8 August 2013

Week 5, part one, New York City/ The Big Apple itself

Central Park zoo. We managed to get a view of the sea lion enclosure (during feeding time) without actually having to pay to go into the zoo itself. Success.
 Last weekend I made the 4 1/2 hour trip to New York City, New York, to meet a friend who is currently undertaking an internship in Boston. Conveniently, NYC is actually an almost equal distance from D.C and Boston. The thing that surprised me the most about the coach journey was that the coach had no seatbelts, seriously, I think that's illegal under EU law.
Central Park, lower Manhattan. It's bigger than you think. Big, as in two adults can walk for about 45 minutes in roughly a straight line and only end up 1/2 way along its length!
 My main memory of arriving in NYC is that it was raining, but still fairly hot, and that I had never seen so many people in my life. Whilst me and my friend struggled to locate Times Square (it's harder than you think when you're hemmed in by people, dodging yellow cabs, and surrounded by buildings and hige moving ads on all sides) I kept skywards, as the buildings practically blocked out the sun.
The landmark skyscrapers. Since 9/11, the skyline of NYC has been changed forever, but what seems to get missed in films/ TV, or at least, certainly in my own mind, is the number of moderately high buildings that are in downtown New York. The skyscrapers are world-famous (and are seen from a good distance if you enter the city from the south) but there are loads of buildings which in any other city would seem ridiculously high, but are dwarfed in comparison with their taller companions.
 We managed to cram so much into 3 days, that in retrospect it seems like some kind of insanity. In total we;

  • Visited the 9/11 memorial.
The main memorial consists of two pools of falling water, with the names of those who died carved around the edges. It's simple, stone, metal and water. It's also effective. The falling water is channelled into the middle of each pool in a way that reveals the metal structure behind it. It's also impossible not to note just how many names are recorded, especially when walking around what feels like a relatively small geographical area. I like the fact that the stationary (metallic/ stone structures) is combined with the living and things in motion (the water, trees). Life goes on, but the names cannot be erased.
  • Visited the Metropolitan museum of Art
Highlights included Monet's The Water-lily pond, Van Gogh's Cypress Trees, some Jackson Pollock, and a ballet dancer by Degas. I impressed myself by identifying The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David. There was also an amazing roof garden, which we were informed of, but was otherwise (deliberately?) not clearly advertised (we asked a guy at the bottom of an elevator if we could go up). The view was outstanding and it was a lot less effort and money than getting to either the top of the Rockefeller, or probably the top of the Empire State building.
  • Saw the Trump building/ Rockefeller plaza/ Apple store (why not)
They're shiny.
  • Visited the Statue of Liberty (on its own island)
Got on a (less crowded) ferry and walked around the statue like true tourists, listening to an audio tour. Also passed the Governor's Island, and Ellis island, currently closed due to Hurricane Sandy.
  • Got on a ferry to Statten island (one of the five boroughs of NYC, I think?)
Interestingly, the ferry is part of the subway system, as some people live there permanently and commute into the city everyday, therefore the trip was free and provided great views of the cityscape!
  • Went to some kind of Tiffany's outlet on Wall Street / saw the New York Stock Exchange
There were no prices on anything in Tiffany's. It was weird.
  • Went to the Smithsonian's museum of the American Indian
I felt so much better informed than at the start of the summer. I even identified the location of the tribe of an American Indian girl who I've met in D.C.
  • Went to the International House of Pancakes! (twice, their breakfast menu was incredible)
I had chocolate pancakes one day (with different flavoured syrups!) and French toast with glazed strawberries the next morning. I've never been so happy to be up and out at around 8am.
  • Walked around Central Park
Like I said, it's pretty big. It has a zoo and a reservoir in it.
  • Found Times Square (?)
Well, I think we were in it, for at least some of the time...it was very crowded, and I was more concerned about getting completely lost.
  • Visited Grand Central Station
Had to be done! The ceiling contains constellation-like artwork, then there's the iconic gold clock, and an infinite number of tracks and train departures...not to mention shops and restaurants. It was like Union station (where I caught the bus from in D.C) but on a much grander scale.

I also managed to spot the Woolworth building and obviously, the Empire State building, which is exciting just because of its cliche status!
Interesting facts; firstly, the statue is hollow, and was originally a shiny bronze colour, like a new penny (before the copper oxidised). Secondly, despite the fact that Liberty is portrayed as a woman, women were not allowed at the unveiling ceremony for the statue. Boats of women circled "liberty island" in protest.
 On the book she's holding is inscribed in Latin the date of American Independence. She's dressed in Roman style, with her robe and sandals, facing the "old world", i.e., Europe.
Things I liked about NYC; the mixture of 1920s and pre-1920s architecture (Chrysler building, Federal building, and the building which houses the Smithsonian's Museum of the American Indian) with the sleek, glass look of modern times. I also liked the contrast between all of the buildings and the surprising amount of greenery amount. Battery park, Central Park, and numerous other little gardens (e.g., around the Metropolitan museum of Art) make NYC a true "concrete jungle".
 There were some really interesting memorials in Battery park too. In particular we spent some time trying to identify flags on the Korean War memorial, as it's one of those conflicts I know little about. The numbers of the "missing" are astounding.
The city that never sleeps...it's amazing that moderately shabby looking buildings during the day are much improved by darkness and the display of midtown/ downtown's multi-coloured lights.
I would conclude that although D.C is the political capital of the U.S, I think that NYC is the cultural and financial capital. It's strange, because London in England seems to serve as both, the "City" is the financial heart of the UK, yet Westminster is the political centre, and the Mall/ Buckingham palace is the historic focal point. Culturally too, London is diverse, e.g. from the East End, Camden market, Fleet Street, the West End. Had we had more time in New York, I would have liked to have seen Greenwich and the East Village, or maybe Chinatown (supposedly the best in the U.S).

Needless to say though, 3 days of sightseeing were physically exhausting, after miles of walking everyday and hours on the subway (Metro) which was dirtier and busier than the D.C system. Also, the New York subway was far bumpier and industrial looking, the inside of the underground stations was black and plain, the carriages had a shiny metallic finish. On the plus side, it ran all night.

I don't think I could live in NYC. It's put D.C in perspective, and I think even London might be less hectic. As a point of interest, we stayed in a YMCA hostel, out of the centre of the city, in Harlem.

Forget what you've read, I think we'd both agree that staying in the Harlem YMCA was a great experience, and has made us consider travelling around in hostels again. Harlem isn't the most touristy area of NYC, but it has a character of its own. Whilst staying at the hostel we met everyone, from a Dutch guy travelling around Europe, to two German brothers going along the East coast of the U.S (one simply shook his head frequently whenever we joked about going into the Bronx area of the city, and the other was interested to know what English people thought of Germans).

Additionally, we met a 29 year old accountant, working in Mid-town, who laughed at our age and incongruity (he demanded to know why two Oxford students were in the Harlem YMCA...) and explained that he was living in the hostel temporarily whilst he brought a new apartment after divorcing his Turkish ex-wife, who is a lawyer. His stories and advice to us were hilarious, and he constantly stressed that although he'd gone to an "average" US school, achieved a 3.0 GPA, and came from a modest Southern background, he earned more from his NYC accounting job (and spells of Wall Street trading) than my family lives on a year. I'm sure he'll soon be back in a penthouse on the upper East-side, or Queens, as he's willing to compromise...

No comments:

Post a Comment