New York - Day 1

The visit to New York city, the next day began with a train ride from Connecticut's New Haven terminal to New York's famous Grand Central station. The first impression of Grand Central is just awe inspiring. This terminal has about 130 tracks that serve routes all over mainland USA. The main lobby is this huge expanse of space - that could probably contain a station in itself. It has some neat decorative motifs on the ceiling - the pictures don't quite do justice to that(but I've added them here just the same)

We walked from Grand Central station to Times Square - passing Bryant Park and the New York public library (another huge building) on the way. As I walked along the sidewalk - the first thing that hits you is the sheer number of people on the street. It is crowded and noisy and for someone from Bombay - feels just like home! You have hawkers selling their wares on the street - selling stuff ranging from hotdogs & kababs to water bottles. Some other selling sunglasses and caps and other NYC memorabilia ... It has a very Mumbai downtown feel to it!

Times Square - The place where the New Year ball drops - a phenomenal area that buzzes with activity round the clock. This place has some of the most amazing stores and restaurants, most of the "trendy" chains and some others are here. You see Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood jostling for space with MacDonald's and other burger and pizza places. Around the Times Square area - you also have a few kebab and grill places tucked away into corners.

After a quick run through of Times Square - we headed out to do the No.1 touristy thing in NY - visit the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is located on an island, and you need to take a Circle Line ferry to visit this one. After a long long wait in the hot scorching sun - we finally got onto a ferry - one of my friends referred to it as a rat box since it had a lot of people crammed on it. After a 20 minute ride - where you can see some breathtaking views of the Manhattan skyline, we reached Staten Island. This island has the huge imposing Statue of Liberty. This statue is made of copper and was originally brown in color, but oxidation of the statue has now turned it green. Any coincidence that US dollars are also green? ;)

Since the tours to the top of the statue - into the crown are no longer permitted, we clicked pictures from the base of the statue and moved on to Ellis island in another ferry.

Ellis island was the first immigration port in the US. This place is now a museum with pictures of immgrants in the 1900s.

Walked around Ellis island and boarded the ferry back to mainland NY. Once again - the view of the Manhattan skyline - is awesome. It is like the skyscrapers are all competing with each other to gain your attention. I've tried to get some decent pictures of this - but the overcast day didn't quite help my cause. Switched to black & white effects on my camera in the effort to get some different kind of pictures instead.


The next thing we did was walked down to the famous Brooklyn bridge. This bridge looks rather unimposing compared to the other large bridges around, but has its own charm.

After walking around the Hudson river area, it was time for me to take a subway and head out to Adele's place for the much awaited school reunion. I was going to meet some of my classmates after 13 years ... wow!