New York
I traveled twice to New York. The
first time I went in September 2000 with Astrid, a friend from Germany. She was
in the States for her internship.
Astrid and I arrived at Newark
International Airport and took the train into the city. The metro card, valid
for up to one week, is the best deal you can get. We where both “shocked”
when we stepped out of the subway station at Columbus Circle, about 5min walk
form the Central YMCA on the west side of Central Park. The YMCA is one of the
cheapest places in the city. In this case “cheap” doesn’t necessarily
means “cheap”. From there it is a 15min walk to Times Square. One night we
went out for dinner at the Hard Rock Café. After we paid we both had to go to
the restroom to get rid of the beer and stuff. Then we took a walk down Times
Square. All of a sudden Astrid stopped and pointed towards the three people
walking in front of us. “I know these guys!” “Yeah right! No way!”
“Yes, I swear. I went to school with a brother of one of them.” She tipped
him on the shoulder and she was right. Unbelievable, here we are in the middle
of Times Square, New York, USA and meet people form Ahlen in the middle of
nowhere in Germany. You must be careful what you say. There are a lot of
tourists around… The rest of the time we spent visiting the Empire State
Building, World Trade Center, Intrepid Air and Sea Museum and the Guggenheim
Museum to cover the tourist part.
The second time I went in June 2001. This time with my girl friend Joy. She has never been to New York. We booked the YMCA again to save some money. I was still amazed how so many people have room on the small island Manhattan. As we walked through the streets we felt something dripping on our heads. “What is that?” “I don’t know. Maybe rain? Oh no there are no clouds in the sky.” “Ok let’s say it is fluid.” “Bah, that is nasty!” At the end we agreed that is was condensing water form the air condition units in the windows. We met Dirk, a close friend of mine and took the train over to Brooklyn. Then we went on the top of the World Trade Center. Dirk has been up there so he stayed on the ground. He waited on the plaza and we where under the impression we agreed to meet in the mall under it. After one hour we left for dinner in a sushi restaurant and called him later in his hotel.
To be continued…