Itâs been almost a year since I went to New York on vacation with my girlfriend and when I returned I planned to write one or two posts with my experiences in American lands. However, anyone who has been blogging for a few years will know that after spending a few days away from any type of technology (beyond using Skype on your mobile phone to call home) the last thing you want to do is spend hours and hours in front of the computer.
Now, taking advantage of the fact that Carballo is there, I felt like reliving the best and worst moments of the trip, so you can leave your opinions and call me âhijolagranputaâ if you donât agree with me on any of them. As a bonus track, an anecdote.
What I liked the most.
The views from Empire State and Top of the Rock: It is simply impressive to see the island of Manhattan and its surroundings from the almost 400 meters that these buildings measure. For the day we decided to go up the TOOTR because it was recommended to us because it has glass as railings and not a fence. In addition, from here you can see the Empire State âfrom face to faceâ. We went up to the Empire State Building at night and it was quite cool and the advantage was that all the decoration looked like something out of âBioshockâ.
The Intrepid Aircraft Carrier: We werenât planning to go see it because we didnât know it, but it seemed tremendous to me to be on a ship that participated in World War II (According to Wikipedia, a kamikaze plane crashed into it, killing 10 crew members). But since the ship is a museum, it has many more interesting things to see, such as crew capsules from space missions or war planes and helicopters.
The prehistoric animals of the Natural History Museum: When I was a child I loved dinosaurs and seeing them in the museum brought back many memories. Being next to a tyrannosaurus, a triceratops or the enormous fish that crossed the seas millions of years ago is priceless (well, actually the entrance to the museum cost us two dollars).
Like inside a movie: The first impression I had when I left the hotel and took my first walk through New York was that of being inside a movie. Walking two blocks, looking up and seeing the Empire State Building illuminated is very cool, as is walking a little further and seeing all of Times Square full of lights. Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Ground Zero, the Brooklyn Bridge, Harlem, Wall Street, places that are seen in so many movies that seem to be fake.
New York architecture of the early 20th century: It may seem silly, but I love the style of many of the buildings in New York, most of them built in the early or mid-20th century with refined styles that are quite reminiscent of ancient Greece (for example, all of Wall Street)
What I liked least
La Nintendo World: La decepcionante tienda que tiene Nintendo en el Rockefeller Center. Una tienda normal y corriente que salvo por algunos objetos de coleccionismo como la Game Boy de la Guerra del Golfo o una Nintendo DS recubierta con diamantes de Svarosky no tiene nada de especial.
Pure consumerism: Our idea was not to spend too much money there except for what was most necessary: ââeating and buying souvenirs. The most expensive thing we bought seems to me to have been headphones for the iPhone that were cheaper in the United States than in Spain. However, if you donât spend money in New York, pretty much all you can do is walk around (like everywhere else).
My girlfriend tried to kill me: We got up at 7 in the morning and from then on the only time of the day we stopped was at lunchtime. Manhattan, although it may not seem like it, is on a slope and after a few hours of walking my back and feet were tired from standing and walking for so long. When it seems like I couldnât be more tired, my girlfriend finds a clothing store and well⊠thereâs nothing worse than shopping with a woman while youâre knackered (No, there isnât!). Although I will say in its favor that we were only going for a few days and we had to be well prepared if we wanted to see everything.
The treatment they gave us at the hotel: Like cattle. Literally. We stayed at the Pensylvannia Hotel, a tourist class hotel right in front of Madison Square Garden. The hotel staff, who didnât turn out to be pleasant to begin with, didnât make any effort to understand us when we were having trouble expressing ourselves. In addition, they charged our credit card a deposit of $50 without notifying us (although they did not charge it later).
Chinatown: It is in the south of the island and therefore is almost the oldest part. I didnât expect it to be a neighborhood with shitty streets in which the only thing that denoted that it was a Chinese neighborhood was the influx of Chinese people and a MacDonalds with the letters in Chinese. Otherwise it was all gift shops for tourists concentrated one next to the other. I expected it to be different, to have more ornamentation.
A guide who had no fucking idea: One day we took a night tour in which they took us to Brooklyn to see southern Manhattan illuminated and also the Empire State Building. When we were skirting the island and we came across the Intrepid, the guide couldnât think of anything other than to say that the submarine that is part of the museum, a nuclear submarine from the Cold War; Well, he canât think of anything other than to say that it was a âGerman nuclear submarine from World War II.â Touch your balls.
The anecdote
Obviamente unas vacaciones no son buenas sin una anĂ©cdota, y la mĂa llego el primer dĂa que madrugamos y decidimos ir a un Starbucks. Yo, que soy de pueblo y si me sacan del Frapuccino no tengo ni idea de lo que venden en uno, vi entre las ofertas una especie de Donut y se lo señalĂ© a la dependienta. Ella me hizo un par de preguntas en inglĂ©s y yo, como eran las 7 y pico de la mañana y no me enterĂ© de nada âle hice un Windowsâ y le contestĂ© âNo a todoâ. El desenlace fue que me comĂ mi Bagle frĂo y sin ningĂșn tipo de relleno (lo que viene a ser un cacho de pan duro) delante de la atĂłnita mirada de la dependienta. :)