Wow, it has been such a looooooong time - but it’s summer and we finally got to do some stuff around here. So we’ve been pretty busy. I don’t even know where to start. Well, we finally made a dream come true and visited New York!!!!! Without really thinking about the consequences, Marc and I booked a so-called “red-eye flight” from SLC to JFK…and the flight really lives up to its name. It was supposed to leave SLC at 11:59 pm - so one minute before midnight and we arrived in NYC just before 6 am. But if you expect 6 hours to be enough sleep….well, actually our plane was late in SLC but arrived early in NYC. We spent only 3 hours on the plane, and basically everything else was taken by the time difference between SLC and the east coast. So that explains the red eye part. But at least we were in the city by 7 am, dropped our bags at our friends’ place (downtown Manhattan….pretty nice!!!) and left for some sightseeing. Later that day we met Kathrin and her friend Manu - of course one of my highlights. And after a nice dinner (Little Italy), Top of the Rock, and Times Square by night, we went out with Wiebke and Fabio for a little while. But only for a few hours - walking around all day was pretty exhausting and we were still missing one night of sleep. I really slept like a baby that night.
Here are some NY pics…the first one is taken on top of the Empire State Building:
And at night it was time for Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center):
The next day started with a pretty nice breakfast. We walked around a lot, took the Staten Island Ferry - a nice and free way to look at the Statue of Liberty and met with Ann (my host sister) to walk the Brooklyn Bridge and have some great ice cream. Ann showed us around Central Park - an awesome place. There were fireflies all around, kids were chasing them, and people were enjoying the park. We went to a great Sushi place at night and of course, Marc had to visit the 24 hour-Apple store….at 11:11 pm.
Our third day was a little bit shorter since Marc had to catch his plane back to SLC. But it was enough time to visit the United Nations and the Guggenheim museum, release some bookcrossing books, have some Apfelstrudel and hot chocolate at the Cafe Sabarsky (Neuen Galerie), and take some funny pictures at Grand Central Station.
In the late afternoon, Marc flew back to SLC and I took the train (wow, my first American train ever) to Bewster to meet Kathrin again. I stayed at her house for 2 days - and even though she had to work during the day, it was an awesome time. I could recover from our exhausting NYC weekend, I could read a lot, enjoy her dogs’ company, and at night we had time to talk, we drove to New Haven (wow….Yale University is really impressive - at least when you’re used to universities in Konstanz and Salt Lake), and went to a nice bar. But of course, time was way too short!!!!
Thanks to Kathrin, Wiebke, Fabio, Manu, and Ann, for making it such a great weekend!!!