Bori meets America: Sightseeing in NYC

24th of April, Friday

We got up comfortably at 7:30, and after breakfast, we took the buses to Manhattan, for our one day of touristy activities.
We had a choice between Chinatown and Little Italy, and Chelsea Market and High Line Park, and because everyone's suggestions, I chose the latter. And what a great choice it was!

Chelsea Market is an artsy little indoor shopping place in Eastern Manhattan. Everything is cute, modern mixed with retro, and very expensive. My touring buddy was my friend Lilly, and a girl named Maria joined us too. We walked in the shops for a while, but what we really wanted, was to go on High Line Park.

It's the old tracks, that go above the street, that were used, to make this place. It's a several mile long line of new and old architecture, trees, benches. You can see the street underneath you, and the buildings surrounding it. The park is very interesting. It's definitely a nice part of New York, that you can feel, was once a run down neighborhood. We walked about a mile in one direction, then we headed back to Chelsea Market on the street. I had my street cart hot dog as lunch, and I was very happy.

After just walking around the streets surrounding the market, our whole group gathered together. Because not a lot of us chose to peacefully roam around the city over shopping with Chinese vendors, we got to go to Battery Park, the Southest park , to take some pictures of the Statue of Liberty. There was a bomb scare, so all the people on the island were evacuated, and there were police and helicopter heading there. I snapped a very good picture, that I'm quite proud of.

We only spent 10 minutes, looking at the Statue, then we left for Times Square. We had a few hours to kill, taking pictures of the landmarks and looking at the shops. I liked the independence and freedom we got from our chaperons. Lily and I, we discovered how crowded and brutal downtown Manhattan can be. So much pushing, shoving, shouting. I grew up in a big city, but Budapest is much nicer. I loved the whole experience though. So many things to see, you don't know, where to turn your head. And everything is so expensive. I thought Rochester was pricey, but the Hershey's store on Times Square has astronomical prices. The price of one medium sized chocolate bar could feed an entire African village for a month. All I bought was 10 postcards for a dollar in a sketchy gift shop, and a few magnets.

I looked up, what kind of film shootings were happening in NYC, and I convinced Lilly and a chaperon to come see it with me. It's been my dream to see a film being shot ever since I could remember, and I was so close now, only a few blocks away. It was on the West side of 54th and 55th on 6th avenue, so we walked there. I thought we would come at a bad time, and we wouldn't see anything, and I was almost right. Until we saw filming trucks, and a crew, setting up. It's a Christmas movie, so they were putting up Christmas decorations on the building, and fake snow on the ground. We talked with the workers, turns out, the filming will start at 9 pm. Although this was not the real thing, I was happy I at least got to go, and see some of the preparations.

We had dinner at Times Square at Mama Sbarro's, an Italian place. It was pretty crowded for the whole music Department to sit down, but the food was great. From there, we left for another program we had to choose in October: The Ride. It's a tour-bus, leaving from 42nd street, and it's quite unique. It's not the usual double decker bus, that I thought we were going on. It's a bus, with the seats facing the street, in three rows like a theater, and the side and top of the bus are made of glass. The inside is full of funky lights and screen. We had two hosts, Scott and Jackie, who were hilarious. While we were driving around, they entertained us with different jokes and comments about NYC, the people on the street and even us. We saw some performances, that were involved with the Ride, like people dancing, rapping, singing, just outside of the window. We also learnt about the different sights and building in downtown Manhattan. The Ride only last 1,5 hours, but it flew by like crazy. We had so much fun. I recommend it to everybody, tourist or New Yorker.

After being in the bus, in the warm, going outside was a chilly experience. The weather was quite cold at this point. Our group (which wasn't very big, I always chose the least popular choice by accident), walked to the Rockefeller Center, to go to the Top of the Rock (which is the roof). It took us a while to get in, but finally, we were in an elevator, rocketing upwards to the 67th floor.

The view was extraordinary. It was night now, past 10 pm, and every light was on. I've never seen the city from this point of view, but I have to say, it's pretty special. It's crazy to think, that 8,5 million people surround you. I took some great pictures, but due to the cold, we couldn't stay for long. It was 11 already, when we got on the bus to go back to the hotel. My feet very aching, I was tired beyond tiredness, but I was so very happy. I got to spend an amazing day in this wonderful city. I felt kind of unsatisfied, because there is so much left to see, but this is how much I got for now. Hopefully, I'll visit again soon.