Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

i got a chance to hit NYC yesterday. wow, it was crazy!!! i drove from Simsbury in Connecticut (to pick up my coworker) and went to New Haven's train station. Then we took a LONG ride into NYC's Grand Central Station. I've only seen a few images from movies for Grand Central Station so that was neat for me in seeing it up close for the first time. The first stop was Times Square. The place was VERY crowded and a little warm. It was even a bit sunny and humid. The streets are much wider than Tokyo but still people are slow and there are too many. It also smelled funny. I saw one of those police horsemen so that was one of the funny smells. The cool thing for me was seeing the main intersection, the one that's in so many movies like Spiderman. Lots of street performers. Also, we walked near Broadway so we passed by many of the famous theaters. There's so much to see that I forgot to take pictures at times. We ended up eating a NYC pizza place called "Ray's World Famous Pizza." I heard that there's so many of these around NYC but I don't think we were at the original. Still it was quite good (and large!) Afterwards, we decided to hit Brooklyn to check out the Statue of Liberty. We took a wrong subway initially and wasted a ticket. However, we walked up a few streets to catch one heading to the ferry. It wasn't completely running through that day. But we had the chance to catch a free bus from one station to the Southern area. We passed up Wall Street along the way. Obviously, it wasn't bustling since yesterday was Saturday. But it was great getting to see that area (I have an interest because i used to work in securities). Eventually, we hit the Southern area and took the Ferry to Staten island. Actually, this was a mistake on my part because I thought the Statue of Liberty was part of Staten Island (i was wrong and the Statue is located at Liberty island; i should've suspected something was wrong when i heard that the ferry was for free and had too many people!) We got to cross the harbor and check out the area though a bit. It wasn't too bad and because it was free we could return easily (only 30 minutes....geeze). Afterwards, we walked up a bit to see the World Trade Center zone. It's under complete construction so most of the area is blocked off for visitors. I was pretty speechless in seeing the area. Really large spot and you could see the new Freedom Tower being constructed. It's amazing to see the small businesses thriving around the area too. Next we went to hit the Empire States Building. Tried grabbing a taxi but the guy was a douche. Next guy took us up and we raced across to get to the spot. Man, driving in NYC is insane! You kinda feel scared for your life in one of those things. I noticed and heard that many cars in NYC have scratches and dents and I saw them as well. I think if I were to live out there, I'd just walk everywhere! We got to the Empire State Building safely somehow. There, we noticed that a huge line was being formed. We had to wait quite a while. They even had some strict security, almost airport like there! How inconvenient! They place is basically a big scam, but I'll get to that in a moment. Somehow we made it to the top; we ended up purchasing the express tickets to save on time. If we didn't we would've waited another hour. There was no way our feet and back could've taken the punishment. So with these tickets we bypassed the crowds and went up pretty fast. You arrive at the 80th floor quite fast but they get you to take a picture. I'll get back to this at the end too. So they shove you into the elevator again to go up to the observation deck on the 86th floor. There are 106 floors I think you can access, but we needed yet another special ticket for the upper ones. The deck was amazing! You could go outside and view NYC in its entirety. What a view! I took quite a few shots while up here. The place is just huge and you can't get the concept until you're sitting on top of the world. Soon we left. Yeah, we should've stayed another 20 minutes but we were both hungry. When we hit the 80th floor we were "forced" to pay for those photos. Now, this is where I think things are really strange. I think the whole Empire State Building thing is a massive scam on tourists. I read that not that many people are renting it out anymore. So I think they've created ways to recuperate the cost. Tourism is something suckers like myself can fall into. So your experience in fact might cost up to $100 for roughly 30 quality minutes in being there! What a rip off! Disneyland and other amusement parks are a lot better! They only had three cashiers open too on a Saturday! I'm certain they could accommodate more people. But it's obvious that people are willing to pay for it so it works out. We left a little mad but still glad to see NYC from above. The experience besides the wait and payment was a good one so I can't complain too much. We walked back up Broadway towards Time Square. Quite a walk. About 17 streets or so up. I knew about a famous NYC steakhouse called Gallaghers and wanted to try it out. I managed to navigate us to the right spot without incident. Gallaghers is also in Las Vegas at the NY NY Hotel and has quite a reputation. Great place. Lots of famous photos of baseball stars and old actors/actresses adorn the walls. The meal was phenomenal! Fresh bread, special potato dish and a nice NY style steak. Just great. Lastly, we head back to Grand Central along 5th avenue. Most of the stores were closed so there wasn't much to see. tons of shopping in that area. All the name brand stuff that a woman would love. Finally, we made it to Grand Central a shot back to New Haven. Long trip and I fell asleep part of the way. Train was extremely crowded but we got seats. It would've been painful standing for 90 minutes otherwise. So we got lucky. Got back and I managed to drive back without incident (I've been getting lost quite a few times so far). Anyway, great experience. Hope to do it again. Still need to see Barney's and Central Park up close