Big Apple

Nov 27th'10:
Now, last night before sleeping and setting the alarm ready for this morning, Vijesh's brilliant mind thought when should we take the last metro to New Carrolton.That is when it struck me that the last metro is at 3am which means we need to leave from room at 2.15 wholly sh**.We woke up at 1.45 packed our bread jam, left room at 2.15 and caught the last metro to Federal triangle at 2.30am.We checked out the night life in DC and it was windy and cold at that time,we did a smart thing by walking up to our office and took rest there till 5am and walked up to the Megabus counter and boarded the bus at 5.15am with ease. The bus was a Double decker bus, with toilet in it,AC charging point, Wi-fi and driven by a lady, well quite alot for a cheap bus, though i have to admit that bus seat comfort was bad.

We reached NY around 9.30 and from our bus window we could see the Manhattan skyline,it was sunny but when we stepped out it was windy,freezing and that was the last time i removed my jacket.New York here we are and it was an amazing feeling as we walked towards the 28th St Subway with our hands in our pockets and nose getting numb.We boarded the subway train to reach the South Ferry, it was the last stop and metro was packed all though it was a weekend.We could see people of different countries and all were clothed from top to bottom,all seemed Touristy kind and were in hurry to get moving. We reached the place of boarding our ferry for Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, it was a kilometer long crowd and we did the good thing of booking it online.Its called the Battery park entrance and after going thru airport style security-check, we boarded our ferry at 11am and we were the last ones for that timing. This place was more windy, freezing and after a 20min ride we reached Liberty Island.We walked across the periphery of Statue, a park with Liberty bike, a US national Flag in the center and Manhattan skyline to vouch for and i went on clicking spree, the view of the Manhattan skyline is mesmerizing from the island. We then approached closer to the Statue and there she stood beautifully with a book in one hand and Crown in other hand.I think this was the most stunning monument i have ever seen after the Taj !!,we could not walk to the pedestal as we couldn't get the ticket for that and got to know there is a separate ticket for Crown access and that must be great to be in there.We waited for the ferry in 1 deg chilly wind blowing across us though we still chose the open upper deck of the ferry and i bet temperature would have been in minus something with wind blowing and making life miserable.I withstood the freezing wind till my neck and nose turned deep red with chapped lips and i gave up. We skipped the Ellis island and
reached the Battery park to carry on with our next destination. We walked up to the Wall Street and there was a mad rush to click pics with the Bull and after waiting in queue, we managed to get ours too.We then walked to the Trinity Church and it was a historic,full service parish church with beautiful stained glasses and vaulted ceilings.Hunger struck us and we ate at the famous Falafel and Gyros Street food joint, i had falafel in pita bread and it was spicy yumm and was great for the cold weather,pretty filling too,Vijesh went for the Chicken over Rice and it was finger licking.We walked to the nearby 9/11 World Trade center (which is no longer exists) and all we could see was the new WTC under construction and a memorial for 9/11 which charges u 10$ damn it if u want to see it, we skipped it but surprised to see the nearby building still intact and survived the horrific crash, the WTC towers were spread across a large area.

We took the nearest Subway, love the subways here as they are a great and cheap mode of transport, and got down at the Brooklyn Bridge station.Vijesh came in a different train so waited for him at the station and then we walked up to one of the oldest Suspension bridge in US,we chose the separate walkway along the centerline for pedestrians and bicycles.We took pics with the overlooking Manhattan bridge on the East river.We then walked to the nearby Chinatown center which was an ethnic Chinese enclave surrounded by hawkers, authentic chinese restaurants.We didn't find anything interesting here and we boarded the subway to reach Grand Central Terminal, its a terminal station in Midtown Manhattan and is the largest train station in the World interms of number of platforms, it has 44 platforms.From Grand Central terminal we walked to 42nd street 7th Avenue to reach Times Square, on the way i munched a Knish which NY is famous form,its a mashed potato based stuffing in a dumpling form, it tasted ok as it was bland with mustard sauce.

Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan and huge number of animated neon and LED signs billboards make the famous landmark of NY.We walked through sea of people, alot of indians enjoying themselves and this place was alive at any point of the night.We could see a bunch street performers and managed to get a good deal on our Chrono watches and we saw the Empire state building from far off and it stood lit magnificently.We ended our trip with a dinner at an Indian Pakistani joint but food turned out to be ok kinds.We were happy to board our bus from Penn station as it was freezing outside and reached our room in DC at 2.30am.Phew!! Wat a trip with sleepless nights, lots of traveling, freezing winds and it was one hell of a trip my best ever :)
thanks for reading this, this post was a big one.