NYC

Loved NYC. Think I'm more of a 'city' person, that's why.. I like places which are bustling and crowded. Also, it was the 1st time after many months, that I see high buildings, lots of it. And see people who speak English everywhere, as well as many many Chinese. Everything also seems so cheap here, Chinese food especially, as compared to Europe.

It was very easy to navigate around, as NYC follows a grid pattern.. Avenues run in sequence from right to left, Streets run from South to North. Think of AMK, it runs in some sort of sequence too, u noe, the even vs the odd avenues... but oh well unless u grew up in AMK, dun think u wld ever figure that out on a map. NYC is alot more idiot-proof.

Took a nice scenic walk during sunset, from Brooklyn to Manhatten, along the Brooklyn bridge. Can even squint at Statue of Liberty from here, aka a tiny weeny piece in the horizon.


Manhatten Bridge was adjacent to Brooklyn Bridge

Central Park, a huge place. Actually, I din think was that great, Sweden has alot more scenic ones. Even back home, we have so many nice parks. (Btw, do u all know that the bridge between Mt Faber and Telok Blangah Hill Park is halfway built? I can see part of the structure from my house already, nice design! )

This is where the original Twin Towers used to be. (Not the 2 buildings in the middle of pix, its the flat ground in front of the 2 buildings. ) They are building Freedom Tower and office complexes. As all other tourists, must visit the famous statue. We queue up so long in Battery Park and then security check just to get up the ferry, waited so long just to wait for the ship to load hordes of tourists. And once the statue was in sight, the cameras on the ship went crazy. There were tickets that allow tourists to climb up the Liberty statue itself, but u must be willing to come and queue up before 8am in the morning.. and once ticket sales open at 8am, its usually snapped up within 15min. Crazy.

And so.. we went up the island just to take pix with the statue. Nothing else to see on the island, just a souvenir shop and some cafes. Then, queue up all over again to board the ferry blah blah..

Clockwise: The NY Stock Exchange, the "Charging Bull" or "Wall Street Bull", and along Wall Street. Just along the streets.. something very interesting, they have penalties for honking ..
Yeah, Times Square.. neon lights, broadway..

We queued up at TKTS in Times Sq at 3pm to grab the 50% off tickets for Les Mis. Would have loved to catch Beauty and the Beast too, but ay.. no time & no $$. Les Mis was great, it was very much the same as when I watched it 13 yrs ago in Sin. Of course, got to see my idol Lea Salonga!
And of course.. NYC cheesecake.

My cousin told me to try out the NYC pizzas as well, but Europe has tonnes of pizza. Me went crazy at Chinatown... so much nice and cheap food to eat! In Sweden, Chinatown has very very few Chinese restaurants.. it is dominated mainly by Thai, Viet, Middle East cuisine. So was such a nice break to be eating authentic HK fare.

End of my NYC escapade.. I love big cities!