Having been to New York back in 2008, I had been to the majority of the tourist attractions (as evidenced by these photos from 2008), so this time around I spent fairly little time sightseeing.
On Friday, having arrived from Boston in the late afternoon, I checked into my hotel and spent the evening with a few friends from Bear Stearns. Similarly, on Saturday, I met up with more friends from Bear.
On Sunday, having gone to Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I visited the upper west side of Manhattan to see the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, which is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the seat of its Bishop. It’s absolutely colossal, able to hold 5,000 worshippers, yet still unfinished. Having seen this, I hopped on the subway to Queens, to Citi Field to see my Atlanta Braves take on the New York Mets. After five innnings, with the Mets winning 1-0, there was a 90 minute rain delay before the game eventually got called.
On Monday, I took the tour of the new Yankee Stadium. On Tuesday, I had my iPod stolen while walking up 8th Avenue to my hotel. Nevertheless that evening, meeting up with another old friend from Bear, we went to Top of the Rock to see New York at night.
Wednesday, having met up with more friends from Bear, I had planned on going to a Reach Records concert in New Jersey. To be honest, I had thought that it would just be across the Hudson and easily reachable from NYC. However, I was wrong – it was taking place in Rutgers University, in Camden, South-Western Jersey and I ended up having to get a train to Philadelphia and then get a taxi across into Jersey. However, the concert was great, Trip Lee, Sho Baraka and DJ Official were all exellent and it was well worth all the traveling. I got the last train that night back from Philly to NYC.
Thursday evening, I flew back to Dublin from JFK.
Photos from this trip to NYC can be found here.
