New York 2023 Trip

 

So the AVHS band program last year announced a band-wide trip to NYC to perform at Carnegie Hall last year. Back then, I didn't have this aspiring love for geography. This was before I took AP Human Geo. I did some quizzes on sporcle and everything and memorized the 50 states and all the countries, but I never cared about cultural landscapes on the level that I do now. I remember thinking "dang, that's really cool." I really wanted to visit the East Coast back then, but who would've thought that this was just perfect. A trip with my friends to literally the best city in the world, where we have tons of free time and at the same time, don't even have to plan much. It's kind of a dream vacation. It is a dream vacation.

Leading up to this trip, I was always jsut so excited to visit this city, I remember going on google maps and just seeing everything, studying NYC boroughs, learning about landscapes, it was so cool. 

I never thought this trip would've hit this hard though. It really did exceed everything I expected. I came out of New York City with just happiness and memories, a more-polished perception, and honestly: An urge to go back to NYC when I'm older.

What a trip, the best city in the world, the big apple, a world city that isn't just a world city.

It goes NYC, Tokyo, then London, in my books, at this moment. In terms of best cities in the world. I've been to 10 European countries and none of those are on the top 3. 


Ok anyway, to describe this trip, I exhausted everywhere. I wanted to visit everywhere, this included:

  1. 9/11 memorial
  2. Central Park
  3. Times Square
  4. Rockefeller
  5. UN Headquarters
  6. Brooklyn Bridge
  7. Statue of Liberty
  8. Empire State Building
  9. NYC Highline
  10. Trump Tower
  11. Hell's Kitchen
  12. Broadway
  13. Carnegie Hall
  14. Museum of Modern Art
  15. Madison Square Garden
  16. NYC/Brooklyn public libraries
THIS IS NEW YORK. THIS IS WHAT I MEAN, ITS JUST SO STACKED. I visited 13 out of those 16 places, i didnt get to go to MSG and Hell's Kitchen, along with the libraries. I didn't necessarily have an organized checklist with all these things, but I remember going on google maps, being in awe as I showed adi all these places in Manhattan, and being like "I don't care how much sleep I get, WE NEED TO GO HERE."

I go more in depth on little intricacies of New York and everything in this like journal stuff. I had two sessions writing this, once on Day 3 (i think?) in NYC hotel, and a second time wrapping up everything on April 14th, late at night. 

For each day, I have a link with a google photos album, that link is exclusive to everything done that day, meant to accompany the text/journals! This format makes things a LOT easier, as like 50% of writing my Eurotrip blog was just dragging picutres back and forth.

Day 1 - 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zUFMyyWGhtYqMGym9

  • 1:30 AM 
    • woke up from my 8:30 PM sleep from yesterday. 
    • packed my contacts and some stuff
    • departed for avhs
  • 2:00 AM
    • got on the bus and drove to the airport
    • and then we got to the airport and got on the airplane
    • bro idk why im not going full effort like my euro trip, im legit so into geography stuff and this trip has been so fire, i should definltey be sweating but i dont have the mental capacity for that man im prob gonna not regret just pushing through and being sweaty
    • yea so hten we went on the flight, it was a cool flight with screens in front of us where we could watch movies and stuff
    • it was nice cuz the flight RAs got all the boarding passes and everything for us so we didnt have to worry about flights or anything, that stuff is stressful.
  • 3:00 PM or something
    • we finished the flight and waited awhile and took a bus and everything i dont even remember man
    • the rest of the day was like me waiting for adi to come and also just getting the room key and everything 
  • 7:00 PM i think??
    • We went to dinner at angelino's pizza, it was SUPER FIRE, and also cheap since we split two pizzas amongst ourselves.
    • then we went to times square and i cant describe how i was feeling man
    • it was just crazy, the leadup to timessquare as u just saw up ahead all those billboards as they become more and more frequent, its just a scene straight out of tokyo, all the buildings man, this place was so awesome, i felt like i was gonna cry. this was my first day in new york city, i remember when i visit downtown san francisco im amazed at all the building and the urbanization. To go to pretty mnuch one of the best cities in the world in NYC, straight up insane, i almost couldn't handle it, i couldn't take it all in.
    • SO yeah, we got photos, we got ice cream, we headed back, idk wtf else we did.
Day 2 - 
  • 7:00 AM I think
    • me enzo and ved went out first to get breakfast at astros since the rest of my roommates take so long to get ready
    • then afterwards, me and enzo went out to the trump tower since it was nearby, it was pretty cool, we got to go inside, although none of the services/shops were available.
  • 9:00 AM 
    • then we went back to the hotel and we boarded a bus to go to the highline
    • the highline is like the first trian track built in nyc, and its not really needed anmore so they like transformed it into a garden that ppl walk across and it like goes over a good portion of the city, its pretty cool. the garden itself is pretty average.
    • we had like 3 hours or something there, me enzo and chris walked through the highline, and then explored a ton of manhattan, we saw so many cool malls and stuff, like this city is just unreal, i dont understand why they have so much stuff everywhere. THey have everything, everywhere. And I didn't know that I was just getting started man...
    • then we went to a burger place to eat lunch and it was some pretty solid burgers, it was weirdly empty for nyc, it was such a nice place i didtn understand why it was so empty, maybe because we went at like 11:30 or something idk
  • 1 PM or something
    • Then we went to visit the 9/11 memorial, with the two fountains, and also the museum itself. I made my best effort to exhaust the memorial and look at everything, it's quite fascinating, they went over so much
      • like about the hunt for osama bin laden in 2011 and before and stuff
      • and project ground zero
      • and also just learning about all 2900+ ppl who died in that event. One thing that's so captivating is the fact that when you walk down the street, everyone you see has a whole life, has their own story. this 9/11 memorial where you could click on people and just read about their life and how it led to 9/11/2001 was just very interesting man, it was so interesting. there was a room where like they had a projector and speaker and like just went thru them too.
    • Then, we took the bus back to the hotel I think or something, i legit dont remember, and then walked to eat dinner at John's pizzeria or something
  • 6:30 PM or something
    • then we went to eat dinner which was some pretty solid pizza, it was definteily unique and good, the crust was legit like bread, it looks kinda dry and stuff but its a very saitsfying texture
    • then we walked to broadway and watched a play, 'bad cinderella'
      • before, i watched my high school perform mama mia musical, and like this broadway show is just crazy
      • theres like spinning things, crazy lights that sync with everything, a crazy orchestra with great balance
      • great balance in the vocals overall, i remember osmetimes during mamamia it would be super loud.
      • and also like all the effects and costumes, the smoke, the dancing, the dancing WAS SO IN SYNC
      • AND ALSO THE SINGING, ALL OF THEM WERE SO CRACKED AT SINGING
      • the standard of talent with the multitude of skills it requires to be on that cast is straight insane, it was really entertaining play !!!!
    • and then after that im pretty sure it was like 11 PM so we went back showered and went to bed ASAP because we'd be waking up early the next day!
Day 3 - 
  • 5:45 AM
    • me and adi woke up after sleeping at 1 am, but we weren't tired as the new york air is just so blissufl and the morning air and sunrise is just so nice. our chaperone untaped our door at 6:30 so we headed out at 6:30 while the rest of the room opted to sleep; we planned on visiting the UN headquarters, it was a 30 minute walk. i remember scouting out and just realizing how insane of a city new yorko was, and among all the stacked places that new york offered was the UN headquarters, and as someone so into geography and the UN, like adi, we knew we had to go.
    • so we visited the UN, the whole array of the 190+ flags wasn't there :(, i was planning on taking a photo under the mongolian flag. That was a pretty big bummer tbh, but the UN headquarters and everything around it is insane. there was like a turkey embassy, a USA permanen mission to the United Nations, a Tunisia permanent mission to UN, same thing with Turkey, India, saudi, the list goes on. There were official embassies for so many random countries, like a ton in africa, along with some ASEAN countries, we saw the ASEAN flag a lot. it was jsut a crazy sight to see, there were so many flags everywhere and man we didn't even get to explore all of it cuz we needed to eat breakfast and head back before 9 AM
    • so yeah, after that CRAZY AND FULFILLING experience we found an acai bowl shop that was near times square, it was so fire. it was like 9 dollars which i was TOTALLY willing to pay, so well spent!! Literally everything in that store is fresh, it's like how u make smoothies at home with fresh oranges and stuff, they like didnt use any refrigerated stuff. ANyway, my acai bowl was so good man, acai in general is so good, it tastes like legit ice cream, this acai bowl from NYC was legit so much better than jamba juice acai bowls, although those are still pretty good
  • 9:00 AM
    • we began the walk to central park, where me, adi, ani, and chris rented out bikes and just biked around the entire park. man, i don't even know how to express that park. its seriously insane.
    • well, to start, its just so "new york," central park is just so new york with the vibe, the kids playing in the park, the people walking around, everything, i just cant describe it. it makes me feel so whole in this city.
    • second of all, it's straight up so big,  youll see a stunning perspective later. but anyway, its so big bruh, it just seems so essential, so raw, so magnificent to dedicate such a large part of this city to just straight park space, it's so reflective, it's so reflective in how like this park might be the central place for just everyone in nyc and around, it shows that like urbanism definitely needs that contrast, its just so cool. if i lived here when i was a child, this place would be my second home. it's safe, with so much to do, give me a bike and i can stroll around here endlessly
    • and thats exactly what we did. I felt so liberated just riding around the park, there was a separate lane for bikes and horse carriers and stuff, it was so fire. it was quite hilly, so i shifted gears a lot, but it was just so fun man biking there. when i would bike in pleasanton, there wasn't any sight to see-just music to listen to a destination to get to kinda, just thoughts of clearing my mind sometimes. At central park, you just get this whole aura, whole atmosphere of straight refreshing beauty, both of the trees around you, but also of the massive new york buildings all around you, in the distant. you feel hugged by all the greenery around you, as you peer in the distant and see the city and urbanism around central park.
    • but yea idk, im not gonna like proofread this so hopefully nothing there was cringe.
  • 11:30 AM
    • After central park, we began walking to rockfeller, where we had a mini-lunch break in between where we got hallal food at the food stand. it was REALLY good, dont get me worng, but the peppers in the gyro i ordered were straight up SO spicy man, that stuff was LETHAL. but it was still good, the meat was so fire.
    • so yeah, until like 3 oclock PM or something then we visited the rockefeller tower, where we the RAs passed out tickets and we took an elevator to like the 67th floor or something, and got absolutely stunning views. we could see central park and its INSANE contrast to the city surrounding it. It was just a straight up big rectangle amongst all the tall towers and skyscrapers in NYC. We could also see the empire state building, and even the statue of liberty from far away.
    • So yeah, after that we got to explore rockefeller plaza, like the ice rink and ball, it was really nice.
    • then we walked back and had a quick break in our rooms before heading out to dinner
  • 4:00 PM
    • We then walked over to MoMA, Museum of Modern Art
    • This place was quite a place LOL. The first thing we saw was this really cool animation that looked lke it was in 16k, it was os high quality just being projected on the wall. it almost seemed like it was a real, animated object in real life, thats how high quality it looked.
    • Then the rest was SO BAD. At this point me and adi and vish and our gang were all so tired from our little sleep, it was a straight VIBE because we were just roasting the entire museum while being so tired. It was so funny how tired all of us were, we limited ourselves to taking one rest break every floor we visited, and it was funny whenever we felt it was right to take our break lmao.
    • The aesthetic was cool, but there was some stuff in there that really made you question its thought process. Just a white t-shirt on the wall, or a google maps pin, or literally just random scribbles on a painting...really? It's such a stretch to call that modern art. That's just straight up dogsh*t art lmao

  • 6:30 PM or something
    • we ate dinner with singing waiters, they were pretty good singers, they were legit just vibing out singing lol. it was basically like a concert, not even like a karaoke. It was definitely a really unique meal with solid food too. Really satisfying dinner.
    • And then we headed back to the hotel and then we had a meeting amonst the entire band and the directors and chaperone where they went over everything and stuff and how the next 2 days were gonna be starting all the band stuff. kinda lame, but yea, we didnt come here to just get a vacation. It's fine to me, because I definitely want to visit this city again, theres so much left to explore, even tho we made such an effort. 
    • this city is honestly the greatest city in the world. its either this or tokyo. straight up. i know its subjective, but like..this city hAS EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. 
Day 4 - 
  • 8:00 AM
    • So today was special, because it was the only day this trip that I woke up after 7 AM. We really needed some sleep, so we woke up at like 7:45 AM, me and ved went to get acai bowls from that same place, since it was straight up fire. I just love walking around this city in the morning man, idk what ppl say about how it smells, or how there's smoke everywhere, this city is amazing.
  • 8:45-9:45 AM
    • Group rehearsal in the third floor of the hotel, we legit just rehearsed, nothing special. I really liked how it was 1 hr long, sometimes we had some super long rehearsals on band trips or like the YPSO Euro trip, and it was kinda draining.
  • 9:45 AM - 12 PM
    • me adi and chris walked to the empire state building, where we passed by a part of manhattan we've never been to. This experience was just yet ANOTHER testament to how stacked this city is and how much there really is to experience in this city. its just a whole another avenue with endless branches to explore. A whole set of malls, city centers, shops, and attractions. This is insane
    • Anyway, we didn't get to go inside the empire state building because there was a long line to get in, but we didnt rly care anyway. SO they got lunch at some chinese restaurant while i got halal guys, falafel gyro. Then, we took the metro back because we were pretty running low on time. It was a cool experience, our first time taking the New York Subway, it doesn't really seem that dangerous. It's also really easy to operate, u can legit scan ur credit card on entry, u dont even needa buy a ticket, thats rly nice.
  • 12 PM - 4:00 PM
    • We took a bus to Lehman college, where we passed by Bronx along the way, quite a sketchy part of town, first time seeing something sketchy in nyc.
    • But yeah we had this concert at Lehman college for the symphonic band kids since they weren't performing at carnegie, which is pretty cool. There was the avhs wind ensemble, avhs symphonic band, and some other random new york band from some random nyc island or something to play too.
    • so yea anyway we had a workshop with some guy named jason noble and rehearsed and it was kinda cool i guess
  • 4:00 PM - 6:15 PM
    • then we had to change and get a dinner break where they gave us some mid sandwiches and chips and water. We jsut fooled around, we were also pretty tired.
  • 6:15 PM
    • So then we had like the performance which was cool, venue was pretty cool, felt like a college lecture
  • 10:00 PM
    • me and adi and vish and arya and i forgot who else went out to an ice cream store 0.3 mniles away that i think is somewhat iconic, idk, but it was some pretty fire stuff, i got a 2 scoop of peanut butter brownie honeycomb and mint chocolate chip. That was some fire ice cream. 
    • We also saw our RA going to the same place as us, which was pretty fire. Honestly just another fire walk with fire food. I love nyc
Day 5 - Carnegie day
  • 7:30 AM
    • So i forgot, and this was acutlaly another day where I didn't wake up at 6:30 AM
    • me adi and chris went to this random shop place where we got pancakes, it was alright.
  • 10:00 AM
    • After breakfast, we went to carnegie hall for a sound check and photos and stuff, then we had 3 hours to eat lunch and do whatever we wanted to, so adi ordered an uber and we went to the UN headquarters AGAIN, and this time they HAD FLAGS!!
    • We explored there, tried to get a tour but figured out that we really couldn't, then checked out nearby, then went to eat lunch at thai food where chris didn't know that you have to tip the waiter LOL that was funny
    • but anyway we took an uber back to our hotel to get clothes for the dinner cruise, and then walked back to carnegie hall
  • 2:00 PM
    • We watched like 2 orchestras perform and WOW THAT STUFF MAKES ME SO SLEEPY. I was already tired and sleep-deprived, and that such settling, boring, mundane type of sleepy moving music from orchestras was some really fire stuff to sleep to.
    • Then came some bands that performed, everyone that performed this afternoon was from california.
    • Then it came our turn, we went backstage to do some practice/warmups and stuff, and our performance was FIRE. That hall was amazing, and "of our new day begun" was honestly so fire, some horn lines and phrases in that piece are so fire to just play loud in. So glad we played that song, it was so fun to play.
  • 4:30 PM
    • After performing, which was straihgt up FIRE, we headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for the dinner cruise. I charged my phone i think, and yeah we meeted up in the hotel 3rd floor and hopped in a bus. 
  • 6:45 PM
    • Boarded the dinner cruise, it was pretty fire, it's very similar to prom/ball, with the buffet, dinner, and literally NOTHING ELSE TO DO LOL. There's those scarce random board games scattered like chess and connect 4, its legit really similar to like a prom dance. The dance floor was pretty small tho, and the cruise had three levels, each with their own buffet. There were like 3 schools that boarded this dinner cruise.
    • But the main thing about the cruise wasn't that, it was the views on the balcony of the ship, it was amazing man. We floated along the hudson river and saw Mahnattan, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and probably other random things. We saw madison square garden, brooklyn/manhattan bridge, and most importantly, the statue of liberty. 
    • That view legit made the experience so fun, you just hang out there and just soak it all in. I loved this idea so much, it was so good bruh
  • 10:30 PM
    • So we got back and I packed a lotta stuff and showered and everything and packed and yea. 
    • tomorrow was gonna be the last day in NY, so just trynan sleep as early as possible :(
Day 6 -
  • 6:30 AM
    • I called josh like 10 times before calling my RA to ask him what room he's in, and he said he couldn't, so i asked him if he could give me JOsh's RA's number, and he did, so i called Josh's RA's number, and he didn't pick up but like he realized later so then he knocked on joshs door and woke him up so thats how the piece somehow worked. Hopefully you understood that. 
    • Anyway, me josh and chris were gonna spend this last morning vibing out taking the metro somewhere. Isaac, Nolan, and Bhavik were too busy wanting to sleep, i dont understand that!!! They were mad bugging out the entire trip with their sleep, idk why they didn't do much in nyc.
    • Anyway, we needed to be back at 10:15 AM for context
    • ok anyway, we also got ved, but me chris ved and josh went out and got krispy kreme donuts, and then took it togo and ate it on the subway to the...BROOKLYN BRIDGE. Yes, we took the subway to the brooklyn bridge, it was one of the last iconic attractions that I didn't visit, so we took it there. We stopped at the city hall station and got a NICE view of that before walking to the first arch on that bridge. That bridge is HUGE, it's very long, there were lots of runners running across it which is just straight insane to me, that's so nice. Imagine living in nyc and running in central park or running in the brooklyn bridge. There'd be absolutely no need for music lowkey, it's just amazing. Maybe you need some after you get used to the urbanism.
    • But yeah, it was a FIRE trip and we lowkey almost got back at the hotel late which would've been a problem. So glad we woke up early, I miss New York.
  • 10:15 AM
    • And the rest was just departure. I got a nice timelapse on the bus. We had a layover in Charlotte, we got back at 9 PM around. I did fanschool on the plane with the free trials where you watch an ad for 20 minutes of free wifi. They only let you do it once, so i did it again on my phone and just hot spotted it to my macbook.
    • And there we were, back in SFO, and back in pleasanton, california.



Lyric(s) of the Post:
"
I've been holding on to these dreams
I'm ready to take the leap
Cause I've been holding back
And it all stops now.
"

Comments

Post a Comment