New York City

The favourite city of the world-NYC!

We spent about a day and a half there, because of which we could only do about half of what we really wanted to. We were with my mom's side of the family this time.

Some of the places we went to were the WTC, Wall street, UN headquarters, Times square, Empire State Building, Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum.

The first day we took a hop on hop off bus, which took us all over the place. They also pointed out a lot of places to us on the way. But given a chance, I wouldn't go on one of those again. To begin with, the guides on the bus talked way too much. It was irritating after about 5 minutes of being on the bus. Secondly, I saw people who were on a bicycle tour. So they were actually biking around the city, which sounds so much more fun.

Residential Apartments in Manhattan

One of the famous NY News Reels

Tiles put up by children in memory of victims of 9/11

The Empire State Building stands high

The World Trade Center AKA Ground Zero was pretty impressive, considering their rebuilding of the WTC was going pretty fast. They also had a museum which was set up as a tribute to those who died in 9/11. It was pretty sad to see all of that and to once again be reminded of the thousands who died.

The rebuilding of the WTC

Everyone crowds in front of a picture of what the WTC will look like once it's complete

Paper Cranes at the 9/11 museum: A japanese tradition of prayer which after the  Hiroshima attacks came to be recognized as  a symbol of peace 

One of the very touching signs at the 9/11 Museum

Wall Street wasn't too great. I thought that it'll be something more, but it was just like any other commercial office complex. But then again, it is one of the most influential places of the world!

United Nations Headquarters was soo great. It's one of the best places i've ever been to- and one of the most powerful. Unlike the rest of the buildings in NYC, this particular building did not belong to any one country. It belonged to 192. We managed to see the General Assembly and the Security Council. The whole place seemed so influential. It probably is.

The UN security council

The General Assembly

My cousin and I next to Ban-ki-moon, UN secretary general

They also had this gallery, where they had put up stuff about what various agencies (UNESCO, UNICEF) of the UN do. It was the best thing ever.

Next we went to Times Square. We didn't stay there too long, but we stayed long enough to see all the advertisement boards, and the lights and everything else. It would be a great place to hang out. 

My cousin and I at Times Square

The Empire State Building was amazing! Although we had to wait in line for almost 2 hours, it was worth the wait. We went at night, since it was open till late and it anyway would have been better at night, with the lights of the city and everything. The city from up there looked like it had been built out of lego. Everything looked so tiny. And the lights added to it's beauty. Up there, I couldn't stop thinking of the number of people who live in the city.

The view of the city from Empire State Building

On our 2nd day in New York, we went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum.
The Ripley's museum had all kind of crazy things.

Johny Eck's torso ended where his hips should have begun

Grace Mcdaniel, better known as the ugliest woman in the world

Prisoners found guilty of heresy were subjected to the embrace of the 'iron maiden' which was designed carefully to pierce the eyes, throat and heart.

Liars in China 1200 BC were slowly roasted

A portrait of Obama made with beads

The central park was beautiful! Too bad we only had little time that we could spend there. But you could spend a entire day there! It was HUGE. And there was so much activity going on there. There were yoga classes, artists, joggers, cyclists, people on a picnickers. Whats more, we even saw a wedding going on there!

Picnickers in Central Park

The family in front of the lake at central park

The metropolitan Museum was too big to be seen. It was incredible to see that so many artifacts can be contained in one museum. 

A painting of a view of Oyster bay

Long Necked Bottles from the embalming cache of King Tutankhamun

A statue of Goddess Sakhmet

At the end of our New York trip, I kept wishing we had more time to see the rest of the places there. But we did manage to see all the good ones!
New York reminds me of New Delhi and Mumbai 5 years from now. It has the same city bustle and car honks! The best part of NYC is that no one cares what you're up to!
At the end of the day, I was glad to have been able to see what people call 'the greatest city in the world'