Believe it or not, it was my first time to America. I didn’t plan what to do in New York. Just bought a guide book in Taiwan for reference and only read it when I was in New York.
I guess I will put my 1 week New York City travel in one post because I couldn’t remember what I did in sequence.
Anyway, it was great to travel from Europe to New York because it was 8 hours flight only. We took Swiss Airline business class for the first time and stayed in Loews Regency New York for the week. My husband was there for business trip (in between our honeymoon).
I had to apply ESTA (U.S. Travel Authorization). It is a pre-authorization to board a U.S.-bound ship or airplane.
I always check visa requirements when traveling. I was worried if it would be denied because I was holding an Indonesian passport previously. To be honest, with all the president election and ripple effects in America…
Anyway, I took subway to most of the places. It wasn’t the cleanest and it was confusing when there was maintenance. Even the operator was saying, “Honestly, I don’t know what’s the next stop”. It was funny.
I bought 7-day unlimited ride MetroCard (USD 32)
Best way to explore New York city by Circle Line Cruise (Best of NYC in 2.5 hours, USD 42)
Statue of Liberty
Up close view (It was smaller than I thought)
It was interesting to take the cruise because there was a live narrator. Didn’t get this name but I loved how he introduced New York’s history, places to visit with a great sense of humour. Very entertaining.
Americans asked me what was my impression with New York City. I guess a lot of people knew New York city through movies and TV series. I felt surreal for the first night in New York City, like I was also in the movie.
Hustle and bustle is what I felt. I don’t know if the New Yorkers realised they walk real fast and they talk real fast too. Even the speed of switching topics to talk about. Maybe because of the industry they were in.
Food serving is massive, I can’t imagine having so much food all the time. However, New York City serves the best fried chicken wings ever. Loews Regency’s chicken wings was amazing.
We went to watch NBA Knicks vs Clippers (The night Charles Oakley had a fight and was arrested). Michael J Fox was there too. I was in fan mode. I love watching “Back to the Future”.
Heavy snow in New York and I insisted to visit Central Park since it was walking distance from hotel
Visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The place was huge and we just visited the American, Japanese and Egypt section. We skipped Europe section because we were in Europe previously.
Of course, we went to watch broadway musical
Photo credit: http://www.aladdinthemusical.com/
My husband checking the lyrics to “A Whole New World” because I was singing the whole day before the show.
Love the interior at Amsterdam theatre
I loved it so much. When I was young, I wanted to major in theatre studies because I wanted to perform and play different roles. My mom told me to major in something more practical… Hence, I did programming and later marketing.
During the whole show, I was so amazed how they were able to make everything come to live on a small stage. I paid attention to all the actors and actresses. Everyone has their own role to play and put in so much work to it. I don’t know how they can do it for so many times and still maintain such passion.
Had dinner at Red Lobster after the musical
Visited Brooklyn and I love the vibe, so different from New York City
So I walking towards Brooklyn Bridge
Had dinner at Asiate Mandarin Oriental
Photo credit: wikimedia.org
My wonderful husband in his new suit and tie
I just realised I did not take picture of myself. Maybe my husband did but oh well…
We also visited 2 jazz bars
First, we went to Blue Note
The singer was more soul jazz, which was my favourite.
We also visited Birdland because my husband wanted something else. He enjoyed his time with Birdland.
I also went to Woodbury Outlet Shopping Mall with door-to-door transportation (USD 65). I got 2 yoga outfit from Lululemon and that’s all… Haha… I was hoping to buy items from GAP, Banana Republic, Tory Burch, Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren but did not see anything I like.
I enjoyed broadway musical, NYC cruise and Jazz bars the most. Amazing chicken wings and hot dogs. My husband fell in love with the hot dogs (USD 3 each).
I met some nice people and also not so nice ones… I think it is great to visit but I would love to visit other parts of New York the next time.
Till then…
Jessica Tamaki 