Press Play, Start Reading & Get Sucked Into
my experiences in the Big Apple, also known as
The City That Never Sleeps
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| Times Square |
Only got twenty dollars in my pocket
I - I - I'm hunting, looking for a come-up
This is f*in' awesome
After enjoying the amazing mansion DeSeversky Mansion, we left for the last and final destination of the 16th International Workshop: The Empire State's Capital: NEW YORK CITY!
After arriving at the YMCA Vanderbilt Hostel, some of the participants were suprised by the (low) quality of the hostel, for the rather high price... I was like "b*tch please, we are staying in a hostel in the center of NYC, seven blocks from Times Square and three blocks from the UN Headquarters. Why would you need any luxury if you probably won't even be in the hostel between 9AM and 11PM?"
We got our luggage to the rooms -I must admit it, they were really small but whatever- and we quickly decided to do a small tour towards Times Square and after visiting, and loving, that top touristical spot, a quick in-and-out at M&M's World, we went for the BXL Café near Times Square, to show our fellow Finnish, German, Jordan and Russian compagnions what Belgium's all about.
ITINERARY: DAY 0
The next morning we, the three Belgians -as unfortunately Benjamin had left us the night before to get back home in time for the funeral of his grandfather-, and our American friend Robert, got up early and headed for Times Square again. We had breakfast/Starbucks while sitting in the middle of the square and enjoying being in the 'actual centre' of the world. The original plan was that everyone would go to the financial district as a group, but as we were convinced that we would see way more, the fewer we were, we decided to not follow the big group and continue on our own. So our next stops were: United Nations, Central Park & Columbus Circle.
ITINERARY DAY 1 (PART 1)
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| 9/11 Memorial - World Trade Center One |
Next were Wall Street & the Charging Bull (yes I took a funny picture), followed by a waffle from Wafels and Dinges. They really do a good job spreading Belgian culture in NYC! After some chilling at Battery Park, we decided to take the free Staten Island Ferry so that we could enjoy the beauty of NYC from afar. I absolutely recommend you to do that. It only takes you 1,5hr to do a return-trip, it's free and absolutly worth it!
ITENERARY DAY 1 (PART 2)
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| Times Square |
ITINERARY DAY 1 (PART 3)
This is the USA, and this is f*in' NYC we said to each other... We NEED to go to at least one bar: Turtle Bay NYC. It was cheap ass (and 50%water-50%beer) beers, but we didn't mind, we didn't go to get wasted anyhow. When discovering this place, we quickly put it on Facebook and within the hour, our small group of 4 had grown to +15 as other participants of the Workshop joined us. Typical American you say?: Yes sir: we even played a game of Beerpong! Tired as we were, and late as it was getting, we headed back to the hostel quite early to be able to get up in the morning for a last full day of USA-time!
Almost done, thanks for keeping up with the reading: next tune will be, something special for the last part of the trip: "Put your hands up, like the ceiling can't hold us..."
NYC Day Two: consisted of two parts: Eating and Shopping.
In the morning we met up with a long lost friend of mine: Nataleigh! I've known her since AFS Austria in '06 and it was so awesome to meet up with her again. Hadn't seen her since our mini-reunion in Scotland in 2011! We had breakfast and with: Nataleigh, Cindy from Indonesia, Randy from NL, the Belgians and our other American guide, we headed for SoHo and basically everybody bought everything they needed. Not suprisingly every guy bought more for someone else than for himself. Thanks for your help and guidance Nataleigh and Robert!
ITINERARY DAY 2 (PART 1): Part 1
After we had put all of our gifts/clothes/new iPhones/... back at the hostel, we were expected for a visit to the Empire State Building. Enjoying the view, taking awesome pictures and realizing you're on top of one of the biggest sky scrapers in the world... it does something with you, and I LOVED IT! We then searched for a KFC, but couldn't find one and just decided to go back to the Dallas BBQ as we had loved it the day before, and it was still kind of cheap...
ITINERARY DAY 2 (PART 2)
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| Owning the city_ |
On Friday, only hours away from our trip back home, we had to do some last sightseeing/shopping and decided to split up. I went to Times Square, once more, and then headed north on 5th to go for the GAP-store, Abercrombie & Fitch (hurrah a male model!) and the Apple store next to Central Park. Then back to the hotel.
ITENERARY DAY 3
Once back at the hostel, we put all of our luggage in the bus. We had to say goodbye to the Dutch team as they were all still staying for a couple of days (bastards!). Bus to NYC, plane to Amsterdam and on Saturday, around eleven, I was back in Zaventem, awaited by my lovely girlfriend.
This trip was very similar to the Exchange Student feeling I've had a couple of times now: Nothing is obligated, all is possible. Just try harder... Thank You: Parents for giving me this opportunity, it has been amazing (once more). Thank You Participants of the 16th International Workshop, hope to see you sometime, someday, somewhere on this globe....
PS: The Belgian Flag Was Present (at Empire State Building):
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