new york Keyword
I Heart NY
Sitting on my AMTrack train at Penn Station at 7.15 in the morning I felt an immense sense of melancholy as my mind rolled through the events of the last 8 days in New York. The city has seduced me, taken my soul while I was off guard and sliced off a piece. With each blast of the train’s horn it seemed to spread that piece over the state, echoing between the buildings, down alleys, through the subway, bars, restaurants and parks. I feel like I have left something important in New York and I need to go back and find it. A yearning, like that for a lost love boils in my chest. I can still hear that horn, signaling not only my departure from the city but my arrival.
One part of me wants to recount every beautiful and amazing waking moment that I spent in New York. Wants to share my experience and shake any one willing to listen until they open their eyes and see what I have seen. But then I think that doing so will dilute this warm elixir of NYC I have bottled in me. It is mine and I am not willing to share it. It feels selfish. I guess it is something you’ll just have to experience for yourself.
New York Yankees
New York has just been one life experience after another and with last night I struck off yet another goal: watch a Yankee’s game at Yankee stadium.
I am not much of a sports fan. I do watch a bit here and there, but I find it hard to enjoy going to watch say, the footy. Going to the baseball however was a whole different experience. The game moves suprisingly fast, and almost constantly there is crowd involvement with quizzes, sing / clap along’s, mexican waves and other general shenanigans.
The game I watched was Yankee’s v. Oakland Athletics, and while it was a bit of a white wash towards the end in favour of NY it was still an enjoyable watch. I saw a couple of good double plays and a whopping home run from Posada.
The ground is amazing. Situated in the Bronx the new Yankee Stadium is MA-HOOS-SIVE with a capacity of around 53,000. It is well organised and laid out, with HD screens everywhere, heaps of kiosks and views are great from pretty much anywhere, including the nosebleeds where I managed to score a seat. Getting in and out of the ground took no time at all, and the Subway at 161st street is right at the gates.
Overall the atmosphere is what made the night. The crowd was energetic and positive. Music got people up and dancing between plays and one highlight was when YMCA came blasting over the PA and even the ground crew got involved with the dance. Funniest stuff I have seen in a while. When I look at the photos I still can’t believe I am doing this, it seems unreal.
Central Park
Once again rain has followed me on my adventure and a trip to Central Park turned into a 100 block swim through pouring rain.
In the moments when the rain let up a little I did manage to a few shots of the beautiful park that runs down the middle of Manhattan. The park is huge, around 843 acres and I only managed to walk through about half of it before the rain really started coming down. It runs for around 50 blocks from W 59th in the south to W 110th in the North. The park was commissioned in 1853 as an oasis from the busy city. Before that people would congregate in any open space available, including cemeteries just to get away from the noisy town.
The Park is a mix of dense vegetation and winding paths (such as the Ramble) to landscaped gardens, open fields and sporting areas. It is very peaceful and beautiful. One day soon, if the weather clears up I’ll visit the rest of the park that I missed out on seeing. I hope you enjoy my overcast photos!
New York, New York
So I’ve been in the States for around 3 days now. Arriving in JFK airport I spent around a hour trying to find an Internet Cafe to print out my bus pass so I could leave the terminal. I didn’t really feel like I was in NYC until our bus hit the Van Wyck. Seeing that sign made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. As we crested a hill the Manhattan Skyline appeared and I went all gooey.
In the short amount of time I have been here so far I’ve seen heaps of Manhattan, I’ve caught the Statten Island Ferry, visited cool bars, watched Hip Hop Open Mike till 4am, had an awesome burger in downtown, seen the WTC site, been to the Chrysler, Empire State and Rockerfeller buildings, jumped in Grand Central Station and wandered the Natural History Museum. Best of all though is seeing Tom’s Restaraunt, the diner from Seinfeld. Major life goal completed with one short subway ride.
I’ll be heading into Central Park today for a bit of a walk. I still have so much to see but I know one thing for sure. New York is my kind of place.