New York, New York - Part 1

English Version is in Italics
Dutch Version is in normal type

So it's only been two days but there’s a lot to share! To start with Charles, Jannie, Els and Piet came to see us off at the airport which was really nice of them. We checked in without any problems and got on our flight from Amsterdam to London, the wait in Heathrow was a bit of a killer, we were up for 7 AM and our London flight to New York departed at 4 PM.

Het is bijna alweer 2 dagen geleden dat we in New York aankwamen. Woensdagochtend werden we uitgezwaaid door mijn ouders en als verassing waren Ome Piet en Tante Els er ook om ons nog even uit te zwaaien wat zo lief was.

The flight itself wasn’t too bad this is the first time I have been on a flight longer than two hours and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food and managed to watch Men in Black 3, Avengers and Prometheus to kill the time!

De vlucht ging goed van Londen naar New York, 7 uur en 40 minuten duurde het, mijn eerste lange vlucht maar eigenlijk viel het hartstikke mee met behulp van wat films was de tijd zo om.

By the time we landed in New York it was 7 PM in their time zone … That made it 1 AM Netherlands Time. An hour wait in Passport control later and it was 8 PM and me and Jen decided to use public transport to get to our hostel … Bad move!

This is where things went downhill a bit, we got a train out of the Airport to the Underground without any problems, and we found the correct tube train and were on our way. The train ride itself was to be honest very unsettling to say the least, I couldn’t help but feel we looked like easy targets in what seemed like a very street wise crowd and the longer we were on the train the worse it got. By the time we got out at what we thought was our station we were completely lost. Wondering through some very dodgy looking areas at what is now 10:30 PM New York Time with bags and looking very much like tourists.

We eventually found the road our Hostel was on only to discover we had overshot it by miles … Which explained why we were a bit un nerved by the locals, In the end we waved down a cab in order to escape, best $20 I we have spent so far! It was a relief to finally get off the street into the safety of the Hostel.

Om 18:45 New York tijd kwamen we aan, na een uur in de paspoort controle te hebben gestaan zaten we om 20:00 in de metro op weg naar ons hostel. De enige blanke persoon in de metro was Tony. We stapten uit bij de halte "168th Avenue" omdat we dachten dat hier ons Hostel in de buurt was. Na een paar blokken te hebben rond gelopen zaten we helemaaaal verkeerd, we zaten wel op de goeie straat maar niet op de goeie blok. De buurt waarin we door heen liepen voelden niet echt veilig, het leek net of ik het spelletje " Grand Theft Auto" was ingestapt. Dus besloten we maar om een taxi aan te houden. Om een uur of 10 kwamen we dan eindelijk aan bij ons Hostel.

We finally rolled into bed around 11 PM which would have been 5 AM Netherlands time, I managed to get some sleep but there was a guy who snored like a Rhino in our room and he also randomly woke up in the early hours of the morning screaming! Still I didn’t feel tired when we woke the next morning.

De eerste nacht moest ik wel even wennen om in een kamer te slapen met 4 mensen die ik totaal niet ken.Midden in de nacht werden we schreeuwen wakker gemaakt door een van de personen die een nachtmerrie had.

s'Ochtends hadden we een heerlijke bagel met vette cream cheese en een kop thee.

So far we had not had a great experience but regardless it was time to get out there and see New York, we visited Central Park, Times Square, the Rockefeller Center Observatory and Natural History Museum!

The Natural History Museum was next, it was kind of what you would expect … Personally I think the London one was a lot better! But it still kept us busy for a few hours; the best for me was the exhibition about the Big Bang. Worst part was the staff; they were either rude or just very unhelpful.

Na het ontbijt zijn we naar de Natural history Museum geweest wat opzich wel interessant was.
Moet wel zeggen dat ik de New Yorkers maar chagerijnig vind en brutaal

Central Park was pretty awesome there’s a huge lake in the middle of it and I managed to get a nice panoramic photo, we also had lunch there and did most of our walking through it rather than walking down the streets.

Na het museum hebben we heerlijk in Central park gezeten in de zon met een stokbroodje en kaas.

Next we went to the M&M store because well … Jen loves M&Ms?

Natuurlijk zijn we nog even naar de M&M winkel geweest om de M&M pindakaas te proeven en de M&M amandel.

Then it was off to Times Square, while heading over in that direction you start to get a feel for the scale of some of the buildings that make up the New York skyline. It’s incredible and I have really never seen anything like it before, the sheer scale just makes you feel like an ant!

Daarna op weg naar Time Square wat geweldig was, wat een hoge gebouwen, geweldig om op Times Square te staan.

Times Square was awesome; it’s just one of those things you need to see with your own eyes to really get an idea of the scope of the place.

Lastly we went to the Rockefeller center which is basically a building used by NBC (American TV company) which has an observatory open to the public on the top 3 floors. So you get up there via a super quick lift (67 floors) which almost made my ears pop! The views from up top were crazy … The place is just so massive, in every way.

So that’s the summary of our first two days in New York, more coming soon!

Ook zijn we nog naar Rockefeller plaza geweest, zoo mooi om dat te zien, geweldig, met de lift zijn we naar de 67e verdieping gegaan en daar had je een ontzettend mooi uitzicht.

Als laatst zijn we natuurlijk nog even langs de pub geweest voor een heerlijk drankje.

Dit waren de eerste 2 dagen in New York. Tot snel.

xx

Oh and one last thing, on our first night we dined in style!