On April 10th I went to NYC…I’ve been meaning to blog about it…so here I go :P
After bashing New York City my entire life, I ended up having an amazing time in the Big Apple. The city was a vast cornucopia of possibilities and surprises at every corner.
The morning naturally started off rather poorly, I had to wake up at 5am after all. My friend Liz called to let me know she was on the bus and had saved me a seat, and I rushed out of the door towards the bus. When I sat down I immediately realised that I’d forgotten to take my memory card out of my computer and insert it back in my camera! Quelle horreur! As a result, I was only able to take 30 pictures during my entire trip! It was torture. I tried to enjoy the bus ride to NYC, but for the first half of the ride all I could think about was how stupid I was for forgetting my memory card! D: However, I did end up enjoying myself on the ride haha.
Upon arriving in NYC (after a lovely 4 hour bus trip haha), our first stop was the Guggenheim. Unfortunately, we only had an hour to view the museum, so I was only able to wind up about halfway through the museum before it was time to go D: Next was lunch. My professor took us to a place called the Europa Café (which was very good). The selection of food was daunting with such a short period of time to order….The chicken fajita looked delicious so I got that even though i am not entirely keen on fajitas. It ended up being a great choice, I gobbled it up in minutes! haha. We walked a short distance down the street, turned the corner, and to my surprise was a large waterfall! it was brilliant! We ate by it and it was absolutely lovely :D
After lunch we began to walk towards the Austrian Cultural Forum. On the way was a huuuge Tartan Day parade. Some people in my group were like “is this some sort of cult?” hahaha…There were hundreds of people marching down the street in kilts and playing bagpipes, and thousands of people watching and waving the St. Andrews Cross (the Scottish Flag). It was amazing! We finally arrived at the Austrian Cultural Forum and the inside of the building was cool, but the artwork was very…strange. One art instalment was comprised of a bunch of empty beer bottles on shelves and another was a very small projection in the corner of a large white room. The projection was of some old guy…pleasing himself. Omg, it was sooo disturbing lmaooo. I wonder what they are trying to say about Austrian culture O_o lol.
After the Austrian Cultural Forum we walked around NYC for a bit before heading to the American Folk Art Museum, which suited my tastes more than the Guggenheim. The architecture of the building was more interesting, and I liked the artwork better too. After a few hours venturing around that museum the subway whisked us to the Brooklyn Bridge. The subway was terribly outdated and run down, nothing like the Underground in London, but it worked at least. Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge was amazing! I was even able to see the Statue of Liberty from it! After crossing the bridge, we arrived at this really nice park outside of City Hall. It was amazing there! The whole atmosphere, the beautiful greenery in the heart of the city, the beautiful colonial building, the flowering trees, and everything else was simply gorgeous. A warm spring breeze swept through the perfect air as the sun beamed through the trees and the birds chirped. The temperature and humidity were perfect, and it was just amazing.
We marched onward and arrived at the WTC site. It was closed off, so we just looked at it for a while before heading to something called the high line. The High Line is an old elevated train that has been turned into a park. It was wonderful, and afterwards our professor left us and allowed us to explore NYC on our own for a few hours. Our group (we had stayed with our class of 11 people until then) broke up and I went with my friends Mariam and Andrea to Times Square, after which we ended up going to 5th avenue to meet up with Mariam’s friend Majda who was shopping there (and seems to be somewhat of a shopping addict!). We met her at H&M, and then headed over to Zara’s across the street so they could do more shopping while we waited for our friend Daniel (who was in a different group) to show up, and for Mariam’s friend Kwame to pick us up.
The store was so ridiculous! (Intentionally) Wrinkled shirts, tiny pieces of fabric passing for ‘clothing’ amongst other things were selling for like $60! Why would anyone bother shopping there? Also, they had bags for sale that had size tags on them like the clothes, they were all sized “Medium,” as if someone needs a certain bag size to fit them. I really don’t understand the world of shopping lmfao.
Anyway, Daniel arrived, and a while later Kwame picked us up. All I can say about him is O.M.G. This guy is in university but he has an apartment right off of First Ave and an expensive Mercedes sports car….and apparently he changes his tires every 3 weeks. Do you want to know why he does this? Because he drives like a lunatic! He was driving like 80mph, possibly a hundred, down 5th Ave and would drive until he was about to hit a car, and then make a sharp turn around that car and continue going just as fast. Majda was in the front seat screaming for her mother, everyone was laughing, and I was secretly holding on to my seat, squished in the back with Mariam, Daniel, and Andrea. It was a heart pounding experience, but soooo so much fun.
Due to the fast mode of transportation, we arrived at our destination on First Ave in record time. It was a small (and when i say small, I mean about the size of my bedroom) Indian restaurant called Dakshin. I ordered some delicious Tandoori Chicken and rice along with a Naan. The Naan was warm and freshly made and tasted insanely good – the best one i’ve ever had! After eating, Kwame flew (probably literally) us down Park Ave on our way to the Seagram building to meet our buses and head back to school. The whole way this song was blasting:
Lmaoooo, i loved every minute haha
It’s rather difficult to describe the car ride…but I think you get the point…It was intense and crazy haha…
So that was my trip to NYC more or less. :D I had a great time and will definitely be going back.
