I know I should have been post this story right after I got back. *such a procrastinator. Well I'm just too lazy, quite a bit :p Because I also keep track of my adventure in the book journal, so it's kinda tiring to write it twice. Anyway, me, untari, cenna and arya went on a trip to New York City (NY), Boston (MA), Philadelphia (PA) and Washington (DC) for 9 days (March 19th-27th). We were actually planning it as a backpacking trip (read: patahtulangdanpinggang), want to try feeling a sensation living like a hobo I guess, sleeping in a bus station with the huge backpack, well you might recall amazing race then. Fortunately, Arya's Local Coordinator was kind enough to be our chaperon so everything is lots easier (the waiver for permission slip, arranging the bus transportation and booking the hostels as well). So then we might rename our trip as a Suitcase Trip with the backpacking budget because we eventually carry the suitcase anyway ( I brought my cute carry on pooh suitcase with me then :P) because it much much much easier, even though still, we have to build extra muscle to carry it a long the stairs in the subway station, well consider part of the experience though :D Even for Marian, Arya's LC who actually a former exchange student to Italy, this is a new experience for her too! Living in a hostel and traveling with Mega Bus with Indonesian kids :P She just so sweet and lovely, we cannot imagine this trip can happened without her! I will begin my story shortly after this so get ready! Don't worry we're not really 'lost' on the trip because we assign a person in charge for every city and we have done searching for each city prior to our trip.
NYC
Day 1
I arrived in JFK airport and met Untari and Cenna! I felt really good because I finally can meet Indonesian people and talk in my native language as well :D *which I miss soo bad :( it's better to express your feeling with your mother tongue isn't it? Then Arya picked us up there with Marian. I felt bad when he said I'm getting shorter!!! Well maybe just because all of them were taller than me and we've just 'exposed' to the tall
American people, in Indonesia I might considered as an average maybe :(
Anyway, then Marina drove us to her sister's house in Brooklyn Neighborhood. I love that Neighborhood, it's just so American that you might see it on the movie. Her sister has 3 cute daughter and lots of pets! There were chicken, guinea pig and angora rabbit. We dropped off our luggage then played with them for a while.
After that we were rushed to go to Liberty Statue. We didn't want to miss the ferry because we already booked the ticket for certain time. I think it's quite far though because we had to change several time in the subway and also took the connecting bus. We finally got there on time and the line was so long! Fortunately we have booked the ticket earlier so we can pass through faster than everyone else. It's good to have plan and book everything earlier, we also have NYC pass that makes the rest of our visits easier and faster most importantly waaay cheaper :) Then our ferry aboard to the Statue Island where the Liberty Statue located. It's a bit windy and chill in the ferry but that didn't stop us to take pictures there :D
We were spending lots of our time in the Statue of Liberty because we went inside and go up with the stairs! We didn't have the ticket to go to the crown but at least we still can go up until the base of the statue. Taking lots of pictures (which was kinda hard because we want to get a good view with the whole statue, we also took jumping scene which make it even harder). We ate lunch there (late lunch) and the time went so fast that we go beyond our schedule. So then we just decided not to go to Modern Museum of Art (MoMA). We took the ferry again to go back then we're heading up to the Empire State Building. (along the way shopping was still on the list though :P got a bunch of NY picture from the street vendor). It was so cold in empire state building so we didn't spend much time there, but it was nice though seeing the NYC from the top in the afternoon. Next destination was to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we saw bunch of artifacts and decoration from different civilization: from Egyptian to Vikings to Chinese and a lot more. We were there until the museum were closed, the security even scolded us to get out soon (I know they were tired but we still want to explore the museum :P). We haven't tired yet, we are just too excited to begin our adventure, so then we decided to go to the Top of The Rock today. To get into the Top of The Rock we're passing the Rockefeller Center which still have the temporary ice skating ring! (I wish we can ice skate there, it just having some kind of magical atmosphere that makes skating there feels different *korean drama scene suddenly just appeared in my head) then we took elevator to go to the 86th floor of the Top of The Rock (I felt my ear kinda buzzing). It was so pretty actually but the wind was just so cold. We could see the entire city during the night with lots of lights. I remember the Peak in HK when I went with my family and the Mainz tower in Frankfurt during my winter course in Germany. Most likely city around the world looks the same from the top. Bunch of sky crappers looks like as if they're trying to reach the sky finding its limits and never successful for sure.
Finally we end up having dinner in McDonalds in Times Square area and spend like 3 hours there. We were just kept talking on and on and on (well at least Arya said: I do, most likely because I just missed speaking my language, they are the first Indonesian exchange friends I met since my arrival in Florida). Well luckily, NYC is the city that never sleeps so we were just sitting there and even planning to sleepover in McD until we decided to go back to Jean's house. We arrived around 3 o'clock in the morning, sneaking out like a thief coming from the back door of the house passing the chicken's cage and 'jemuran' *awkward situation wasn't it, yeah, I know it's just strange saw a clothes hanging along the wall up above the chicken's cage in America because mostly here we don't need that because the dryer are supper 'dry'! :D that's pretty much end up our first looong day :D
Day 2
Well, we didn't get enough sleep last night and we only slept for almost 3 hours I guess. You can predict what happen next, our schedule change again because we woke up late and tired, it also took forever to get to Brooklyn Bridge (kinda exaggerating though :p). We should've been just sleeping in McD last night. Anyway, although we won't go to National History Museum the one that you see in Night at the Museum Movie (gosh I actually really want to go there so bad, but oh well.. ) we still had some fun of course :) So then we went to Brooklyn Bridge, took couple of great pictures, although we kinda distract some people who were actually exercising, jogging and riding a bike. But I guess they knew we were tourists :P Me and Unta were walking very slow so then we have to catch up Arya and Cenna who already went ahead us.We didn't want to miss other places to see as well.
Arya then directed us to go to Central Avenue, Wall Street, Ground Zero area (now they're building the new twin tower building! But it just so sad to see the memorial which many people died :( ..) After going around the NYC most important area such as those I mentioned above we were rushed to catch up or circle line cruise. Oh my God I cannot believe we have to run really fast to go there passing through several blocks that was really long for each blocks as soon as we got off from the subway. I felt I was just being one of the track team member (Well I should've been joined it for sure right, I'm regret I let it go to join drama play instead, oh well, Life is just about choices) and the funny thing that none of us were part of athletic team in US high school and Arya was also record our "exhausted-running" moments. When we're aroused felt like we can accomplished anything as our Sympathetic Nervous System activated, sounds like being the Forrest Gump :P
Well anyway (I'm sorry I always distracted and wandering off topic), turned out that when we arrived in the booth we actually have one hour left until the next cruise! Yap at least we weren't late, so we're just chit chat to kill time then.
Before we went aboard, we took picture (again, in the end they definitely persuade us to buy the pictures which is expensive but we end up getting it anyway for memories, oh yeah it's business everyone!). It's really windy and cold during the cruise trip going around the NYC Island seeing Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn and several other bridges too and Yankee Stadium well pretty much going around NYC from the bay area side. It was fun at the beginning the guy was telling us what's the place that we passed by but after that it became a bit boring because it took 3 hours to just go around seeing the entire NYC. Well we're tired in the end so we eventually went inside the cruise from the top of the cruise where we can get the nice view up there but it just to windy and too cold.
Finished with the cruise trip we went to some-kind of Supermarket for our breakfast for the rest of the days ahead because we figured that it will be expensive if we have to go to restaurant all the time so we think at least we can cut off some of the food expense. However the plan didn't work so well as we expected we still buy the breakfast from restaurant anyway and end up bringing juices, bagel and croissant every time we travel with the mega bus. After that we went to the Indonesian Restaurant, the owner was Palembangnese! Yeay! I thought they were Chinese though at first :P Anyway I just happy because I'm also Palembangnese (no racist, haha) and I got to eat Indonesian food the first time since I arrived at US which I already miss it sooo baaad :( haha.. It just so great although I think I should order pempek though, oh well my mom's pempek would be much better and I miss it so much. Consider buying foreign food from other country in US would be really expensive so I guess I just have to hold back my craving because I can eat whatever I want once I get back :)
At last we went to Times Square again, this time we didn't go to McD and will hang out there after past midnight though instead we went for souvenir shopping! :D it's really hard to choose what to buy considering our budget because this is just the beginning of the trip and we still have couple days ahead in another city. After that we were taking pictures in Times Square and made a street artist draw caricature for us to give as a souvenir of this trip memories for Marian, Arya's LC that has been magnanimously being our chaperon for this trip. It's kinda hard at first dealing with this dude who barely speak English and only said words like "smile", "you sit down" and "20 dollars". He finally wanted to draw four of us in one big canvas with one person price as usual. We were little bit pissed off because we told him we will come back to him after taking our pictures around Times Square but then he drew another person's caricature so then we have to wait although we didn't have many time left because we want to get home early to get ready to leave to Boston tomorrow. Well finally the caricature was finished although our face didn't look the same at all as the actual. Oh well at least we have something to give to Marian to remember us.
So these are pictures of NYC
to be continued...
-NA
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