New Player joined “GTA: Real Life”

Hi there and welcome (back) to my little travel blog

Sep 28

Flight to New York

The first part of my trip was pretty standard. Drive to the airport in Zürich, drop off my bag, get through security and board the plane. After beeing seated for a few seconds I had an experience I didn’t have for quite some time: A chat with a stranger sitting right next to you. As expected the stranger wasn’t Swiss but an American traveling back to New York. I guess it’s true that Americans are waaaay more talkative than we are here in Switzerland.

After some films, a nap, some rice and bread we landed at Newark Airport. All the way until I stood in front of the taxis I was wondering when I’ll have to go through the big security check. The waiting time for my bag was longer than the passport check. That went smoother than expected. After asking a number of people I was able to find the right bus that took me right to the center of NYC.

The plane that’ll bring me to New York

First time Times Square

After a little walk I arrived at the airbnb apartment. It isn’t very big but considering the prices in New York it’s enough comfort for me =). If you want to go to the toilet you have to leave the apartment and walk down the corridor. Suprisingly the toilet isn’t shared, it’s our private toilet.

I took a little stroll through the streets before returning to the apartment. Upon my return I got to know my temporary flatmate. It’s a friendly guy from Australia making the exact same thing as me. But unlike me he’s spending his last and not first days of vacation here in NYC. Resisting the urge to sleep I watched some hulu before beginning the rest of my exhausted body at 10 PM.

Sep 29

The long walk to the Met

The second day started with an extended walk. At my first stop I grabbed some traditional American breakfast: Donuts. After walking over many, many pedestrian crossings I entered the central park. With all the trees and other green things you can easily forget that you are in New York and surrounded by skyscrapers. Traveled half across the Central Park I arrived at my first main stop, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Met and Metro

With my ticket bought online I gained entry and went straight ahead to the well know Egyptian wing. As you can see in the pictures they have quite a collection of Egyptian artifacts. They even shipped an entire temple from Egypt to New York and rebuilt it. There would have been some other ongoing displays, but why would I want to watch at European art here in America??

So I left the museum and headed to the nearest subway station. Instead of buying the ticket myself a friendly lady helped me. She was trying to sell her own ticket in order to get something to eat. While hoping that wasn’t true and only an exaggeration I didn’t see any drawback of buying it from her. With my newly acquired ticket I took the next train, it was quite a rough ride compared to any other metro I was on.

1 WTC

Leaving the subway I could see the One World Trade Center. After having a bite to eat in a restaurant well known around the planet I visited the Memorial site and I walked up close to the 1776 feet high building.

While walking around I stumbled upon the water taxi. The water taxi is catamaran that stops at 6 locations all around New York. The main reason I boarded this ship was that it included a close up drive by of the statue of Liberty and one stop was near my apartment. I was very surprised by the speed the boat was traveling. And instead of using ropes to keep the ships secured while dropping off passengers the taxi simply kept thrusting forward into the pillars. I was able to snap a few nice photos and after deboarding I went home in order to prepare for the evening.

A part of berlin in NYC

Wicked

Being mentally prepared for what was to happen this evening I left my flat heading for Times Square. From there my iPhone guided me to the entrance of the Gershwin Theater. I have never been before to a musical but it was recommended to me to go to such spectacle when I visit NYC. My research lead me to a musical called Wicked and to a place in the front and middle (Rather obvious seat, but it had to be checked!). I was seated next to a friendly doctor from Pennsylvania who was watching this musical for the second time, this means it must be good, right?

I wasn’t disappointed. Everything was smooth and perfect, unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. I highly recommend watching a musical to everyone visiting New York. Normally I would never watch some guys and girls dancing and singing while some other guys make some music. But if you do these in such perfection I can understand why someone would watch this show twice or even more times.

On my walk home I walked up the stairs at the Times Square and took once again a very, very touristy picture.

PS

Not all of you might get the title of this post. If you are one of them and you really want to get the title: Go and watch/play some GTA. It’s really astonishing how accurate the developers captured the look and feel of a big American city like New York in their games.

My temporary apartment is in Hell’s Kitchen. You might know it’s reputation as a “lively” neighborhood. Here you get the full blast of living in a not so expensive neighborhood. It’s exactly how it’s shown in the movies. Small flats, everything is old, sirens howling at night, etc. I would do everything to not live in such an area but making vacation here has gained me an understanding and insight well worth all the small drawbacks so far.

Peace out and until next time.