Biting the Big Apple – New York City

The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York. (Via Wikipedia)

And that’s where I stepped in this morning. When the crazy side of me tickled me into stepping nto a city such as NY without help or company, I did decide to give in - to the extent of doing a quick visit to a couple of places and turning back, and then to slowly get comfortable with the place. In the end, I visited more landmarks in one day than what I generally do in whole years.

It all started when I stepped into a metro train heading to the Grand Central Terminal (GCT), New York. GCT didn’t look an iota like the largest train platform in the world. Things are so organized there are just a bunch of tourists in the main concourse taking photographs. All commuters use several exits and get away smoothly.

I stepped out of GCT and walked across, subdued by the magnitude of skyscrapers. As I inched towards Times Square, I tried hard to recollect the Manhattan map that I had seen in Google Maps. What gave direction to me were the increase in intensity and presence of colors. That’s what Times Square is about – colors. You see colors, colors and more colors. And your senses automatically start to savor the taste.

Here’s the Times Square – the square of the squares.

It’s almost unfair to have so much in such a little place - Broadway shows, I Love New York merchandise stores, some of the world’s best dressed people, climax of technology, the flute, the drums, live performers, round-the-clock restaurants, shopping plazas and high-fashion stores.

Square side performers like these set your mood on fire.

And then there was the ‘Naked Cowboy’, singing happy and free in the heart of the world.

I had a hard time getting the solo snap of this guy – there was a mad frenzy among the girls to strike a pose with him, just like the one below. It’s all about having fun. :)

Times Square is also where I met the NY Sight Seeing bus. You pay 40$ and select a route – Downtown, Uptown etc- and that’s about it. Buses keep going around the circuits and you just hop-in and hop-off anytime, anywhere in the circuit.

After some shopping, and more of hanging around, my next stop was the Empire State Building. I was more interested in a sky-line view of downtown Manhattan from the 86th floor, and this is how it looked.

This is how the other buildings stack up (or chicken out!)

I liked the Graffiti, New York style...

Ground-Zero of WTC. Time-travel backwards by 6 years, I might’ve been staring at the tallest buildings in the world.

Traffic, New York style. I hear downtown NY has jams for 3-4 hours even during mid-nights.

‘Melting Pot’ to the IIMI fraternity is the name of our dance floor, but the word originally got its meaning in New York, the truest of the true cultural capitals in the world. You see people of every know breed – Caucasians, Africans, Hispanics, Asians, Mongoloids… you name it.

There are places in Manhattan for everybody – Chinatown, Little Italy, Little Korea… and the street for exotic Russian, Ukrainian, Indian stuff etc.

Here’s a sneak view of Chinatown.

Following is the crown-jewel landmark of NYC, the Central Park. I just loved the half-formed ice... makes for a very peaceful setting.

And by the time I decided to return, the colors only got brighter…

I hope my next trips would be to museums – especially the science museum. And NY has got just about everything – Museum of Science/History, Museum of Art and even a Museum of sex!