Finally after a long hiatus, I was out in the city, crossing avenues and streets across Manhattan. It wasn't one of those sunny spring day, rather it was gloomy covered with clouds all around and slightly cold too. Not one of the best days to enjoy city, but I couldn't have waited any longer. I have been postponing the visit for a while due to the weather but not any more. Yesterday was the day. I was up at 8, packed my bag with bare minimum;"The gathering", a sweater, my camera with pair of lenses, and my "music (iphone)". I was out of the door by 8:30 and by the train station on time to catch 8:51 train. I could have taken the later train but then I thought, now that I am spending the money and time, might as well reach earlier to have enough time in hand to enjoy to the maximum.
The train ride was quiet and lazy, but not for long. The bustling noise and commotion at Penn station sent a current of energy through my bones. So the first destination: Battery Park. I like lying down there next to the water with slight irking of music in the background and statue of liberty in the front. As any other day, there was some music festival going on. To tell you the truth, it was very annoying. A lady singing some gibberish in spanish which to any standard didn't sound pleasing to my ears "at all".
Anyways I found a chair farthest from the annoying music and enjoyed some time at peace. I had Bagel with cream cheese and "sunny-side up" omelet. The first meal of the day at 12:30 in the afternoon, a bit too early compared to any other day. In the meantime, I flipped through few pages of "the book" while I enjoyed the cold breeze. Other than the annoying piece of music, it was awfully quiet, considering the ferry to the statue of liberty (SOL) leaves from the battery park. Anyways after half an hour or so, I moved to Staten Island Ferry (SIF) station at Whitehall terminal.
Taking a step back, in fact my plan for the day was to visit the statue of liberty. To my surprise the tickets for the ferry were booked for the entire summer. While looking for alternate way to obtain tickets, I found that Staten Island ferry passes by SOL. Moreover the sight of Manhattan skyline from the ferry is considered to be worth a watch. So here I was at Whitehall ferry terminal, waiting for the ferry. By the look of the crowd, I wasn't the only one taking the ferry for so called "tourism" purpose. There were actually plenty of people with their spouse, kids, and fancy DSLRs. Oh and did I mention that the ride is for free. As suggested by the people, the view from the ferry was absolutely beautiful. You could see the entire downtown Manhattan half covered with clouds. It was gorgeous. Also on the left was SOL and with my 55-200mm lens, it was in touching distance. I think it was almost like visiting the SOL island. The ride lasted about ~30 min, not too long with chocolate croissant in hand.
Once on SI, there were people passing on pamphlets about "Art by the Ferry". Its annual cultural event organised by the Staten Island creative community where local artists showcase their talent like, music performances, paintings,photography, sculptures etc by the streets. So I thought, now that I am here, might as well give it a try as I had plenty of time in my hand. SI is very quiet place, very few traffic with barely any people visible. Even the people who came out of the ferry disappeared in a matter of seconds. Anyways, the festival wasn't as big as I expected it to be, may be I reached there a bit early as in it was afternoon. Anyways,there were few art galleries and few group of hippies playing some great country music. It was for sure a big change and mush more soulful compared to earlier mentioned spanish "crap". There's a 9/11 Memorial right by the ferry terminal. Its more like two arcs converging to each other. It was beautiful to say the least.
By that time it was 2:25 and hurried back to the terminal to catch the 2:30 ferry back to Manhattan. So the question: did I like the place? and to be honest..not that much. I like seeing people and not barren roads with ghost like houses staring back at you. Anyways I barely managed to catch the ferry. Another half an hour of ride and I was back in Manhattan where I could see "a lot" of faces with various expressions and definitely not staring back at me.
The next stop was "Other side" of Brooklyn bridge, that is "Brooklyn". I have been to Brooklyn bridge number of times, enough to count on my fingers. However, I never had a chance to walk to the Brooklyn. So this time it was the plan to see bridge from the other side, have lunch at Grimaldi and ice cream from the famous "Brooklyn" ice-cream place. It was a long walk to the other side but enjoyable. Finally, strolling nicely, I reached the Brooklyn Pier and I saw a long line of people standing and waiting for something. The first thought that came to my mind was, probably waiting for the bus. And then I saw Grimaldi right next to the line. It was an endless line and I couldn't have waited in the line for the pizza. So I decided to go for take out. But I think it wasn't my day to eat pizza. First, they weren't selling slices of pizza. Next I didn't have enough cash to buy entire pizza and to top the two there wasn't any ATM machine around. So bit disheartened, I walked to the ice-cream place and had butter pecan. It was really creamy with enough sweetness. To be honest, the ice-cream made up for the pizza-heartbreak. Enjoying the dripping ice-cream from the waffle cone, I walked around the park looking at the bridge and Manhattan skyline. By that time my legs were sore and I needed to lay down on the bench. It wasn't too comfortable due to the cold breeze and hence the waiting was cut short. Walk back wasn't very nice.
By this time I was too tired and extremely hungry (Damn you Grimaldi..but don't worry I am gonna hunt you down next time). So the obvious place to visit was greenwich village, the "food center" of NYC and especially "Mamoun's", a great Falafel place. So I took subway to 4th west and walked to 119 Mcdogoul street which is right by Washington square. Fortunately the line was short and also there was an ATM machine. So I had two orders of falafel ($ 2:50 each) and one order of chicken sheesh kebab, and walked to the Washington square park to satisfy my craving stomach and give my sore legs some rest. It was still cold so took out my sweater and enjoyed the falafel.
It was 6:50 by then and I didn't think my legs would have allowed me any further to walk around. SO I decided to take the subway back to Penn station where I met my friend "D" and took the 7:25 train back to home. It was a great trip and hopefully I will be visiting soon to have bit more of city coz just one trip wasn't enough.
See the Picasa Album on the left bar for more pictures.
The train ride was quiet and lazy, but not for long. The bustling noise and commotion at Penn station sent a current of energy through my bones. So the first destination: Battery Park. I like lying down there next to the water with slight irking of music in the background and statue of liberty in the front. As any other day, there was some music festival going on. To tell you the truth, it was very annoying. A lady singing some gibberish in spanish which to any standard didn't sound pleasing to my ears "at all".
Anyways I found a chair farthest from the annoying music and enjoyed some time at peace. I had Bagel with cream cheese and "sunny-side up" omelet. The first meal of the day at 12:30 in the afternoon, a bit too early compared to any other day. In the meantime, I flipped through few pages of "the book" while I enjoyed the cold breeze. Other than the annoying piece of music, it was awfully quiet, considering the ferry to the statue of liberty (SOL) leaves from the battery park. Anyways after half an hour or so, I moved to Staten Island Ferry (SIF) station at Whitehall terminal.
Taking a step back, in fact my plan for the day was to visit the statue of liberty. To my surprise the tickets for the ferry were booked for the entire summer. While looking for alternate way to obtain tickets, I found that Staten Island ferry passes by SOL. Moreover the sight of Manhattan skyline from the ferry is considered to be worth a watch. So here I was at Whitehall ferry terminal, waiting for the ferry. By the look of the crowd, I wasn't the only one taking the ferry for so called "tourism" purpose. There were actually plenty of people with their spouse, kids, and fancy DSLRs. Oh and did I mention that the ride is for free. As suggested by the people, the view from the ferry was absolutely beautiful. You could see the entire downtown Manhattan half covered with clouds. It was gorgeous. Also on the left was SOL and with my 55-200mm lens, it was in touching distance. I think it was almost like visiting the SOL island. The ride lasted about ~30 min, not too long with chocolate croissant in hand.
By that time it was 2:25 and hurried back to the terminal to catch the 2:30 ferry back to Manhattan. So the question: did I like the place? and to be honest..not that much. I like seeing people and not barren roads with ghost like houses staring back at you. Anyways I barely managed to catch the ferry. Another half an hour of ride and I was back in Manhattan where I could see "a lot" of faces with various expressions and definitely not staring back at me.
The next stop was "Other side" of Brooklyn bridge, that is "Brooklyn". I have been to Brooklyn bridge number of times, enough to count on my fingers. However, I never had a chance to walk to the Brooklyn. So this time it was the plan to see bridge from the other side, have lunch at Grimaldi and ice cream from the famous "Brooklyn" ice-cream place. It was a long walk to the other side but enjoyable. Finally, strolling nicely, I reached the Brooklyn Pier and I saw a long line of people standing and waiting for something. The first thought that came to my mind was, probably waiting for the bus. And then I saw Grimaldi right next to the line. It was an endless line and I couldn't have waited in the line for the pizza. So I decided to go for take out. But I think it wasn't my day to eat pizza. First, they weren't selling slices of pizza. Next I didn't have enough cash to buy entire pizza and to top the two there wasn't any ATM machine around. So bit disheartened, I walked to the ice-cream place and had butter pecan. It was really creamy with enough sweetness. To be honest, the ice-cream made up for the pizza-heartbreak. Enjoying the dripping ice-cream from the waffle cone, I walked around the park looking at the bridge and Manhattan skyline. By that time my legs were sore and I needed to lay down on the bench. It wasn't too comfortable due to the cold breeze and hence the waiting was cut short. Walk back wasn't very nice.
By this time I was too tired and extremely hungry (Damn you Grimaldi..but don't worry I am gonna hunt you down next time). So the obvious place to visit was greenwich village, the "food center" of NYC and especially "Mamoun's", a great Falafel place. So I took subway to 4th west and walked to 119 Mcdogoul street which is right by Washington square. Fortunately the line was short and also there was an ATM machine. So I had two orders of falafel ($ 2:50 each) and one order of chicken sheesh kebab, and walked to the Washington square park to satisfy my craving stomach and give my sore legs some rest. It was still cold so took out my sweater and enjoyed the falafel.
It was 6:50 by then and I didn't think my legs would have allowed me any further to walk around. SO I decided to take the subway back to Penn station where I met my friend "D" and took the 7:25 train back to home. It was a great trip and hopefully I will be visiting soon to have bit more of city coz just one trip wasn't enough.
See the Picasa Album on the left bar for more pictures.
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