HOME

CN Tower
Niagara Falls
Golden Gate
Mt. Fuji
Great Wall
Grand Canyon
Hoover Dam
Pyramids
Petra
Colosseum
Leaning Tower
Parthenon
Stonehenge
Big Ben
The Chunnel
Eiffel Tower
Mt. St.Michel
Empire St Bld

Alaska glacier
Tokyo Tower
Forbidden City
Sum'r Palace
LaBufadora
Bilbao Museo
BlarneyStone
Disney Paris

New York
I NY
I fly from Paris to New York.  It feels good to come back to the U.S. after living out-of-a-suitcase, on-the-road, out-of-the-country for the past 3.5 months.  Still in tourist mode, I catch the Circle Line ferry to  the Statue of Liberty.
      

Statue of Liberty
	Ironically (pun somewhat intended), the iron-frame Statue of Liberty, symbol of American liberty and freedom, was designed and constructed entirely by the French.  A group of French scholars admired the U.S., which had just survived its civil war and was the
up-and-coming country.  At a dinner party in 1895, the scholars talked about giving the U.S. a monument to symbolize freedom, because it would cause trouble in conservative post-Napoleon France.  Inspired by the Ancient Wonder, the Statue of Colossus at Rhodes, Batholdi designed the 300 copper skin sheets, and Gustave Eiffel   (as in Tower) designed the iron structure. The statue was built in France, and then disassembled and shipped to New York's harbor.  I catch a ferry to Liberty island where you can walk around the statue, but due to security, you can't climb up it.  After seeing the Statue of Liberty in all the movies recently (X-Men fought Magneto there, her head bouncing along the ocean in Deep Impact), it feels good to see the Statue of Liberty standing serenely, intact.

Culture Shock
I have to admit, I'm a bit dazed when I step out of my cab in Midtown and look around the city.  After being in Europe where most buildings are less than 5 stories tall in the tourist areas, the NY skyscrapers are really TALL,  much taller than I remember them.  I also check see some of my favorite Euro-brands I've discovered have opened up stores in Europe.  I stop by the EasyInternet Cafe on 42nd, and the H+M store in Midtown.  And everywhere I look, I can see U.S. flags wherever you can put one: hanging off buildings, taxi stickers, store displays, and on T-shirts and even ties.  After getting used to seeing U.S. flags as a trendy "I'm cool" fashion statement on twentysomethings' T-shirts throughout Europe, it's quite nice to see the ol' Red, White and Blue with its original "Old Glory" spirit.   

Hot Summer in the City
My two NY gripes are the boiling, confusing subway system (compared to Eurocities), and the oppressive muggy weather. Unfortunately New York is really muggy when I visit.  Now, everyone has a weakness.  I'm not talking the interview question "Please name your weakness," I'm talking about Kryptonite-style weakness.  My weakness is muggy weather.  Symptoms: Makes me quiet and lethargic.  But New York breaks out with the summer fun which makes up for it.

Even though I've been to the city dozens of times, I haven't done in tourist style in a while.  And I'm still in tourist mode.  I find my camera automatically honing in on anything with gothic spires or Roman columns. My friend Tony comes down from Connecticut to join me in visiting the...

Empire State Building
	It's all about connections.  The ex-governor of NY and a Wall St. financier raised $41 million in a few months to build the 102-story, 1,454-foot Empire Statue Building.   I'm a bit surprised you can still go to the observation deck on the 102 floor, but hey, cool.
My friend Tony and I debate running up the stairs for a good workout, but just take the Jetsons-fast elevator up instead for semi-hazy views of the city.  Tony comments: "It looks just like Sim City from up here!  And I'm psyched that in the lobby, there's a series of illuminated paintings featuring the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, joined by the eighth, the Empire State Building.  (I've learned on this trip that just about every forgotten or modern Wonder of the World considers itself the Eighth Wonder.)  This photo shows the Statue of Zeus, the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria, and the Empire State Building, of course!

Summer Fun
The week I'm there, NY is kicking off with several of its annual summer events, including:

• Restaurant Week.  Twice a year, more than 150 of New York's most expensive, trendy restaurants offer a week of fixed-price lunch menus for just $20.02 (regular price $40-$50).  I've always wanted to go to the Russian Tea Room, but it was being renovated last time I was in NY.  It's participating in Restaurant Week, so we head over there for some great salmon.  Renovations paid off:  red ambiance is nice, and service, great.  The next day, I go to award winning Cafe Des Artistes on the Upper West Side to enjoy chilled melon soup, quail foie gras over potatoes, and a fresh berry tart.  Mouth is watering just thinking about it. My maitre'd was good too. I tell him, "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tip or how much, is a buck enough?  He nods, "Oh, yes, yes," and quickly pockets it.
• Shakespeare in the Park.  We head over to Central Park during a thunderstorm so Tony can pick up some free tickets for Twelfth Night for him and his girlfriend Alicia that night.   But when we get there, they've run out of tickets, so Tony and Alicia decide to join in the WOW-NY group dinner later on.
• Summerstage.  Free concerts in Central Park on the weekend.  But I'm not there on the weekend
• Jazz Festival.  A few weeks of jazz performances at 8 venues around town.
• Lincoln Center Outdoor Dancing.  Sounds fun, but I don't swing.

WOW-NY Dinner
I join some of my NY-area friends for dinner in hip Union Square. 

I realize our gang has a lot of travel miles.  Here's our Travel Record from left to right, using new terminology I'm coining to describe world traveling with friends (e.g. bicoastal: see Glossary):  After me:

• Juan, my college roommate.  I tell him our other roommate Fred says hi from when I visited him in Prague.  Bicoastal buddy, since we went to school in Connecticut, and I met up with him in San Diego when he visited a year ago.
• Ciara: bicoastal buddy; former co-worker in L.A. now working in NY.  She's originally from Ireland, and gave me good advice on visiting Howth (near Dublin), just 10 minutes from where she grew up.  When I first met Ciara, she told me about the TWO round-the-world (RTW) trips she had done, which inspired me to take this one! 
• Chris and Christine, bicoastal AND bicontinenal buddies, since they just joined me 2 weeks ago in London and Paris.
• Alicia, Tony's girlfriend spent a semester in Paris.
• Pete, whose past trip to Australia with Chris inspired me to take my Australia Down Under trip in 2000
• Tony, bicoastal buddy cause we did a Cross Country Road Rules Road Trip from New York to LA a few years ago.

Airport Angst
After catching up with friends, time for me to make the cross country trip from NY again, but this time, I fly back.  When I get to the airport, there's a huge check-in security line.  Now, I haven't had any problems with any of my flights within Europe, mostly because I traveled around midday on weekdays.  So this security stuff was new.  

Oh well.  I finally hop on my plane to Los Angeles.

Coming back to the U.S. feels good after being gone 3.5 months.

My friend Tony joins me in doing NY tourist style, like the  NY Public Library (which was just featured in my Paris-NY inflight movie, the Time Machine) from this angle.

I hone in on anything with Gothic spires, like the cathedral across from Rockefeller.

Empire State's decked out in the Red, White, and Blue.  It's just a week before July 4 after all.

I can't figure out why the flag of Hewitt, where I used to work, is flying alongside the American and NYSE flags when I stop by the NYSE in Wall Street.  But former Hewitt coworker Carol in Washington D.C helps solve the mystery by emailing this to me just now: "And the mystery of the Hewitt flag--Dale Gifford rang the closing bell at the NYSE on the 27th as they went public with their IPO that day!!!"  Random chance that that's the one day I happen to stop by! 

Riding the Wall Street Bull, trying to get the stocks back up.

Quail stuffed with foie gras at Cafe des Artistes, which features naked nymph murals.

I think these are some models taking a break in Central Park

I crash with Ciara and Marc

I visit the Pokemon Center in New York cause I went to the one in Tokyo too.