Denniston's Law
Virtue is its own punishment.
North-East USA Trip - IV
New York City - The Big Apple
New York City - the Big Apple, the City That Never Sleeps. There are a thousand other nicknames that fit the city more perfectly than a size 12 shoe fitting my foot.
And its the busiest city I have known yet.
And its a city thats 24/7. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you will still find something to do there always. And to help you there, the
NYC Mass transit authority running the city's
Subways 24/7, no, NOT the
Subway sub chain (which, not surprisingly, also has a huge presence here). The subways, dingy little trains running in mouseholes through, what I think are, slighltly untidy, turn-of-the-last century stations; which did take me aback, after a week of the swanky
Washington DC Metro.
The
Metro Center station in Washington DC, with a train leaving on the opposite track. I just had enough time t fish out the camera and take this shot. It was about to disappear into the tunnel.
Still, it does a very good job of keeping people and business moving in an otherwise car-strangled city.
Perhaps, the best view you may want to get would be from a
chopper, as you circle around the city, day or nite, with a clear sky to bless you with good views. For the less fortunate, or the less rich, a better way to get introduced to the Manhattan skyline would be from the
Circle line ferry as you come from the
Statue of Liberty on the Liberty Island.
A very small part of the NYC Skyline, taken more to emphasize the Sea Gull than anything else. Taken from the dock where the ferry took off from.(Seemed like desktop wallpaper material to me at that time - Click for a bigger image.)
And if you are coming from Liberty Island, you sure can't miss the Statue of Liberty, which I have taken the liberty of showing it here.
The Statue of Liberty, greenish due to copper rust, now standing under a dull grey sky.
Once on land on Manhattan, the
WTC Memorial site is quite nearby to shed a few tears. So are some other museums, which I did not get the time to visit. But the main thing I did was to walk on those narrow streets with towering buildings, after 10 minutes of which, I ended up getting a sprained neck from staring up too loong. That was Lower Manhattan.
Getting around the city, as said before, is quite easy, if you figure out the myriad subway lines in red, green, blue, orange, purple, violet, pink and all other possible colors, with atleast three branch lines in each color, and both express and local trains for each of those branches. So if you miss a station, or end up in the opposite corner of NYC, dont blame me. But then again, there is the
Metro System Map and the
One Day Metro Pass for people like me to go around for one day.
One place that I did want to go by the Subway was the
Coney Island and, for roller coaster buffs,
The Cyclone at the
Astroland amusement park. But, even though I wanted to, my personal assistant,
Time didnt want to. So I had to step back.
I had more to to, meanwhile. The
Grand Central Station beckoned me. A quick sub ride, thankfully dropped me there. The Inside was Grand, whereas, the outside, being remodelled, offered me nothing except a big black curtain against a sunny sky.
A sunny sky, at the beginning of a new year, in NYC, is a big treat, especially if you want a good view from the
Empire state building. And so, at 4:30pm, I performed a hurried walking act to it, 8 blcoks from the station. A 1 hour wait in the queue preceded the half hour long wait for security check, and another half hour wait for the elevators to carry us up. And was pretty dark by the time I reached up. 87 floors up, that is. Thank god the visibility was good. With no clouds.
My eyes spent on the skyline, I took another subway hop to the
Rockefeller Center though I emerged onto the front of
Radio City Music Hall and near the
Saks at
Fifth Avenue, famous for its pricey showpiece apparels and clothing, but made more famous by the made-in-Manhattan serials like
F.R.I.E.N.D.S and
Seinfeld. But all of this was dominated by the decorations in front of the center, along with the (may I add free) ice-skating rink in that square. And this is where I leave you tonite.
The Rockefeller Center, with a skating rink in front, a huge Christmas tree in the middle, but dominated by what is only the first 8 floors of the building.
That concludes what I had wanted to say about NYC, and probably my whole trip of NE USA. Hope the 4 posts and about 12 hours I would have spent writing them havent gone to waste.
A brief summary:
Total days spent - 15.
Total days spent touristing - 11.
Major cities visited - 3
Total museums seen - 5
Total snaps taken - 1700.
Total snaps that came out good - 1000.
And I saw snow.
And I had a rocking time. 
