Visit to NYC

28 Dec 2008 - 3 Jan 2009

This trip was initiated by the Belgium gang: An, Marco, Xavier, Gladys. We decided to have a reunion in NYC for the X'mas/New Year celebrations. So the Toronto gang here did a very quick kiasu planning and we were soon set to go!!! :)

It was 7 days altogether, plus we went to lots of places, schedules were scattered, so the write-up here is organized according to the places/events we went to.

Times Square
The first place we went to is the Times Square, the icon of NYC that no one will miss, especially when it is going to be New Year soon. Times Square is the place where the crystal ball will drop when the clock strikes midnight for 2009, with people cheering and dancing wilding under the crystal ball in the freezing cold!


These pictures were taken around the Times Square vicinity. On the next street is the Fifth Avenue, the famous street for all the branded stuffs, which I will never be able to afford. There is also the Trump Tower, Rockerfeller Centre...

ps: the pictures are not fantastic! disappointed, didn't get the best shots! :(

The first impression of NYC is that, it is a super mega-city, lots of people, lots of cars, lots to see, lots to do! Suddenly I felt that there is just too little time for so many things to do in NYC. It seems like things are not so organized in NYC (or maybe we are just not familiar with things), so there could be pockets of interesting places that make me want to continue exploring the hidden, unpublished and undiscovered pockets.

Wall Street
We had an early day and kick started with the Wall Street tour.


The U.S. Custom House sits on historic Bowling Green, the area around which New York was founded.


Caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty from across the straits? It was freezing cold that day, but still there was a stretch of die-hard tourists snaking around the garden to board the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. It was only 8am in the morning, and tickets were already sold out!!!


Wall Street, here we comes!


NYSE: NY Stock Exchange Building, the largest stock exchange in the world by dollar value of its listed companies' securities.


The Charging Bull, icon of Wall Street! The bronze sculpture, weighing 3,200kg, was designed by Arturo Di Modica and it sits in Bowling Green park near Wall Street in Lower Manhattan of NYC. The sculpture depicts a bull, the symbol of aggressive financial optimism and prosperity, leaning back on its haunches and with its head lowered as if ready to charge.

The sculpture is always swarmed with people trying to snap pictures with it, so we had to work quickly to get a picture on its own.



Ground Zero, where the twins World Trade Centre towers used to stand. Solemnity and silence just swept in...

Other Landmarks
The Grand Central Terminal, located on 42 Street between Vanderbilt and Lexington avenues, still serves thousands of passengers daily.


The building's facade has a true beaux-arts design. Large arches flanked by Corinthian columns are topped by a large sculpture group designed by Jules-Alexis Coutan. The 50ft high sculptural group depicts Mercury (god of commerce), flanked by Minerva (goddess of wisdom) and Hercules (god of strength).


Inside, the main concourse is most impressive. The ceiling is painted by the French artist Paul Helleu. The design with zodiac constellations was taken from a medieval manuscript. If you know your stars, the constellations are composed in reverse, where the Orion holds a club in his right hand instead of his left. Light enters the main concourse through three 75ft arched windows. The western double staircase in Botticino marble was designed after the large staircase in the former Opera building in Paris. It connects the main concourse with the entrance on the Vanderbilt Avenue.

A street from the Grand Central Terminal is the Chrysler Building. At the beginning of the 20th century, the race for the tallest building in the world started and the Chrysler Building was the first building to top the then tallest structure, the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Chrysler building is one of the last skyscrapers in the Art Deco style. The gargoyles depict Chrysler car ornaments and the spire is modeled on a radiator grille.

ps: It was snowing when the picture was taken.

The Empire State Building is one of the last skyscrapers built before the Great Depression hit the real estate market. It towered over the neighborhood and its height of 1250ft. It is situated south of Midtown, away from the skyscraper clusters in midtown and in the financial district downtown, so this is one of the few places in Manhattan where you have an open 360 degrees view.


The Flatiron Building was constructed between 1901 and 1903 at the intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue, at the time one of the most prominent sites. Its singular shape and prominent location soon made it one of New York City's most famous landmarks.

Foodie Time!
We are all quite a foodie ourselves, so we are constantly in search of great food and restaurants.


Came across this bakery in the Chinatown. They made the most delicious papaya tart ever, which is so smooth, soft and light and you will just crave for more...


Some of the great places for dinners and cafes:
1) East Village ~ between 1st and 2nd Avenues
2) West Village ~ around Christopher Square
3) Little Italy + NoLita + NoHo
4) Chinatown
5) Greenwich Village


Something to remember, was that I was frantically looking for this place called the West 32nd St, the Korean Town in NYC. Partly because we watched the film in the Film Festival (back in Toronto) that featured about West 32 in NYC. So I was just curious to check this place out. Amazingly, this street was not shown on the map, I found West 31 and West 33, but somehow just couldn't find West 32. Initially I started tracing for the street from the west side of Manhattan but can't find it; then I moved from the East side, finally I found it. Actually the street ends and merges into the Madison Square Garden on the west end, that's why.

So that is the Korean Town, small! So as I was craving for some korean food, came upon this restaurant Kunjip, with a super long queue of people lining up outside, so I guess it must be something good! Yes it turned out to be really good; when the food came, all the appetizers just covered the entire table!


Plus the long queue also gave me a new friend, a Japanese who happened to work in Dallas, whom I then introduced to Mr Leo Teo in Dallas (though he wished I introduced a cute Japanese girl to him).

New Year Countdown
Guess what, we spent our New Year in a crappy diner, with normal edible food, and with the extreme cold. But guess what?! It is the GREAT company that counts! ;) Then we ended up in a cafe in the East Village, and crapped our night away...



HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Oh yes, we totally avoided the madness in Times Square!

Chinatown
Guess any Chinatown in the world is always the busiest place!

NYC's Chinatown is the 2nd most populous Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere (after San Francisco's Chinatown), and 3rd in area size (after San Francisco, Vancouver).


Typical scene: Iron staircases linking the balconies on the outside of the buildings. At one time in the 1900s, they were a very important aspect of fire safety for all new construction in urban areas; more recently, however, they have fallen out of common use.

Bridges
The Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the USA, stretches 1825m over the East River, connecting the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn (on Long Island).



Equally important as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge (last of the three great suspension bridges constructed across the East River) today is one of the most heavily travelled East River crossings.


Cultural Immersion
Some activities I had done: comedy show, museum, musical etc.

Also my first time, I visited a comedy show in the city, with my Belgian friends. It was a series of comedians going up the stage to tell jokes, about their daily life, poking fun about themselves, about others, women, sex, politicians, tv shows, hollywood artists, pets etc...the list goes on...



The Belgian fellows! :)

First opened in 1929, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) was the first museum in the world to focus on modern art. MoMA's permanent collection features 135,000 paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, sculptures, films, and design objects. Additionally, MoMa hosts an ever changing series of temporary exhibitions, example, it was the Van Gogh special exhibition during the time when we visited.


However it was so crowded that tickets to the Van Gogh's exhibition was long sold out! This was how crowded it was! Imagine it was this density of people walking everywhere in the museum!


This painting reminds me of Mona Lisa. Personally I have not been to the Louvres (in Paris) to see the Mona Lisa painting, but was told that the actual painting was small but mounted onto a large frame. And which I think was similar to this painting of Monroe...


So I did a bit of research on the artist: Andy Warhol. Yes, he was a great fan of Marilyn Monroe, and he did a silk screen for Mona Lisa too! ~ Andy Warhol (1923 – 1987), one of the 20th century’s most creative, prolific and influential artists, defined a decade and a culture with his groundbreaking Pop Art.

Last but not least, as a grand finale to the whole NYC trip, we went for the Phantom of the Opera musical. Just love it! Nothing can be said much about it other than loving it! Love the music, love the show, love everything! :)


Hiccups of the Trip
As usual, things could always be better...

Whatever it is, you just secretly wish that things will turn out fine hopefully, but somehow deep in your heart you also have this little fear that, well...it may not always be so rosy after all...And so as the little fear grows bigger, as how it is prophecized, things are indeed not as perfectly smooth sailing as it should be...

It was a big gang of friends, 7 of us, going together to NYC, staying in the same place for 7 nights. On the very first day we arrived, the accommodation was a problem. The place was not condusive at all. So we wasted half the day trying to source for alternative places. Plus the costs involved in calling each other to make decisions. Tempers flared and we got short with one another! Damn*

Also I was sick like a pig! So not very nice to travel with a nose that runs forever faster than me! Damn* In fact, I actually had to return to the apartment to sleep and rest! And I was constantly popping drugs to keep my fever down and so that I could feast like a king! Haa!

Sometimes I felt bit of helpless, because we can't seem to find good restaurants or cafes to go to. We only managed to find some really good places towards the end of the trip. Anyway, we had a fair share!

On the final day, when we touched down in Toronto, we just heaved a sigh of relief, and we could literally feel each other feeling, "Ahhh...it feels so good to be back in Canada! So happy to be back, and away from the bustling crowds and traffic! Yeah, good old Toronto! :)

NYC used to be my next dream city to go to after Belgium. But after being in NYC for that period of time, I feel I would not want to live and work there, because of the crowds, the traffic and the level of stress! I feel like I want to retire quietly now... Nevertheless, I will still go back to NYC again, but only as a visitor!!! :)