On my way back from Mexico I did a 2 day stopover in New York City.
And although 2 days is of course not even close to enough time to take in all this city has to offer, it was an unforgettable city trip indeed!
How can I express it : I Love New York!
The whole city breaths a certain energy that is very hard to explain. I think part of it is because it is all so familiar. It is probably the most filmed city in the world and we all have seen it over and over again in countless movies. And that gives you a feeling that you are coming home.
There is also always at least one film crew busy (I observed actually two while i was there)
I was staying at Ye Olde Carlton Arms Hotel or aka ArtBreak Hotel. A very cheap hotel if you want to stay in the center of Manhattan (I paid around 80 US$ per night). They let a group of artist redecorate the whole interior (hence ArtBreak hotel) and that gives every floor a completely different view. My floor e.g. was the Egyptian floor. You can see some very cool pictures on the website of the hotel. I liked my room, but unfortunately, there was always noise coming from the unrelenting traffic on the roads:
This is the hotel from the outside.
It used to be a safe-heaven for prostitutes and drug abusers, but those days are gone (unfortunately). Several people volunteered to decorate the interior. Rather simple rooms (no tv, no phone, nothing) . Is in East Village by the way.
I arrived on Friday, together with two Mexican girls that I met on the plane. We shared a taxi towards Manhattan. Our taxi driver was from Egypt by the way, he was thrilled when I told him I have visited Egypt several times.
That same evening I found a bike ship close to the hotel and rented a bicycle, to explore the city. Call me a dreamer but that was really the image I had of myself: cruising down Manhattan on a bicycle. I am not the only one, many people cycle in the city center. Here two cyclist are resting on a little terraces just opposite Flatiron Building.
Owning a car is not very practical as there is never parking space and very expense. There are actually more taxis than private cars in downtown Manhattan.
I tested it the same evening and had a brilliant ride along East River, towards Wall Street and then turned around at the World Trace Memorial Site
and tried to find my way back. Although the street pattern is rather simple I did make a little mistake but found my way back in the end, after hitting one car, which was parked and opening his door, which resulting in immediate apologies from his side and queries as to my well being: they are really frightened that someone would sue them ;-)
On Saturday, I got up really early to get the most out of the city. So I jumped on my bike.
The very famous Flatiron Building at the crossing between 5th Avenue and Broadway.
From that point, I followed 5th Avenue, toward the very famous Empire State Building.
Not just an icon, it is a perfect vista point to look over Manhattan. The first picture is the south part of the peninsula. You can see skyscrapers of the business center around Wall street and the World Trade site. Right of the buildings, on a small island, you can barely make out the Statue of Liberty. In the middle of the peninsula, you can see 5th avenue racing towards the south.
The opposite side, toward Central Park, which is was going to visit later.
This pictures shows the west side of Manhattan with the Hudson River:
An to top it off, the magnificent Art Deco skyscraper, the Chrysler Building.
I finally exited the Empire State Building and contemplated on something I read inside: They have refurbished the whole building, now saving around a third of the electricity the building uses. They have done this with several techniques, among others: actually replacing the single windows with three layer windows (glad they finally realized that one, we have this for years in Belgium). Apparently they save some 4.4 million dollars a year on the electricity bill.
And after looking up to the impressive building
I had the rather unpleasant experience of not finding my bicycle. Slowly I dawned to me that I didn't lock it properly so naturally someone took it from me. After filing an official report with the NYPD (I kid you not, they were actually very friendly) I set out on foot towards the bicycle shop to report the stole bike and apologize.
He was very friendly (wasn't the first time) and after paying some 200 dollars I did the rest of the weekend on foot ...
