New York
As stated before, I visited New York with some friends (Matteo, Stefano and Vieri).
I didnt blog during those days because I had no laptop with me thanks our beloved DHS and, actually, it had be almost impossible since we had no free time at all. Just as a straight regular tourist, we were out from the morning to evening and, after an hour of rest at home, again out for dinner and drinking/dancing. :)
I found New York amazing. Totally. A huge city (even if Tokyo is way bigger, I think), with a lot of things to do, visit, enjoy. And, I should be honest here, New York has style.
I'm the last person who can suggest anything about New York, so I'm just going to tell some things we did and just a couple of places that, maybe, are not so famous.
Since my english sucks if you find reading the post so damn terrible (as it sounds), just look for the pictures: New York and Having fun in NY.
If you really can go trough the whole post...after the jump!
We reserved 6 nights at the Chelsea Internation Hostel, located at 20th Street with 8th Avenue (Chelsea District). This place is cheap (80 bucks per night per a private roomn with two beds) and the area is well served by the subway and safe at night (again: I spent 7 days in NY and they were my first 7 days in NY ;). Chelsea District is located on the west side of Manhattan. Even if someone could have some doubts about sleeping in an hostel, I think it's kinda good to save 60/70 bucks per night: translating in alcohol-purchasing-power it means 6 rum&coke. :) Any way, if you are interested, do know that the Chelsea Hostel is clean enough but the room are kinda tiny.
Thanks to Stephanie (smack!) we didn't wait for the infinite line at the Empire State Building (she works there) and the view up there is amaaaaazing, especially when the dawn sunset comes.
Downtown Manhattan is incredible: skyscrapes are everywhere, bigger than (from me) expected. Hanging around in the southest part of the island makes you really notice Ground Zero, because of the huge hole you see between the skyscrapers. Talking about Ground Zero: you can't really see anything there (there are constructions and men at working everywhere) but you can "feel" the moment visiting the memorial: that was really touching, I had goose-flesh. I found the memorial bad designed and organized (the visiting path is long and narrow with many things to see and listen not just on the side walls but also on columns in the middle of the path), but pictures, poetry and many finds were enough to let me feel the pain. One thing I really noticed (and pictured) was the many napkin dispensers along the path. I know it sounds obvious but I think it's not: I visited Nazi's concentration lagers and they weren't any. Maybe it was just about living the moment and see it, but... don't know, it made me think.
Going to somewhat definitevely lighter: Central Park is huge. I did know that but I feel it the first time when noticing a big green shape between buildings, when on the Empire State Building. We got there and we rented 4 bicycles and we really had a lot of fun, hanging around between joggers, cyclists, kids, families and musicians.
As often happens when you see something in a movie and then in the real world, I found the Brooklin Bridge disappointing in its sizes. I totally expected somewhat bigger. :) But the bridge itself, the view you can enjoy and the neighborhood (obviously, as far as what we visited) are really nice.
Then we visited Harlem: actually, the first time we got "there", we took the wrong direction of the subway and we got in... Bronx! Then we finally arrived in the real Harlem and had a long walk in the neighborhood: I don't really know how this place was in the past years, but now... it's very quiet. We were there on sunday and, even if we missed the gospel we'd like to hear (it was too early in the morning... especially for sunday morning :), we still saw a lot of people just coming out from churches and so. After a light lunch at Jimbo's Burger, we came back to have some shopping in Manhattan.
Everyone knowns (or should know) New York is a great place for shopping and I bought a lot of things: just one was a crazy buy... a Bose Around-Ear Headphones. You really have to try those on a flight... you can't hear anything, except your music! :) Bose aside, I bought a NorthFace snowboard jacket I need, Adidas sneakers, Puma running shoes, 3 boxes of chinese Fortune Cookies and 2 t-shirts (one says "I'm just a big fucking ray of sunshine, aren't I??" :). I bought also a framed photo picturing an homeless man with a sign that says "Ninjas killed my family: need money for kung-fu lessons".
One of the few addresses I'm going to write down is the one of a really good Japanese Restaurant: it's somewhere (yep, I know, i wrote about "addresses", but I totally forgot to take a business card of the place) at East 9th street with 3rd avenue. The place is cool and the food is yummy, but pay attention: they don't prepare maki. Try instead the sushi bowl and the wasabi dumplings (get the water ready!). If you still can't find the restaurant, ask for the jazz club Angel Share: to enter the club you've actually to go trough the restaurant. :)
The second place (again, no idea about the exact position) is the "NuBlue", located at Avenue C (east to 1st Avenue... they ran out of numbers :) with 7th or 8th street: do not expect any billboard or sign. Just look for a little blue light on top of a door: both nights we went there we paid 10 bucks for the cover and they played live music. Funky music one time and jazz the other. They don't accept plastic, just dirty cash.
So... what else ? If you like the short sentence: go visit New York! it's an awesome city!
In the next days I'll collect in a blog post the pictures (here the whole set about New York and here about us having a lot of fun in the city!)