I cant believe I am in New York!
Originally I didnt want to admit my excitement for that no New York is ever too cool for me but as the hours gone by I am feeling more and more excited - I am in New York! I am here!
Day 1 was a bit weird. We landed at Laguardia airport and the cab ride into Manhattan was shocking. It was like a kamikaze taxi and everyone on the streets were honking like mad! And this is not sour grape okay - but I have never seen so many ungly bridges all in one place!
Our hotel (Helmsley Park Lane - next to the Plaza Hotel) is on Central Park South. The clever (not) cab driver decided drop us on on Central Park South - opposite our hotel! So with our big heavy lugguages we had to walk to the next intersection to cross the street and then walk to our hotel - we are talking about a long half a block here in steaming New York June, and we had to carefully not stepping onto any horse manure coming from all the carriages 'parking' in front of Central Park.
Fortunately the hotel was great, and our room looks over the lovely Central Park. It really is breath-taking. The trees 'shine' like an oasis in the concrete city and it perfectly balances out all the mid-town buzz. And on level 37 we couldnt even hear the noise coming from the streets.
Our first night was nothing conventional for a first-time tourist. We bought our metro card and took a half hour train ride to this place called Flushing (in Queens). Our friends Han and Paul from San Diego raved about this Taiwanese restaurant called Gu-Hsiang. After 3 weeks of yummy American/Italian (we had the best ever pasta in Montreal)/French/Belgium food we were both craving something from home and Gu-Hsiang was so worth the trip. It was the best Taiwanese food I have ever had outside Taiwan.
At one point I felt that I almost had tears welling up in my eyes cos the food brought back a lot of my childhood memories. I remember as a kid, my parents sometimes brought me to this family owned restaurant in downtown Taipei to have stir fry's. And the stir fried Beef and Capiscum in Gu-Hsiang was exactly like the one I had when I was 10 or so and suddenly I remember all that good time as a kid, when a treat from mom really made my day, and the nice occassional dine-outs that always felt so special.
We got up late this morning. It's Day 2 as a tourist in NYC so we did all the typical stuff. Late breakfast on 6th Ave, a stroll in Central Park, a few hours at the Museum of Natural History (it was great - even better than I expected - the big bang exhibition and hall of planet Earth were fantastic), a ferry ride to Staten Island to see the statue of Liberty free (per Rebecca's recommendation) - the best thing about the ferry is that you can actually get beer and drink on the deck - did I mention it is free to catch the ferry? It's almost like a sunset cruise!
The night was pretty good too. We caught a Broadway show, Phantom of the Opera. This was one show Nelson has always wanted to see and it really was pretty good. It was great that none of us knew how the story was suppose to go so it kept us engaged the whole time. The stage set up and props were great - with a flying chandeliar. And coming out from the theatre stepping into the crowds in Time Square was magical - it was like the whole town was there and all the LED billboards lighted up the streets like it was broad daylight.
We were suppose to walk 17 blocks back to our hotel (and I was wearing heels - but thought it was too good a night to take the subway) but we totally walked the opposite direction and ended up doing 10 extra blocks!!! By the time I saw our hotel my feet were absolutely killing me! And the whole 27 blocks really worked up my appetite!!! The good thing was that there was a hotdog stand right opposite and I got to eat a $2 hotdog with ketchup and mustard like they do in the movies - with my man in my arm and sore feet in my heels - New York cannot get better than this.
Originally I didnt want to admit my excitement for that no New York is ever too cool for me but as the hours gone by I am feeling more and more excited - I am in New York! I am here!
Day 1 was a bit weird. We landed at Laguardia airport and the cab ride into Manhattan was shocking. It was like a kamikaze taxi and everyone on the streets were honking like mad! And this is not sour grape okay - but I have never seen so many ungly bridges all in one place!
Our hotel (Helmsley Park Lane - next to the Plaza Hotel) is on Central Park South. The clever (not) cab driver decided drop us on on Central Park South - opposite our hotel! So with our big heavy lugguages we had to walk to the next intersection to cross the street and then walk to our hotel - we are talking about a long half a block here in steaming New York June, and we had to carefully not stepping onto any horse manure coming from all the carriages 'parking' in front of Central Park.
Fortunately the hotel was great, and our room looks over the lovely Central Park. It really is breath-taking. The trees 'shine' like an oasis in the concrete city and it perfectly balances out all the mid-town buzz. And on level 37 we couldnt even hear the noise coming from the streets.
Our first night was nothing conventional for a first-time tourist. We bought our metro card and took a half hour train ride to this place called Flushing (in Queens). Our friends Han and Paul from San Diego raved about this Taiwanese restaurant called Gu-Hsiang. After 3 weeks of yummy American/Italian (we had the best ever pasta in Montreal)/French/Belgium food we were both craving something from home and Gu-Hsiang was so worth the trip. It was the best Taiwanese food I have ever had outside Taiwan.
At one point I felt that I almost had tears welling up in my eyes cos the food brought back a lot of my childhood memories. I remember as a kid, my parents sometimes brought me to this family owned restaurant in downtown Taipei to have stir fry's. And the stir fried Beef and Capiscum in Gu-Hsiang was exactly like the one I had when I was 10 or so and suddenly I remember all that good time as a kid, when a treat from mom really made my day, and the nice occassional dine-outs that always felt so special.
We got up late this morning. It's Day 2 as a tourist in NYC so we did all the typical stuff. Late breakfast on 6th Ave, a stroll in Central Park, a few hours at the Museum of Natural History (it was great - even better than I expected - the big bang exhibition and hall of planet Earth were fantastic), a ferry ride to Staten Island to see the statue of Liberty free (per Rebecca's recommendation) - the best thing about the ferry is that you can actually get beer and drink on the deck - did I mention it is free to catch the ferry? It's almost like a sunset cruise!
The night was pretty good too. We caught a Broadway show, Phantom of the Opera. This was one show Nelson has always wanted to see and it really was pretty good. It was great that none of us knew how the story was suppose to go so it kept us engaged the whole time. The stage set up and props were great - with a flying chandeliar. And coming out from the theatre stepping into the crowds in Time Square was magical - it was like the whole town was there and all the LED billboards lighted up the streets like it was broad daylight.
We were suppose to walk 17 blocks back to our hotel (and I was wearing heels - but thought it was too good a night to take the subway) but we totally walked the opposite direction and ended up doing 10 extra blocks!!! By the time I saw our hotel my feet were absolutely killing me! And the whole 27 blocks really worked up my appetite!!! The good thing was that there was a hotdog stand right opposite and I got to eat a $2 hotdog with ketchup and mustard like they do in the movies - with my man in my arm and sore feet in my heels - New York cannot get better than this.
