The Big Apple!

New York City!

So I finally got to go to NYC. I'd actually been there once when I was 2, but I remember none of it. So, this mid-semester break (a five day event), I decided to visit my cousin Alli in Albany, and that Saturday we went to get a taste of the Big Apple.



We took a bus from Albany to NYC. Alli and I took a nap, having been up late the previous night, and I awoke just before we entered the Lincoln Tunnel. The pulsating light and long corridor of the tunnel as you drive through is thrilling. You wait, expectantly, for 2 or 3 minutes, on the edge of your seat in anticipation. It's coming, the city you've heard so much about.
Then there's a light at the end of the tunnel. You break through and are at once in a whole new world. Buildings, signs, people, all at once and all around you. There's too much to take in at once. In just a few blocks the bus pulls into the Port Authority Station and you are once again separated from the city.

Once out of the bus, we took a few minutes to situate ourselves and decide where we were going. We took the red line subway west toward battery park. Once off the rushing train, we climbed the stairs to the surface, and the city once again was spread out before me. I was silent, not sure what to say. Stepping off the last stair and onto the sidewalk I caught my breath. "One small step for Emily, one giant leap in Emily's life."

We headed off for Battery Park, stopping on the way to peruse around Tiffany & Co. Once at the park, we went straight for the water. On the way we saw the memorial statue to the people in the Twin Towers, the sculpture that had been in the courtyard between the two towers when they fell. We also met some street vendors. They certainly aren't shy and I almost laughed when I heard, "Want to buy a watch?" I'd heard that line in too many movies.

Once at the water, I looked
out across the river. There she was, Lady Liberty, torch held aloft. She looked minuscule from such distance, the sight of her was monumental. This is the lady who greeted many of my ancestors as they came over to America. I wondered how they felt as they saw her in the distance. Hope? Anticipation? Relief that the ship ride was almost over? Who knows, but I smiled as I watched her on the waters, looking out across the ocean.

At battery park we ate some candied almonds from a street vendor. They were delicious! Alli said that they were amazing, and she certainly was right.

It was off to the subway once more then, and we took it up toward Central Park. While riding a boy and his dad stood in front of us. The boy spoke with a small British accent and spun around and around the poll with a slightly mischievous and entirely child-like look. His ears were slightly pointed. As I watched him, all I could think of was Peter Pan. I wondered what he was doing out of Neverland and with a father no less.

Off the subway we headed for Central Park. We entered by Strawberry Fields. I was in the middle of my recounting a story of my aunt and how she had thought of coming to a talk in the park by Peter S. Beagle when we turned a corner and what else was before us but the Imagine circle, the memorial to John Lennon. I gasped out loud and practically jumped out of my shoes. Alli and I took pictures, as many of the people around us were. Everyone was standing up for their photos, but I sat right down there on the NYC ground, on the circle itself. Alli and I even laid down on it for a photo. It was so surreal. I was laying on the stones of the circle, the one I'd seen in so many photographs and posters, the one dedicated to one of the great minds behind The Beatles. I'll savor that moment forever.

We wandered around the park, miandering to one of the fountains were couples took photos, friends laughed, and ducks quacked on the nearby pond. We saw so many horse drawn carriages. One was fashioned like Cinderella's coach.








One was driven by a college aged guy in a hoody who caught Alli's and my fancy, but it was off to the subway again and Times Square.



When we got off the subway it was dark, and the full force of the lights of the Square met our eyes. This is were it looked and sounded most like the New York City in my mind. Taxis honked impatient horns, crowds of people swept you across crosswalks, the lights flashed and dazzled the world in bright colors, the very atmosphere itself was bustling and alive.








As we turned a corner, I caught sight of the Empire State building. We did not get to go up and look out over the city that night though, for we were off again to Penn station.









We were going to catch the NJ Transit to Princeton. We were off to visit another cousin, Stephen, and his girlfriend Jamie, for dinner and a few drinks. One tavern we went into had a table were supposedly Albert Einstein carved his name. We found the name, but it's up to you if you believe in the story.

In the morning it was back to the city for a brief visit, a walk from Penn Station back to Port Authority, and then back onto the bus. I waved out the window as we entered the Lincoln Tunnel and promised myself that I would be back again.