New York New York!

New York New York!
As you may well know by now, John and I are headed to New York city this week! As we’ve never been we decided to stay for an additional week after our TBEX 10 conference is over to explore the city. Thanks to the amazing response from our contest, where Diana came out the lucky winner, we are now armed with a load of places to hit. Here is our rough itinerary for our trip.

On Friday we arrive and after (hopefully) navigating our way on the trains from Newark to Penn Station then to our Hostel, we will be getting ready for the kick-off party at the fancy looking Omni Berkshire Place. Glad I googled the place, now I think I won’t be wearing my blue jeans to the party as I might not be allowed past the doorman!
Saturday and Sunday should be fun getting to finally meet all of the travelers we’ve been interacting online with for the past year. There are multiple speakers and panels going on so I think we will have days pretty packed. At night there are more social gatherings planned. It would be fun to try to match people with their “user-name” and see who we get right.
After the conference is over we will be moving from our Hostel to a short-term apartment in SOHO, where we will stay with a couple of our good friends. Not only did it turn out cheaper to rent an apartment for a week (splitting it two-way) but the advantage is that it comes with a kitchen to save on eating out for every meal and the most exciting, a roof terrace! The roof-terrace was really the reason we booked the place as it reminded my friend Ashley and I of the roof from “FRIENDS” and images of sipping on wine while watching the city lights sounded too good to pass-off. Hopefully there won’t be an “ugly naked guy!”
John and I have made a basic plan of spending one day walking through China Town and Little Italy. Then over to the World Trade Center and checking out Wall Street. On another day we have booked tickets for the Broadway play, “Chicago.” We got the early show in hopes of missing out on the mid-day heat and so that we could go over to the Rockefeller center afterwards for dinner and to catch the sunset at the top floor. I am really looking forward to this day, but not to the idea of having to walk all day in heels…
I know we will spend at least a day exploring Greenwich Village and the SOHO neighborhoods. Already have gotten several suggestions from people and can’t wait to just stroll the city and people watch at the cafes. Another full day would be used to hit up MOMA and Central Park. Hopefully we will also have time to check out the Natural History Museum and the Library.
The hot-dog stand with the secret bar in the back is a spot that multiple people have suggested so I really would like to go check it out as well.
Another highlight from our trip, I hope is going to be leaving N.Y. from Penn Station. We are booked on an Amtrack train leaving Penn Station and riding all the way to Birmingham. Though we didn’t get the sleeper car…made the mistake of booking for everything on the same day and couldn’t make myself fork over another $150 for a bed..though I think 12.4hrs into the22hr trip I would pay anything for a bed…
Taking a cross-country train trip just touches your imagination so much more than having to fly back. There is still a sense of romance attached to train travel unlike air travel where they have destroyed any sense of joy years ago. I am hoping the train trip goes well, if so I might plan on more trips by train. It would also be interesting to compare to the overnight trip I took from Shanghai to Beijing on a sleeper car (another blog I need to write).
So wish us luck and hopefully we will have a lot of interesting things to write back about on our first time to N.Y.!!