I had temprory corporate housing provided to me on the upper east side of Manhattan. My first opinion about the city was that it is cold & intimidating. But soon I realized, like Mumbai this city slowly grows on you. Slowly and steadily you fall in love with the city and very soon you will find yourself defending it from any accusations. It took me a month or so to settle down with the new place & also staying alone (Div went back to Michigan). Then came Dec- the month of christmas, fun, vaccations, family visits, shopping spree and festivities. The city somehow magically changes-there are lights everywhere, people are generally in holiday mood & thus a lot happier, every store has a Christmas super sale going on and all this at some level gets to you too.
Div had a couple of weeks vaccation for Christmas, so he came down to New York. And I also invited my brother who stays in San Diego to spend the Christmas with us.
We used these two weeks to do all the conventional New York tourist sites. I am listing them down one by one-
Empire State Building - This is actually a must do but if you are going here in the winter months, then I advice you to go during the day time when it is less cold. This is actually a 102 storey commercial building with offices and is situated at 5th ave & 34th street. Its the tallest building in New York after the unfortunate fall of the WTC. It has an observation deck at its 86th floor, which provides panoramic view of the bustling New York City. If you are new to the city or a tourist then I strongly recommend getting yourself an Audio tour, which is basically a pre-recorded tour telling you the name and some history of the buildings & other landmarks that you can see from the top. We did this on a cold Dec night - even though the view was pretty, all I could think of was to run inside for some warmth.
Ground Zero : This is essentially the site where the twin towers of World Trade Centre once stood before they were destroyed by terrorists on Sept 11th, 2001. There isnt much to see here since the entire area is cordoned off and heavy re-contruction taking place at full swing. But you suddenly realize the enormity of the destruction that took place here and you feel part of an infamous historical event. There are also maps and other information about the new building that is coming up there which would be called the Freedom Towers.
Times Square : Its said that if you stand at a crossing at Times Square for an hour, you would be able to hear almost every language in the world ! Times Square has an iconic status in New York, especially with the New Year festivities. Every New Year eve thousands of people gather here for the countdown to the new year and watch the Crystal ball drop from 1, Times Square. We went a couple of days before New Year and the place was equally festive. The neon lights and the ads are enchanting.
Grand Central Terminal : What I like most about these landmarks in US, is that most of them are functional buildings and not just monuments. Grand Central is one such case in point, a bustling train station where approximately 500,000 passengers/ tourists come everyday. Its architecturally beautiful building with the most notable features being the 4 faced opal clock & the celestial ceiling.
Statue of Liberty : The most known and visible landmark of New York- the Statue of Liberty. To reach here you need to take a ferry from Battery park to Liberty Island. Though the monument per se was not very exciting except for its colossal size. The history behind it was quite intriguing & entertaining. What most people dont know is that this monument is actually a gift from the French people to the people of United States as gesture of friendship. And at one point, due to lack of funds money was raised from the French public to complete this project.
Wall Street : As the name suggests, this is a street in the downtown Manhattan. Its claim to fame is the first New York Stock Exchange. Following which a lot of other financial institutions had their office arround this place. Today, many major finacial institutions have moved out their offices from here but Wall Street continues to be a sort of pilgrimage for the 'corporate american'. And thus Div definitely wanted us to pay our respects there :) Apart from the historical importance of this place in the development of the American free market economy, there is not much to see. A picture with the Bull is a must, this represents the sentiment of Wall Street. And during Christmas time the decorations were beautiful like in the rest of the city.
Rockefeller Centre : This is also a set of commercial building named after its builder John D. Rockefeller. I dont know if this is a tourist attraction in other seasons but during the month of December the Rockefeller Christmas Tree is must see. This tree is usually 75 to 90 feet tall and beautifully adorned with thousands of light. I have never seen such a beautiful Christmas tree ever before. The place was a little too crowded for my liking but its still fun. There is also a skating ring but we were a little too late to get in.
Metropolitan Museum of Art : Also referred to as the 'The Met', is one of the worlds largest and best museums. We had heard about it before and Div being the history buff, this was a must see for us. The first thing that strikes you is the festivity around this place, there are people relaxing on the steps, street artists performing, small time artists selling their works etc. But the moment we stepped inside the grand hall took my breath away. We were smart to get a couple of the audio tours between the 3 of us. The museum is actually huge so any plans of seeing it at one visit is far-fetched. We managed to see the Egyptian, African & American arts sections. Though we saw a lot of beautiful art pieces & some fascinating historical facts, the one exhibit that I will remember for ever is the 'Temple of Dendur'. The temple per se is pretty but not extra-ordinary, what fascinated me was the way it had been preserved. This temple was a gift from the Egyptian goverment to the Met and they had now exhibited it in its orginal format- a reflecting pool in front of it and a sloping wall behind it, which represents the Nile & the slopes in its orginial location. It also made me sad to think how we waste away so many historical marvels in India. Many of our smaller lesser known temples are actually prettier than this egyptian temple I saw. But unfortunately we are from a developing country and we still struggle to feed our ever-growing population, thus spending behind monuments is the not one of our priorities.
Broadway show - Broadway is the most advanced professional theatre in US, where plays are performed as musicals. Div & I had been pretty regular at watching plays at the famed Prithvi theatre in Bombay. So when we came to US, we had decided that we have to see atleast one musical at Broadway. In Aug'07 we went for a musical called 'The Rent', which is a tony award & pulitzer prize winner. The performance was actually quite energetic, singing was fabulous and the entire experience pretty good. But thier was one problem- we could not quite follow the accented english singing! So we kept missing out on words/ sentences and thus not quite following the story. As a result when the 10 min break happened after Act 1, we thought that the play is over and left!! Its only after coming home, that I read the entire story on internet that I realized our mistake.
Bronx Zoo - I had been to the Delhi Zoo when I was 3 yrs old and thus have no memories of the same. Thus, when I heard great reviews about the Bronx Zoo, I coaxed Div to take me there. It was a hot Sunday afternoon when we reached there but the zoo was awesome. Apart from the huge variety of animals from butterflies to lions, giraffes, rats, deers, okapi, leopard, elephants etc etc...what was most impressive was the natural-like habitat in which these animals were kept. Of all the animals we saw, the Gorilla was the most photogenic :)
Central park - This is a large urban park (843 acres) in the centre of Manhattan. It is a beautifully landscaped park with natural looking ponds & lakes, walking tracks, ice-skating rink, a small zoo, outdoor amphitheatre, garden & loads of wooded area. This park is I guess the only open green area in the whole of Manhattan and thus on weekends its usually full of families -who can let thier children run around, runners- who can now run without worrying about traffic, sunbathers- who dont have a terrace & cannot go to a beach right now, street performers and everyone else who needs some space. It is actually a very popular picnic spot too- so get yourself a picnic basket, a book or music to enjoy and something to sit on and you are all set. We walked around the park for a while then settled at a spot and proceeded to enjoy a afternoon nap.
We actually wanted to watch 'Shakspeare in the Park'- a very popular play, that is performed using the park as its stage. The performance starts at 8.00 pm and the ticket sales open at 1.00 pm. So, we were there at sharp 1.00 pm, to find a long queue already there. So, we proceeded to take our position at the end of the line. But we soon discovered that the tickets were long sold-out and this line was for people on 'standby'-that is IF someone cancels, then you would get a ticket !! And to know whether you are getting a ticket or not, you need to stand in line from 1.00 pm tp 8.00 pm !! Most people in the line were aware of this and had come prepared with thier picnic baskets and settled down in the line. But Div & I decided we need to come back better prepared some other time.
The Indian Street- I found this street when we went to this Indian restaurant recommended by a friend. We were at Lexington Avenue & 27th street and suddenly I felt I could be standing in a street in Bombay or Delhi. All the restaurants around you are Indian , Pakistani or Bangladeshi. There are stores which sell Indian groceries, there are music stores which have all the latest bollywood stuff, clothing stores with latest designs in sarees etc etc. Over the course of last one year, we have tried very many restaurants here like Chinese Mirch for Indian Chinese, Naimat Kada for good & cheap non-veg, Chennai garden for south indian etc.
There are also Little Italy & China town in new york like in most other major cities in the world. I actually love Little Italy, it has some wonderful street side restaurants where you can not only enjoy good wine & food but also do some quality people-watching :)
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