Alpal's trip
to New York City

Hi it's Alpal! I want to tell you about where I went during spring break.

I stayed and visited my uncle in New York City! He lives in the upper west, right by Central Park.

Central Park is a beautiful, huge, park right in the center of New York City. It is 2 miles by a 1/2 mile, 864 acres, and about 9,000 benches! There are big, natural boulders and rocks you can climb and sit on. There was one huge boulder that was so big it had to be roped so it wouldn't roll down on someone!

Along with that, it had 5 baseball fields, numerous volleyball and sand volleyball courts, a merry-go-round, a dog run, horse carriage rides, ice cream, popcorn, hotdog, and trinket shops, and much, much, more!

There are many good restaurants, dinners, and pizza places in New York City. We ate at many places including a place called Patsy's Pizza. It had the best pizza I have ever tasted! We went to some dinners too.

We visited many fun, interesting, and historical places such as the Empire State Building. It is 102 stories high, and one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world. There are about 3 or 4 gift shops, 860 steps, 73 elevators operating at speeds up to 1,400 miles per minute. It weighs 365,000 tons, and the Interior Lobby features an art deco design with rare marbles from Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany.

On different holidays and dates the lights on the Empire are different colors. Many people come to see the lights of the Empire.

When you go up to the Empire, you wait in line for a long time, take the elevator 80 floors, and walk 6 fights of stairs to the observatory level. It was a breathtaking view! You could see everything and it was beautiful.

One of the saddest things we saw on the trip was Ground Zero, which is where the Twin Towers fell. There was a huge hole in the middle. Many other buildings around it were boarded up. It made me think of all the people who died.

But there was something that really amazed me. Buildings are made by criss-crossing boards. The only thing left of the buildings was one cross lying on its side.

I have also heard that they found a bible laying open unharmed. It was horrible.

Another thing we saw was the Plaza, which is famous in the books "Eloise" (quote "You know how I LOVE the Plaza!" end quote). It was neat!

There were big crystal chandeliers, gold bar elevators, and a restaurant called the Palm Court, which had palm trees coming out the tables. There was also a glass window filled with Eloise things and there were pictures of Eloise on the wall.

One of the things we saw that wasn't a place was street performers. A few teenagers would get a boom box and turn on loud music and would do acrobatics like flips, walking on hands, juggling, break-dancing, and stuff like that.

One of the acts was particularly funny. A boy had finished his break-dancing routine and saw an adult man. He jumped behind him and started imitating him, walking and moving exactly like the man. Everyone was laughing, but the poor man had no idea that the performer was behind him! He was totally bewildered. He'll never know why everyone was laughing at him!

We visited many stores such as the Hershey's Store where there was any kind of Hershey candy you could think of, the American Girl Doll Store, which I think was just put up recently, The NBA Store, where we got to watch part of the commentary for the NBA playoffs live, FAO Schwarz, which is one of the biggest toy stores in the world and is one of the only FAO Schwarz's that isn't closing.

We stopped by Trump Tower, which is where the show The Apprentice took place. We ate a delicious lunch at the ESPN Zone, which is a restaurant, store, and arcade with any sports game you could imagine.

We went on many subways and taxis. The subways are so fun, they go really fast!

We took a taxi to New York Harbor to take a boat ride that takes you around the Harbor. We were early so we ate brunch outside at a cute restaurant. It was like a boardwalk. It was very neat with all the shops and booths.

The boat ride was also neat. It took us around the Harbor, and we saw many things from a distance like the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, and lots of scenery. We went under four bridges including the George Washington Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge and they told us interesting stories and history about everything. The best part was when we went right up to the Statue of Liberty!

New York City is an awesome and amazing place, like no other. You should visit it sometime!

*Alpal*