I arrived in New York on September 14th at 3 PM and had to wander around until September 15th (2 PM) because I only had about 30 bucks left, which wasn't even enough for a hostel for the night.
I took the express train to Penn Station in central Manhattan, a ten-minute walk from Times Square.
I saw a huge Macy's (5 floors of clothes; we didn't have anything that big in Hawaii). I also saw a McDonald's and decided to start by getting on the Wi-Fi to see what I could do for the next 24 hours.
While standing in line, I heard Russian being spoken (with a Ukrainian accent, which I had almost stopped noticing because I think I started speaking with one myself). One guy was shouting something to another about potatoes. I walked up to them and asked where I could find a luggage storage place nearby. We ate and decided to hang out together until the next day since they were in the exact same situation. True, the guys had plenty of money, but they decided to spend their last night walking around instead of sleeping in a hostel.
I dropped off my bags and we went to Times Square. We took a bunch of beautiful photos, which you can see on my LJ =)
http://mint-touch.livejournal.com/18362.html#cutid1
7th Avenue led us to Times Square, where I heard Russian every 10 steps (a real shock after Hawaii, where I knew every Work and Travel participant by face)... in one endless human queue (that's exactly what it looked like - a traffic jam of pedestrians) homeless people, businessmen, ladies planning a shopping spree, tourists were all pushing through... an incredible number of people.
Our next stop was Central Park. The guys wanted to climb the Empire State Building, but since I had no money, we decided they would do it tomorrow, and for now, we would go look for a metal tree. Either Tolya dreamed it, or nobody really understands my English, but nobody knew what kind of tree it was... and it's unlikely it even existed))
It was already quite dark in Central Park as it was approaching 8 PM. But we sat by the fountain and listened to a singer in the underpass (Imagine all the people... that's probably a song sung on the streets of every city in the world)).
We walked around Central Park and came out to one of the biggest Apple stores in the world, where we spent a long time zoning out on the internet since we had a whole night ahead and were already feeling the fatigue)
We moved on along 5th Avenue. The most expensive shops are located on this street. For the hundredth time, I was glad that I saw this city as a broke student... because the 5th Ave shown in movies and the 5th Ave I saw are two very different things. Two HUGE contrasts.
We walked for about an hour and a half until we reached the intersection of Broadway and 5th Avenue.
We walked along Broadway for a long, long time. It left me with the impression of a gloomy street from which you can clearly see the illuminated skyscrapers. And so, we returned to Times Square, which had simply transformed over the last 4 hours. There were 1.5 times more people, and the lights had turned on. Crazy energy)) The guys met some Russian acquaintances from Washington! Anything can happen here)
You could say our journey was just beginning at that moment, as our next destination was the "bull with balls" or, scientifically, Bowling Green.
We walked to it for 2.5 hours along the canal separating New York from New Jersey. And again - contrasts. Rats running underfoot, walking through the port area - not a soul around. And on the other side - New Jersey. I was already terribly tired, but Tolya started whining first. If he hadn't started, I would have... =)
We looked for the bull for a very, very long time. Finally, we found it. While looking, we discovered the site where the Twin Towers used to be.
And finally, the bull. If you rub the balls, you'll get happiness. We fell for it =)
- Penn Station, where express trains from La Guardia and Newark airports arrive. (16:00)
- Times Square (17:45)
- Central Park (18:17)
- Intersection of 5th Avenue and Broadway (22:35)
- We are back at Times Square (00:09)
- Heading to 12th Avenue and walking to the Twin Towers (03:11)
- Bull, Wall Street (03:42)
- Brooklyn Bridge (06:15)
