Everything near Battery Park

I divided our trip plans, into locations. "These things are near each other, so lets do them in one day" -kind of way. You get my point?

Our very first day was in the surroundings of Battery Park and Wall street. One of our obvious places to visit was the Statue of Liberty. So we got our asses out of Brooklyn and landed in Wall street. Got a cup of coffee to go and lined up to jump in to the ferry. It was an hour of waiting, and watching as another line was opened up right next to ours that was moving nicely. After a while we did get to the ferry.
Because of the windy weather we were rocked by the waves to the Liberty Island, and then it started to pour. We walked around the statue, soaking wet and back in to the line it was. Statue was smaller than expected and if you want to go to the top of the crown, you have to buy an advanced ticket (fyi).

From there our regular ticket took us on the Ellis Island, and the museum of immigration. Very interesting visit, and a nice walk indoors to let our clothes dry off.

After Battery Park we headed towards dinner. And my series knowledge and familiar names -side wanted to eat at TGI Fridays. The vegetarian "Beyond meat" hamburger was really just too close to actual meat that instead of success, it was little sickening. Oh and on the way there, you can spot the charging bull statue.

Other things you want to see & visit near Battery Park? Sure. We absolutely had to visit the World Trade Center memorial. I've seen a lot of memorials in my travels, but this has been the most breathtaking. Square deep hole, with waterfall walls, size of the lost building. You can really recognize the damage that happen there.

And for us Titanic lovers, the Titanic Memorial Park is worth checking out. Lovely lighthouse memorial in the middle of the concrete jungle.
When you think about it, this was very historic day. Love that.

Cold at Coney Island

Not making the headlines match on purpose, but we were freezing when we got to Coney Island!

Our trip to NYC was a cold and windy one mostly. I was picturing that we would sit and hang in the pier, but we got there little after sun went down, and the only thing we did on that pier was exercising so that we wouldn't get gold. Felt bad for the fisherman who had to listen to our laughing and bouncing. But then again, felt bad for the fishes too!

When I was in Scotland in 2016 and in Holland in 2017, I found shells, and now in 2018 we, once again found shells! And it gets better, Scotland with Mimmi, Holland with Sini and now New York with both of them. Superb.

It was nice to see the sky without buildings, and the It's Sugar store was awesome. Overall, nicer weather would have been a plus.
It wasn't what I expected of it, but I got a kickass memory of us exercising, running up and down the pier and listening to some forgotten early 2000's songs.

Bouncing in Brooklyn

Now that our New York trip is over, I want to write about the different areas we visited. Our Airbnb was in downtown Brooklyn, so we always visited some shops on our way to the subway or bus.

Our very first night in Manhattan, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge back. The lights of the city were amazing. And because it was night, it wasn't crowded, it was only us and few people who walked by. Amazing.

We followed my printed out maps carefully, but after a subway ride to Utica, we started walking into the wrong direction, and walked for 40 minutes in the cold, dark streets of Brooklyn with our phones dead out of battery. Panicky thoughts came into our minds, but we did it. A helpful Delhi guy gave us a ride home and our faith in humanity was restored.

We mostly saw downtown Brooklyn in the morning before going to Manhattan, and midnight when coming back. But one day we visited the so called "whiteside" of Brooklyn when visiting a rooftop bar in the Wythe Hotel. Entry is free, but drinks were expensive. But for that view, why not have a one drink. Near Wythe Hotel, we had drinks in this down to earth, messy bowling place called The Gutter. Got two very different experiences.

On our last day, we had breakfast at the Brooklyn Bridge park (near pier 5 so not that near to the bridge), with an awesome view once again. Shopped at Goodwill and gave back. And because I am a series freak, I wanted to visit familiar named places, or have familiar named foods. Like our lunch at Ihop. They sure did look good but after a while, tasted like cardboard.

I loved Brooklyn. I think we got a whole different experience because we didn't stay at Manhattan. We
got a great memory of the living there, more than visiting there. Know what I mean?