theodyssey

So today was my first "official" visit to NYC! 😃

 

I love everything about this city, all the noise, the lights, the streets, the tall buildings!! 😍

 

I arrived to Grand Central Station around noon and walked from there to Madison Square park. On the way I passed a Swedish coffee shop called "FIKA" (of course) and went inside for coffee, and guess what?!?!, I found a new friend! She was the only one from Sweden working there today and we got to talking and she told me she just got here last week, so she hadn't really made any friends either. I ended up giving her my old business card (who knew that'd come in handy here?😜) so hopefully we'll be able to meet up the next time I'm in the city! 😃

 

I took the subway from Madison Square park (23rd st) to city hall and walked to the World Trade Centers, which is something I've wanted to see since I wrote an essay about it around 10 years ago. I saw the 9/11 memorial and went in to the museum which is partially below the ground where the twin towers stood. It was beautiful and so incredibly sad. The museum was great and I think it covered a lot and was very moving. They had different sections, for example one seperate section for each plane and then one smaller about the people jumping from the towers and another about the firedepartments and the firemen as well as one about the hijackers and Al-Quida. They also had smaller secluded places where they played voice recordings by survivors or volunteers with a monitor showing where the speakers were at the time, and that was one thing that made it very real. Terrorism is such a strange thing to happen "here" so it's hard to comprehend what it was like on that day, even if you watched it on television, and that's why the museum was so good because it was very personal and up-close. There was one of those voice recordings I couldn't see though, it was the one where they played voice messages that the people who were on the hijacked planes had made to their loved ones. Or I think that's what it was, when I saw it I just turned around cause I know I couldn't have dealt with that. 😛

 

After spending around 3 hours by the 9/11 memorials and the museum I bought something to eat, then took the subway to Times Square before walking back to Grand Central Station to take the train back home! 😊

 

I can't wait to go back again and see other places! There's just so much to see!! 😃

 

Grand Central Station

The Swedish coffee shop FIKA (the cardamom bun was really good 😍)

Madison Square Park with its squirrels 😍

Broadway - 23rd st 

One World Trade Center - the main building of the new World Trade Center complex. The tallest scyscraper in the western hemisphere and fourth tallest in the world. 😍

It was sooo hot! Not the best day to walk around the city 😅

"No day shall erase you from the memory of time" ❤️

Part of the antenna that was on the top of the north tower

Times Square 

Night lights in Bryant Park on the way back to Grand Central

There was a part of the museum where it was prohibited to take photos, understandably, but that was the best part and where you could read more about how that day was for people who were, in one way or another, involved. I have no idea why I'm so moved by it all but I was crying more than once when I walked through the exhibition. I can't even begin to imagine how survivors or family to those who died, let alone those who died, feel/felt. Imagine sitting on one of those airplanes or being on a floor above where the planes hit? Unimaginable.

 

I wanted to support in some way, AND I need my own cup here, so I bought this (+ a key chain cause I just love key chains😜)👇🏻

Apparently every year on the anniversary two lights shine up from the ground, resembling the towers. That would be so cool to see, and the anniversary is next sunday so I'm thinking I might go in there again just to witness that. But we'll see what happens.

 

I hope you all appreciated my photobomb 😄 I felt like a super tourist with my camera out constantly but I can't help being amazed by everything I see 😋

 

Good night 😘