New York (and Jersey)

New York, the flight is no fun at all. Being 14 (and sometimes 15) hours long is no joke, my legs hurt like hell. And upon arriving at the layover hotel (the one we're temporarily using is in New Jersey!) my feet and legs are all veined-up. Much like a hundred-year old tree with roots webbed. We have it in our genes, well Lola has it and Lolo and dad, to have severe cases of varicose veins so mom always tells me to put my feet up as long as possible after work. You could imagine me falling asleep with my feet up on the wall (and headboard) and waking up cursing because they hurt so much due to lack of blood flow (and feet as white as snow).

Anyway, upon arriving at Hilton Fort Lee (New Jersey), I do just that after washing my face and brushing my teeth. Switched the TV on and tried to find MTV or something to serve as my background music, but lo and behold I got stuck watching United 93! In the end I cried and cried and cried. Must've been buckets of tears. I'm glad I didn't watch it at the cinemas coz I'd be a disaster. Haha.

Eventhough I was so tired and sleep deficient, my eyes automatically opened up by 6am. I was like, Oh man, jet lag! By 9:30 I was out waiting for the shuttle (to Manhattan) with two of Manila crew seniors, Ms Beige and Ms Claire, and a Japanese senior, Aya-san. Traffic jam. Such warm welcome to New York, eh? In the Lincoln Tunnel, everything became too smoky and I felt like I'd be helpless if there'd be a bomb attack; I'll just sink together with all those cars in the tunnel. Sorry, that's not a good thought but that really was what I thought of.

Manhattan. First off, we go to brunch at the Manhattan mall, had Subway wrap and then went on to the real subway and bought ourselves day passes. Headed Downtown and visited Ground Zero. I fell silent and remembered scenes from United 93. (It's now World Trade Path Station, by the way.) A few photos and I just stood there looking at the murals/memorabilias. Whew. (Insert "shopping" here.)

We're supposed to go to Staten Island to take pictures of the Statue of Liberty but we got the wrong way so we ended up walking towards the waters but not really near to it. I captioned one of my photos, "We were this FAR." Haha.

Went back up and bought Coldstone ice cream, where you choose a plain flavored ice cream and the choice of whatever to add to it is yours. Everything imaginable is available: nuts, fruits, candies, brownies, syrups...a lot! I had Chocolate Devotion: chocolate ice cream, choco chips, chocolate syrup and brownies, on top of a waffle cup. Yum!

Walked and walked, and voila, we're at Times Square already. It's as billboard-flanked (and LCDs) as I expected it to be. Somewhere on an island, there stood the Naked Cowboy from MTV, with his guitar and all. And a few more steps there's this "statue." (See photo from previous post.)

More walking. Rockefeller Center. Why is this famous? No, really, I'm asking. Anyway the flowers around made my day. There are like a lot. I can imagine if it was in the Philippines, for sure people have picked them already and sold em at Dangwa. Haha. More walks and we're outside Saint Patrick's Cathedral. It's nice to find time to pray through all the hustle and bustle of the city. (Shopping.)

Saw the Empire State Building from afar and took (lots of) photos while they're inside an H&M and Victoria Secret store shopping. And then walk some more and then there's another shop where they went to while I was outside taking photos of Madison Square Garden and Macy's. And then there's yet another shop they just had to go in to so I still stay outside and I found a souvenir store and bought three NY shirts (yes, I bought an I [heart] NY one for myself) and a ref magnet. That's pretty much what happened. [They did] too much shopping and I'm so tired of walking but my photos make me feel less tired, really.