New York City - Washington DC, May 2012

05/19/2012

Arrived in Newark Airport around 6pm and took the train to NY Penn station. The journey took less than 45 mins. I reached the Penn station around 8pm and finally met Herlin and Edu at 9pm, since I waited at the wrong spot ;-). Yeah Penn station is big and full of people and I felt a bit overwhelming. Edu took us to the Korean town not far away from the station which I accepted happily, so my first food in the US was ddukbokki kekeke.

05/20

I started early today since Edu and I joined Herlin for Aidswalk around the Central Park. There were lots of people already when I arrived. The idea is interesting and I am happy to join it. We only joined only half way though, because someone was not interested to continue ;-). We took subway to Union square to meet Elza and had a lunch at Herlin's fave Thai restaurant, Qi. Times Sq was our next destination and we had a long walk around the area before we went to Herlin's house in Brooklyn to have a delicious dinner. Edu returned back to Philly that evening so we had to say good bye after that. Really had a wonderful reunion in NYC thanks to Herlin and Edu.

05/21

It was raining heavily when we started the day, so we decided to have a museum day. We arrived at Nat history museum around 10am, and spent around 4hrs there. We initially planned to visit MoMA as well that day but we think one day for one museum is enough ;-).  We had lunch in k-town again since Elza wanted to taste korean food which I accepted happily.  We went to the same rest again, Kun Jip, but this time I took Squid bibimbap, so delicious..yum2. On the way there I saw a long queue full of Asian teenagers, and i found out that there was kpop singer having fan sign event nearby. It turned out it was the Jay Park's fan signing event, so funny to see how the girls cheering hysterically when something happened inside. I tried to peek on but couldnt really see clearly, i also have no idea how he looks like ;-)

We dropped by to nearby Macy's after that but did not find something interesting. On the way to the hotel, we stopped by at Grand Central and enjoyed its  beautiful interior before call it a day.

05/22

We decided to have our DC trip today and started very early around 5am. We booked Megabus at 6:30am. The trip was long but we slept and there's also free wifi on the bus though it's not really stable. We  arrived several mins before 11am at Union station, a really nice station. I did some research the day before the sights we want to see are located not far away from each other and also from the station. 

So we walked from the station to the Capitol building, had bunch of pics and then continued to walk along the national mall. It's full of school kids since there are lots of national museums along the national mall. 

We stopped by in front of the White House which is surprisingly not too big as what I imagined, then National

Monument, Lincoln memorial, World War memorial, Korean War memorial, FD Roosevelt, Mason, and  Thomas Jefferson memorials. On the way back to union station (and my legs were almost dead at that time), I spent some time at the National Air and Space Museum which had quite interesting exhibition (and did I mention it's free kekeke). We took the Megabus at 7:30pm and arrived in Manhattan around 00:30. I was a bit worried since we had to take subway very late, but turned out the subway was almost full at that time ;-), guess New York never sleeps indeed.

05/23

We woke up late after a long day yesterday. It's dry (though it's cloudy) when we wanted to start a day, we decided to go for Liberty statue. We took subway to South Ferry and buy the ferry ticket at Battery park. It costs 13USD and we got the ride to liberty island-ellis island-back to manhattan. We stopped by at the liberty island for liberty statue, they did some construction there so the liberty statue pic came with a crane beside her. We visited immigration museum in Ellis island, which is quite interesting. There was also a 45 min documentary movie called Ellis island, island of hope, island of tears. A documentary about the european immigrants to the USA around the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century.

It was already late afternoon when we're back in Manhattan, we went to Times Square to get the discounted price tickets for the evening's broadway performance. Luckily we got 50% disc ticket for Phantom of the Opera, my fave musical. We had a some cakes in a deli shop and then went to Majestic Theater for the show. Phantom of the Opera is still a great show, it's my second  time watching it. I watched it previously in West End, London several years ago. 

05/24

It was cloudy when we left our hotel and it started raining when we arrive at Canal Street subway station to meet Herlin who was our guide to explore the China town. The main agenda was buying some souvenirs and we (well, I actually) did it successfully. Bought some t-shirts, fridge magnets etc, and the prices were indeed  much more cheaper compared with the ones in souvenir shops in Times Square or other tourist spots in Manhattan. You can buy a fridge magnet for 2USD or a key chain for 1USD. There's no way I can get them in that price in Germany. We then had dim sum lunch at Herlin's fave resto...duh I forgot the name now. But the dim sums were really yummy. After lunch, it was still around 1-2pm and Herlin had to pick up Rinka from school, so we said good bye at the subway station and we decided to visit the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). NYC's museums are expensive  but MoMA is quite a must visit museum, though I have to admit it's not as big as what I expected, especially with a 25USD entrance ticket. We stayed there till it closes, and then decided to give us a try to get another bargain broadway tickets. We're lucky there were still 50% discounted tickets for Chicago, so that's how our evening went that day. Chicago musical is fun, it's a comedy musical and I like it, but I think I still love Phantom of the Opera better kekeke. Having broadway performances in two days in a row, I really love night atmosphere in Times Square with it's bling-bling neon lamps, it just made you feel that you're really in New York ;-)

05/25

We tried to visit several places from our NYC checklist today. We started with a quick visit and photo sessions at Fatiron building, which is a unique building of Manhattan, and then dropped by at the strand book store which glued me for some time, i knew that I should go there again before leaving the NYC. We met Herlin at our fav rendezvous spot in front of the DSW store and had lunch together in Qi again. Thai food is always great kekeke. We said good bye to Herlin since it was our last meeting together, hope she and Edu will visit me in Duessi some time soon!! Our next destination was Brooklyn bridge which was really a must visit in NYC,  we walked along the bridge and had a good spot in Brooklyn to get the skyline pics of Manhattan. Brooklyn looks nice with its fancy and posh cafes/stores. We took subway back to Manhattan after that,  need to save energy hehehe and went to Central Park to visit the Strawberry fields with its Imagine mosaic. The area is a tribute to John Lennon who used to live nearby with his wife, Yoko Ono. It was in that area too where he was shot death in 1980. We walked around Central Park, the bow bridge etc, and then had a quick glance in front of the Guggenheim musem and Met museum before stopped by at the big Apple Store at the entrance of Central Park, and no we did not buy anything there kekeke.

05/26

My last full day in NYC huhuhu...We went to Penn Station for Empire State Building, we did not go inside though, only taking some pics from outside of the building. Washington Square park was our next destination, they had kind of open market a long the nearby street with some interesting stalls, including a lot of different food stalls. Elza had to go to Times Square to meet her friends so I continued my exploration alone after that, I had a fried spring roll in Thai food stall and bought some muffins in a nearby deli before took subway to World Trade Center for 911 memorial. The memorial museum was not opened yet but we still can go to memorial complex (we need to reserve the entrance pass first).

I picked up the pass at the preview site and turned out they also gave away some passes directly there, maybe because there were not so many people reserved the passes that day. I have reserved my pass several days earlier, we had to to choose the specific time of our visit. After printing my pass at the preview building and spending some time to see some materials there, i walked to the memorial site. They were still building the area, including the new WTC buildings and the memorial museum which supposed to be finished by the end of this year. The North and South pools are the dedicated monuments for the victims, where you can find their names there, and also the place where exactly the original WTC buildings stood. I could not help imagining what happened during that day, a day that changed the world. I spent around 1.5 hrs there and then continued to my next destination, the High line park.

It is a new famous site for NYC visitors. They opened the first section in 2009 and not so many guide books mentioned it.  I knew it accidentally from a magazine before, so I decided to give it a try, I almost gave up when I could not find its entrance easily but I found it at the end and I think it"s worth to visit. I like the idea how people reuse the above-the-ground rail tracks as a park. It is is located on Manhattan's West Side, running  from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues. They haven't finished the whole line yet, but the track has been already quite long for a nice walk. I started from the entrance at 34th street and walked till Gansevoort Street  which is quite nice area with interesting cafes and boutiques. I wanted to enjoy Manhattan on my last full day there so I decided to have a walk to Union Square and had my last stop at the Strand book store. It was a nice Sunday though there was some rains when I was on the High line park. I arrived at the hotel around 9pm, quite satisfied what I have done and for sure I am going to miss NY with its subways, buildings, bridges, Central Park and its Asian restaurants ;-)