Outrageous fun - I *heart* New York City

I admit, I was interested to see New York City, but I was not overly excited. My wife couldn't wait to get back to the city after spending some months many years ago. The spark didn't catch on to me really. Come on, just a bunch of skyscrapers, yellow cabs and tons of people. I was so wrong. It was a blast and my mind is still buzzing with all the images and impressions I took with me.

On Friday morning at 6am our group left from College Park towards NYC. During the four hour drive I learned yet again more of other cultures. One of the teachers from Argentina taught me to drink mate, kind of a tea. It kept me awake until we arrived at a school in Soho district for a scheduled teachers visit. I was participating as well and it was interesting to see how school life is different.

In the afternoon we drove to our hotel in 42nd right next to the Chrysler Tower. Passing street after street I saw nothing but skyscrapers. It was impressive. Thinking about when they started to build the skyscrapers so long time ago and seeing what they accomplished on that relatively small island really put things into perspective. Dropping our bags into the room, my wife and me went to Rockefeller Center to check out the area. After a quick visit in the Lego store and St. Patrick's Cathedral nearby we went for some real American dinner and had... a burger.

Just as we ate the last sweet potato fries, we had to get going towards Broadway where we would enjoy the musical Chicago. The theater was small but packed and the artists performed really well. Afterwards we made our way to Times Square. That place really blew my mind. I have seen pictures before but couldn't understand the hype about the place. Actually being there, seeing all the advertising screens at the skyscrapers all around me in all possible colors and thousands of people from so many countries, created a very special atmosphere. I could have stayed there for hours and hours.

The next day we went to the Village after a morning boat tour around Manhattan. It was a nice and lively area and most of the houses had the famous fire escape stairs facing the streets. In combination with the yellow cabs I felt like in a movie. It's really like that! After a quick Thai lunch in Christopher Street we went further South, witnessing the Wall Street protests. The crowd was very calm and peaceful. Still, on the side roads dozens of NYPD cars were parked and ready in case..

Last but not least on that day, we went on a night ride with the double-decker bus around Manhattan and Brooklyn to see the city at night. The view from Brooklyn towards the skyline of Manhattan was stunning. Unfortunately the bus did not stop and my camera could not capture this view. At the end of the tour we left the bus at Times Square and we stayed a while to suck in all the impressions (yet again). After a midnight snack we went happy but extremely tired back to the hotel room.
 
On Sunday we had few hours in the morning before the bus would take us back to College Park. We (well, my wife..) decided to get up early. We took the subway (which is an experience itself) to Harlem and visited the University of Columbia where my wife worked for two summers. After that we had one hour to spare and went - finally! - to Central Park. I just love that place. After almost two days surrounded by skyscrapers my body and mind needed a break and space to breathe. Central Park was just the right place for that. All the grass and trees made it a nice place to be. But looking at the horizon and see the huge skyscrapers around made it such an amazing extraordinary place! We were in the nature but the huge steel monsters were watching us from far. This combination made the final switch in my mind and I realize more and more why New York City is such a special place.

I got to somehow stop writing and finish this post. So here's my top 6 for NYC:
1) Times Square
2) Central Park
3) Soho and Greenwich Village
4) a musical on Broadway
5) Manhattan Skyline from Brooklyn at night
6) ride the subway

Times Square

Outrageous fun at Times Square

Manhattan Skyline

Statue of Liberty

Yellow cabs and skyscrapers

Greenwich Village

A haunted pub in the Village

View near Times Square

Ghostbusters at Times Square

Central Park

Central Park

I *heart* NYC

The early bird..

It's Sunday morning, 5.40am. My alarm goes off and I get up. The night before my wife and I arrived from Chincoteague Island at midnight and I went to sleep at 1.00am. I'm tired. But I gotta get up. My ride is arriving at ten past six and the weather forecast predicts 0% chance of rain or clouds. That's enough motivation to leave the cosy bed. A hot&cold shower wakes me up quickly and a berry&milk bowl for breakfast pumps energy in my body.

Last week during the football match I met most of my wife's university program. A bunch of 20 people from India, Argentina, Morocco, Mexico, South Africa, Singapore, Israel and one from Finland. I love the diversity and enjoy getting to know many new persons and their cultures. One woman from Singapore brought her family. I got into a discussion with her husband E Pei about sports, electronics, the usual guys stuff. Fishing is one of his passions. I like it too, especially on a boat. We agreed to go someday out on Chesapeake Bay. Last Wednesday E Pei sent me a text, let's go on Sunday. Ok, done deal.

I pack the sandwiches and other snacks into a backpack. A rain jacket, a change of clothes, my camera and I'm good to go. E Pei is already downstairs waiting. Being lazy I take the elevator down and get in the car. His son Jonathan is also joining us. He loves fishing. A fifty minute ride from College Park to Shady Side takes us through a wonderful countryside. Morning mist lies over the meadows, some deer search for food and nice houses are surrounded by trees with colorful leaves. Autumn is not too far away.

At the dock, the morning air is brisk and the last bit of tiredness leaves my body. Our captain awaits us already and behind the tree line I catch a glimpse of the rising sun. After a lecture of very detailed safety instructions we are off into the open water. Dozens of boats and houses decorate the shore. Bay Bridge Maryland, which we crossed last night, is on the horizon. Our ride is fast and the wind works its way through my clothes. It's chilly.

We reach the first pack of birds which are circling the water to catch their morning breakfast. Those small fish are bait for the big boys at the bottom and we are after them. I watch Jonathan and E Pei pulling in fishes. Finally I get lucky as well, but none of our catches meets the 18 inch requirement to keep them. So it's all catch and release today, back in the water for all of them.

We follow the birds and other fishing boats, but all big fish stay out of our way. It's time to change the location and ride to another spot in the Bay. In the meantime the sun is warming up nicely. The sea is calm, the only waves coming from other fishing boats. It's just a perfect morning.

After four hours we return to the dock. No catch, I should have known. The saying goes: The early bird catches the worm. Not big fish.. It really doesn't matter, this is great morning to remember for a life-time. We drive back to College Park. Jonathan is tired and lays down on the back seat. Only ten seconds and he's out. Happily, but tired I go back to our apartment. My cosy bed is waiting to offer me a well deserved nap.

Leaving Shady Side into Chesapeake Bay

Nice place to live

Sunrise and calm waters

Fishing with the birds

Doesn't get much better than this..

Chincoteague Island

Last Friday (Oct 7) my wife and me took a car and drove towards the East coast. The plan was to spend the night and next half day on Chincoteague island, Virginia. Then drive North to Ocean City, Maryland, where Route 528 runs into Delaware.

To get a break from city life, we found that Chincoteague island would be the ideal travel destination. Seeing the ocean, miles of sand beaches and - for my wife the biggest reason - some of the 300 wild ponies living on the neighboring Assateague Island. Our drive started as usual much later than planned and we hit the rush hour at Annapolis. Stop and go traffic lasted about 50 minutes during which we managed to "drive" 3 miles closer to our destination. Then we drove through the night and arrived at the Inn around 9pm. After checking we searched a seafood restaurant. Unfortunately all kitchens closed at 9pm and we ended up in a very typical American diner with the menu card listing mostly deep-fried dishes, macaroni & cheese and spaghetti&meatballs. We took the left overs "to-go" and decided to have seafood on Saturday night.

Breakfast next morning meant getting vouchers for the very same American diner, where a everything-deep-fried buffet was available. Mary Jo, our waitress, was really nice and was sorry for not having any low-fat milk to offer. She came up with chocolate milk which had no fat. I tasted some and quickly learned that no fat does in fact not mean no sugar. Almost choked on the first sip, which was also the last one :) Looking really hard, we found some fruits to finish breakfast. It was a no-brainer to skip lunch besides some bananas and Friday's left-overs.

The pony-cruise we booked started at 10.30 and we hurried to the dock. It was a nice two hours on a small boat with 30 other pony-watchers. The nature and animals were a great experience and we forgot all about life at campus near DC. Back on safe land, we took the car and drove to Assateague island which was open for traffic during autumn. The island is very beautiful, I'll put the panorama picture below, so you get an idea. Where the sand beach began, lots of cars were parked. Many people to the opportunity to be lazy at the beach with perfect summer weather. Sun, no clouds, little wind and about 28C.

It was not easy to leave the island as all seemed so perfect. But we had to be back home at night, so we continued our trip to Ocean City. It was quite a disappointment to see that OC wasn't as pretty as we hoped. The buildings were just put in any way and resembled no real entity. Not sure how to explain it. There was simply no overall design picture behind it. Very commercially focused. Almost a copy of Atlantic City. The boardwalk in OC was nice and we strolled around and watched the impressive waves hitting the shore. In Northern Finland I'm used to 5-8 cm waves on a windy day, so the one meter waves here were gigantic :)

The coastal highway was our next mission, trying to find a good spot for the sunset. The highway is built on a few hundred meter wide sand strip, the Atlantic ocean on the East and a bay on the West. To get there we had to leave Ocean City which was difficult due to the annual Endless Summer Cruisin', held on that weekend. All kind of hot-rod cars and oldtimers were out jamming the streets. Hundreds of spectators filled up the sidewalks with their chairs.

Finally we reached the highway and found a quiet beach were we watched the colorful sky right after sunset. In hindsight we should have visited Ocean City first or not at all. After seeing the nature and animals it didn't feel right to be in a busy city. A seafood dinner in Bethany Beach, Delaware (worth a visit in daytime) rounded up the day plus the three hour drive home to College Park.

View towards Assateague Island

Wild ponies on Assateague Island

Assateague Island

Beach on Assateague Island

Beach on Assateague Island

Endless Summer Cruisin', Ocean City

Sunset in Delaware

Safety overdose

There was no sign of Europe while I tried to look really hard towards East, strolling at the white sand beach of Atlantic City. That was about the only thing I didn't see or hear during my 1 day + 2 night stay. The taxi driver who took me to the hotel was from Czechoslovakia and came to the US some 40 years ago. I asked him in which country is home town in Europe is located, but he refused to chose between Slovakia and Czech Republic. Nice fellow though.

Staying in the Taj Mahal Hotel and seeing the first US casino was quite an experience. People were sitting (some probably still do) for hours and hours at the thousands slot machines, blackjack and poker tables trying to beat the games. It was interesting to see that all kind of persons were there, any legal age, of any origin, any size and some had made changes to their voices and looks.

The boardwalk is a pedestrian area next to the sand beach. Each morning the beach was nearly empty and it was really nice to walk and stare at the waves letting my mind wander. The vast ocean always fascinated me, it's those moments when I feel very little and wonder how great this planet is with so many beautiful places.
With my mind back at the beach I noticed a couple with a metal detector. While some tried to make a fortune in the gaming area, these two were looking for coins and other treasures at the beach. They were kind enough to let me take a picture.

At the boardwalk itself were dozens of shops selling any tourist item you can imagine, even extra large iguanas which seemed quite unhappy in their little glass terrarium. It took me a while to get used to the having beautiful beach and ocean on one side and the huge casino towers on the other. For those interested in beach life and a quiet dinner in a restaurant patio with the family, Atlantic City might not be the right place.

I read beforehand that being outside alone when it's dark may not be the best idea. Call me a chicken, but I felt quite happy to stay inside. Especially after overhearing some conversion in the hotel next morning. A person was being followed by four guys and got eventually robbed. This might be just a random case but still..

As for my time there, I had a good time and the hotel room was fine. Well, besides some misfortune in the last night when trying to go to sleep. The room had a safety latch, which could be locked only from inside. Using my key card the room door unlocked, but I couldn't open the door. The safety latch prevented that. So I went down to the lobby to ask the guard for help. She couldn't help laughing at me, thanks a bunch! A supervisor came up to my room and he pushed the door open, using just a bit more power than I did. He didn't laugh - at least not - in my presence, thanks mate! Oh, and thank YOU very much as well... ;-)

Atlantic City, boardwalk

Atlantic City, Taj Mahal

Easy money?

Atlantic ocean

Towards New Jersey

I'm just stting in the Greyhound bus from Silver Springs to Atlantic City, three more hours to go. Having eaten a banana, and a cereal bar, I wanted to continue reading 'The Abbey' on my kindle. This bus has wi-fi, so I try it out if its possible to update my blog.

This is my first trip without my wife. It feels strange to leave her back in College Park, but it is only a two day trip and she has been in AC before. Curious to see the sand beach of the Atlantic ocean coast looking towards Europe and - of course - also to experience a bit the crazyness with all the casinos around.

Now I'll try to publish this post. Wish me luck!

Go Terps!

Saturday afternoon we went with our group to see a football match. Maryland Terrapins played Towson. The Terps, as they are called, are the team of the University of Maryland (UMD) here in College Park. Mascot of UMD is a turtle, the diamondback terrapin, living the Chesapeake Bay region nearby.

This was my first football match, so I put on my red UMD hoodie. The Byrd Stadium on campus has a capacity for 54,000 and was perhaps 60-70% filled. Coming from Europe, I expected a college/university league game and stadium to be much smaller. But it's big here. Despite the weather (50F/12C and rainy) the atmosphere was really good and both teams fans and brass orchestras gave their best to support their own team. During half-time they stepped onto the field and played some marches and formed the border of the USA. Only Florida came out short, in my opinion.. :)

During the first quarter I had no idea why the spectators would cheer or be in agony. So I 'interviewed' one of our hosts regarding the rules, as football (American..) was a complete mystery for me. It took a while to get the hang of it, but eventually I understood more and followed the spectacle with interest.

To test and ensure my new-found knowledge, I really should see another game during this autumn. However, I try to see also at least one hockey, baseball and basketball match.

Regarding the turtle mascot, I asked why the giant blown-up turtle looks so mad. The answer was, that it has to look scary, it's just a turtle.

Fear the turtle!

Byrd Stadium, view from entrance

UMD orchestras

Byrd Stadium, view from our seats

Half-time, band members lining up as map of USA

Fear the turtle!

Some action!

Georgetown

After hearing so much about Georgetown, DC, my wife and I went finally there to check it out. Using the metros green and orange line we managed to get to Foggy Bottom. From there we took a bus to Georgetown and got off at corner Wisconsin/R-Street. 

We planned to take a suggested walk all around Georgetown, but we ended up seeing only Wisconsin Ave and M Street. There were so many nice looking building, little shops and restaurants. I just couldn’t put my camera down.

The cars here appeared bigger, shinier and more expensive compared to what we saw in College Park. It seems upper-class DC residents call Georgetown their home.

Getting closer to the corner to M Street, my wife started to be very hungry. Finding a nice but noisy local restaurant called serendipity, we lined up outside for a table to two.

After finishing our well-deserved dinner, we left Georgetown (we’ll be back!) and made our way towards Dupont Circle. There, a brass band was playing some jazzy music. We stuck around a while before returning home.

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Wisconsin Ave, Georgetown, DC

Less shoe, more you :)

Corner Wisconsin Ave & M Street, Georgetown, DC