Introduction
This post is a timeline of my first week in New York, which mostly consisted of discovering the city with my parents. Since they were very curious to see where I would be spending the next five months, they will be joining for a family vacation the first six days. Because I already had a room, there weren’t that many more practicalities to complete, so only one day of chores sufficed.
Since this post covers quite a long timespan, I will cover each day separately. Enjoy!
Saturday
When my alarm rang I rolled out of bed with quite a lot of effort. It was 02.30 am, so I had barely slept. Luckily, after a quick shower, my excitement drove all the tiredness away. Departure day was finally there! After a refreshing breakfast in the airport it was time to hop in the plane for a quick flight to Paris. This took less than 40 minutes, and fortunately we were nicely on time for the long flight to New York. Of course, I also wore my favorite socks for moral support:
During the seven-hour flight, I wanted to binge-watch The Last of Us, which turned out to be impossible, since I took quite a big nap during this flight. I guess the short night did leave me a bit tired. When we arrived, the last hurdle to overcome was the infamous customs. This turned to be a breeze for me! I got checked less than all the tourists before me, so I guess I must’ve looked quite trustworthy to the officer. The taxi drive from Newark airport to Manhattan took us straight through Hoboken, New Jersey so that was already one place I wanted to see scratched of my list!
After our arrival in Manhattan, we made a short tour in midtown to conclude the long day. This consisted of a peak at Times Square, the Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Empire State Building. Here are some pictures:
Sunday
Today we discovered Lower Manhattan and Dumbo Brooklyn. We started by walking to Wall Street and the financial district, the line at the charging bull was very long, so we only got a look from a distance. Then we continued to the World Trade Center and the 9/11 memorial, where we had to look for the Survivor Tree. This tree suffered heavy damages during the attacks, but was found in the remains at Ground Zero. It was then nursed back to life in the Bronx and finally in 2010 it was planted back in the 9/11 memorial as a symbol of hope. This is how it looks now, with the 9/11 memorial in the background:
Afterwards we continued towards Battery Park, where we took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. I highly recommend this to anyone coming to visit New York. The views from the ferry itself are already amazing and standing in front of the Statue does give quite a special feeling.
Finally, we took the ferry to Dumbo, Brooklyn, where we made a short walk through the Brooklyn Bridge Park and walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge. The views from the bridge are truly spectacular and the walk over the promenade is highly recommended, although it can be quite crowded. These two pictures show the view of the Manhattan skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Bridge itself respectively:
Monday
This was move in day into my room, so you can imagine, I was pretty nervous to see where I would be living for the next months. I also had to do a lot of shopping for cleaning supplies, plates, cutlery, …
After all that, we decided to go have a look at Columbia University. The campus is very beautiful and truly an oasis in the busy city. I also had a look at the Mudd building, where the engineering school is located. This is thus where I probably will be spending a lot of time. This is a peak of what the Columbia campus looked like on this sunny day:
Finally, we finished our day with walking (almost) the full length of Central Park. It’s a gorgeous park and I really liked seeing the variation between the zones in the park. The northern part is wilder, calmer and more like a forest, where the southern part is more artificial and more crowded. Here’s a peak of Central Park:
Tuesday
Tuesday we started by walking the High Line, an elevated railway that was converted to a park. It gives a very nice view on the busy city underneath you. We ended in the Hudson Yards neighborhood, with for example the Vessel and the Edge to see. Afterwards, we walked around in midtown and saw for example Madison Square Garden, the Moynihan Train Hall at Pennsylvania Station, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building and Fifth Avenue. Penn Station is the more modern train station, with the Moynihan Train Hall opening in 2021, and it serves most Amtrak trains. Grand Central Station is the older station, currently used only for local trains, but it’s a really beautiful place and I highly recommend visiting it! This picture shows the main hall of Grand Central:
Finally, we continued northwards on Fifth Avenue towards the Museum Mile to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. We didn’t visit them, so that’s something I will have to do later. Probably when it’s getting a little colder. Next picture shows the unique building of the Guggenheim Museum:
Wednesday
Today we wanted to complete the final items on the to-do list: the Top of the Rock observation point and the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum. The banner picture of this post was made on Top of the Rock! The choice for Top of the Rock was easily made, because I really wanted to have a view on Central Park, if I went on an observation deck and the other observation decks don’t offer such a lovely view. Here’s what that looks like:
We (and by that I mean my dad and I) also really wanted to go to the Intrepid museum, since this is an actual aircraft carrier from the second world war and was later also used in the Vietnam War. The decks of the ship are filled with airplanes, including an F-14, F-16 and the A-12, which was later developed into the better known SR-71 Blackbird. Fun fact: Elon Musk named one of his children to the A-12, however I won’t share my opinion on the quality of that name… This picture show’s a view of the top deck with the A-12 in the background:
The museum also displays Growler, an early Cold War submarine, designed to launch nuclear missiles. Sadly normally there is also a Concorde on display, but this is currently removed for renovations. Luckily the display I was most excited about was still there: the Space Shuttle Enterprise!
This Space Shuttle was never actually launched to space, since it was the first one ever produced. It was used to train the astronauts in landing the spacecraft on a runway, and it was launched from a Boeing 747 airplane during testing. Still amazing to be standing next to such a machine!
Thursday
Thursday marked the final day of my parents vacation and thus consisted of moving and unpacking my luggage in my new room. We concluded their trip by having a final walk in Riverside Park and passing Columbia once again. Here’s the view on the Hudson River from Riverside Park:
For me however today was the start of a larger excursion to another city the U.S., however I won’t spoil the surprise yet, see you in the next post!