NYC Day 1

Going to India mid-term is not technically a holiday… That was family reunion and a dozen other things, but NOT a holiday! So, a 4-day trip to NYC was supposed to be the first real vacation I would take after September 08!!! And, added to the excitement of a) going to NYC for the first time and, b) going anywhere in the US for the first time, was the fact that Partho and Rash would join me… Oh yay!! So starts 4 days of madness…!!

DAY 1

8:30 am: We are at the 30th St station and get awesome seats on our bus… This after we cooked till 1 the previous night, and took nearly 40 pics during a 10-minute walk to the station… The bus started on time (the importance of buses being punctual will be evident later), and we were off… Needless to say, each of us had a list of things to do and see, and mine had 2 very important places: Grimaldi’s pizza and Toys R Us (oh yes, this might come as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with my Crayola obsession)… Wonder what Rash and Partho had in mind… Did not ask them (does that make me a mean-person? I aint so sure)…

10:30 am: We reach NYC, and we are already in awe over the skyline of the city…!! We reached Brooklyn 2.5 hrs (estimated time according to Google maps was 45 min) after we reached NYC, after I forced Partho and Rash to get off the right train and hop onto the wrong one, and then changed back to the right one. Confusion over the subway did not stop us from exploring Times Square with our luggage…
Reached Brooklyn… Got introduced to everyone and as usual, I got ‘hyper’ about meeting Kannada speaking people… Just the right amount of slang, with a hint of Bangalore and traces of RV… Bangalore Kannada may not be the best, but that doesn’t stop me from loving the sound of it… forget the city, I could have spent all time, just listening to the guys speak!! But that was not an option (of course) and we set out to ‘walk the Brooklyn bridge’…!! This was on Sug’s must-do list for me, and I looked (and acted) visibly excited… also the thought that Grimaldi’s is right THERE did not help… The bridge is quite something; simple and elegant, unlike the sheer concrete that consist its background of high-rises… The walk was truckloads of fun as expected, Partho, Rash and I hopped rather than walked (and I am still wondering what was going on in Vinay’s mind when we went nuts there)… Pics were lousy becuz some setting was not ok, and no one knew how to set it back to normal… After that, we went to see the Wall Street Bull.. Some pics with that thing and we were off to join the rest of the gang at Rockefeller center… I am not sure how any other Christmas will ever close to this year’s… The tree there was FREAKING AWESOME… Not seen anything quite as beautiful as that… Pics: messy again, this was disappointing… But have memories to last a lifetime (and beyond, if I believe in the concept of rebirth and bla)… Times Square happened too, gosh, such a colossal waste of energy!!! Not sure I liked the place on day-1, esp since Toys R Us was closed…

Dinner was supposed to be this unbelievable falafel-on-rice from a cart close to Times Sq… Just when our turn came after 2 hrs in the cold, they ran out of vegetarian options (grrrrrrrrrrrr)… We went to another cart on the way to the subway and bought their not-so-yum-but-OMG-spicy falafel on rice… After a rather quiet dinner, we hit the sack… Did I fail to mention the squeaky clean house? HOLY COW… The house was spotless!!!