New York (Manhattan & Coney Island), Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Written by : Alice
A day in New York
On our second day in New York, we decided that our first scheduled stop of the day would be the Empire State Building. We took the subway from our Airbnb in Brooklyn and, when we arrived, found a square where a dozen different food trucks were parked.
Broadway Bites
VISITING THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING
We were surprised to see that there was no line in front of The Empire State Building, so instead of taking a ticket to come back later in the evening as we had planned, we decided to go directly.
Once inside, we discovered that there actually was little bit of queue to get to the 86th floor, but the free Wi-fi helped keep everyone calm while waiting!
We definitely did not regret going to the top of the Empire State Building! The view from this height is really fantastic. It allowed us to have a better understanding of how Manhattan is made. This city is really dense!!
As we went down, Simone showed me the singer of Blink 182 getting up in one of the elevators… Surprise !!
EATING IN GREENLEY SQUARE PARK
Once out, I took a frappuccino (with coconut milk ummmm) at Starbucks. There is probably one Starbucks every 10 meters in New York! It’s also one of the only place where we have had reliable wi-fi… Then we went back to the « Broadway Bites » in Greenley Square Park where Simone took a dish of pasta from the “italian” foodtruck…
STROLL IN CENTRAL PARK
At that point, we felt like we have exhausted everything that was on our to-do in Manhattan list, so our next and last destination was Central Park. We had already seen a bit of it the day before, but we wanted to explore the place a little bit more. We decide to take the metro for the “middle” of Central Park, on the 81 St.
Obviously we took an “express” train by mistake and arrive two dozen streets too far… oopsie ! But it was worth it, as we were greeted (on the 81 St) by a heavenly spot !
People were perfecting their tan on big rocks (people and turtles, as it happens!), preventing their children from bathing in the water, or rowing small boats. We even saw someone with a dinosaur costume (but he was too far to take a picture…)
After taking a little break, we went back on our feet with the help of an Icepop (which made my teeth green, so classy !!!) and ended up at a big fountain. Under the bridge, a group of young people were playing music and singing, it was really nice.
Fortunately, a little further we found long benches under the shade to rest our feet a little! We really needed it both, but some small health issues make my rate of physical recovery is quite mediocre and it started to be hard to move on…
ANOTHER VEGAN BURGER
The beautiful landscape helped us quite a lot to keep walking, and we ended up on the 5th Avenue. We stopped to eat a little further, at the terrace of a restaurant called « Burger Heaven » where I had yet another veggie burger. Yes, it is my self-proclaimed mission to test the veggie burger every time it’s on the menu.
GOING TO CONEY ISLAND
Simone really wanted to go see Coney Island, so that was our next stop. I had seen on the metro map that it was pretty far away, on the south end of Brooklyn, but we didn’t check how long it would take to go there.
It so happened that it was a very long ride! At some point, Simone started to get restless (I was reading Game of Thrones on my Kindle, so I didn’t really care) and worried that it would really take too long. So we decided to stop at the next station to get back to the apartment instead of going. But… Surprise ! The next stop was Coney Island, and we could even see Luna Park from afar.
The sun was lazily setting down, Simone was happy like a kid to be here, the place smelled like the beach… it was pure Paradise.
The walk to Luna Park only took a few minutes and at that point we were absolutely convinced that the subway ride was well worth it.
Luna Park is just by the boardwalk by the beach, and we kind of felt as if we were still in New Jersey, not a few (long, alright) minutes away from the always busy Manhattan !
We stayed until nightfall, after each buying a shirt (Simone happily walks out of the shop with a Warriors shirt, of the movie of the same name that takes place here and brings back happy old memories to his mind), and then it was time to get back to our Brooklyn room !
1 comment
Although I live in the other part of the world, yet I am so fascinated by central park. I have heard so much about it in movies and articles. And your post just reaffirms all that, I will definitely visit here one day. Also, the view of new york city from the top is so fantastic.