(no subject)
The day began early, as it has been lately. Well, the day always begins early- I should say, I began early today. We dressed and headed down to breakfast. The sun shone brightly and it was a perfect day for the first look around New York. Any fear I had from the previous night was dissolved, and I felt less out of place with every passing minute. The thing about New York on Christmas day, is that a lot of the people out and about are all tourists- so everyone is just as lost as you are. I told my younger sister, Sophee, that this was the least crowded she was ever going to see these streets.
We took the subway and arrived near Bryant park. There was a lovely skating rink set up, a tree and little outdoor shops, except those were all closed because it was Christmas Day. We could see the Chrysler building from where we were- we all thought it was the Empire State building at first- why? I don't know. The Chrysler building is a far more attractive building in my opinion.
We walked around looking for Time Square for a while. People in New York have absolutely no regard for the "Walk" and "Don't Walk" signs. My father joined these people quite quickly. Thankfully, today there was not much traffic, so we didn't get clipped by any mad taxi-cabs.
Time Square is amazing. The lights, the glamour, the enormous posters everywhere you turn; this is the magic of New York.
After leaving time square we headed for the old-world beauty of the city. We went through Grand Central Station, the architecture is beautiful. I've never seen the ceiling before. There were constellations on a turquoise background. This was where the Improv Everywhere people staged their grand motion freeze.
The Empire State building...there was a lot of waiting. The crowds were heavier today because not much else was open for tourists. There was a huge line-up outside, but we took up one of the Empire State Building agents on an offer to go into the Skyride and bypass those lines. First we were lined up to go through security. Then we lined up to buy our skyride pass. Then we lined up to wait for the skyride. There were a few presections to the skyride, just highlighting some of the hotspots of New York City. The skyride itself was narrated by Kevin Bacon, who was was the "pilot". It was a like a roller coaster, without actually moving. We we raised up, tilted, jilted, and lilted around the city, above, on the ground and across the water. Then, more lines. We were herded around like sheep through an impressive bit of roping. Well, more than a bit. As soon as we got past one line there was another, it eventually began to seem like they were playing a joke on us. The elevator was very fast, taking us up to the 80th floor in about a minute; but the elevator didn't take us to the top. We emerged and found waiting for us our old friend, the velvet rope; more lines. This line was to take an elevator that would take us to the look-off. As the line crawled forward, we were told that we were now allowed to take the stairs up the remained six floors if we wished. Several people sprinted toward the stairs--anything to get out of the lines. Six floors, in theory, is not very many. We arrived at the top panting and weak-legged. We lost Mom somewhere around the third flight up, but we were all together in due time. The view was gorgeous; you could look off from all four sides. Everything was puny now. Even the stately Statue of Liberty was reduced to a blip on the horizon. Getting down was considerably easier than getting up.
After that, we made our way back to our hotel room and I fell asleep after dinner. That's really all there is to tell about today, well, we went the wrong way on the subway once...or twice.
We tried to keep our vibe at the, "we're tourists, but we can be cool," level. Mom understood what we were doing, but had more fun thwarting these plans.
More to come, and I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!