If New York City’s skyline doesn’t impress you in the heart of Manhattan, it will from Brooklyn Bridge! Indeed, that’s where I realized how tall the skyscrapers actually are, something you don’t always notice when you are walking at their feet.
Browsing Category Adventures Around The World
New York City – Central Park
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Central Park: some parks in large cities can be poorly maintained and downright seedy (for instance, I wouldn’t hang out in the Bois de Boulogne at night in Paris…), and in American thrillers, body parts and lurking serial killers can often be found in Central Park.
NYC’s MoMA
I don’t go to museums as much as I used to, except when I travel. In New York City, we had to make a choice: to visit either the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The latter was high on my to-do list because I was hoping to see some modern Western masterpieces such as The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso, and work by artists I admire such as Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Francis Bacon and Roy Lichtenstein.
Along Fifth Avenue, New York City
We decided to walk along the Fifth Avenue, the famous thoroughfare often ranked among the most expensive shopping streets in the world. Indeed, the street is lined with luxury department stores and prestigious boutiques, but I was more interested in a number of famous landmarks in the neighborhood (plus, my credit cards do have a limit!).
The Empire State Building – On Top of NYC
Our first choice was the mythic Empire State Building, the 102-story skyscraper located on Fifth Avenue (Plan B was the Rockefeller Centre). Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State Building is again the tallest building in New York, and I couldn’t wait to see it up close.
NYC – Wall Street and the Site of the World Trade Center
From Wall Street, we walked to the site of the World Trade Centre, where the Twin Towers stood until 9/11. Like most people, I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard about the attacks—I was living in Hong Kong at the time, thousands of miles away from the U.S.A. geography and culturally-speaking, but yet the events affected me.