Sparkling Ice

Sandrine's travel blog

 

The day I spent walking in NY September 23, 2007

Today, I had breakfast with Natasha and Murat (from Russia), and we decided to visit NY together today as our plans were the same.
We started our walk in Central Park. I didn’t really enjoyed my short walk there last week because of the weather, but today, the sky is blue, the temperature is ideal, there are a lot of people running or walking in the park, the squirels are also here… it’s just per-fect!!
In Central Park we saw the Reservoir, Alice in Wonderland, Strawberry Fields (with the memorial to John Lennon) and some other nice places.
After Central Park, we took the subway to Greenwich Village and walked around. In some streets, you do not feel you are in NY because everything is so quiet (or maybe it’s only because it’s Sunday) and the houses are smaller, older… well it’s different (look at the pictures if you don’t understand).
After Greenwich, we went to Chinatown to have lunch (at 2.30pm) and then we went to Little Italy, where we had an excellent traditional ice cream (pistachio, of course!!!). We walked in the now famous street all decorated for San Gennaro Feast.
From there, we went to Soho and its particular architecture (many of the buildings were once factories). It’s amazing to see that each area in NY has its own culture, architecture and spirit (you can also see some pictures).
Then, I sugested we could go to the Flat Iron Building and we took the subway to go there. Unfortunately, only a small part of the building was in the sun (if ever you plan to take a picture of it, don’t wait for the end of the afternoon). We had a short rest in the park across the street, where we also took pictures of tree-shaped metal sculptures (I love the light effects on it).
We then again took the subway to see Wall street before heading to South Street sea port. From Wall street, we could already see Brooklyn skyline, which looked like gold thanks to the late afternoon light.
Arriving at South Street sea port, we went to the former fish market (now, you have restaurants and bars there) and found 3 seats to admire the sunset on the Queens and Brooklyn. We stayed for quite a long time and left only at night… many, many pictures later.
My stay here couldn’t end in a better way.
… well, once back at the hotel, I saw on TV that I could wave good bye to my plans for tomorrow as Ahmadinejad (the Iranian President) was in NY and would make a speach in Columbia University tomorrow… guess what wasn’t far from the hotel and still had to see? Yep, Columbia University!!! How did you guess?

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The day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NY
The day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NY
The day I spent walking in NYThe day I spent walking in NY

 
 

The day I relaxed September 14, 2007

Here we are… another day is over. The weather was grey all day long, but I took the boat anyway for a 3 hours cruise around Manhattan. Despite the colour of the sky (wich wasn’t good at all to take pictures), I had a really GREAT time. I was sitting, with some fresh air, and all I had to do was to look at all the beautiful buildings and bridges. It’s so good to visit a town and relax at the same time. It was a fun trip because I recognized a lot of places I’ve been at: The Empire State building (yeah, I know, that’s not new, you can see it from anywhere in NY), the Chrystler building, Battery Park (where the boat to the Statue of Liberty leaves), The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the tiny building of the police museum, South Street sea port (Fulton market), Brooklyn bridge, the UN and many other places.
Once out of the boat, I took the bus to Columbus circle, on 59th street. Of course, I took some pictures, then, tadaaaaa… I had a walk in Central Park. That’s incredible it took me 5 days to do it. I’ve walked on Central Park West several times but I never entered the park itself before today. It’s all green there, with places to sit down and squirels to look at, some people are playing american football or baseball. I’d LOVE to have such a quiet place in Montpellier (well, it’s almost the size of the whole town, but that would be great anyway).
Inside Central Park, there’s a zoo. I did visit it. It’s not really big but it’s a cool place to relax. There were 3 amazing frogs living in the water and looking like small trees. I’ve never seen anything like this before (no picture of them, sorry… it was too dark).
I carried on to the Guggenheim museum and had a bad surprise: not only they are fixing the ouside of the building, but only 3 half floors were open (and one whole floor was diplaying paintings I didn’t like at all). I was happy to see some paintings by Kandinsky, but I would have loved to see more.
Let’s be positive: it didn’t take a long time to visit the museum and this allowed me to go to again to Chinatown and Little Italy (I didn’t take pictures because they wouldn’t have come out well because of the weather, sorry again). As for once my day hasn’t been exhausting enough, I have decided to take the bus on the avenue of the Americas, wich made me visit Soho (South of Houston) and Noho (North of Houston) at the same time (I was walking on Houston Street, the limit between the 2 boroughs, hahahaha!!).
I went out of the bus on the 59th again and from there, my hotel was only 3-stations away.
End of the story for today.