Weekend in New York

So we took the flight at 3:30pm on Friday from SFO to JFK. Thanks to my gold level status we boarded in zone 1 and our seats were at the exit row with about one meter large leg room. My wife was shocked how things go on a Delta flight :) I used my coupons to get us something to eat. I also realized that the on-board entertainment system is not for free any more. You already had to pay for movies, but you could watch a couple of episodes of popular series and satellite TV for free. Now apart from movie trailers everything's for money. I think this is an outrage! Sell that freakin' ticket $10 more and let us use the entertainment system for free. It's a 5 and a half hours long flight for God's sake! No food, no drinks and now no TV?

Well, fortunately I always come prepared and I had my PSP loaded with anime series and movies so that kept us from boredom and didn't cost a dime either.



We arrived shortly before midnight to JFK. We took the AirTrain to get to the place where the shuttle buses of nearby hotels pick up their guests. We had to wait for like 10 minutes, checking in was smooth, the room was clean a bit small but definitely OK. We were hungry. According to Google Maps there was a McDonald's two blocks away, but we couldn't find it. Where it should have stand there was a parking lot. No sign if there was a McDonald's ever... The phone number was OK though... I gave them a call before to know if they are still open. We had like 10 minutes left. In the end we ordered Chinese food from the place our hotel clerk suggested.

Day 1

We got up early took a shower had breakfast and shortly after 9 o'clock we were on our way to Manhattan. We needed altogether an hour to get to Madison Square Garden where our next hotel was for the rest of our stay. Check in was after 3pm only so we left our baggage in the luggage room, and took of.

First: Empire State Building. In about an hour we got our tickets. While we were waiting there was a presentation running on huge flat screen monitors how hard they're trying to make the building more energy efficient because buildings in NYC take 80% of the overall energy consumption. Well if they turn the A/C from 18°C to 22°C no one gets a cold, they lower their energy consumption by 50% and people still free comfortable within the building... So first was level 86. Spectacular view and lots of people. I took a bunch of pictures. We purchased an extra ticket to level 102. $15 extra and it doesn't worth it. You look through windows that are tinted so you cannot really take any pictures because you get weird rainbow like lines on the photos ;(

After that we walked down to Flatiron Building and took Broadway down to China Town. We crossed the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn and spent like an hour in Brooklyn Bridge Park to rest our feet after all the walking and to write our postcards we bought on the way in a souvenir shop. There was a guy and a girl next to us. The guy was instructing the girl how to pose for the picture he wanted to take with a black electric guitar the girls supposed to hold above her head and with the skyline in the background. They were arguing for at least 15 minutes until they agreed and then the guy took his iPhone to take the picture. I assumed that he's a hobby photograph with some equipment after all the sh*t he put on the girl. Man! I think they were from the "hipster race".

We walked back to downtown on the Brooklyn Bridge and took the subway to get back to our hotel. After a bit of rest we walked to Times Square to see it at night.

 

Day 2

Unlike on Saturday when it was sunny and hot, today was rainy, humid and hot. The worst! We planned our day to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Book your tickets online with reserved time, unlike we did! That way you save an hour of standing in line. They didn't have any more tickets for the day to go inside the statue so we just walked around it and took a bunch of pictures. After that we waited another hour to get back on a ship. Here even reserved ticket doesn't help:



Where you can see that little barn-like building in the end of the clip, now that is where the ship docks!

We toured the museum on Ellis Island in the building of the old Immigration Office. They say most of the Americans derive from here. We saw many Hungarian related materials from the time. But that time Hungary was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its territory took almost half of Europe...

Hungarian Passport

Direct connection from Hungary to New York on the see (!)

We had dinner in Chinatown in a Chinese Restaurant. In the other room there was a wedding reception going on. Was fun to watch! The groom and the bride were not older then 22 years, for sure!

After dinner we walked back to the Financial District. Saw the new World Trade Center construction site and the Wall Street Bull and headed back to the hotel.

Day 3

We checked out from the hotel and left our suitcases in the luggage room. Had a quick breakfast and bought the ticket for our train back to the airport. Went to Macy's which was open before it supposed to be (4th of July savings are demanding and business is business and money talks :D) so we could look around before the crowd came. After that we took the subway to the north side of Central Park, so technically we were in Harlem, too (!) and walked through the Central Park down to 5th Avenue. People were grilling, running, skating, riding bikes in the park. It felt crowded. A lot of people ran that day... It was hot and humid... Brrr.

The only thing that was shocking was the fact that Turtle Pond is called so for a reason: there're turtles living in/around it. How do I know? I saw one :) I'm sure at night there'd be more shocking things to see in the Park ;)

We walked down on 5th Ave to 42nd Street, walked by the Chrysler building and saw the building of United Nations. Then walked back to time square had a huge ice coffee and lunch. Then back to the hotel to grab our luggage and off to the airport.

The plane arrived more or less in time, so by midnight we were at home.

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Since 2007 either the City changed a lot or I was infected by suburban living and also grew old at the same time, but I was not that amazed any more. Crowd, dirt, smell... Whole Midtown smells like puke, did you realize it?!

Anyhoo, it was a fun weekend, and we saw a lot of beautiful things, and I hope we'll have the opportunity to go back and explore the museums a little more.

One more thing I realized changed in the last 4 years: there're much more Indian people even in New York. I thought the Bay Area was kinda unique since it is the headquarter of computer related industry, but New York was filled with Indians, too. I don't remember seeing them there at all 4 years ago. You know that Americans tend to be afraid of being invaded by China, but I think they should rather be afraid of India. The invasion has already started! ;) I also think the policy should be changed back to the "Melting Pot" approach from the current "Salad Bowl" one...