with two Mexican cab drivers, we made our way to central New York City by a bus that stopped right outside our hotel. Around 4 o'clock, after roaming the impressive streets of NYC for about two hours, we entered the Museum of Modern Art. The place had a lot of fascinating (not in my usual sense, actually fascinating art, including pictures and sculptures. Museums are cool, what can I say?)

This day was mostly devoted to the soaking in of impressions, in the form of huge skyscrapers, a metropolis (love that word) atmosphere, and the huge quantity of people that was scurrying along the many streets. After some shopping (at Quicksilver and other such fine stores mainly) we found our bus home at the Port Authority building and went back to the hotel (note: I'm 19. Victor and Marianne aren't. They're over 21. We separated that evening).

The next day was a good one. Victor and I split with the rest of the group, mainly due to irreconcilable interests (i.e. overly excessive cravings for shopping in the girls), and went on a somewhat different sightseeing trip. We both agreed that the city would be best seen from the ground, that is, by foot, and that we would try to seek out less tourist ridden places. Our trip started out by transporting ourselves on the subway to Brooklyn (across the river), and by walking up to ground level there. Hmmm... That was somewhat intimidating. The whole neighborhood we had entered was... African American. And we were as white as fresh, Norwegian snow. "You're two stand up guys, right here, huh?" a man shouted at us when we passed him going down the street to find the famous bridge located a couple of blocks from where we were. Fascinating, or more like scary. We hurried on to the intended destination, and began walking over the river on the Brooklyn Bridge. Good view from up there too, and it's a sight of itself.

Our next stop was downtown Manhattan, and more precisely a Starbucks there, since rest for our sore feet seemed necessary. After a cup of warm chocolate and a cookie of some sort, we wandered down to Wall Street. Not much to see there, though, just the building covered by a huge American flag, but worth the walk down there. We took some pictures, and kept walking down Wall Street a few blocks. We suddenly encountered something that seemed like a back alley, or more like a side street, and it all had a very European look to it. The exterior of the buildings made me reminisce about my trip to Prague, and the French inspired sidewalk cafes were a nice feature. Halfway down the little street, we actually found a Scandinavian restaurant. Here we took the chance to recap several aspects of Scandinavian culture, before hurrying back to Times Square, where we'd agreed to meet the girls for dinner. Dinner this day took place at Planet Hollywood.

The next day we caught the 10:34 a.m. bus to Manhattan, and our first stop was Broadway to secure our six tickets ($27 each) for the "Chicago" show later that afternoon. We then hurried up to catch a glimpse of Central Park. The girls (collectively named 'the soccergirls', and Marianne) weren't all that interested in the park, so they decided to turn around at the very entrance and head back to shop some more. Victor and I, the true explorers, entered the park to discover (rediscover, in my case, but hey) what it was all about. It was full of runners, joggers, rollerbladers, and casual walkers like us, mostly due to the full restriction on cars in the park during weekends. The trees were still green, the park lush, and despite of a somewhat gloomy weather we found the park to be a worthwhile destination (in fact, so worthwhile that Victor would return early the next morning to rollerblade his way through it again). The show was to begin at 2:00 p.m., so we went back to meet the girls outside of the theatre, and got seated in the okay seats we'd gotten. The show was funny, really funny, and quite entertaining as a matter of fact, something I'd come to expect from a show lasting two and a half hour. When we got out of the theatre, the sky was finally blue and the sun shining, so we decided to proceed to the Empire State building.

After 90 minutes in line, we finally entered the 86th floor of the building, and by then the sun had already set. The pictures were illuminated by the subtle light from the city, but the problem was to keep the camera still enough to avoid any blurriness, even sometimes present at the 'night' setting on my camera (you're probably shouting 'more technical stuff, Christian, more!' by now). The pictures came out fine, nothing a little editing can't fix. We got ourselves down from the massive building okay, but then the challenge of moving towards the bus station presented itself. Who'd imagine walking ten blocks would take us 3 hours? I would, knowing my company. Shopping stop after shopping stop, clothes and shoes and gorgeous/beautiful/fantastic/ravishing pink purses, plus a dinner stop at McDonald's (of all places) had me imagining myself running back to the Empire State building and flinging myself off the 86th floor. But we made it. We took the bus back to the hotel, and after a little party in our room we all went to bed.

'Monday morning rain is falling...' No, it wasn't raining, in fact, but the sun wasn't shining either. I met up with Victor at the Hardrock Cafe, and we proceeded to the Rockefeller Center to see the ice scaters there (the ice rink opened Oct. 8th, and it was kind of nice to see ice again), and the site where the Norwegian christmas tree is placed every Christmas. We walked on to the St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was a truly magnificent sight by the backdrop created by all the skyscrapers. Inside I lit a candle, a nice little tidbit, and we sat in on the very intimidating beginning of a Catholic sermon. The priest, chanting in Latin, and the congregation looking like they were eternally condemned or bottomlessly repentant, it all had me getting chills down my back and swear that I'd never become a Catholic. The whole thing was soaked in a feeling of guilt, and I could never live like that. But nevertheless, good for the Catholics if they don't mind.

Exiting the cathedral, we walked down another side street to perhaps find some fascinating new sigths. Sure enough, there only 300 ft from the cathedral, we found a local restaurant which proved to be a real find. "The Primeburger", as it was called, was still decorated according to the '50s, and had waiters dressed in tuxedos serving you. You could sit in a group, each in your own seat, with a retractable tray to place the food on. Pretty cool.

Our next endeavor, and this time as a whole group again, was the boat ride around Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. The boat departed at 4:00 p.m. and with what you could call a rather enthusiastic, deep-voiced sightseeing guide speaking over the loudspeakers. The boat had two floors, and we situated ourselves on the very top one, with an icy, strong wind sweping across our faces when we went back and forth between the two sides to take pictures like real, Norwegian (Japanese?) tourists. The ride included Ellis Island, the aforementioned Lady Liberty, the also previously explored Brooklyn Bridge, and most of upper Manhattan. Nice way of seeing it all, the stuff that we wouldn't necessarily have spent many hours on anyways (note: The famous statue was closed and has been in the upper part since 9/11, so a day spent looking at and not from it wouldn't have been worthwhile anyways). We disembarked the vessel, and headed over to Ground Zero.

Ground Zero. A huge hole in the ground, but with so much meaning behind it. I won't expound on this part of our sightseeing, but it was definetely worth it this time too. After this stop we went on, Victor and I split from the group again, and we found our way to Chinatown. We walked around for a while, taking pictures and soaking in the impressions, before settling down at one of the authentic Chinese restaurants. After a "Chicken Schzezuan Style" for me and Victor's shrimp balls and other shrimp overdoses, it had begun raining, and we made our way to Times Square again. From here we walked to the stand up club, where we had tickets to one of their shows. The comedians weren't all that good, one guy tried so hard it was more embarrassing to watch him than anything else. But there were funny elements in it all, so it wasn't all wasted. When we exited the club, the rain was pouring down worse than ever, and needless to say, I was dressed in a t-shirt and pants. Soaking wet, like some dripping cat (I miss my cat. Cats are beautiful animals, and I miss my long departed one. Anyways). Around 11:30 p.m. we went back to our hotel and got a good night's sleep.

Tuesday. The day of bitter departure. But not before seeing the last remaining sights and attractions. Victor and I (as always) split up with the girls and embarked on our last sightseeing walk of the trip, a trip that also turned out to be a wet one. It was raining sideways at times even, and the result was that we were dry on our upper bodies (where my umbrella and his rain jacket had been), and soaking wet in the lower region. Cold. Anyways, we arrived at our second destination around 12:00 a.m., the Sony Wonder Technology Lab, after quickly surveying the not all that spectacular Grand Central Station. The tech lab wasn't exactly as high-tech as we hoped it would be, but fun nontheless, and we ended up spending an hour and a half there (it might have had something to do with the weather, and the process of drying, but practicality never killed the ca... Oh, now I made myself sad).

Outside the sun was shining again, once in a while anyways, and Victor and I gave in to our conflicting interests and went each to ours to cover more things in the little time we had left. Victor went to the Museum of Photography, while I walked up to the Time Warner center to take the CNN Tour. The tour started at 3:00, and lasted for about 45 minutes, and covered all the studios, research floors, newsrooms, the Larry King set (one of three identical ones, though, but nevertheless) and some other cool tidbits. Not included in the tour was meeting the CNN celebs, though, but the tour I joined was lucky that way. Halfway into it we were walking down the hall of one of the sets, and there came Larry King! We stood there waiting for the elevator together, and then he scooted off to his late lunch or whatever. Pretty nice. I bought some souvenirs from the building, and ran outside to catch a cab (yes, it was one of those movie cab catchings, I threw myself halfway into the street and waived the first cab I could find over to the side, and threw myself into the backseat before hurriedly saying "To the Port Authority!") I arrived at the PA a couple of minutes before 4:00, when I was supposed to meet the others.

We got on the bus back to the hotel, got our bags, got in a cab to the airport. The plane was of course cancelled when we arrived there, but that wasn't the comical thing. The funny thing was the way we were told. When checking in, the lady behind the counter took my credit card, found our tickets, and then started talking about our reservation, lik normal. Then halfway into the mumbling, she suddenly mentiones then kind of important piece of information. "Yes, you've got a window seat, non-smoking of course, your plane will be leaving from gate 34, and your flight is cancelled..." We took the whole thing with full calmness, and ended up on a Northwest flight instead. The trip had been yet another success among other good trips to these United States, and New York never let us down.

posted by CK @ 06:00