The famous statue of liberty

... But before we flew only a few days left until the end of our world trip back to Germany, we made a stopover in the city that never sleeps, in New York. We left La Paz and thus South America, after almost 4 months and came after two changes late in New York on. Welcome back to the western world! The contrast with Bolivia could not have been greater: insanely tall skyscrapers, Urban canyons, in which no sunbeam extends, countless shops and restaurants, Men over men ...
By taxi we drove from the airport to Seppels buddy Chris, who lives with his girlfriend Gloria on Roosevelt Iceland. Roosevelt Iceland is a narrow island in the East River between Manhattan and Queens neighborhoods. There used to be criminal- and hospitals, Today, modern residential building. When Gloria and Chris we spent 3 nights on an air mattress in the living room.
The first morning we were woken up by bright sunshine and we enjoyed breakfast on the roof terrace a great view of Manhattan. Then we took the cable car over to Manhattan, this is the quickest way from Roosevelt Iceland to the mainland. We strolled through the streets and admired the insanely high skyscrapers, that are close together. Passing the Central Park we strolled back to the Empire State Building and again. New York is probably one of the best places to observe people. There is nothing or. anyone which does not exist. So many different nations, Cultures, Skin color, Styles ... it is very interesting just to stand there and people, at one run over, observed. Such as a large bald man dressed as a woman or a man with a cardboard sign standing on the, that he would like to be able to buy marijuana can make money. Crazy World!

The next day we spent with much sightseeing. We took the free ferry from the southern tip of Manhattan to Staten Iceland and had thereby a great view of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. We walked past the newly built One World Trade Center, where still a big construction site is seen. We walked across the famous Broadway, by Wall Street and along Fifth Avenue. We marveled at the Times Square, the especially in the evening with its myriad colorful illuminated advertising- and billboards impressed. For this purpose, a business classified to the other, partially open until late at night. Man over man here throng. You can have your photo taken with all the cartoon characters and of course a living Statue of Liberty. The Brooklyn Bridge we paid a visit. And with the subway we went to Chinatown. Here we saw very many houses with the typical fire escapes on the outside of the house walls. After China Town we went to neighboring Little Italy neighborhood with its countless Italian restaurants. Das Flatiron Building (to German "Iron Building") we also found very impressive. Because of its unusual narrow shape, it is one of the landmarks of New York City.

After three nights at Chris we changed our host and moved to New Jersey to Claire, a former colleague of Seppel. New Jersey is on the other side of the Hudson River and from here you have a really great view of the entire skyline. After we were allowed to make ourselves comfortable in Claire's Bed and Breakfast, the three of us spent the evening in a nice restaurant around the corner. The house of Claire reminded us somehow of the Bill Cosby Show. And even though we were only about 15 minutes away by train from Manhattan, New Jersey seemed like another world. It was quiet here, there were no skyscrapers, it seemed as if we were somewhere else, far away from the hustle.

The next two days we had no luck with the weather, because over New York attracted thick rain clouds on. The bad weather we could use but also very good for shopping, e.g. for new shoes, because my old ones were after 16 months of traveling really just what the trash. A few points of interest also stood still on our plan and despite the rain we wanted this, of course, not to be missed. Such as the High Line Park, a long over 2km park on an old elevated railway. In the former tracks for freight today grow flowers, Trees and grasses. And so it is also in the midst of the street canyons a green oasis. In the pouring rain we walked even through Central Park and went in search of the legendary clubs “Studio 54”, is a theater today.

On our penultimate day we arranged to meet with Linda, a friend of Seppel, who also lives in New Jersey. In the huge railway station “Grand Central Station” we sampled along the famous New York Cheesecake. Very tasty, but also extremely rich in content, so that afterwards was pretty bad to me. On the evening was but then again place in the stomach and we made a side trip to Korea Town here to typical Korean food. After that we had a lot of fun at karaoke before our very last day of the trip around the world before the door was. Until departure in the evening we had but a little time and again since the sun was shining, we wanted to take advantage of the good weather to the views of all of New York from Rockefeller Center to enjoy. Unfortunately we were not the only two with this idea and it was a very long queue in front of the building. We had already hired us and to cash it went quite quickly, but the next cards were only there for the afternoon, which was too late for us. So that we have to cancel a visit for the next New York.
Claire was so nice and drove us across New York to JFK Airport. One last time we went on this trip on the plane and after 16 months we were on our way home…