These streets will make you feel brand new

Big lights will inspire you...
I expected some trouble at the border, at JFK airport, because, well.. it's America and I have brown eyes, brown hair and a somewhat darker complexion. Even my parents made me shave my beard.
But thing turned out okay. The only trouble I got was the fact that I didn't got an arrival card. I guess I was still vast asleep when they handed them out on the plane. At the airport I took a airport shuttle to Penn Station and from there the tube to my hostel in Upper Manhattan, next to Central Park. I only stayed two nights in this hostel.
That evening I dropped my things at the hostel and just went to bed. The next day I woke up early, I set my alarm, took a shower and ventured into the city. I guess there is something about walking alone in New York, it felt good. Took the tube to Time Square and booked, like a real tourist, a SightSeeing bus. I booked the full package for 2 days, plus one day for free, but ended up only using the bus once. Luckily the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island was also included.
That morning it was rather cold, but the weather changed quickly.
I got off the bus at China Town, walked towards the 9/11-memorial site, which was very impressive, and walked south towards Battery Park, where I boarded the ferry. Beautiful weather for a day on the water! The ferry passes the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island before it dropped me off in Midtown. I put my sunglasses on and walked the High Line, an abandoned railroad turned into a park. When you walk this park you have a beautiful view accros the westen part of the city. I walked and walked and walked. After the park I went into Greenwich Village, the a quieter part/residential area of Manhattan. I liked it. My final destination was Washington Square (the park, not the movie). It was very sunny and like 20 degrees. The whole park was filled with people, people doing yoga, playing ball, performing, and several street artists and bands. It was amazing. I spend there a while before I went on. I was looking for the bus stop to get back, but I had considerable trouble finding it. My map said the stop was located on Broadway and I was walking on Broadway, but I couldn't find it. After walking up and down the street for a considerable amount of time I decided to hop into a starbucks and contemplete the whole thing. And then it hit me. The stop was located on Broadway, and I was walking up and down West Broadway. Those two streets are apparently not the same. This took me a while to find out and now it was twilight.
Instead of going back to Time Square I decided to get off at the United Nations. But because it was already dark now they hoisted down all the flags. But I saw the famous Pepsi sign across the river!
I walked towards Bryant Park, where the New York City library is located, passed the Grand Teminal, and ate some pizza. A ticket for a stand up comedy show was included in my ticket, so to end the day I went to a comedy club at Time Square. The club was similar to the comedy club from Sienfield, but the comedy itself was not that good. There were several comedians and only one of them was kind of funny.
That day I walked a lot and saw a lot. According to my phone I almost walked an entire marathon! My feet were killing me...
Overnight the temprature dropped like a stone and the weather changed fast. First I checked out from the hostel, dropped my luggage in a locker and went out again. I walked to Central Park covered in snow, which was quite an experience. It was slippery and cold and as I walked I encounterd people langlaufing in Central Park. Later that day kids came to the park to sled. I didn't have skies or a sled, so I decided to visit the Museum of the City of New York. This also was a new experience for me. Ofcourse I have visited museums in the Netherlands, but never a museum where they serve you free breakfast (it was included in the ticket I got with my SightSeeing tour). But I had already had my breakfast at the hostel. But hey, I'm Dutch and I won't turn down a free breakfast.
They museum was rather interesting and I spend several hours there. Afterwards I was planning to visit MoMa, but time was not on my side. It was already late and MoMa was about to close in a few hours. Instead I went to Rockefeller Centre. At around 4 o'clock I headed back to grab my luggage at the hostel to go to Jersey City, New Jersey. The last few days I would spend at Mike's.
I met Mike two years ago in Sri Lanka. We were enrolled in the same volunteering programme and he was my roommate for about 1,5 week. We kept in touch ever since.
That evening we went together to Hoboken, New Jersey, where you could see the Manhattan skyline. It was still very cold and we went back very quickly.
The next day was a Friday, still a weekday, so Mike had to work. He works in Brooklyn, so I went with him and spend the day in Brooklyn. Although Brooklyn is a large area, I spend most of my day in and aroud Brooklyn Heights, near the Brooklyn Bridge. Plan was to take the SightSeeing bus to see the whole of Brooklyn (I still had one day left). Guess what, busses in Brooklyn and in Harlem were still down because of the snow. The rest of Manhattan was up and running again, (the previous day the whole city was down because of the heavy snow). Just my luck.
So, again with the walking... I walked to Dumbo (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and met with a Korean girl, who I met for the first time in the hostel in NYC, a few days ago. Together we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and arranged to meet Mike in Washington Square Park in Manhattan. But last minute the Korean girl decided to go back to the hostel, so we were with the two of us. We ate some Pakistani (the food, not the people) and went to a jazz club in Greenwich. It was only till the next day that we would really paint the town red.
First things first, we had to put ourselves on the guest list of a club in Williamsburg. I'd never put myself on a guestlist of a club before. This made me feel very important. I also have many leatherbound books.
The afternoon we spend in Flushing. Chinatown is nothing compared to Flushing. Mike, who is a Chinees national, had never gone to Flushing before and was as amazed as me. According to Mike I didn't have to go to China anymore, because this was more or less the same, except for the Great Wall of course.
We walked to Flushing Meadows to visit the Arthur Ashe Stadium, which was, unfortunately, closed. So we took the tube to Williamsburg, to explore unknown territoy for the night to come.
First we started drinking in an Irish pub before going to the club. We had high hopes for this club, it is apparently very famous and some celebrities are going there as well, but we were terribly disappointed as the DJ sucked big time. We still spend a few hours there to give it a shot, but it was too terrible, so we went to another Irish pub and took the last subway to Jersey.
The next day was a lazy Sunday for us, but after breakfast Mike had to study and I went to Manhattan again. This time I took it easy, no more walking. This time I went inside the New York City library, but it was about to close and I had only like 15min inside. So after I was kicked out, I went to the Flat Iron building and wanted a photograph of the famous Pepsi sign, although I already saw it. So much for my plan of taking it easy. I walked to the United Nations, but it was dark again and the flags were hoisted down, again, and went to the river to photograph the Pepsi sign. Now that I was satisfied I went back to Mike and we eat 1$ pizza in Jersey City.
The next day I was to take the MegaBus to Washington DC. I tell you all about it in my next blog.