Manhattan from the sky

Maybe it’s my less than stellar map reading skills but I keep getting turned around here in New York. Not really in the streets but mostly in Central Park, that place is so confusing. Every time I try to cross it, I end up on the complete opposite side of where I intended to go. Saturday morning I was convinced I was going west and I had almost reached the other side of the park when somehow I took a wrong turn and ended up going south. It took me crossing almost one third of the park before I realised my mistake. The exact same thing happened on Thursday, I'm hopeless.

It was a bit cooler today (yeej!). I moved my stuff from the B&B to the hostel in Brooklyn where I’d be meeting the rest of the group. Some construction work on the subway made it into a way longer trip than it should have been but eventually I reached the hostel, which is really one of the nicest hostels I’ve stayed in. It’s got a bit of a hippie vibe but it’s really cool. I met my roommates for the night: a brother and sister from Germany. I quickly headed out again as we had to be back by 7pm for the meeting. I really wanted to see the Guggenheim and also went to Times Square, Rockefellar Center, Grand Central station, the Public Library and of course the Empire State Building (unfortunately it was too cloudy to see Mt. Olympus ;)). Even though it was cloudy by then, the view was amazing! All the skyscrapers looked like lego stones and all the people like little ants. It was really nice and cool up there as well. Obviously I took loads of pictures and I’ve now got that Kate Voegele song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Times square was okay but so busy that I really wanted to leave again as soon as I got there but the Public Library and Grand Central were really cool. I loved just sitting at the station for a bit watching everyone rush by. I especially love the zodiac signs they painted on the ceiling, there are even some ‘stars’ that are actually lit.

I went back to the hostel to meet the rest of the group. Apparantly there are two groups on this bus: one group is only coming to New Orleans, the rest is continuing to San Francisco. Everyone seemed really nice. There were a lot of people from Australia, some from England and New Zealand, a couple of Germans but no other Dutchies. Looking forward to getting to know them on the trip!

After a couple of days on my own I’m really glad to be sharing my experiences with others again. Tomorrow we’re off to Washington!