EPTPictures coming soon, I hope. My internet is extremely slow at the moment, my room-mates and I are trying to figure this thing out.
Foreground:
So my girlfriend and I decided to come to NYC for New Year's celebration, touring and shopping for about a week. She left for Seattle today and I will stay in NYC for three months more.
Dec. 31, 2007
Got to the airport at around six o’clock waiting to board the plane leaving Toronto at 8:10. Upon seeing the information panels, my flight was canceled, and the new flight was leaving at noon.
The flight took roughly one hour, which was half an hour short of the anticipated duration. We arrived at La Guardia domestic airport, which was one of the worst airports I have ever been to. Everything was old and falling apart, it just did not meet my expectations of NYC.
Anyhow, the weather was extremely nice, roughly 5 degrees Celsius according to local weather reports/forecasts. After taking a taxi to my residence, we headed off to Times Square via subway. We took the C line all the way down to Times Square, without getting lost on the way. The subway system in NYC can be summarized in one word: BIG. Having being used to Toronto’s subway system, which consists of only three or four lines (people mostly take the two main lines that run west-east and north-south), NYC’s subway is extremely confusing to read at first. We got to Times Square at around 3:30. At the time there weren’t too many people, so we decided to walk around and have some food (we hadn’t eaten anything since morning), which turned out to be our biggest mistake of the day. Not having much experience in NY, we opted for a Pizza/Deli franchise called Pax (which is actually everywhere in NY). Jenny ordered something supreme and I got a Philly Steak filled pizza (more like a pie) which was absolutely horrible. After eating the Pizza, we went to this ice cream place called Cold Stone and bought a “Founder’s Favourite” which she claimed to be the best ice cream she had ever had, and I thought it was very mediocre at best.
After eating the ice cream, we tried to trek back to 44th and Broadway, only to realize that the entire street was filled with people from all over the world wanting to see a stop ball drop just like us. We pushed and squeezed our ways around people towards the intersection, but to my great disappointment, the road was blocked, and we were told to walk around towards 50th street and enter from there. We quickly changed our directions and walked with the other six million people to the nearest entrance, and by this time, it was already nearing six. The walk was long and arduous, as well, the night was falling quickly, and the wind started to feel chilly. After walking for seemingly an eternity, we reached 50th st, but we were told that this street has officially been blocked as well, and we had to enter from 54th st. We tried 54th, and told to go to 55th; we finally entered from 56th st. We followed people towards the ball, and every block, there were two fences preventing people from entry. We waited for about 30 minutes behind the first fence at 52nd st, 45 minutes behind another fence at around 51st st, and eventually gave up at 50th st. By that time, it was already 8:30. The night was cold, there were millions of people, and we decided to watch it on TV, which was just as good, but a lot warmer. Never have I seen such a large crowd in North America, and people acted in a very uncivil way. Whenever police removed the fence to let people in, people pushed and shoved violently, many were trampled in the process.
Here's a picture of the route we took:
![[image loading]](http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7348/pathtowardsballtg8.png)
Pictures (yay, finally).
Crowd behind us
![[image loading]](http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/5082/img0049lz5.jpg)
Crowd in front of us
![[image loading]](http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9641/img0057xo5.jpg)
After we left
![[image loading]](http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7867/img0061hq2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/4277/img0064hs8.jpg)
Something random, I will be working just around this corner
On our way back, we stopped at Time Warner centre (which is located at the Columbus circle), we saw some stars, and took some pictures.
Picture of the stars
![[image loading]](http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/1776/img0066cv9.jpg)
