The journey begins

It was now time to leave good ol' Sweden and set sail for new horizons. After my grandfather dropped me off at the airport, I was on my own. Checking in and getting through security was not as much effort as some people told me, and soon enough I was on the plane.

After an 8.5 hrs flight (which wasn't so bad, and call me weird but the food was really good) I was finally there, in the United States of America. The first difficulty was figuring out a way to get from Newark Airport and into New York City. This was actually kind of tricky, because it didn't say anywhere where the buses went, and it was really hot outside. 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius, I think) and the air was really humid. But after asking around I finally found a bus that went into NYC.

The bus ride was very interesting, especially since I could recognize a lot of the areas from the Video game "Grand Theft Auto IV" (thanks Leffe. ;) I posted some pictures of some areas I remembered.

I jumped off the airport bus at an arbitrary stop (it didn't say where we were, and I had already been stupid enough so I didn't dare to ask. But somehow Lady Fortuna smiled at me, and the stop I chose was right next to the Grand Central Station. It really was a grand sight to behold, and from there I could catch the metro to Jerrod's place (where I was staying the first day). I didn't have that much difficulty getting there, and Jerrod's flat mate let me in.

After leaving my stuff there, I could finally go out exploring and get lost...

The plan was to either take the ferry to Staten Island or go to the Empire State Building. It was too late to take the ferry so I figured I should just do Empire State, eat something and go back, that's not exactly how it turned out. When you're walking around in NYC, it is much bigger than it may appear on a map. Because of all the car, it also takes a lot longer to go somewhere. And I was basicly just looking around, taking some pictures of things and it wasn't long until I lost track of where I was heading. So I walked, and walked...

After a while I got tired of just randomly walking around and decided to look at a map. I think it said that I was in the wrong part of town, so I decided to skip the Empire State Building for now. But two streets down I found someone who was trying to sell tickets to the Empire State, and as it turned out I had read my position wrong and walked right to it. :D

In Sleepless in Seattle they meet on top of the tower in Seattle, this is actually based on a story by Jeff Arch, that was originally set in New York, and the tower was originally the Empire State Building. They met there, because it's the closest place to heaven (which is incredibly beautiful), and after being there, I can say that (in NYC at least, it is the place closest to heaven). The view is amazing, and it is almost like an oasis in the otherwise stressful "City that never sleeps".

I was up there, on the 86th floor from 6 until 9 pm, and watched how NYC, went from being the classical picture of it, to becoming the city of light.

This turned into this..

New York is really beautiful, and I think that everyone has to have been here at least once. It is very different from Europe, and you can barely understand how much, until you've actually been there.

Anyways, after being up there, my friend Jessica looked up where there's a Taco Bell on Manhattan, and I walked there, but when I got there it was already closed. Sorry Jess. All restaurants were closed, and while walking around I got lost. All I knew was that at some point I was in Little Korea, and at a street with three police cars. Then I turned around and walked the other way, because that's not the neighbourhood I want to be in. :S

When I finally found the metro, I went the wrong direction, and it took me two hours to get back to the place where I was staying. When I got there, I took a quick shower, and then I was so exhausted that I just crashed on the bed. Haha.. Not bad for a first day, eh? ;)