Day 3: Tourists doing Tourist Things

"Give me such shows--give me the streets of Manhattan!" (Walt Whitman)

Midtown//Times Square

My mom and I intended to see all that we could see, so the next morning, we woke up early, ate breakfast and headed out to our bus stop. We were going to do the double decker tour of New York! We purchased tickets with City Sightseeing, and overall had a good experience, except for a few bumps in the road.

Some selfies before we got on the bus

Once the bus arrived, we climbed on board and started our tour in Midtown, Times Square. As cool as Times Square is, it’s also one of the most overwhelming parts of New York for me. It was great seeing it all from the bus, but I had no interest in getting off to explore, I’d been to Times Square enough in my life to not need to do that.

After making it through Times Square, we continued on to SoHo, where my mother and I decided to get off. The best part about our tour was the fact that it was “hop-on, hop-off.” It was the perfect way to explore and to economize. Overall, the cost of taxi fare to get to all the places we wanted to would have been equal to if not more than the cost of our ticket for the two-day tour. I highly suggest doing one of these tours, and make sure that it’s one you have the freedom to get on and off of. While in SoHo, we commenced with shopping and ended with lunch from a corner market called the “Gourmet Garage."

One thing that my mother and I appreciated while in New York was the vast amount of markets. It made it possible to eat healthier even while on the go. After eating, we even stumbled across a knit shop which my mother revealed she had seen online before.

After my mother and I were done perusing through SoHo, we hopped back on the bus at its next bus stop as it was making its way down to Brooklyn. This was one of my favorite sites of the day. We were let off just around the corner from the Brooklyn Bridge and walked it in its entirety.

Where the bridge let us off, we could easily walk to DUMBO, another sight on my list. DUMBO is a quaint neighborhood near the Brooklyn Bridge, with beautiful views across the East River. It was definitely much quieter than Manhattan, had calm, clean streets and cute brownstones at every corner. It was an adjustment from emerging out of Uptown New York.

After walking around, my mother and I chose to venture a bit further and found a park in what seemed to be a more residential area. The park was full of kids, from tiny toddlers to middle school age, kicking around a soccer ball, skateboarding, and hanging out and talking. My mom and I sat, and watched peacefully, letting our feet rest for a moment.

When we finally decided to make our way back to Manhattan, we ran into some problems. Primarily the issue came about due to the fact that we were not aware that the last bus left Manhattan to head to Brooklyn at six o’clock. We had just missed the last bus, and didn’t find that out until fifteen minutes of waiting at the stop we were supposed to be picked up at led to us calling the company. My mother and I had to hail a taxi and make it all the way back to the hotel (the taxi fare was NOT pretty). Regardless of this set back, we still made the best of it. I had the opportunity to drive through a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, which made me feel like I was literally in a different world, as well as the not so pleasant parts of Brooklyn, giving me a complete tour of all of Brooklyn, not just the pretty parts.

Even with a few setbacks, we still had positive learning experiences. Day three proved to be eventful and long, and my mother and I made it to bed, perfectly exhausted,
Kaylah