New York - a not so usual point of view

Marseille, France 18.6.2015

On our first day we wanted to walk in the parts of North Manhattan. We ended up in Harlem and in the Harlem River Park. We saw nobody in the whole park and it didn't feel like busy Manhattan at all.

We walked in the park and Johannes suddenly noticed a big nest in a tree. After few seconds a big hawk flew to the nest. We just stared at this big hawk for a while and just when we were leaving forward it flew in front of us and stops just a couple of meters away. Monica saw that it found a worm but quite quickly recognized it to be a little snake. The hawk peeled the snake in front of us and finally took it and flew to a tree next to us to have his dinner. What a weird experience.

Following days we noticed that nature is still very present even in most urban places. In the park we saw one evening several skunks and on another day a marmot. In the newspaper there was an article about a seal seen in Hudson river. And don't even need to mention all the rats which run in the metrorails everywhere..

A different view of New York is found from the The Bronx. You pass stores and places people speak only Spanish. The view you see there is like the one in the movies and super entertaining! It is also much cheaper to do shopping. No tourists around there! Also the Botanical Garden is situated close and the Zoo.

For some luxury, visit the River Cafe in Brooklyn. It is a restaurant just under the Brooklyn Bridge and it requires reservation. They also call you beforehand and make sure men wear a jacket. Otherwise they don't let you in! We went there to celebrate our stay with Zia and also Johannes' birthday. The food was divine as well as the view with the skyline of Manhattan in sunset. Budget 100 - 200 USD / person.

New York as Tourists

Marseille, France 18.6.2015

In New York, there is everything. There is so much to see and to do that also we have now difficulties to choose what to write about it. There is also already so much written information about it. So we try to include now all the things we did.

We stayed at Monica's lovely aunt, that made possible for us to stay a month in New York. Otherwise our budget wouldn't have been enough. Thank you Zia!

During the first week we decided to see all the main touristic sightseens. We bought the citypass that included six attractions: Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center aka Top of the Rock, 9/11 museum, Metropolitan Museum of Arts (MET) and the Museum of Natural History. The pass cost about 100 USD and you skip the lines. Some of these site, for example The MET don't require the entry ticket but they have a suggestion to be paid for the entrance. But in our case we still saved few bucks. The pass is valid only for about nine days.

After using the pass we visited the Modern Museum of Art (MoMa) and the Cloisters in upper Manhattan. Both free on the right days, for example the MoMa on Friday nights. We visited Broadway theatres twice, we saw the show of Hedwig and Mamma Mia. We tried to get tickets first from the lottery system many shows have before the evening performance but we didn't win this time. If you have time in NYC this is worth checking for cheap Broadway tickets!

On many days we just walked in the city. The Harlem River park is a nice long walk along Manhattan and the river. From there it's handy to continue to the High Line, a new elevated green area between the buildings of New York. If you are interested in rock history, there is pleanty of famous places free to visit as Ramones' first album cover picture wall or the Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album cover house.

Central Park is also a nice big green area with its lakes, fountains and memorials. Note to self: do not buy hot dogs close to the park without asking the price first.

A must-see or must-walk is Brooklyn Bridge. The best thing is the view of the skyline of Manhattan from the other side of the river.

Brooklyn is like Manhattan 20 years ago. Already from the last time Monica visited it it had changed a lot in six years. For tourists it can be a little weird because of the concentration of Hipsters living there. There are nice flea markets but prices are crazy. The atmosphere is still nice. If you are looking for the cool NYC feeling, go to Brooklyn. There are no many New Yorkers living in Manhattan any more. Everyone lives in Brooklyn.

Metro is the best way to move around but it takes time and days pass really quick. We could do one sightseen per day. A month went really quickly.

We also voted for the parliament elections of Finland, in the Embassy of Finland next to the United Nations building on our first days..

New York have also great Farmer's markets. We bought a great deal of our foods from organic producers and the quality is really high. In the USA in common it's quite important to see what and where to buy food. This is something that took us a while to understand. Recommendable stores are Fairway, Trader's Joe and Wholefoods.