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New York
The city that never sleeps was my first touch with America. I have to admit it was the best touch I have ever dreamed of. New York has probably the highest density of buildings or places you probably know or have probably seen in movies. Everybody who likes series like Friends or How I met your mother will recognize colorful buildings or typical fire escape stairs. Almost everybody has seen pictures from Times Square during the New Year's Eve or just heard about Broadway. Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn bridge, Empire State Building are emblems which define not only American history, but one can agree, also the western culture.
New York plays an important role in major historical events that are not the brightest moments in history. The whole world was carefully watching images from 9/11 bombing or closest moments after the murder of John Lennon. Therefore, Ground Zero and Memorial Mosaic in Central Park are remarkable places that remind us of our weakness and immortality.
New York is a huge melting pot of important people, events and places. It's one of the most worth seeing places on earth.
Brooklyn
Some people selling pot on the street. Bulletproof glass between you and the guy who servers you chicken in KFC. Group of Afro-Americans playing hip hop music on the corner of the street. It was for the first time during my stay in US, and definitely not for the last time, when I felt like I was literally “living in the movie” or maybe playing some kind of an interactive computer game.
I was amazed by all those neighborhoods just because I have never experienced such a thing. Imagine you're walking on the street in New York meeting ordinary people. Suddenly you meet a guy who wears some kind of an outfit and an interesting hat you have probably never seen before. In a blink of an eye you are in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood. All signs are in Hebrew, people are dressed in black and white outfits, groups of families are heading to the church. Another blink of an eye and you are in the middle of Chinese neighborhood. People are totally different and Hebrew is replaced by Chinese. There are several places and districts like that in Brooklyn creating an amazing mosaic of different cultures all living together at one place but still somehow isolated in their own microworlds.
Manhattan
I think the word “amazing” was born in Manhattan. It's a place where your neck hearts a lot just because you're trying to reach the top of skyscrapers with your eyes. Yes, people are small and you can literally feel it here. I was really amazed by skyscrapers and by their insane height but still, they are just really tall bricks covered by glass. What I really enjoyed though, was a couple of old skyscrapers in a downtown of Manhattan.
One of the most important places you have to visit in the downtown is a place where the World Trade Center used to be. The place is called Ground Zero because several buildings collapsed there during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I'm sure everybody knows that sad story. I was there at the end of the summer 2010. I have seen a construction yard of a new building which is going to have more than 100 floors. Right now (summer 2011) there are already 57 floors built.
Another sight, which is almost mandatory to see, is a Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately one has to wait several hours in a super long line for a ferry. On the other hand there is a free ferry that can take you to the Staten Island so you can see the statue from the deck or a nice monument on the island itself.
I was born in a city. Thus an incredible architecture, beautiful statues, tons of people on the streets or traffic jams is something what I'm really used to. Still there are moments when somebody like me needs a piece of nature, some kind of a green peaceful place where one can stop for a while. New York has this kind of a place and it's called the Central Park. Central Park is a quite large area in the middle of Manhattan. It's full of different sport fields, green areas, musicians or people showing their talent, also there is a lake right in the middle. Central Park is also a place where I made my American dream came true. I was sitting in the middle of the most American city, reading New York Times and drinking coffee Americano.
If you want to touch the sky or just see the whole city from above, Rockefeller center is a great place to do it. You can take a lift to the top floor. It's not just an ordinary lift though. Rockefeller center has more than 70 floors but it takes less than 20 seconds from the bottom one to the top one. I'm always thinking about the lift back home. Our building has 12 floors and it takes almost a minute. When you are on the top each skyscraper is clearly visible. View is incredible and breathtaking. Empire State Building is the most noticeable building right in the middle of the whole view.
If you are a commercial freak or you just like colorful and picturesque billboards Times Square will be your Mekka. Broadway goes across it. Manhattan is famous for its system of streets, which looks like a perfect grid. Broadway is probably the only street that is not orthogonal but goes somehow diagonally.
Last but not least, Brooklyn Bridge is a famous connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn. It takes a while to cross it but it's definitely worth it. I'm quite a patriot. Therefor, I was really proud of a Czech company that developed a computer game called Mafia II. Billboards were all over the city.