4 min read
Today was an adventure-filled day as I got to visit Chinatown and the One World Trade Center for the first time and eat lots of Asian food. First stop of the day was the Empire State Building to meet with a friend from back home, where we got something cold to drink at Starbucks since I felt like I was melting even though it wasn't actually that hot out. We would have gone to the top of the Empire State Building to see the view but the wait was supposedly 3 hours which is way too long.
After cooling off a bit, we walked to Google and I gave another quick tour of the empty main building. Unfortunately today YouTube was completely deserted so a tour wasn't possible. This was fine because we were supposed to met up with a couple people in Chinatown soon after leaving Chelsea Market.
After we found the closest A C E subway, we got on heading towards the center of Lower Manhattan. After a transfer onto another subway, we eventually arrived in Chinatown. It didn't smell as bad as I was expecting, but maybe that's because I'm getting used to how NYC smells. We stopped by one shop to get bubble tea and a bit food. I wasn't sure what the food I ate was but it was good. One thing had shrimp in it and the other was some kind of deep fried green tea sticky rice ball dessert with black sesame seed filling in the center. I was happy to have bubble tea again for the first time since the semester ended.
Inside the pastry and bubble tea shop
Afterwards we walked around for a bit and eventually went looking for a Vietnamese restaurant to have pho. I've had pho once before when I was in Mountain View at the Root Cafe and it was pretty good. One restaurant didn't have the room to seat our party of 5 so we tried another restaurant. The food came out pretty fast. I wasn't expecting such a large bowl so I couldn't eat all of it, especially considering I had just eaten at the one shop shortly before.
It seemed like a bottomless pit of noodles
I ate as much as I could but then regretted it as my stomach slushed walking across Chinatown. By then it was almost 4 pm. We were then on our way to the nearest subway station that would take us to the WTC since it was a bit far to walk. After getting a little lost we came out over by the WTC and walked the rest of the way.
I'd never seen the new one up close before
It's actually taller than the Empire State Building
We went up to it and walked around but we saw a huge line of people waiting to buy tickets to go to the observatory at $30 a person. We decided against it since it was such a long wait. It was nice to see it up close though instead of twinkling off in the distance at night. The reason it shines like at night is because of many glass panes on it angled in different directions.
We went around to the other side where the other towers used to stand. It's a memorial now with a 2 giant pits kind of like reverse-fountains. All along the edges of both are bronze parapets which inscribe the names of all the victims.
The North Pool
After that we ventured into a store and looked around for a while, then made our way back to Chinatown. We saw some cool things on the way.
The Beekman Tower
(Google Goggles wouldn't tell me what this building is)
The New York City Supreme Court
Upon getting back, we got ice cream from the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and more bubble tea. Eventually it was around 6:30 and time to head back. Before leaving Chinatown I saw a fruit stand with dragon fruit on it and wondered aloud how dragon fruit tastes. I got one as a present to try for later.
It looks pretty strange, since I've never seen one before
After a long day of walking all around both Midtown and Downtown (on 3 hours of sleep) it's high time to go to bed.