Christmas break of 2021 part 2 "A week in Jersey and York"

 

    Welcome to the second part of my Christmas vacation blog. If you guys haven't already, I would highly recommend reading the first part of my Christmas vacation blog, "Exploring Minnesota" as everything may be easier to understand.

    So as you guys know, on December 17 2021 my family and I went to Minnesota for four days and the next night, we flew to New Jersey. I have a cousin who lives in New Jersey.

    It was around 9:30 am when we landed in Newark Liberty airport New Jersey. Luckily it wasn't as cold as Minnesota. My cousin was there on time to pick us up. Not to mention, he owns a Mustang. It was a dream come true as I love cars. When we got to his house he showed us around and to my surprise, I had a whole room to myself. This was about to be the best week of the year! We didn't do much the rest of the day as my family and I had a tour for New York the next day. However we did visit the second largest mall in America. Not to mention, I also visited the largest mall in America in Minnesota too, 'Mall of America'.

    I woke up at 6:45 am full of energy knowing I was going to New York. For breakfast we had fafda (an Indian snack) and then we left for the train station. The train stations in New Jersey are absolutely stunning as they have so much history tagged along. Finally we got into our train and had a 20 minute ride to New York. I didn't really talk much during the ride, I just stayed silent and enjoyed the scenery outside as this is something I don't usually get to see. After about 10 minutes the tall skyscrapers slowly began emerging. We were very lucky because there was not a single cloud in the sky. Then the train finally stopped at the station in New York. My family and I got out and started heading for the door which was the exit of the train station. As we exit the door, a new world appears before us.

    The tall skyscrapers, the famous streets and headquarters, all surrounding us. We were finally in New York. It took me a while to process the fact that I was in the heart of the United States. My father had booked a one day tour on the Big Bus company and fortunately for us, we could sit in the top bunk of the bus. 

    We saw places such as Central Park, Rockefeller center, 9/11 memorial, Oculus center, Broadway, and a couple other sites. Then finally we left the Big Bus at around 7 in the evening, the light of day slowly started fading away. Thats when we walked a little more until we got the the main show. Times Square. I was dumbstruck to how lively that place was and could not believe my eyes. We spent a good hour having the time of our life in Times Square until finally deciding to find  a place to have dinner. We decided on a kati roll shop which I would give a 10/10 in all aspects. The place was well maintained, waiters were respectful, food was absolutely delicious, what else could a customer ask for. After dinner, it was time to go back to New Jersey. We eventually found our way to the train station and reached New Jersey in no time. 

    We spent the rest of the evening in my cousin's basement playing pool, table tennis, and card games. We didn't do much the next day as we were pretty tired from touring New York. My parents didn't feel like doing much, so my cousin and I went to a mall to buy some new clothes. I just got a new hoodie, and my cousin got some shirts and a pair of shoes. 

    The next day we went to New York again. However we didn't go in a train, it was Saturday so my cousin drove us to New York. Our first destination was Brooklyn Bridge.

 

    Here is a picture I took on my phone. We spent a good half hour here admiring the heavenly scenery of the bridge and the city. After that, we went to a huge boardwalk where we had to to walk for about 20 minutes. However those 20 minutes were absolutely amazing as there were such unique styles of houses and tall skyscrapers surrounding us. I will let some pictures I took tell the story.

    After coming to the end of the boardwalk, we reached a cone shaped tourist attraction called the "Vessel". I will also add some pictures to show what it looked like.

The next two pictures are the interior of the vessel.

    Absolutely breathtaking right? I still can't believe all these photos were taken on my four year old iphone 7. Then we stopped at a restaurant for dinner and headed back for New Jersey.

    The next few days we just met with some of my cousins friends and basically kept a slow pace until my second to last day in New York. That day we visited Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty. Here is a picture I took from the top of the base of the statue. 

    That night we stayed at the house of a friend of my mom from college. I won't really go into detail about that. 

    It was now my last day in New York. As much as I am devastated I will have to come back to California the next day, I was grateful I had such a wonderful experience. I will never forget this trip and I cannot wait to come back!

    If you guys enjoyed the Christmas break series, make sure to let me know in the comments as I will try being more active on my blog. Thanks for reading!