I can't help falling in love with..

... NEW YORK. Clichéd as it sounds, I was totally floored by my visit to the Big Apple! It was like falling in love again... first time of course being with 'Death By Chocolate' at good old Corner House!

Manhattan is totally awesome. That place has an energy that's totally infectious! 15 minutes into Manhattan and all my fatigue and jetlag were forgotten. I was infused with a sudden burst of energy that left my folks and Murali uncle zapped. Aditi, the sweetheart that she is, kept up with my enthusiasm!

We started out with a visit to see the dame with the torch. Only ma and I had any enthu to walk up the pedestal and take in the view. After that it was off on a train to downtown Manhattan. The train from Jersey City took us straight to Ground Zero.

What happened at the WTC four years ago was a tragedy, but seeing that desolate hole in the ground in person did something to me. Somehow seeing it in person, standing that and seeing a big crater on the ground and skyscrapers all around, and the flags around flying at half mast made the horror and the sheer magnitude of the tragedy very real.

After that we all grabbed a bite and walked to the Empire State Building. Crappy part of it was that we stood in queues and went through all sorts of security checks only and finally got to the ticket counter after nearly an hour only to be told that visibility from the observation deck was zero. I hate cloudy weather!

So we navigated our way out of there and headed to Time Square. I asked Axe to meet me there. And he was annoyed that I stopped for a moment to take a picture of something. Apparently that makes me a "tourist" . Wow.... i guess that's a complete faux pas! How could I do something so thoroughly clumsy or inconsiderate!!! So native New Yorkers may now think of me as a 'tourist'. Damn... I brought that on myself!

I decided to call it a day after that, and just try to catch up on sleep. And I convinced my folks that we should go back there again the next day, and that's just what we did. But what with getting Aditi ready and taking a train to the big apple from NJ, we didn't get there till almost noon.

This time we played it better and took one of those hop-on-hop-off-tours. That was a really good call, imho. We got to the top of the empire state buildings, where dad took lots of videos (I really have no clue why), and Aditi was fast asleep. I take my daughter to the top of the world and she falls asleep...... those certainly aren't MY genes.

And then we spent better part of the afternoon on the bus seeing all the 'Patel points'. I was totally kicked at the sheer number of buildings with Art Deco trimmings. Some of the older ones, especially like the NY Public Library were really ornate. I never thought New York had that many old-fashioned buildings trimmed with scrollwork. And the guide on the tour bus was a bit of an architecture buff, and he pointed out some really lovely examples. We saw Greenwish village, Lower East Side, Wall Street, Time Square and other assorted 'must see' points of on interest.

The evening tour was great. Boy, does Manhattan light up pretty! We were driven over the bridge to Brooklyn, to see the lights of Manhattan.

Seriously though, I could spend a week in Manhattan and still not see all there is! I didn't get to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was the one thing I really wanted to see! So maybe on my way back Singy I will..... This is one place I wish I could come to and explore it on my own. I could leave Aditi with Arun and come over to NY and explore and enjoy it to the hilt. Sigh.... total wishful thinking!

Pics?? definitely.... when I get around to downloading them. No enthu for that right now