Me, Time Square
On may 4th 2007 my brother and I took a little trip to the BIG Apple for our birthdays, his is on the 5th of may and mine is on the first. It was an adventure of a lifetime to say the least. We did not get a hotel room and we had very little money in our pockets so with that we where off and running, seeing as much as we could in 24 hours. Our first stop was… JFK LOL well after we got off the plane we decided to take the subway to our destination, in fact we really didn’t have a destination it was pretty much where ever the smell of good food took us.
The subway was for the most part just like in the movies, the only difference between the real NYC subway and the Hollywood NYC subway was that the NYC subway was further underground than I thought, a lot further. Once you bought your tickets and went through the gates, you where led down many stairs, tunnels, and corridors before you actually reached the platform to get on the trains, it was a far cry from the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system back at home. the trains where all old and looked very antique. All the people from my point of view varied from being vary talkative to just plain crazy as in they would pee on the wall right in front of where you stood.
Our first stop was little china town. We walked up and down the old streets of China town trying to find this Chinese bakery that my brother had been to before. The streets where littered with Chinese newspaper and graffiti was all over the walls. We eventually found our bakery after 45 minutes of walking down dark alleys and back roads that we probably should not of been on. The food with in the bakery was different but good, it was surely nothing I had ever eaten before.
While sitting at our table I was looking out the door with the anticipation and excitement of exploring the big apple, suddenly a large object fell down from the exposed pipes in the ceiling that was directly above an Asian couple sitting across from us. The large object landed dead center in the asian gentlemen’s coffee cup. I swear I saw a tail hanging out of his cup when the dust had settled. At this point I had lost my appetite even though I was liking the food more and more with every bite. After the bakery in Little China Town we made our way over to the Brooklyn Bridge and from there we found Ground Zero.
The WTC site was filled with all kinds of construction and workers paving the way for the new Freedom Towers. The Artist rendition of the soon to be, looked absolutely beautifully. While walking across the street from the site we where stopped by a street hustler, just like in the movies. This guy had a trench coat on with all kinds of watches and accessories that lined the inside of his jacket. He pulled out a suitcase which made me think “Oh man here we go”. It was awesome, I got a big kick out of it. He opened up his case and not to my surprise, there where many different kinds of sunglasses, which was perfect because my old one’s broke and I was in search of new ones for this trip. So I tried a couple on and found a pair I really liked, I asked him “How much?”, he says “20 Bucks, last offer man.” He was already closing the deal and I had not even begun to bargain with him. So in my defense I say “All I have on me is a five?” I knew this was a far cry from what he just said but I knew these where knockoffs and he probably got them through a shady deal anyway. So with his time limit as an NYCPD car pulled around the corner, I knew I had the sunglasses for 5 bucks. After handing over the bill the hustler disappeared, it was nuts. It was like I turned my head to see how my new NYC shades looked on me in the reflection of a glass building, then I look back and the hustler was no where in sight.
The cop car pulled over and two policemen stepped out of the car, they did not say one thing about what just happened, either for the fact that they didn’t see it or they where just so use to it, it did faze them. We talked to them for a while about what had happened on 911 and we even talked them into taking a couple pictures. From there we stopped at a small ma and pa shop for snacks to keep us going. We where needing directions to where we wanted to go next which was the Statue of Liberty. A local NYC lady was in line to buy and she helped us out. She had one of the deepest New York accents I had ever herd, it was very intriguing to hear her talk, so I kept asking her questions.
We found our way over to a ferry tour that took us around the Statue and up river where we could see New Jersey and the five boroughs. While on the water I saw a boat taxi which was the first for me, but it made a lot of sense to see that in the Harbor. After the ferry we made our way in a cab over to NBC Studios right across the street from Radio City Hall. The cab ride was something different, this guy was from India and drove as if it was his last day on the job, and he did not care if he got fired, running red lights, stop signs, almost hitting people crossing the street and he sped like a bat out of hell. We even drove past a couple of cop cars, but it didn’t seem to matter to him. After the cab ride We went inside NBC studios and walked around. We stayed on the ground level and explored the shops. It wasnt to bad, but for the most part it seemed just like any other building downtown except this one was NBC themed with there most current television show.
After NBC we walked up the street to find Central Park. This was the biggest park I had ever laid eyes on. There where people and events going on every where like carnivals, carriage rides, hundreds if not thousands of joggers, weddings, football, people just laying out in the sun on the grass, people walking there dogs and people just hanging out with there family’s. After taking some pics and catching a breather in the park we made our way by foot down to time square (pictures above and below). We explored and checked out the sites and found our selfs at the door of a huge movie theater, so we decided to see a movie. We watched Spiderman 3, it just came out and we didn’t think there was any better place to see the New York web slinger then right in the heart of New York itself. It was surreal watching the movie and saying “Hey I was just standing right there.” Yes we talked through the entire movie as did every one else. The New York movie goers are the loudest movie goers I had ever heard, But it was cool, everyone was having so much fun it didn’t matter.
After the movie was over with we adventured on and found our way over to Grand Central Train Station. We weren’t there for the train but what we where there for was Michael Jordan’s Steak House Restaurant, which was located in the upper balcony of Grand Central Station, over looking the big open floor in the middle with the huge famous clock. We are both die hard Jordan fans so there was no way we where going to pass it up.
After the meal, we found our selfs at Time Square again and visited Planet Hollywood. We both ordered drinks and where on our way to getting a good buzz. After planet Hollywood we explored Time Square again and found a small comedy club. To get in was by table reservation only, well.. somehow we got in. My brother has that kind of gift where he can get his way just by introducing himself. The comedians where not as funny as I was expecting but then again a lot of the jokes where about NYC so you could tell who was local and who was not by who was laughing.
At the end of the show we had a good buzz going on, so we decided to get back on the streets and let the flow of things take us to where-ever. We ended up at a Mc Donald’s close to where the Empire state building is, far from time square. We probably walked about an hour and a half before we reached the golden arches, at this time it was dark. After we got some grub at MC Ds, we got one last glimpse of the Empire along with some of the other historic buildings around it, we walked all the way back to time square and headed down to the subways.
By the time we got back to JFK, we where both dead tired from endless walking and no sleep. I didn’t even sleep the night before just for the fact that I was to excited to go on this trip. We caught a flight back to Arizona where he got off, then I caught a connecting flight to SFO where I rode the Bart and slept all the way to my stop.
My Brother, Time Square
