Don't Judge the Short NYC Trip (Part 1): Central Manhattan and Lower Manhattan

Prologue:

- Not long ago, I had the opportunity to visit New York and Washington D.C. (click here, here, and here, for New York City, here for Poughkeepsie, then here, here, and here for Washington D.C.) Since I came back to Manila, I dreamed of returning to either place to explore more. I think this is a usual sentiment I have after visiting whichever place. I have also mentioned to friends that I wanted to go back to New York City (NYC), because I felt that among the American cities I have visited, NYC was the city that best suits my personality. NYC was outgoing, NYC always had something going on, NYC was diverse, NYC was home to Broadway (bonus: NYC was cold 3/4 of the year). All these things matched everything I wanted in a city, at least, as a tourist; I know it would be a totally different story if I were to live there.

- This Holy Week, my family was supposed to go to Japan, but my dad suddenly changed his mind after being invited by our aunt to visit her in NYC. I was honestly skeptical about the trip, since no one I know really goes to the USA for a week (i.e. for a casual/leisure visit,) because it's quite far from the Philippines. Since my family only had a week off from work/school, minus almost two whole days of flying (a one way trip is around 20 hours long,) it only gave us around 5 whole days to visit New York. My other situation was that my aunt's house, where we stayed, was quite far from Manhattan, where all the main tourist spots are. Despite that, I tried to be positive about the trip. I just hoped I wouldn't have a hard time dealing with jet lag.



The trip:

- April 8-10, 2017, Saturday to Monday.

- We flew to NYC with Philippine Airlines, and it was only a day before our flight when I found out that the PAL flight to NYC would have a brief stop at Vancouver, but not a transit stop. This meant that we weren't allow to wander around the airport, and just stay at the boarding gate after security checks. We rode the same plane going to NYC after the Vancouver-bound passengers left the plane, and the NYC-bound passengers from Vancouver were ready to board.

THEY HAD MOANA ON THE PLANE.

- My family and I arrived in New York around midnight, and we were welcomed by my aunt's husband. We had a long (long long long long....long) ride to Long Island, where my aunt and her husband live.

I am here again!!

- On our first real day in New York, we all woke up around 7:30am and prepared to leave around an hour later. We all rested well inside the airplane the day before anyway, so running on approximately 4 hours of sleep was fine for that day. I was glad they didn't complain that I made them wake up quite early. As always, whenever there's a trip, or part of a trip where we need to go on our own, my family usually makes me the travel-agent-cum-tour-guide (which includes telling them what time to get ready); since I had experienced going around NYC, it was easier for my to plan everything.

- Our first stop for the morning was one of my favorite museums in the world: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as "The Met." We were driven to the museum that morning by my uncle, but going to the Met is easily accessible by subway, using the 4, 5, or 6 metro line to the 86th Street metro station.

- Since it was established in the 1870s, the museum has been continuously exhibiting folk art around the world. These artifacts and artworks are separated by region. What remains to be my favorite galleries are the Egyptian, Asian, and American (including Latin American,). Normally, those particular about museums wouldn't be able to finish this large museum in a day. I went around the whole museum before in 2 hours since it was all the time I had. This time, we finished everything in around an hour, since the family decided to just choose certain galleries that interested us. (My family ain't the biggest museum goers.) I always have this "compulsion" to check out every corner of a place I visit (whether it interests me or not) to maximize my stay, and so while my family's suggestion greatly made me feel uncomfortable, I just shrugged it off since I was able to visit the museum's ever corner before. We visited the Egyptian, Indian, West-and-Central Asian, and Greek galleries. Afterwards, we had lunch inside the museum cafeteria.

I MISSED YOU HUHU.

Russian Faberge Eggs.

A Mayan pillar.

Inside the Greek wing.

Ionic pillar.

Hercules.

The Temple of Dendur, and Egyptian temple during the Roman era. It was a gift given to the Met in 1965 by Egypt after the USA helped Egypt save some important Egyptian monuments from being destroyed by river water.  

A guardian from Ashurbanipal's Palace; from early Mesopotamia.

Still my favorite kind of art: Gandhara art.

108 Buddhas.

Byzantine art.

- After lunch we crossed the west side of Central Park (where the Met is) to the east to go to the American Museum of Natural History. Since Central Park was in our itinerary, passing through it served as our short visit there. Too bad I wasn't able to show them the nicest spots in the large middle-of-the-city park. At the very least, they were able to see the Great Lawn up close, and the Belvedere Castle from afar. Also, I chanced upon a cherry blossom tree in the park, which was sort of heaven's way of giving me a consolation for not being able to visit Japan this spring.

The Great Lawn.

Shadow of a tree on a sunny day.

Another one.

Belvedere castle from afar.

Sakura in NYC, good enough!! 

- We reached the American Museum of Natural History after briefly getting lost in Central Park, and met my cousin Edith and her daughter Lily inside the museum. If going directly to this museum, one can take the A, B, or C train to 81st Street (American Museum of Natural History) metro station.

- The American Museum of Natural History was founded in the 1860s with the main goal of learning more about the natural world and human cultures. This is why apart from exhibits ranging from dinosaurs to modern-day animals, there are certain galleries that are quite similar to those in the Met. Apart from the cultural stuff which obviously piqued my interest, I loved all the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals exhibited there; they brought me back to my childhood.

You're full of people!!

One kind of African ritual costume.

Armenian traditional clothes.

Mammoth!!

One of my favorites in the gallery, the giant elk skeleton.

An ancient armadillo. Look at that hard shell!!

The ancestor of the modern narwhale.

Tricerotops!!

A giant ankylosaurus. 

Stegosaurus.

Now who doesn't recognize the T-Rex!! (It was the star of the gallery!!)

The really long apatosaurus.

Ancient soft-shelled turtle.

One of my favorite ancient marine animals: the bony and armored dunkleosteus.

South-American gold.

The infamous Chinese family tree and all the confusing terms.

A replica of the Code of Hammurabi; the real one, I think, is in the Louvre Museum in France.

The famous lobby of the museum. Why famous? These two dinosaur skeletons.

- To cap the day, we all went to the Chelsea Garment District to visit the High Line. This was a new place for me since I didn't visit it before. My sister suggested this place since she has heard much about it; lately, I have also heard of friends who visited the High Line.

- We rode the C train to 34th Street (Penn Station), though various points of the park can be reached by taking any train that goes to these metro stations: 14th St.-8th Ave., 23rd St-8th Ave., 14th St.-7th Ave., 18th St.-7th Ave., 23rd St.-7th Ave., 34th St.-Hudson Yards, and of course, any train going to 34th St. Penn Station.

I like it for the history, but it didn't seem like much.

Old rail tracks.

- The High Line is an elevated park/walkway roughly 2.5km long. It used to be the West Side Line of the New York Railway from the 1800s, but was disused due to the rise of other more efficient modes of transportation in New York. The old rail was then converted to an elevated park, and sections of this long park opened in phases in the recent years.

- Since it was early spring, not a lot of the plants and flowers were in full bloom, and so I wasn't able to appreciate it as much. The view, however, was not too interesting, so I'm couldn't say that I'm the biggest fan of the High Line as a tourist site. On a positive note, I find it to be a good walkway for those going between the north and south sides of Chelsea. Also, the High Line's website (click here) has a calendar that tells people of special events and various classes/activities (ex. taichi, yoga, etc.) that take place in this park.

A more appealing part of the High Line.

I like the rustic look of this portion.

- After visiting the High Line, we rode all the train to the borough of Queens, where we parted with cousin Edith and her daughter Lily, and where were fetched by my uncle to go back to Long Island. It was a long first day for us, but happiest realization I had on our first day was that I still knew how to navigate in New York.

- The following day was the highlight for my family - Liberty Island. We were driven to Battery Park early in the morning, but since our tickets were still for the 12noon cruise to Liberty Island, we opted to visit some spots in Lower Manhattan. First, we visited the famous "Charging Bull" statue by Arturo di Modica, and the recently-installed controversial "Fearless Girl" statue by McCann facing the bull. I was fortunate to have seen the Fearless Girl statue, since it might be removed soon due to controversies and lawsuits. By the way, the bull and girl statues are close to Battery Park; both locations are easily reachable by riding the 6 train to Bowling Green Station. This station is also close to the Museum of the American Indian, which I had visited the first time I was in New York.

Hello Fearless Girl.

Charging Bull.

Charging Bull and Hungry Pig.

- Seeing that it was still too early, for our cruise, we went further north in Lower Manhattan to visit the 9/11 Memorial. The memorial is accessible by riding any train that stops at Fulton Street, the R train to Cortlandt Street, or the E train to the World Trade Center. Now my family wasn't interested in visiting the memorial museum, so we just visited the memorial monument and the newly-built transportation hub (and mall) called The Oculus. The Oculus, which resembles a flying bird, was still being built in 2015 when I went to the 9/11 memorial, and now it's almost done but is more or less open for people using the subway or some long-distance trains.

The Oculus and the new World Trade Center.

The memorial.

The new World Trade Center.

Someone left this white rose on one of the many names on the memorial structure.

- Later on we went back to Battery Park and rode on our short scenic cruise to Liberty Island via Statue Cruises. Upon arriving at the island, we had a quick lunch at the cafeteria before going inside the Statue of Liberty to visit the pedestal and the museum. The Statue of Liberty, representing the Roman goddess Libertas, was a gift given to America in 1886 from France. It was designed by the sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, and constructed by Gustave Eiffel (yes, Eiffel as in Paris' Eiffel Tower). The statue's bluish-greenish color is natural, as a result of the copper statue being oxidized through the years.

Liberty Island from Battery Park.

Passed by Ellis Island; that's the Immigration Museum.

Why hello again old friend!!

UFO????

Oh, it's just a banner after all.

Inside the statue. These are the stairs to the crown, which we weren't able to go anymore since we weren't able to get the tickets to the crown.

The Statue of Liberty, and the Statue of Gilberty. This time, I was prepared. I brought the Liberty crown I bought before, and it was the closest thing to an "appropriate" costume I had.

Bartholdi's sculpture.

Lady Liberty and some of the other tallest structures in the world before.

The best thing in the museum. I was excited to see this again!!

- After a nearly 2-hour stay in Liberty Island, we rode back to Battery Park, skipping Ellis Island and the Immigration Museum as my family wasn't interested (though I can assure you, it's an interesting museum to visit; entrance is free too!!) Minutes later we arrived at Battery Park, and rode the 5 train from Bowling Green to the Brooklyn Bridge Station to visit - what else - the Brooklyn Bridge.

- The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest bridges in the USA, and connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Like many bridges in Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge can be used by pedestrians, bicycles, and cars. Personally, I like the classic appearance of the bridge, and the view of both Manhattan and Brooklyn from the middle of the bridge.

Look at that beauty!!

The webbed metal support adds a geometric sparkle to the bridge.

Of course, there's me.

- From Brooklyn Bride we rode the train to Queens, and hopped on my uncle's car back to Long Island. I was so tired from all the walking that I passed out on my bed right after having dinner and taking a bath. Well, I suppose that I needed to rest for an even longer walkathon the next day - Broadway!! (Check Part 2 here of this blog series!!)