The day we arrived in New York, our taxi driver mentioned that Saturday and Sunday there was going to be another huge snow storm, so we had planned to do most of the inside stuff those days. But fortunately, the sun still hadn’t left us. As you probably read in my last post, Saturday was still lovely without even a drop of rain or snow, and even Sunday started out to be another beautiful day.
Nonetheless, we still wanted to visit the American Museum of Natural History. With the sun still shining, we were kinda sad that we would have to spend a day inside, but considering Sunday was supposed to be the worst day, we decided that it would be then or never.
The museum only opened at 10 am, so first we went to the Columbia University, just because I wanted to have a look at a real American Campus. It’s so different from a Belgian college, so I really enjoyed taking a quick look around the school grounds. I was surprised to see that they even have their own police and ambulance.
After this little visit, we went to a little café close to Harlem called Silvana to have breakfast/ brunch. It took a while for our food to arrive – which annoyed my dad very much but is very typical of a Sunday morning in Harlem – but it was really good and to be honest, I enjoyed the calm Sunday morning brunch.
When our bellies were full, we took the metro – although it isn’t very far but our feet and legs were really tired – to the American Museum of Natural History. This museum is definitely worth a visit. There are tons of important and beautiful historical and scientific objects that can be interesting for both adults and especially children. You can easily spend an entire day in the museum but we just walked through every room, trying to have an impression of everything. I had written down a couple a things I really wanted to see, and I would recommend that for everyone. Especially the highlights. This way you know what rooms interest you so you can plan your visit a bit better and make sure you don’t miss anything.
Considering it was only 2:30 pm when we got out of the museum, we had to find something else to do. In the spur of the moment, we took the metro to Queens, because we had read in a travel guide about Jackson Heights, which is the most multicultural area in whole America. More than 70 nationalities live together there. It was nice to see it once and I definitely don’t regret taking the time to get there, but I must say that that was the first time I felt a bit unsafe in New York. Even my dad didn’t want to spend more time then needed there.
To get in Jackson Heights, and to get back to Manhattan, we took metro line 7. It’s the only line in New York that doesn’t go underground, so this way we could see a lot more of Queens without having to walk a lot. Even on the metro, we could already distinguish lots of different nationalities.
By the time we were back in Grand Central Terminal – where I spend another half an hour doubting whether or not I would buy a new iPhone -, clouds had formed in the sky, announcing the upcoming snow. We quickly walked back to our hotel, not wanting to get trapped in the storm. We quickly changed clothes and went to the Asian restaurant ‘Wild Ginger’ in our street to have dinner. We had only pulled the door closed behind us, or the snow started falling. From inside it was really beautiful to watch, although we were a bit scared of what this snowfall would mean for tomorrow. We still enjoyed a really delicious meal – I love me some Chinese food! – and went back to our hotel hoping that we wouldn’t have any trouble because of the white layer that was slowly falling over New York.
Until next time – with the final part of my trip,
With love, Ellen
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