Before I even left, we caught a cab (my first car in 3 weeks) to head to our departure location. In all the excitement, I left my phone in the cab. Yes, I am now blackberry-less, which is proving what my mother has always said: my phone is my pacifier. When my friend Cam tried calling my phone a hundred times, the man finally picked up, denying that the phone belonged to anyone besides himself. Awesome. Way to sport that D.C. hospitality. Great way to start my first visit to NYC!?!? It gets better (or worse).
1) It was free
2) I was seeing multiple Broadway shows
The metro system smelled like urine. In fact, everywhere smelled like urine. Sometimes, we'd be walking down the street and I'd think, "What's that smell?" and look over to find a heap of rubble and trash dumped on the side (and sometimes in the middle) of the street. In pictures, Times Square looks lit up and modern and new. In real life, it's chaotic and annoying.
We went looking for tickets the second we had checked our bags into the hotel. Obviously, seeing a show was of the utmost importance. We started with "How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" since Daniel Radcliffe is starring in it. We didn't act fast enough and lost our spot there. Too bad -- I, along with 654854641 other teenage girls, was looking forward to it. Then we tried The Lion King but I wasn't too disappointed when there weren't tix available since I saw an off-Broadway production at the Civic Center. Finally, we tried Mamma Mia at The Winter Garden and they had two Mezzanine seats together so we grabbed them! Cam, the girl I went with from DC, had a connection with the original "Sophie" from the Broadway cast of Mamma Mia so we got to go backstage after the show!!!! Take a moment and imagine my face. Jaw drop and all. My favorite part was on my way out, we left through the backstage door and fans were waiting for autographs. They assumed since we were leaving through that door that we were part of the cast so they started screaming. The doormen told us we should've taken advantage of the opportunity to sign autographs. I was too busy laughing at them.
We went to the Statue of Liberty on Sunday morning. Although I definitely recommend that everyone see Lady Liberty in their lifetime, I feel obligated to warn you that she's not as big as we were taught she is. She's green of course but actually on the short side; and the ferry to the island is SUPER crowded. If you're ever in Jersey, you should go to the statue from that side. They loaded only like, 10 people on the boat and were able to enjoy the ride.
Then we went back to the city to go to the Empire State Building. For $21, you go up 86 floors to the first Observation Deck, which has about 100-150 people on it, all fighting for enough space to see and take photographs. One of my friends suggested I go at night to avoid lines but then you're limited on what views you can see. During the day, I could see the Statue of Liberty from the Empire State Building, which was cool.
The whole experience is so commercialized that a lot of the awe and wonder has been degraded to this really unappealing and unpatriotic experience. I thought it'd feel awesome seeing the Statue of Liberty because it's supposed to mean so much but really, it's just another way to sell souvenirs and little foam hats. BUT I'm glad I went. Now I know not to be jealous of them and their disgusting city. I'd go as far as to say, they may have these awesome tourist attractions, but have they ever seen an Oklahoma sky?
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