Travel Journal: New York, New York

I think I've always been fascinated by New York City, probably a side effect of all the books and movies I've read and watched. My aunt lived there for a year, and always told us about how amazing it was to be able to go get pizza at one in the morning, or celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square, and I've been dying to live there ever since. Next fall I plan to apply to public and private colleges out east, just to get close to living out my big city dreams. However, I've never actually been to New York, so this spring break I went for the first time with my mom and a group from school. While planning the trip I looked at pictures of the city, and I fell in love with the grittiness of the old film photos taken in the 1960s and 70s, so I decided to take along some disposable film cameras to try to better capture the spirit of NYC. It was a new experience for me, trying to shoot on film, and only about half the pictures came out right, but I love the character seen in the pictures. Read on to find out the stories behind the snapshots!

Lost in the Airport

 After a loooong flight, we were absolutely dying to use the restroom, so we waited in a ridiculous line and got separated from our group in the Newark Airport. We found everyone downstairs in baggage claim, after we followed the wrong group for 15 minutes.

My First New York Hot Dog

I tried my first street hot dog and did not die immediately, despite what my dad always says! I was surprised that most of the food bought from street vendors was actually pretty good, especially for the low prices!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

First time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art! It was a truly magical experience and I could have easily spent all day admiring the paintings, statues, and famous guitars in the Met's spring exhibit, Play it Loud: The Instruments of Rock and Roll. I personally love this last picture of the sculpture of three women. The symmetry really draws you in and the sculpture itself is a gorgeous celebration of femininity. 

Barefoot in The Park

Central Park was even more beautiful than I could have imagined it to be. The park really is the heart of the city, a speck of green in the concrete jungle, where all New Yorkers come together, looking for a place to really relax. Our tour guide told us a lot of interesting facts about the park, which made it even more special, like how the original architects made 23 different entrances so that all New Yorkers could use the park and how park benches are recognized as actual addresses so that the homeless can vote in any elections.

The Empire State Building!

 Definitely one of the more memorable parts of the trip. We road the elevator all the way up to the 86th floor and went out to the observation deck. From the top, we could see the whole city lit up and feel the breeze from all directions. The city was literally at our feet.

Ellis Island/ Statue of Liberty

 The statue was so much smaller than I thought it would be. I mean, it's still huge, but compared to the Empire State Building it was tiny! Some tourists spend an entire day just climbing the stairs to the top, which now seems like a neat idea, but after a full day of walking around the city, it just seemed ridiculous. I personally thought Ellis Island was one of the best parts of the trip, and I really enjoyed learning all about the islands history. Like how unmarried women weren't allowed to leave the building without a family member, so if a man came to pick up his fiancee, they would have to be married on the spot, which honestly seems kind of romantic. Or how the first female doctors were hired because immigrant women were to afraid to let the male doctors examine them. Or how the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was a 17 year old girl, who actually turned 17 the day she was processed, and was given a silver piece by an Ellis Island Official.

The Ferry 

 We took the Ferry to Battery Park, where I took this picture of us unloading off the boat. Once we were off the boat, we walked to an upscale mall for lunch, and after feasting on a gluten free pizza, we went to the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It was a beautiful museum, dedicated to the victims of the attack, and I felt it was a very important experience to take in completely so I didn't take any pictures while I was there.

Little Italy/Chinatown

 To be honest, Little Italy and Chinatown were the best parts of the trip, purely because of the shopping and the food. We finished up all of our gift shopping and had some amazing pork dumplings with gelato and lattes for dessert. The lattes from Cafe Roma were so amazing, we didn't mind paying five dollars a piece.

Rockefeller Center

 Rockefeller Center was really neat, because of all the designer stores and delicious restaurants surrounding it. We spent the morning walking around and looking through the shops. It's hard to see, but in the first picture,  a man in a clown suit was blowing bubbles outside of F.A.O. Schwartz, a high end toy store. Eventually we wandered away from the center and found ourselves back at Central Park near the zoo. In the fifth picture, a church group is celebrating Palm Sunday outside a church with actual palm leaves. 

Beautiful: The Carole King Show 

 I am still obsessed with this show! Carole King has such an inspiring story and the musical captured it all perfectly! I'll never hear "One Fine Day" the same ever again, and I'm still bopping to "We Got to Get Out of This Place".

Times Square

 I actually didn't love  Times Square as much as I thought I would. It was really loud and crowded, and none of the restaurants were really that good. We spent most of our Times Square free time at Pastrami Queen, a cute little diner that served some pretty amazing pastrami, obviously. We started talking to a waitress there who had recently moved from Texas to sing on Broadway, and soon enough her manager, who was from Brooklyn, chimed in. He told us about how growing up in the city, he remembered the piles of snow getting taller than him during the winter. We had our pastrami, plus cake and lattes before leaving to meet the group back in Times Square. The first pic is my personal favorite out of the whole trip.

Last Day :(

 We spent the last day at the Museum of Natural History, which was surprisingly really interesting. Unfortunately none of my pictures from the museum turned out right. We took the subway for the first time, which I thought was really fun, and ate at the Underground Market, a restaurant and shopping hub right next to the subway. I had some amazing margherita pizza, with macarons for dessert, and picked up some rainbow chocolate chip cookies from Baked in Color for my little sister. Our last stop was the Upper East Side, near Fordham University. We took our last chance to explore the city, and just walked past the beautiful and outrageously expensive apartments. Sadly, we headed back to the bus and departed for Newark, New Jersey.

Newark Airport

I really did not want to go home, as you can see in this picture. As much time as we spent walking around the city, it still felt like there were so many things left to see. Until next time, New York! I hope to be back soon.