My Travel Diary: New York City- 16 October 2013: Day 1

After a 4 hours bus journey we reached New York City. This place was so different from Arlington and DC. New York is the cultural capital of the world. I could see people from different nationalities around me. Undoubtedly, this is the most popular city in the United States. Tall buildings, streets full of people, slow moving traffic, lots of restaurants, the city has a different charm. I could see MNG, H & M, Aeropostale, Forever 21 and so many other top branded stores, of course NYC is the Fashion Capital of the World. There were so many policemen around, New Yorks finest that's what I call them.

The bus had dropped us near Sbarro's 33rd and 7th street so we had pizza for lunch. Our hotel was on 43rd, we had to walk few blocks. We were staying in NYC for just two nights and there was so much to see. After checking in the hotel we decided to go to Empire State Building and Times Square. We had bought the Grey Line voucher online, the voucher included tickets for Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty. We collected the Empire State Building tickets from the Grey line office which was few blocks away from our hotel.

Our first stop for the day-The Empire State Building, a short walk from our hotel. We had express tickets so we could directly go for security check. We were carrying a Tripod and the person in charge told us that we are not allowed to carry a tripod to the observatory. The observatory is small and for safety reasons tripod's are not allowed. Anyways, we kept our tripod with the security and walked towards the elevator. The observatory is on the 86th floor of the building. It is an open air 360 degree observatory which provides great views of the city. We reached at the time of sunset so we got to see both the night and sunset views. It was cloudy and windy. We could literally see the clouds passing over us. NYC looks beautiful from the observatory. Tall buildings of various designs all around. At night, it looked all the more beautiful with the lights glittering everywhere. You can upgrade your ticket to go to the 102nd floor observatory . Upgrade ticket option is available on the 86th floor.

Next stop Times Square, the world's most visited place. Electronic Billboards, Broadway Theatres,crowded pedestrians that is the identity of Times Square. I saw many costume characters there including Disney characters,The Lady Liberty,A Red Indian,A Naked Cowboy who was in his underwear only. We would come here again to click some photos.

Tired and hungry we decided to go back to our hotel and rest. Tomorrow will be a hectic day as we plan to walk the streets of Lower Manhattan.

NYC- you can hate it or love it.