New York, New York

Hi folks!

Last weekend I went on a road trip to the city that never sleeps with 6 other international students. We were Lotte (Denmark), Päivi (Finland), Sam (England), Eduardo (Mexico), Hugo (France), Thomas (Belgium) and good old Razzle Dazzle! We left Friday at noon and were home again Sunday at 8pm.



Friday

We took off from Bloomsburg in our rented mini-van (which was actually really nice!). We put on the good music and just cruised all the way to NY on the Interstate. We only made one wrong turn, so we got to NY in 3 hours. We found the Hostel in Manhattan and then we had to find somewhere to park the car. After looking at some different, really expensive car parks, we found a nice parking lot a few blocks away from the Hostel.

On the way back, we walked by Madison Square Garden. Coincidently, the Harlem Globetrotters were playing that night, so of course we had to get tickets!

The game was at 7 pm and since the time was only 4.30-ish, we decided to go to the Empire State Building. 

We spent 45 minutes going through security checks and getting up the elevators to the 86th floor.














The first picture to the left is of Lower Manhattan (Wall Street, WTC etc). Under here you see the view to the north east with the Chrysler Building in the middle.

We stayed at the top until it got dark. The view was just amazing!

 

Then we had to hurry back to the basketball game! The Globetrotters is a real team in the sense that they claim that their games are official. However, they have only lost maybe 10 games out of 23,000 in total! So, I categorize their games as show games :) 

Here's a video I recorded of one of the plays:

Even though the game sometimes dragged out a bit, I think it was a very cool experience! 

After the game we wanted to see what the NY night life looks like. Since none of us were that familiar with the good bars, we had some difficulties in finding any. Eventually, we found a nice place though...

Saturday

Hugo, Päivi and me had bought tickets to an NHL game (ice hockey) beforehand. It was the NY Islanders against Tampa Bay Lightning. The arena, Nassau Coliseum, is situated on Long Island so we had to take the train to get there. It was really easy since the train left from the train station under Madison Square Garden.

The Islanders has a Danish guy, Frans Nielsen, and two Finish dudes playing for the team - of course we were rooting for those guys! I even brought my Danish flag. 

Before the game started, we sang the American national anthem. It actually gave me the goosebumps!

Below: Frans Nielsen taking a face-off

Actually, Nielsen played a good game - he didn't get any points though. The Finish players got so many penalties that, by the end of the game, we were calling the penalty box for the Finish box.

In the break between the 2nd and the 3rd period they held a baby race in the middle of the rink, you heard me - a baby race! We were like "What the f*** is going on up in here!?" The parents of the baby who came in first won $500... Only in America, I guess :)

Not long into the game a fight broke out between two players and over here the referees don't stop the fight immediately - Wuhuu! :D

The fight had already lasted about 30 seconds before I got my camera out.

In the end, the Islanders won by 5-4, which was perfect!

We got back to the hostel at 6 pm. Then we went out to get something to eat at a restaurant with the others. After eating some good food, we wanted to check out some more of the night life. First we had a few beers at a few different bars. Later, we went to a club which was supposed to be nice but when we got there the line outside was just enormous! We didn't want to wait that long, so we just decided to go somewhere else. So, Sam, Lotte and Thomas got in a cab really quickly but we hadn't really discussed where we wanted to go and before we knew it, they had closed the door and driven off - so me and Hugo jumped into another yellow cab and screamed at the taxi driver "FOLLOW THAT CAB!" - just like in the movies :)

We got dropped off at the hostel. Some of the others went upstairs to get some sleep but me, Sam, Hugo and Lotte wanted to see if we couldn't find a nice bar in the area. Then we found it! Just around the corner on the other side of the street we found a really nice Irish pub. This was by far the best spot we found that weekend. Isn't it weird that it always happens? You try so hard to find a really good bar/club/pub for a whole weekend and then you find it in the last minute, almost right next door...

Sunday

Sunday we had agreed to meet at at 3 pm at the hostel to go home. When I got up, me, Sam, Lotte and Hugo went to a huge store called Macy's. I had to buy something for my sister, Julie, who turned 18 on February 8th - Congrats by the way! After that we walked up to Times Square. I have never seen that much police in my entire life! But it was really cool to see all the buildings and stores around the square and all the people.  

After Times Square we took a stroll down 5th Avenue on the way back. We walked by a lot of nice stores and buildings incl. the Rockefeller Center which is where they always put the official NY Christmas tree in December - some might remember it from the movie "Home Alone 2"...

As I said, we met up at the hostel, walked to the car and I drove all the way back. About 20 miles from Bloomsburg, the highway was totally jammed up. We talked to a truck driver who said that another truck had rolled over and blocked both lanes. I think we waited in the queue for about an hour or so...

Wow... this was a long post... if you are still with me, I can say that I'm definitely going back to NY! I still need to go see Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Lower Manhattan, ride the subway etc... 

Catch you on the flip side!

Razzle Dazzle 

P.S. You can find all the pictures from NY at http://picasaweb.google.dk/rasmus.andreasen1987/NewYork#  

Also, I have uploaded a few videos to youtube at http://www.youtube.com/rasmusAND