NYC

Getting to  NYC was both tiring and long.  I am definitely not a fan of the megabus, but apparently it is still a lot better than greyhound.  I spent most of the night trying to fall asleep in an extremely uncomfortable chair.  I probably only ended up getting 5 or so hours of sleep that night.  A tiny Asian girl ended up falling asleep on my shoulder, but besides that and hours of head-bobbing, the trip was mostly uneventful.

I arrived in NYC around 07:00.  The sun just came out and man was I tired.  I decided that my first destination was going to be Times Square.  I love the fact that my phone has access to the internet and can easily pull up a map of the city.  In as little of as 45 mins, I walked tens of blocks with my EXTREMELY large backpack and camera bag.  I though that Times Square would have been more impressive and busy, but I did end up there on a national holiday, Memorial Day, at 07:45.  I stood in the background for the last few minutes of the taping of Good Morning America.  The crowd was filled with soccer moms with signs about the boy scouts.

After looking at the map for a couple minutes the next major landmark that I recognized was the Rockefeller Center.  I decided to walk over there in hopes of seeing some traditional NYC landmarks.  I actually ran into the taping of NBC's Today Show.  Bobby Brown preformed a few songs, one of which I actually knew.  However, I did manage to have my 5 seconds of fame when I saw myself on national television.  I was waving my Indians cap around hoping to stick out in the crowd.

It was 09:30 by the time everything ended and the crowd died down.  I decided to walk another 20 or so blocks to Central Park.  My book bag was tiring me out, so I sat in Central Park watching people walk by and sipping on smoothie that I bought earlier.  It occurred to me that most of the people that I saw were tourist.  It was easy to tell due to their over sized cameras that hung around their necks.  I guess that would me a tourist too.

I walked down Fifth Ave in search of Grand Central Station and found the large elaborate stores that makes Fifth Ave infamous.  If I remember correctly, this is where I found Trumph Tower and the main entrance of the Rockefeller Building.  It was around noon when I've had enough of carrying around my bag and decided to go to the airport early, 8 hours early.  In attempt to navigate the subway system, I surprisingly did not get lost.  After an hour commute, I arrived at JFK airport.  It was extremely large with 8 terminals all connected by a rail system.

I spent most of the time napping in the airport since I had to wait 4 hours before I could check-in.  17:00 hit and I waited in line to check my baggage.  By that time, the entire terminal was full and the security line was weaving almost out the door.  When it was finally my time to check my bag, I was asked if I would be okay with switching to a direct flight on a different airline.  HECK YES!  I would skip the layover and arrive in London 5 hours a head of schedule.  This was definitely a win-win situation.  I was also allowed to go through the first class security check point.  It turned out that the plane engine had a problem and I had to sit on a plane for an extra hour before we finally departed JFK airport.  I managed to sleep almost the entire way to London.