Hello from NYC

When: April 30 - May 6, 2009
Where: Wyndham Garden Hotel - Midtown, a nice and brand new small hotel, just 2 blocks from Macy's
Price: 135 USD/day (very goooood price via price*line, where most of NYC hotels rate USD 200 and up)
Airline: Air France - 7 hours flight

During the month of may's harpitnas (may 1 and may 8), we had a family gateaway to some US east coast cities. The first stop was NYC. Unfortunately, we had a shower weather. But the city is so wonderful that we still enjoyed our journey. The first day of visit, we went to Central park to explore this huge park in the heart of the city (the city is the name for Manhattan borough - one of NYC's five boroughs). Célia enjoyed the statue of Alice in wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen or just playing and running in this immense park.
It was really an exciting experience as we feel like we know NYC very well from the TV series and the movies. My references are of course Sex and the city, Friends, Seinfeld. My hubby's are the comics movies. I could see the sparkles in his eyes as if he pictured every single movie scene.
I bought NYC pass for the next 3 days of our visit . I think that, it is valuable as we were "forced" to do museum on museum as the weather was not so friendly. No regret though, there are marvellous museums that the city has to offer. We went to Guggenheim Museum (too bad only 2 galleries were open due to works), MET for their wonderful egyptian collections, european, african, even some come from Indonesia. We also went to Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for their contemporary and pop art collections. For Célia, we took her to see the dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History

I enjoyed less the crowd at Times Square but am fascinated by those skyscrapers. I noticed that in some area (ex. 5th avenue or other office area), it is difficult to find some restaurants. There are some mexican hawkers that you can order take away, but under the rain where would you sit to eat. I finally found few restaurants inside the Rockefeller building (no signs what so ever from the outside). There are some buffet style salad and food stands that you can choose and order take away. It will be nice if this kind of buffet exists in Paris.
The most important visit, of course the Liberty island. The statue of the Liberty is the friendship gift from the people of France in 1886 (I wonder why there is always this love and hate relation between the french and the americans), to commemorate the 100th anniversary of American independence. The three most important symbols of the statue are the Crown with seven spikes represents the 7 seas and 7 continents, the Tablet with inscription July IV, MDCCLXXVI and the Broken Chains at the statue's feet that symbolize the freedom. Then we continue our visit to Ellis island, a neighbouring island, where it was served as a portal during the year of massive immigration to the United States between 1892-1924. Now it serves as the center of immigrant ancestry research. For example you can learn the number of Indonesian living in the US.

We were managed to have the view of the city from 2 different top buildings in 2 different times: from Empire state building in the day light and from Top of the rock during the night. Stunning views!

Food! We tried to eat like newyorkers, had breakfast in a Deli, lunch at a Diner (just like in the movies :-) ). Breakfast in Deli is an experience, there are bagels, omelets, pancakes stands that you must order in line. It's a fast pace line, sometime you have difficulties to explain what you want. When you greet good morning politely, it's just like wasting the cook's time. I like the blueberry pancakes with maple syrup. So yummy! My hubby and Célia enjoy their omelets. The portions at the Diner are huge. Mostly they serve burgers with fries and soda as much as you wish. At the end, we kinda had enough of these burgers. The coffee is so fade, I miss my strong italian coffee. One thing that I like is, in small supermarket, sometimes they have a salad and fruit buffet. For Célia snacking, I order this take away and enjoy it at a park, that's healthy and practical. We also had the opportunity to taste knishes in Central park. It tastes like a potato croquette.

Next: visit to DC and Virginia