New yoooooorrrrk, concrete jungle where dreams are made of there’s nothing you can’t do, right?
How to see all of the cool spots in New York in Less than 10 hours
My friend Jordan and I were on our way to Brazil and had a 10-hour layover in New York. What better time to get out and explore? My first mistake was forgetting a jacket, since I would not be needing one in Brazil. This was mid-January in New York and boy was it freeeezing. Thank God for my friend Chelsea, who loaned me a jacket on our previous layover in Vegas. Jordan and I were determined to see all the sites in New York. A car pulled over at the airport and said they would give us a ride for $50 flat. We initially thought we would take the subway but we’d end up saving an hour by getting a ride with this “Uber” driver. We also heard stories that people will try to steal from you and we had our bags and didn’t want to risk it. Our first mistake was that we didn’t call the car from the Uber app. Note to self: When in New York, people will offer you rides claiming to be Ubers but steer clear of them.
We took the chance and our driver (who was a woman I might add, which made us feel a bit safer) dropped us off right near Central Park. Upon dropping us off, she said that we owe her $90. I gave her a confused look since she initially quoted us $50. She acted like we never agreed upon $50. She went on to say that that was the price and we needed to pay it. I told the lady straight up, “you can either take the $50 or nothing at all.” She took the $50 and went on her way.
After getting out of the car, I realized we needed to be a bit more careful. We walked around Central Park and to be completely honest, it was just a bunch of bare trees with homeless people walking around trying to sell gold “designer” watches in their vest. We hopped in a real Uber and headed to the 9/11 museum. This place gave me the chills. I couldn’t even fathom how at one point these streets were covered in debris with bodies underneath it. We wanted to ride up the other Twin Tower but it costed too much money and we decided we were able to see the full effects just from seeing the Memorial out front.
After the Memorial, we went to Times Square. It was NYE a couple weeks before but there was still trash everywhere. You could barely even see the streets because they were covered in streamers and confetti. It felt surreal to be in Time Square but not because it was actually breathtaking or anything but more because it was such an iconic place in America. We started feeling hungry and hit up a local New York pizza joint. The pizza was no lie, the size of half a whole large pizza. We both could not stomach the whole thing.
Where to next? The Statue of Liberty. We went right up the edge of water where you can see The Statue of Liberty and all of its glory. We could have taken the ferry but decided to not take the chance of missing our flight.
If you have a layover at night time during the holiday season, I recommend checking out the Rockefeller Christmas tree. It is beautiful and an iconic area of New York where people often propose to their partner on the ice skating rink. We were able to see all of the above sites in just over four hours. We headed back to the airport just to be safe and to avoid any traffic. If you have a long layover in New York, leave the airport and check out some sites! You won’t regret it.
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