Monday, July 24, 2006

NYC Trip: Part I - My New York Minute

'It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.' -- Agatha Christie

/* Room 201, The Grant Hotel, W 94th st, Manhattan */
What a day. Our weekend trip to New York City is underway! We left
DC at around 6:00pm. Our mode of transport - Road - in our rented
Chevy Impala. 7 hours later and 231 wrong turns later, we reached our destination. The Big Apple. The City that never sleeps. Oh,yeah its true. Need proof? We reached Broadway street at around 1:00am, and got stuck in a traffic jam for 30min. Not kiddin! This place is buzzin.
Checked into our hotel at around 1:00am, threw our luggage in and headed staright out. Went and grabbed some dinner at Subway, and then went city roamin! Oh yeah, we don't waste any time! Woh-ho. The City is famous for no simple reason. I guess I still haven't recovered enough from the initial effect the view of the Manhattan skyline had on me. Ahhh, I can't put it into words. Its like watchin an artifical sky of stars. Of different colours and sizes. Only thing is that the sky is not above but right there in front of you. Made by the hands of men and magnificient beyond anything I've seen so far. Ooohh...too much i say! Gotta try n take some sesski snaps. Ok, enuff of babbling, its past 3:30am - time to sleep, Got a long day tomorrow.

/* Present day - 2 days later* /
Ohkkaaayy....that was the start. I'd planned to do a day-to-day write-up but I didn't get time after that initial paragraph. Now I'm back now in Rockville after the NYC Trip. Very very tired. I've slept a total of 10 hours in the last 3 days. How could I? It was my NEW YORK MINUTE time. I've got a lot to rant about...here goes -

First of all, the NEW YORK MINUTE.

[SOURCE - WIKIPEDIA]
A New York minute is a very short period of time, sometimes significantly shorter than sixty seconds, and sometimes a form of hyperbole for "perhaps faster than you would believe is possible". The term refers to the common perception that New York City is very
busy, with much happening at all hours of the day, and people often in a hurry and likely to be impatient. It is a joke, especially in New York City, to define a New York minute as the amount of time between the light in front of you turning green and the taxicab behind you honking, and to suggest this may actually be half a second or so, or a negative quantity of time.

There may be an ironic link to use the term in an alternate way, suggesting "as a New Yorker, I can't spare 60 seconds to tell them what they deserve, so I'm packing the same abuse into a shorter time, and being proportionately more intensive in my abuse." It could also be a reference to the famed rudeness of native New Yorkers.


If I could summarise our trip in 2 words - It would be FAST and ABUSE. Everything happens too fast. People don't waste 2 secs in using the F-word. I "saw" a lot of FAST and "heard" a lot of ABUSE. BUT I LOVED IT ALL. I guess that's what makes New York City so
special. You just can't get enough of it.

"When its 100 degrees in New York, it's 72 in Los Angeles. When its 30 degrees in New York, in Los Angeles it's still 72. However, there are 6 million interesting people in New York, and 72 in Los Angeles." -- Neil Simon

The first we did the next morning afer we reached was grab breakfast and head out into the city for sightseeing. Another thing NYC is notorious for, is its parking. Having a car and trying to park it is a major P.I.T.A!!!

A car is useless in New York, essential everywhere else. The same with good manners.' -- Mignon McLaughlin

So we decided to take the Metro. The first thing that struck me walking into a subway was....Max Payne. Seriously. It looked exactly the same as it was in the game. It's dark and scary. You do not fool around in subways, else you'll seriously regret it. (As luck you have
it, I would find out exactly why later that day) Anywayz...From there we decided to go straight to the southern tip - South Ferry and go to the Statue of Liberty. 1 hour and 11.5$ later, we were on our way to Liberty island. The Mahattan skyline takes you breath away as you
move away from the city. Your breath is taken away again when you near the Statue. We spent approx. 2 hours in Liberty Island, just taking it all in. The place was packed with tourists, and it felt like mini-India too...so many of us! After that, we were ferried to Ellis Island and then back to the city...It was late afternoon...but our day in the Big Apple was just getting started...

On my way. Sweet desert rose..whose shadow bears the secret promise..














Midnight Jam at Times Square














Aaaaahhh..my PM's tryin to push me over!














South Ferry Junction














One fake Statue of Liberty and a super fake American














More Later........

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice title...New York Minute...there is a nice song by Don Henley which pretty much sums up your post...along with the dark side of new york...not sure if you faced it...coz you are already back in Rockvillege...heee heee...accept it now atleast...you are in a village.

Anyways...nice pics...i'm surely gonna try and get a job in nyc...

poloolop said...

same here. Job in NYC - anytime or just live there for the heck of it.

stan you may consider defaulting your Visa and stay in NYC forever!

stan_da_man said...

@trainee: yeaa..i know,got d song on my comp in mt incase u want it! (which is impossible considerin ur 300gb databank)...seriously seems like a village now..fred-wilma country..boohoo..u try n get to the Big Apple bud..ur gonna luv it!

@us: seriously man..we'll all plan for an NYC meet or life or watevaaa..i've told Shyam too..its mind-blowing..
hehe..yea i'll consider defaultin my visa..will ask MT for further funds too! lol ;)