The BIG Apple

I've been to some pretty expansive cities during my travels. Cities where I've walked for hours to get to a place that looks like a couple of blocks on the map, cities that I feel like a grain of sand in, but nothing could prepare me for New York.

The sheer size of the place first struck me on the airport express bus from JFK into town. When you look at most cities, the CBD will be visible from a distance. In Brisbane you'll see maybe 4 or 5 buildings that mark the centre of the city, in Melbourne you'll see a few more but when I took my first glimpse of New York, I had to look out both sides of the bus to see all of the dominant CBD skyscrapers. I couldn't believe how big it was.

I was left in a state of awe as we entered the city. The buildings grew taller and when I looked down any given street, they didn't seem to end!

For some reason I felt like I wouldn't have much to do in New York before I arrived but after I had a little chat to my Aunty Karren (who lives and works there) I realized I wouldn't have enough time to see everything! In the few days I did spend there, however, I did manage to see all the main things I wanted to see. These included places like: Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall street, Ground zero, Times Square, China Town, Harlem and the UN building.

I probably coudn't of picked a better time to be in New York for the Central Park. It was Autumn and all the leaves were falling in different shades of orange, red and brown covering the whole park and it's hidden bodies of water. The Park itself is massive! Rectangular in shape, it takes about 20 minutes to walk one length across the top or bottom end but hours to walk the East and West sides. It just keep going!

Ground zero was also a really surreal thing to witness. It was an eerie feeling to stand at the sight of the 9\11 attack. A quick walk around the area revealed a handful of small and large plaques commemorating the fire fighters both living and dead that did their job on that day. On the sight of the fallen towers, they're now building massive memorial building which will serve as a museum for event. Preliminary plans posted on the industrial fences bordering the sight look pretty impressive.

Although I enjoyed all the things I saw in New York, the UN building was the sight that struck a chord for my imagination. As a future 'International Business/Relations' student, I couldn't think of any other place in the world to inspire me for my imminent studies more than here. Having considered what I'll be doing for the next three years of my life, I thought 10 bucks would be a fair price to pay for a tour of the facility. On the tour we even got to visit the massive conference room where reps from every one of the 192 countries in UN gather to discuss worldly issues. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the little gold plate with AUSTRALIA on it because the reps sit in alphabetic order from the front.

My time in New York was also good for seeing my Aunty Karen with whom, until now, I've had very little contact. We went out a couple of times for lunch which was good for catching up on lost time.

At the moment I'm in Montrèal. I simply didn't have enough time in New York to sit on computers during the day and write blogs. Too many things to do in too little time.