Big Apple trip

Actually this post should have been made earlier, but for my laziness and the so called urge required to blog which seldom arises. Better late than never.
In my 2nd trip to the USA I finally visited NY after almost considering all other major cities in the mid west, south and east--Miami,Las Vegas, Atlantic City,Orlando, NY and DC. Many were of the view that since I had been to Chicago, NY would be just another city. Paying no heed to anyone I decided to make the trip to the big apple. The weather had been very harsh the earlier weekend with temperatures going below zero and I had to spend the weekend cocooned in my hotel room. Luckily enough on the day I left for NY from Dayton the weather was superb (20-22 deg Cel). The Weather channel reported a very much normal day ahead and storms on Sunday. So I had 1 full day to roam NY and prove that NY was not just another city similar to Chicago.
I left Dayton on Friday 13th April via a short halt at Cincinnati to NY. I had already spoken to a college friend who resides in New Jersey and who eagerly invited me to stay over for the 2 days in his house. Intricate instructions were given by him to help me reach his place(Metro Park).
A week prior to my trip I was prancing on the net to find all the available info on NY, places of interest, modes of transportation and cost and also if possible visiting Washington.
To my surprise every place of interest, mode of transport or anything else had a web site with information to the minutest detail helping me plan my trip but also confusing me to no end.
The best guide is from NYtimes itself titled 36 hours in NY and barring the eating and drinking joints it gives a short summary of the places of interest and the commuting routes. Although the title says 36 hours it is divided into 3 days suiting all and sundry.
I could get only 1 day to roam around NY and I saw the major attractions,
A cruise on the harbour passing by the Statue of Liberty, Wall street ,walking through downtown, Ground Zero (was a waste) and Times Square (the best).
I thought I spent way too much time walking the streets in downtown(which was empty as it was a Saturday) and this time could have been effectively used in visiting one more place, Grand Central station.
To conclude NY resembled Mumbai in many aspects, the crowd, the hustle bustle, the water logging during the rains etc albeit you cannot ignore the cleanliness and infrastructure of the city.
Chicago was very much different proving many of my friends wrong. Chicago has a slight laid back attitude and yes the infrastructure and other amenities are more modern and better equipped than NY.

Dayton update-upto Day 8

It is cold here in Dayton and there is a freeze watch for Thursday night going upto Friday morning. Now what is a freeze watch. According to Weather.com
A FREEZE WATCH MEANS TEMPERATURES AT OR BELOW 32 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT ARE IMMINENT OR HIGHLY LIKELY IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA.
This means temperatures could dip below 0 degrees celsius. Fortunately or unfortunately maybe i could see some snow.
What have i been doing all these days in America?
I have been visiting various places of shopping interest during the last few days and climate has been good. I have made it a point not to eat at the same place and try out a different places. Surely there are many more eating joints and restaurants than my number of days stay(27).
I have tried Arby's, McD(thats McDonalds), Chipotle(Mexican), Gyros(Greek/Mediterannean), Bahn Mai(thai), PF Chang(Chinese-Chinese not Indian-Chinese), Tacho bell, Subby's, Donatos pizza, and Amar India(Indian)
I ate subs(sandwiches),french fries,vegeterian pita, Ragin cajun chicken, Spicy chicken burrito,
Dang Dang noodles with chicken,salsa,etc.....................
I am guzzling lots of soft drinks -more that what I drink in a year in India.
It seems Americans have more ice cold drinks as it gets cooler and they dont drink tea and/or coffee. Coffee yes but it is black and bitter with little milk and sugar.

I visited the Dayton Mall which is the reason why Dayton exists at the first place as told to me by few people. This is a huge mall with loads and loads of shops for clothing and womens accessories. There are gaming zones and seperate shops for games stocking games for the regular pc to the Xbox/360,PS2,nintendo,gameboy etc.
I also visited a book store of Barnes and Noble. The area of that store was as big as our office
(Cap Gemini). I wasnt interested in buying any book as all these books are available in India with the local raddi wala(used books and newspaper reseller) for dirt cheap prices and I just wanted to have a look at it. This shop allows you to read any book sitting there and having coffee from Starbucks. It has books on any subject you can think of. Do you think coin collecting seems to be a weird topic to have books on, not at all this shop has more that 30 books on that subject. Books were arranged according to subjects obviously which included literature/fiction,
mystery,science fiction, new age(included spirituality, wicca and witchcraft), cooking,sports,
biographies, gay/lesbian,sexuality, crosswords/puzzles, references and on and on.
As expected in the computer section I found more Microsoft Technology books and many books for the Mac(u will not find them in India).
I was amazed with there periodicals and magazines section again divided into 12 sections (womens interest,mens interest,business,current affairs,sports,arts. etc). There must be around a 1000 magazines.
I watched 4 movies in the last few days Forrest Gump, Castaway, Red eye, The Island.
All were good movies except maybe Castaway which i felt dragged along and I myself felt like a Castaway- not on an island but in the hotel.
I have been fequently visiting sites which I would rarely visit when in India.
dealstobuy amazon, travelocity, Hbo, Google Maps, greyhound