So, I’m back in not so sunny Lancaster and just yesterday I was sat in sunny Central Park, isn’t the world surreal! New York was definitely a whirlwind of an adventure; it didn’t feel like we ever stopped. In between the scheduled events that we had we packed in as much as possible. This meant that with the four days we had in NYC we covered all of this: Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge and pizza in New York, Grand Central Terminal, UN Visit, Rockefeller Center, Lancaster Alumni Event, meeting with a Lancaster Alumni who co-founded the company comScore, Central Park and also we went to the 9/11 Museum and Memorial.
In terms of fitting in the top tourist destinations I think we did pretty well on our first day, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge and Grand Central Terminal, not bad ey?! A group of us headed off to catch the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and despite being somewhat hounded to pay for a ferry that would take us directly to it, we all agreed to take the free ferry that gives you a view of it rather than pay $30 to stand near it. Afterwards we began walking uptown and went past Wall Street etc and eventually began to realise just how big New York is. We were heading to the Empire State Building and decided it would be best to take the subway after walking along for about an hour and realising we weren’t even halfway to it. Nonetheless, we made it to the Empire State building eventually!
We made a slight error going to the Empire State Building peak time as it meant we paid extra to skip the queue and ended up going through all these things before actually getting to the top, including a simulator that flies over NYC…(not worth it, don’t be persuaded, just go in the morning!) but it was such a beautiful day and we got a fantastic view of New York. It’s one of those views that I’ve seen so many times in films etc and to actually see it for myself was so exciting! I could also pretend to star in my very own Sleepless in Seattle scene (I hope you know the film or that reference will make zero sense…). One of our friends was a little shaky about being so high up so once we’d enjoyed the view and got our photos we made our way back down and headed downtown to meet up with Chris and everyone who wanted to cross the Brooklyn Bridge.
After consuming an awful lot of pizza at Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn we headed back over the bridge. It was the perfect time to walk back over as it was just when the sun was setting so we got such a beautiful view of the New York skyline. Seeing New York at sunset, can’t really complain can I?!
Another part of the trip that I really enjoyed was visiting the UN. Before we went I wasn’t particularly bothered about seeing it but I was happy to go all the same. When we arrived we were split into two groups and we got a tour of the UN, we got to see all the chambers and even nosy in on a discussion relating to the economic and social impact of climate change. My favourite part was when we had a UN talk afterwards by someone who worked within the Political Affairs department. People from the group asked really good questions asking about the general workings of the UN, international relations, how to work towards a career within the UN and the guy was brilliant at answering the questions and he really made me think about the UN and the role it plays in international relations. He was very honest and said that quite often the UN can’t enforce much on countries but that, at least within his departments and with regards to conflicts, the UN can try their best to keep people talking rather than fighting. All in all, I was extremely impressed by the UN visit and I would definitely recommend it should you visit New York!
The same day we had an Alumni Event in the evening and I was looking forward to it as just before we were having a lecture by my old seminar tutor from first year who is a New Yorker, so it was really cool to see him again after two years! Also, the location of the event was pretty spectacular. Can you guess where we got to spend our evening………?
Only the top of the New York Times Building!
Even with it being a pretty cloudy evening it was still a fabulous view of New York and it made me kick myself slightly having paid for two views of NY (both Empire State and Rockefeller Center) and then to have this one for free! I comfort myself with the fact that neither of my paid for views were cloudy so it totally makes spending that money okay…..right?
Anyway, I did some mingling meeting Alumni and it was quite similar to the one in Boston in that these people had spent a year in Lancaster doing a Masters or an exchange year so it was great to meet them and hear about their years at Lancaster, all of them had fond memories which they enjoyed telling us about. I spent most of the evening chatting to a man called David who did an exchange year in Lancaster. What was brilliant about him was that he was just as interested in finding out about us and our lives as he was about telling us about his life, if anything he was extremely modest considering what he has managed to do with his life. From teaching to working in politics to travelling the world, he had quite a story to tell! He had such enthusiasm for life and kept coming out with wonderfully profound quotes. We chatted about so much and a great moment was when he asked us about an opera and Lee admitted to having never heard about it, calling himself uncultured. David immediately said something along the lines of “no, you’re not uncultured and at least you’re honest about not knowing and now this is something you can research.” I was definitely sad when the evening ended and we had to leave him, I did my best to encourage him to come and visit Lancaster again!
Now jet lag is quickly taking over so I must end things here, but I hope I’ve given you a flavour of our adventure to New York City, albeit a brief rounding up. I found that going with Uni meant I got to do things that I wouldn’t have done if I’d been doing NYC as a solo traveller, for instance, the alumni event above or the talk in the UN. I’m now going to sort through my pictures and perhaps put together a little film about the whole trip from the videos I took, we shall see! This all depends on how long I can work through this jet lag…here goes mission stay awake!