I recently went to New York City for basically 3 days. I'm 37 and I have never been before. I think it is the last major American city that I haven't been to yet. The reason why I wanted to go was because Radiohead was playing at Madison Square Garden. They are my favorite band and I have never seen them. Since I knew I had the free time, I went ahead and bought a ticket back in March. I got everything booked and this was my first view of NYC.
I got checked i to my hotel and relaxed a bit. I stayed in the Chelsea neighborhood which is a really nice neighborhood. Traveling exhausts me so I have to have an hour of downtime or so whenever I get somewhere. In this case, I had 2 hours of downtime which included a nap. The 1st partial day in NYC was basically me wandering around, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk, looking up at the buildings, and pissing people off. BTW, you can tell the difference between a NYC local and a tourist because the NYC locals are wearing headphones to avoid talking to people. And when I travel, I tend to wander just because I can find some cool stuff by walking everything with little to no agenda. I did find some pizza, beer, and Times Square on the first day. I did do some bar hopping and talking to various people.
People sitting outside in the rain in Times Square.
I didn't know I needed a stuffed, talking poop emoji until I saw this.
Time Square. It is as crowded as you think it would be and 90% of the people are tourists.
I wonder if this movie is coming out soon or not.
The view of the Empire State Building from my hotel room.
Yep, I had a black and white cookie. Actually, they aren't anything special. Just big sugar cookies with black and white icing.
Potato pancake on the left also was awesome.
I like taking pictures of different things. This is at Grand Central Station, but this is above the signs and you can see it is extremely dirty up there.
30 Rock
Take a guess at which one of these is my favorite.
Resistance is iFutile.
Next up was my first trip on a New York subway. I ended up taking it from midtown Manhattan to Chelsea Market. That place was really cool. IT is an old industrial building with cool architecture that has been converted into a bunch of shops, bars, and eateries. Next was a wander around the High Line. Basically, it is an abandoned elevated railway that was converted into a park. It is really, really well done. There are a few bars and restaurants so you can stop and have a beer or two while people watching on one side and a view of the water on the other side. There is also an extremely creepy statue of a life sized man in nothing but his underwear in the middle of it. Some people would call it art, but I definitely would call it "art". There were several people trying to figure out whether it was real or not and yes, it is a real statue. I really like Chelsea and the Meatpacking District. Both were more laid back, less crowded, and calmer. If I had to live in NYC, I would probably pick one of these two areas.
Cool lights in Chelsea Market
A little splash area on the High Line
My turn in the splash area
I told you it was super fucking creepy
Lone saxophonist
The High Line is really well done
I don't know why I try to take pictures at concerts
Wednesday was a trip to lower Manhattan. The first thing of the day was going to One World Trade Center. It was cool to see the memorial pools and the grounds are really nice. I spent awhile just walking around and taking pictures. After that, I went to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. And that's all I'm going say about that because I can't talk about it.
Look at the little tiny moon
North Pool
The Lower Manhattan tour continued down to Wall Street and the rest of the Financial District. But that was after a stop for lunch at Pisillo Italian Pananis. I even stopped for awhile to read a book, 1491 to be exact, in Bowling Green Park. This was the final realization that there are people everywhere in NYC.
St. Paul's Chapel
The line to get a picture taken with the Wall Street Bull's balls
My picture with the Wall Street Bull's balls
3 birds of Bowling Green Park
More wandering led me to Hook & Ladder Company 8. This is the FDNY fire house of Ghostbusters fame. Unfortunately, it was being renovated at the moment.
On the sidewalk outside of H&L 8.
Wednesday night was dinner somewhere but I also went up to the top of the Empire State Building. In NYC, there are 3 main observation decks: One World Trade Center, Empire State Building, and Top of the Rock. They each have their pros and cons and I decided to do the ESB because I could see it from my hotel room, King Kong, and it was the most central of the three. The line to get to the top wasn't that bad. I think it took about 45 minutes which isn't bad for a major NYC tourist attraction. However, the top was very, very crowded since it was sunset. I can't really imagine any more people up there, but I'm sure there have been many more. The views were fantastic though.
The interior was very cool art deco
Facing east
Facing northeast
Facing north. That tall, skinny building is 432 Park Avenue and I think it is hideous.
Facing west
Facing south
The last day in NYC was the a run around Central Park. I wanted to do at least 2 runs, but that didn't happen because of needing to recover in the mornings from the night before. Man, I can see why Central Park is the crown jewel of Manhattan. It is huge and gorgeous. Lots of wandering trails and paths everywhere. You could spend a week exploring all of Central Park, but most of the more famous scenery is on the south end of the park. I ended up running about 4 miles, but it was a slow 4 miles because of the humidity and me gawking at everything.
With just a taste of New York in 3 days, I enjoyed it a lot. I'll be back for sure.
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