When I heard that one of my friends from Bombay will be moving away from NYC this summer, I felt it was time I went to visit him before it was too late! After all... nothing was going to get me to go see him in BUFFALO!!
So, Jibblett and I planned a trip to the Big Apple for New Years and it turned out to be a perfect time coz Maestro (another Bombay Buddy) who's doing his MBA at NC State was also able to join us at the same time!
As with most trips, we saw and did so much that's its impossible to write about it all without writing a Thesis! So I'll just pick out the highlights and I guess the pictures will just have to tell the rest of the tale.
Day 1 Dec 28th:
After a short flight out where we were pleasantly surprised with a seat upgrade, we landed at La Guardia where friend's fiancée met us and took us to their place in Brooklyn. Friend joined us after his shift at the hospital and the day was spent just chilling and catching up on the past 4 years… and of course waiting for Maestro who, in true Maestro style arrived with a bang… and a rather large bag!
Day 2 Dec 29th:
Woke up to a crappy rainy day and so we spent the day at the MET where we gazed in wonder and aww at the great works of the 19th century masters like Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, Savant and many more; wandered along through the ancient Greek exhibit and took in the life and times of 15th century Europe and even saw one of the works of the great Salvador Dali - the Crucifixion.
Day 3 Dec 30th:
Hurrah... finally a sunny day, perfect for being completely touristy! Set off to see the sights and sounds of Manhattan.
Started off at 34th St. where Maestro and the girls went off to check out Macey's and Jibblett and myself went off to stand in line to get to the top of the Empire State Building. 1.5 hours later, we were still in line and that's when we decided that the view from the top was probably over rated anyway... we quit the line, met up with the others and made our way to Central Park where we checked out the famous Wollman Memorial Rink and got a very nice view of the Upper East side from atop a bunch of rocks!
Dined at the Park's Boathouse on the finest gourmet... burgers and fries before moving on to meet up with Rohit on the corner of 5th Ave and East 57th.
Walked down the famous 5th and checked out the Trump Tower, Tiffany's, Cartier, and of course Saks.
Passed St. Patrick's and ended up at the Rockerfeller Centre where of course we had to get a picture of the city's most famous Christmas Tree that provided that oh-so-touching moment in Home Alone 2!
Onwards then past Radio City Music Hall towards Times Square and finally to O'Flathery's fine establishment where drinks dancing went on to wee hours of the morn!
Day 4 Dec 31st:
Had to wake up way too early this morning as I had a brunch date with 2 ex Xaverite friends in Manhattan. Dragged my tired and still drunk body to the subway and prayed I was going in the right direction! Fun times catching up on Xavier's gossip after which Jibblett joined me and we went off to the Financial District where we saw ground zero... and a bull with big balls! t'was really no fun though coz the weather was alternating t'ween wet snow and rain and I was so afraid of my camera getting ruined that I really didn't want to walk around and see much.
Rested for a few hours before getting ready and for our New Year Eve's boat cruise along the Hudson and down town Manhattan. I think I'll let the pictures speak for the kind of night we had!
Day 5 Jan 1st:
Everything just hurt and the whole city seemed to be spinning around and all over! Lord knows how the rest managed to wake up and get to church, but Jibblett and I being the heathens that we are... we gave that a miss!
The day was really low key as we were all much too tired to really say and do anything energetic at all! Did go to Friend's sis's for dinner. She has a lovely studio apartment in the Bay Ridge area which is south Brooklyn with an awesome view of the river and the Verizano Bridge. Sadly, I was too pooped to do full justice to her dinner... but from the little I had, I know that she's most certainly her mother's daughter!
Day 6: Jan 2nd:
Had to wake up at the unearthly hour of 4 am as our flight was at 7. La Guardia airport was an absolute MESS as somehow airport officials had failed to plan for an influx of travellers all trying to get back home post holidays! After hours of lines for check-in, security, more security and oh wait.. more security we finally made it to the gate only to find that our flight was delayed!
Finally made it back to Toronto at about 9:20 am and once we got back to Jibblett's... just crashed for the rest of the day!
All said and done, this trip went off really well and it was a nice combination of seeing new places and catching up with old friends. Its back to the daily trudge of work right now, but in only a few weeks, I have another trip to look forward to - Lake Tahoe with the work bunch! But that's another blog entry!
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