New York City

Flying to New York gave me my first real taste of jet lag during my entire trip. I have been flying mostly up and down and the trip to new zealand just flipped my body clock 12 hours so it wasn't so bad. But this time it was 9 hours of flight straight east causing a 6 hour time difference. So when I landed at 7 am in the morning I was a zombie that had to stay alive until evening so I wouldn't sleep the whole day and be up all night. The trick was to keep moving and bombarding the mind with new impressions and thankfully New York City delievered just that! Handing in my backpack in a hostel in Queens I rode the subway straight to Manhatten, Ground Zero and the 9/11 memorial. A beautiful place stirring a lot of emotions and almost disbelief that you were now standing at that spot you had seen over and over again on tv.  

From here I walked south, head back starring up like a true tourist fully impressed by my surroundings. When I reached the south bank I took a ferry to Staten island sailing past the Statue of Liberty for the mandatory pictures. Got of the ferry, got on the ferry and sailed back.. Staten island isn't really that interesting :) Energy levels were reaching a critical low thou and the rocking of the boat was putting me to sleep so I inhaled half a liter Monster energy drink, savoring that sweet unrestricted level of artificial chemicals and caffein you just can't get in Europe! 

Getting on the move again I walked to the iconic Brooklin bridge and from there up through Wall Street to the New York Stock Exchange. Here I jumped on a train to Times Square embracing the chaos that plays out there. 

Here I had to let out my inner child and visit the huge Toys R' Us store

Indoor ferris wheel, nothing less can do it!

Moving and screaming T-Rex, beautiful :-)

Irresistable smile

After visiting Times Square i walked towards the Empire State Building where I met up with some old friends of mine. It turned out that they had the perfect cure for jet lag: Beer, card games and the New York Rangers playing themselves into the Sanley Cup finals!

Spreading the joy of Hanabi in New York with Arash and Jarret. 

After being awake for I don't know how long I blacked out until 30 min before check out next morning. To get back on my feet I visited Aunt Rosie's Diner for a hearty breakfast. 

 

Reenergized I went north on Manhatten to this strange building next to Central Park.

The Guggenheim is not only an art museeum but a piece of art itself. The inside exhibition area is a spiral walkway leading you up at a slight angle. Their current exhibition on how the Italian futurists expressed themselves through art from the early 1900's to the second world war was suprisingly interesting!

Filled up with artistic impressions it was time for something more social, so I headed for south Brooklin where I met up with Arash and Larry for a roadtrip up to Conneticut where we would be gaming during the weekend. 

Nice summerday in Brooklin

Just as in Australia I was welcomed with open arms and felt right at home. The guys from Unplugged Gamers put on a terrific event and in the end I was fortunate enough to walk away with first place. A big thank you to everyone I met and look forward to see many of you again in Serbia!

 

Back in New York City, Jarret graciously opened up his home to me in Brooklin so this became my base from where I managed to catch up on the last attractions, like the American Museum of Natural Historie, Central Park, of course a visit to the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid and a view of the Manhatten skyline. 

I had an absolut blast of a time in New York City and it was with mixed feelings I headed for Newark Airport in Jersey for my last flight home. A big thank you to Arash, Jarret and Larry for entertaining, housing and cheering on me! Also to Chris O'Brian for lending me his miniatures and all the other people I met!

When you read this I will be back home in Denmark hopefully to that Danish summer I have told so many of you about and other new adventures! I will do one last update sometime when I have found my feet again, until then thank you for following my travels. 

Rasmus Hammer