Wednesday, November 18, 2009
damn I'm really behind time in updating my blog! I'm just done with my CSB328 presentation which i performed verbal diarrheoa, but nonetheless I'm plenty glad its over... as usual its waiting for my long but interesting UNI255 sexuality class... the last weekend was a long one thanks to fall break on thursday and friday.. since my roomies were planning to spend their romantic xmas with their bfs/friends while I will be in vancouver, I decided to take a trip to new york on my own! pretty fun since I know 5 groups of friends going NYC during xmas: Pam and raf, Justin my NUS-Bi ex-boss, Janet+BF, Felicia + friends, Kelvin + Jean + Elaine... would have been really interesting if i was to be there for xmas too! imagine meeting 5 groups of friends in a foreign place! zomg... I think theres another 1 or 2 groups that I can't remember now too!
oh wells... gotta say first that my exp in new york has been far from good.. the weather was terrible with intermittent light rain throughout the whole day, complete cloud overcast and foggy nights... for an outdoor person like me, it was a big minus especially since I like to take nice photographs.. I started off on wednesday night with a greyhound bus overnight for 10hrs from Toronto Bus terminal.. it stopped over at buffalo after crossing the border (as usual customs were very suspicious of non-whites), followed by syracruse and finally new york city.. I reached slightly earlier at about 7am and decided to walk over to nearby times square since I had time to kill~ the huge billboards and colourful signs are really cool! I then took a subway (after taking the wrong line once) to my hostel at amsterdam avenue - Hostelling International! Its pretty much like a army bunk with 12 beds per room, the bed was all nice and comfy and was cooling (natural air con).. they had really nice lounges and wireless internet at the common area with neat kitchen facilities! except for the 2 powerpoints per room thing, I found the stay in Hostelling International raelly worthwhile!
after dumping my stuff, i took the subway down to Battery Park amidst light drizzle and went through the airport security thing before boarding the boat to liberty island.. sadly the statue looked almost defaced on the side facing manhatten, but as the boat cruised closer to the front, can see that its still pretty green and ok~ so quickly took shots while fighting for space with other tourists to take a photo on the top deck.. when i reached the island, i tried to take some pics below the statue but the wind was so strong that my tripod (unmounted) just toppled on its own~ so I decided to go into the pedestal first.. there I noticed a bunch of guys who seemed to take notice my NUS jumper and after chatting with them, found out they were singaporeans too who just ORD-ed earlier november and now on tour before uni starts.. shioks sia! post ORD come so far! We explored the musuem at the pedestal before heading up to the top of the pedestal where the rain fell on us like needles with strong winds throwing off any chance of good stable shots of the manhatten skyline... later i went to staten island as I left the group and looked around the immigration museum before heading back to manhatten island..
from battery park, i went on to visit wall street, the place where lincoln became the first president of USA, trinity church and the world trade center site (which is nothing more than a construction site).. apparently the pool memorial was no longer there or something~ or had to pay like $20 for a tour inside a musuem in an adjacent building.. not interested.. =\ I just feel that its wrong to make money out of a tragedy man.. totally put me off.. in the end I just looked from afar and could only imagine the collapse and the great number of lives lost that day and offer a silent prayer.. I walked on and found myself near the municipal and city hall, took a few pics and took the subway up to empire state building.. surprisingly, although it was close to sunset, there was no queue and all and I just flew through all the lines they set up.. Feel abit tricked for my $2 additional online booking to skip the lines that didn't exist! tsk.. the so called legendary lines is a dud! booo~ nonetheless pretty glad I went up quick and saw a nice sunset on the west~ however as they confiscated all tripods, i couldnt take a solid shot, resorting to sticking my camera off the ledge of 86 stories and letting it go for long exposures.. haha made me take a heavy heave of relief after every shutter closure as i bring it in~ later on the wind became so strong that I was stopped in my tracks and struggled just to take a step forwrad.. I spotted what seems like a skating ring near times square so impromptuly planned my next destination!
first I popped by Madison Square Garden (which I first heard of from Godzilla) to look-see before heading to B&H photo! the famous camera superstore in USA! was kinad lucky coz I only vaguely remembered its location and had no idea whats the address.. after getting lost abit, i found it! it was HUGE! omg.. all that camera gear.. unfortunately I didn't do any research if the stuff were cheaper so in the end didn't bought anything (since I didn't need them eitherways).. unlike toronto, it was like 8pm but still so crowded, so i decided to venture on to times square again, this time at night! it was soooo cool that I just took a seat on those infamous red chairs and just relaxed and took in the cool colours and billboards in the bustle as everyone rushes here and there~ I then popped by the Hershey and M&M World shops and also hard rock cafe to grab some souvenirs~ I then ventured onto where i thought i saw the skating ring and found it! (though getting lost abit again!) took some pics and kinda wished I knew how to skate well! NVM shall practise when i get back to Toronto when the outdoor rings open! sastified and sufficiently shagged, i took the subway back to retire for the night~
waking up early, i set off to central park which was about 5 streets east of my hostel.. the weather was gloomy and cloudy as usual so central park didnt come across as very beautiful to me especially since it was late autumn too with all the dead leaves.. I did like their nice looking bridges and the place called turtle pond i think! The ramble which supposedly had a rich diversity of animals was dissapointedly empty probably due to the migration of birds away from the impending winter~ saw other landmarks like the bow bridge where spidey got dumped by mary jane (i think), bethesda fountain where losta movies were filmed... in between, i also went to visit the exterior of the metropolitant musuem of art~ after the long trek from the top to bottom of central park, i went on for lunch at a bar/grill called UNO chicago before entering the american musuem of natural history!
strangely it didnt look one bit like the movie 'night of the museum'.. its cooler! haha greeted by 2 huge dinosaur skeletons, paid the 'voluntary' donation of $12 for students (which the receptionist actually didnt give you the option to pay less)and went on! the exhibits really looked very life-like and huge~ saw animals from africa, canada, a cool sea animals exhibit, some human civilizations and aboriginals, birds, reptiles and the coolest dinosaurs! though the number of dinosaurs weren't much more than the ROM which i visited the week before, they have ABIT more actual dinosaur bones~ quite dissapointing still to know many were actually casts! boo~
tired but still keen to go on, i decided to go visit some of the districts, namely Greenwhich Village and SoHo! got really lost in greenwhich village due to the zoomed-out map i had (which I am still thankful for from Velda) and the confusing angled road intersections.. now i realise the importance of having a digital compass in the Iphone 3GS.. (which hopefully i can get when i return to sinagpore!) Greenwhich village was pretty cool with red brick buildings and classy looking boutiques.. i randomly chanced upon this bakery called magnolia bakery which was filled with people and smelt TERRIBLY AWEEESOME! so i went in, saw that their specialty was cupcakes (which i HATED), bought 2 to try, ate one as I walked out, and fell in LOVE WITH CUPCAKES! makes you wonder how the rest of the world made such horrible cupcakes! I explored further taking some wrong turns again from the confusing roads before finding my way to SoHo aka ORCHARD ROAD! woohoo~ H&M, Uniqlo, Coach, Oakley, AX and other high class brands~ the weather grew worst during this period so i decided to just keep my camera in my bag~ so no photos.. BOO! the clothes had alot more but weren't exactly cheaper save for the higher end brands, so the thrifty me so window shopped for fun!
funnily, walking around i ended up at city hall again, thus meaning i have explored everything south of city hall on day 1 and north of it on day 2! cool! though satisfied, it was 9pm-is (which still feels early in the city that never sleeps) so i went on to walk the brooklyn bridge~ was pretty nice but couldnt find a good photo spot~ moreover I didn't bring out a tripod since I knew the wind could blow it over eitherways so it was really difficult to take any nice shots.. once again I just gave up and looked around.. though the wind became so strong I could swear I saw the suspension lines SHAKING... so i quickly walked back, took the subway and KO back in the hostel~
last day! packed my gear, checked out in the morning and rented a locker to keep my luggage before heading on for my last day~ decided to visit grand central terminal~ was pretty big and grand, but before i could take a cool photo, was courteously told that i couldnt use my tripod in the terminal~ oh wells.. after that i hiked down to the united nations in light rain... (AGAIN) and boy i was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo dissapointed! the coolest part of united nations were all the flags there.. but due to the weather.. they KEPT THEM ALL!! &*%&@%*@)&)(*# cursing and swearing.. i took some pics (albeit abit indifferent from other buildings w/o the flags) and went on~ as my MUST-DOs list was all cleared, i looked at the map and decided to randomly walk around~ funnily i found myself at st patricks cathedral which seemed pretty touristy.. i also ended up at rockfeller center which was actually pretty cool! they had a huge xmas tree and a ice skating ring! oh man.. too bad it was too early to light up the tree if not will be sooo nice! boo~
i walked on towards the shopping areas adjacent to times square but the rain forced me to take shelter and early lunch before continuing on.. I was however pleasantly surprised to find a kinda street market! they sold losta pasar malam-y stuff like fake shades and losta cool stuff too! though i was tempted to buy some cliche IheartNY, the weather took a very bad toll on my mood so i decided not to~ i finally reached times square again, with a weekend crowd this time, though abit too many times, I didnt really get bored of taking photos at this center of human activity (as long as i was seated and relaxed and not bustling around)~ this time I went on to explore the thearte district and was surprised to see long queues and at almost every thearte! haha too bad I not a big fan nor with friends who love them so just look see can le~
still about 4hrs before my bus back, I though of getting souvenirs for my roomies so I decided to travel all the way to greenwhich village to buy the cupcakes for them~ this time it had a long queue outside probably due to the weekend so took quite awhile just to buy the cupcakes which are USD$3 each! ouch~ I then went on to Times Warner Center which was actually a shopping center~ looked around as I couldnt head out in the heavy downpour... after the rain let up abit, i finally got on to central park, hoping to catch people skating at the famous wollman skating ring.. sadly due to the rain it was closed.. ARGH! I &(@)&$*(((@)$(ing hate the rain! ***... GRRR~ dissapointed AGAIN, i kept my camera from any further abuse by the light rain and went back to my hostel to grab my gear, headed back to madison square garden to buy krispy kreme to share with my roomies too then went to the Port Authoriy bus terminal..
though the end of my trip, I had a bad experience there cause of there was NO information booth or had no one manning them.. ended up being lead by this African American who ended up asking me for tips after leading me to the bus bay.. i gave him USD$1 for his troubles, but ended up realizing that it was the bus bay for morning bus to toronto~ i ended up trying to find, running up and down again to find the bus bay to toronto.. was approached by others like him, but was so angry I just shrugged them off.. finally found it thanks to a flimsy piece of paper pasted on the wall.. the bus left on time, but before it even left the terminal, it had an accident as the bus driver his his side mirror as he was negotiating a bend and the whole side mirror came off.. we ended up being delayed 30min just to board a smaller and noisier bus before leaving.. the whole trip back i couldnt sleep well in fear of this bus driver especially since the visibility was barely 100m in front of you thanks to the lack of streetlights (like anywhere else here) and the *^(*&ing weather causing a fog.. nonetheless i was glad to make it back safely, went back to my room and KO-ed..
gotta say this is my first travel trip with so much DISSAPOINTMENT... i guess its 90%due to the weather.. cause if i take that out of the equation, i actually achieved alot more than i set out to do in NYC! but yeah the weather really made me change my plans all the time, cause considerable damage to my camera (i dropped my camera bag which caused my dented B+W filter glass to fall backwards.. thankfully it was just the filter, at first i thought my autofocus mechanism was broken) and overall bad mood and atmosphere for all 3 days.. I didn't particular like the crowded nature of NYC especially since I was alone and on free and easy.. making walking around a pain sometimes.. I especially had a very very bad impression of American African Blacks: 1. One receptionist at the subway who was chatting with her boyfriend while on duty complained and bitched to me as I asked her for help getting change to buy my metro card.. 2. on a crowded train, as I moved towards the center of the car, a black man just shoved my plastic bag carrying the cupcakes as it was being held in front of him.. i was so pissed but didnt want to pick a fight in a foreign country so just stared at that son of a b*tch who retardedly wore shades indoors and flirted with his gf next to him.. f***er.. 3. as you already know, that guy who 'helped' me at the bus terminal, in the end causing me unnecessary distress thinking I might miss the bus... thankfully i went there early.. phew...
well thats basically my NYC trip... not as beautiful and lovely as all my other tours here so far.. leaving a very sour aftertaste in me... though I am pretty thankful that I won't have to go back to that terrible place anything soon, especially in christmas where i bet the number of people will just piss me off big time.. makes me wonder why so many people claim to LOVE NEW YORK.. in my opinion, its just a huge, messy city that is totally overrated.. being back in toronto, also a relatively big city, with nicer people, less blacks, less crowded, better weather... I am really thankful I cleared this 'tourist destination' albeit with a terrible experience...
dEminG
My mind's unweaving/ 6:54 AM
Boat Shoe from Timberland
Green Scarf from Hermes