HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Heeeeey everyone!!!!

sorry that I have been offline for a while and haven't answered your emails, though this blog should get you guys updated with most everything that's been going on in my trip :-)

So, here I am in beautiful Honolulu, right next to Diamond Head, with a wonderful view to Waikiki beach, yet as I haven't sent you guys any pics or news from last week, let's go by steps and start with NYC and south of New England, to then get to Hawai'i.

The first destiny of my trip was New York City - arrived there at around 2am, I was starving and freezing cold... As I arrived to my hostel - funky little chinese place close to Times Square - made friends with Martin, cool english/irish guy, and we went for some milk (!) and pizza hunting. And as the ol' blue eyes would agree, I "woke up" in the city that never sleeps, so not just I found a neat supermarket two blocks away, but also got my 4formaggio slice of pizza :-)

I really enjoyed the time I spent in NYC - was able to do tons of stuff, felt like I was there already for a couple of weeks when I left, though one can definitely stay there for a month and still not manage to do everything this city can offer. It's amazing.

As I had to choose among the ten thousand different broadway musicals available, picked the most popular in the newspapers and the big screen: Mel Brooks' The Producers, which was very good. Also went to the Metropolitan Museum in the last day of Van Gogh's exhibition, took pictures on top of the Empire State building, walked over Central Park several times (and took tons of pics of those darling squirrels!), went to the Financial Center, bought a book in Barnes & Noble, crossed the Brooklyn Bridge (geese that was a good mile on foot!), did some windowshopping in Madison and Park Ave, admired the Lincoln Center, had lunch in Little Italy after walking through crazy Chinatown, and last but not least..... New Year's eve in Times Square (together with other 750,000 pp!). As you can see, all the basic NY sightseeings that every tourist go to!!

Ok, but the really cool things were the adventures we (me and my cousin) went through to manage everything in so little time. Not just that but also do some other cool stuff that weren't in the "basic guide" for tourists, so we had a lot of fun..... The main highlights were ice skating in Bryant Park (such a cute and cozy park all decorated and with Xmas songs), taking a picture with the navy boys during new year's eve celebration, walking around Brooklyn neighborhood and getting lost on the subway back to manhattan, standing in line for more than 3 hours to get in the elevator in the empire state building, not caring about the -4C cold after walking non stop for 8hs, making friends with people from all over the world while waiting 4hs for the damn "golf" ball in times square to fall, practicing my spanish more than my english, counting more than 25 limos in the street everyday (either this city has plenty of movie stars or the rent for a ride is really cheap!!!!), the amazing Met Museum (it's really amazing!!!!), the friendliness of all New Yorkers, and how strange it is to put into your head that it's only 4pm when it looks like midnight.

What I liked the most? Nothing like walking in Central Park in a cold cold day, no matter if during the day or at night, drinking a starbuck's venti hot chocolate and reading a nice book....

NY has its glamour, e um "nao-sei-o-que" that makes you fall in love with the city. The thing is, as you'll see when I tell you about Providence and Boston, NY is not an american city any longer. It's like it became an "international territory", where you'll find people speaking 80 different languages, glued on to their cell phones, always running late for something, living in a city where they can't even have their own car or remember what's it like to live in a house. This way I ended up realizing that this can only be a great city for those who visit.... Living there might just not be worth for those that actually want to enjoy the wonderful things about this city.

Although I was having the time of my life in New York, I was leaving to Hawai'i on Jan 3rd, and thought I could get a little bit more of adventure on my last day in the Northeast of the States. Tell you on my next post!!!!! Hope you enjoyed the news for now. Apart from the pics I'm posting here, will soon update my e.album, then I can send you the link with the best pictures I took.

and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Cya, Kris

ps, I'm only using the kristin.crispin@gmail.com email, so please update your address books as I'm hardly checking the other ones....