New York

Hanka prepared a very nice essay about New York city that was distributed among students.
Then Hanka talked about it, she told us about her unforgettable experiences and shared with us photos she took in New York City, the Big Apple. The essay is attached.

NY has five districts - Manhattan,  Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island and Brooklyn.
I saw only two - Manhattan and Queens.

We spent only three days here and my nephew wanted to show me the most of this town. The first day we were accommodated in the small  Holiday Inn Hotel on 29th avenue in  Manhattan near the Penny Station - it is the main train station where we arrived from the airport.  The Penn Station is under the Madison Square Garden. There are organized sports matches, concerts, exhibitions etc. On Sunday afternoon we put good shoes on and took the subway to Central Park and to Dakota. Dakota is a luxury apartment building where many celebrities live. There was shot John Lennon on 8th December 1980 outside the building. His wife Yoko Ono still lives here. Across the street there are Central park and memorial Strawberry fields for remembering John Lennon. Just there he was the young boy and  sang the song „Imagine“. Central Park is in the middle of Manhattan. There  is marathon through all five areas of the city, too. Every year on Sunday in November more than 22 000 runners race at the Verrazano Bridge and finish  in Central park.

Then we went to Broadway walked round the Trump Central House skyscraper and continued across Time Square and Columbus Circle.

The second day after „Take away Breakfast“ we went to Queens because my nephew had to arrange extension on his taxi licence. When I was waiting for Robert  I could watch a lot of different people who passed me by. White, black, old, young, all possible suits. Then we returned to Manhattan and went over  the Brooklyn Bridge and the way back. It took 16 years to build and 27 workers died , including  an enginier John Roebling. At the time it was the largest bridge in the world, just over 1 mile long.  Then we continued to see the Port and continued to Battery Park where boats depart The Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island.

We also saw the Memorial of The World Trade Center/twins/. There are two pits where are waterfalls and the names of all people on the wall who died there on September 11th, 2002.  There is a new skyscraper One World Center with observation tower next to this Memorial. We bought two tickets and took a fast lift up.  It was a monumental experience for me. Near the One World Centre is a new beautiful white shopping centre which looked like eagle outside and Titanic inside. Near of Trinity church is Wall Street and a popular bronze statue of a charging bull. This has been an American symbol of strength since 1989. We also saw The Empire State Building. It was the tallest building in the world until 1970.  Flatiron Building(žehlička) was built in 1902 and many people called it a big mistake because it is ugly. The Chrysler Building is also a beautiful building. It was built to look like a car wheels. We continued to Rockefeller Centre. It is a group of 19 buildings in the middle of Manhattan. They were all owned by one of the richest man John Rockefeller Jr. The center has many works of art. Today it is the home of NBS, one of the country’s biggest TV companies. In winter people can skate outside here. The third day we went to the 5th Avenue round the house where Jackie Onassis died and continued to the Metropolitan Museum. Tickets were free. Here we spent about three hours watching exposed works by Picasso, Monet, Gogh, Modigliani etc. Then we continued along the 5th Avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It is dated from 1885 to 1888. When your feel hungry and tired you cannot sit in a typical restaurant with tables.

We took the subway and went  to the Little Italy. It was a  paradise for me. A lot of restaurants with good food and chairs ? We had lunch and went to the Chinese Town. It was the second paradise for me. Finally we returned to our hotel. A bell rang and the tale comes to its end.