Weekend Trip to New York City, Day 2 on July 24th, 2016
Second day at New York.
Since we arrived at our Airbnb host very late last night this morning, we also got up very late. We left our host at 1045, for which, my friend comforted me as “standard college student time”.
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Last night, it was pitch-dark, and I was tired from all the day’s activities. But now with the sun shining brightly, I got the chance to experience this lovely Brooklyn neighborhood by walking my way to the subway station.
Factory of the world.
I guess these tiles were cleaned at most once a month, otherwise how could they be this dirty?
Since it’s New York subway, expectedly, we took a train going the wrong direction.
But this time, I didn’t have my drowsiness to blame. So I point the problem towards the signs in the station, which reads two station names instead of the commonly understandably “downtown” and “uptown”. My friend pointed me a direction, which I thought he was sure it’s downtown but he wasn’t.
This is a large station, so we could reverse track and took the right train to Manhattan.
The good thing was that, we got on an express train, which just jumped stations like crazy. So it wasn’t a long ride.
Our first stop of the day was Empire State Building. Last night, we enjoyed the night views of New York City from Rockefeller Tower, so today’s Big Apple in bright sunlight from another famous skyscraper in Manhattan.
The main observatory of Empire State Building is on the 86th floor. However, since the original design of Empire State Building was 80 floors, with the additional part later added to rival the height of Chrysler Building, the first elevator ride only took us to the 80th floor, as we were given a display of Empire State Building’s histories.
One thing I wasn’t so sure of, why did they blurred the lower half of all the windows in the 80th floor. I guess to stop people from thronging around the windows for the view and thus blocking passageways. They believe the only observatories were 86th floor and up.
I wasn’t too comfortable seeing wirings like this. Although they seemed quite organized, I thought there must be a way to conceal them. One possible explanation for their presence was that the whole Empire State Building, from the 80th floor up, was added later to rival the height of Chrysler Building, so it’s not part of the original design.
From the 80th floor there’s another elevator ride up the 86th floor, which meant more waiting in line. However, we were given the option of walking 6 stories up, which we unwillingly accepted (because the lines weren’t short).
It’s a little bit scary to look down this bottomless shaft. I guess it leads all the way to the ground floor.
I bumped into an English summer camp made up of Chinese elementary-school-goers, and the only English words they every spoke were each other’s names.
As I vividly explained the bridge-gate scandal to my friend.
Basically all the rooftops were filled with water tanks.
This looked a lot nicer than Rockefeller Center’s simple retractable belts.
I thought these areas were for tenants, which because of it’s a Sunday, weren’t any.
Then it’s lunch time.
Since I only gobbled a few pieces of leftover bread for breakfast, and my friend belongs to an alien species that don’t need breakfast, we were quite hungry at that time. Then, my friend located a fast-food restaurant on his Google Maps, that still served “lunch specials” at 2pm.
A side note about this lunch was that, on the credit card receipt for me to sign, I found “tip: 0” already typed onto it. I guessed the most possible explanation for this scenario is that the restaurant owner bought the whole credit POS off-the-shelf, while realizing that people don’t tip in fast-food restaurants.
Also, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised finding all the knives and forks made out of disposable plastic, so that they don’t need to hire dish washers.
Our plan after lunch was to take the 3pm Circle Line Sightseeing Landmark Cruise, which didn’t leave us a lot of time since we decided to walk to the piers.
I hate basketball, I was more interested in the Pennsylvania Train Station underneath it. However, I must rushed to the Circle Line Sightseeing tours, which meant I didn’t have time to pay the train station a visit.
This building looked a lot nicer with whole glass cover.
I thought the orange nets made the building somewhat artistic, as I was amazed at how beautiful constructions can be. With a little bit decoration, it looked more like a modern art zone than a construction site.
Again, the orange safety nets and support beams made the whole building looked masculine, rather than repulsive as with most construction sites.
The glass structure looked harmonious against the blue sky.
With our hastened pace, we made it to the Circle Line piers, with just minutes to spare.
With Concord and Intrepid Museum in the foreground.
The whole landmark cruise should last 90 minutes, taking visitors down the Hudson River, near Lady Liberty, then up East River while turning back at near Stuyvesant Town.
It turned out that selfie stick was pretty useful on such a cruise, if you don’t want other people’s head to be in your photos.
One could see the nets surrounding a tiny golf course.
On our ship, we had an old gentleman explaining all the sites and attractions around us. Since we were going down the Hudson River, I found him particularly interested in the story of US Airways A320 crash landing in the river as he repeated it over and over again.
Since it’s the longest tour offered by Circle Line, the Statue of Liberty was included in the tour, as our ship paused for a while before Liberty Island. Judging by their eagerness, I guess most of the visitors on the ship hadn’t been to Liberty Island.
It was one of the last generation of windjammers used in the nitrate trade and wheat trade around the often treacherous Cape Horn.
Upon seeing the United Nations Building, our boat made a U-turn and headed back.
Again, I liked the bright orange nets.
It is a parking garage, sports facility, and former marine terminal.
This was the ship that we saw previously at the pier. There was quite some excitement on both ships as we passed each other.
There was some contention for pier space at the moment, as our ship waited for another ship to come out of the piers, resulting in a 15-minute delay.
The Interpid Aircraft Carrier has been transformed into a museum. But with a little bit more than an hour till its closing time, we didn’t visit it. I visited it two weeks later, and spent nearly half a day there.
So with 6 hours to kill before our 11-pm bus back to Ithaca, we decided to visit some more places. Since New York’s Central Park doesn’t have an opening hours, we decided on that. And since my friend would love to explore the streets of New York, we decided to make our way on foot to the Central Park.
We walked across a region called Hell’s Kitchen, which featured low 6-story buildings. It felt as if time has flown back 50 years.
This is the McDonald’s where we had dinner. Under my friend’s hint, I realized how old its signs were. But anyway, it’s still a functioning restaurant.
Perhaps the most modern building we have seen in Hell’s Kitchen.
That’s the end of tiny 6-story buildings of Hell’s Kitchen.
I knew that New York’s Central Park was famous for its joggers and bikers. But since it’s the summer of 2016, I can safely add Pokemon hunters to the list.
As expected, my legs were aching at the moment from the day’s walk, so my friend and I sat down and watch two innings of this local baseball game in Central Park, although he was more interested in Hearthstone than actual sports.
Then we wandered into Sheep Meadow, and joined the locals by lying on the grass idly watching the skies, while resting my legs at the same time.
That was really soft and comfortable grass I shall say.
Having rested enough, we walked on.
Central Park seemed like a haven for such little cute creatures. They looked especially lovely when chewing things.
That was two and a half hour before our bus’s departure time. My friend found that the campus of Columbia University wasn’t far away, so we made it our last stop of the day.
The fountain was created to mark the 200th anniversary of the Diocese of New York. It depicts the Archangel Michael embracing one of nine giraffes after his defeat of Satan. There is also a lion lying down with a lamb. The fountain’s spiraling base represents a double-helix of DNA.
I guess the rainbow lighting stands for it inclusiveness, or its manipulation at Christian decree.
Again, the steel beams made the whole building looked very industrial.
The campus of Columbia University is so small that we bascially roamed every corner of the university, together with Barnard College in about 20 minutes.
With such a design, artist Michelle Greene introduced humor into the station trying to make the subway a pleasant and hospitable place.
It could be a piece of art for appreciation, but sitting on it definitely didn’t feel like a throne.
This time, the most important subway ride of the weekend, we two took extra care and made sure we were on the right train. Also, we left time as ample as a full hour as buffer in case anything went wrong.
But this wasn’t the end of the weekend trip. We heard a strange noise coming from the wheels when our bus was travelling through Liberty New York. After several phone calls with the company dispatcher and a visit to the local garage, our driver determined that we couldn’t make it to Ithaca with our bus, and insisted we change bus at the local CoachUSA Station. Thank God we arrived back to Cornell Campus safe and sound. I shall say what a phenomenal end to an eventful weekend.
END