Visiting NYC soon!

[schneefink]

I have relatives in New York and New Jersey (my grandfather's cousins, iirc, but we're still in frequent contact.) They visited us in Vienna several years ago and ever since then have repeatedly invited LB and me to visit them. There never seemed to be a good opportunity, unfortunately.

Until now! I'm going to visit them soon :D
I've never been to North America before, I'm excited. I have barely any plans yet, now I know what I'll do in the next few weeks. I'd like to go relatively soon, before I get a job/job search intensifies; we signed up for a family relay at the Vienna City Marathon on April 10th, but possibly immediately afterwards.
I'll definitely spend several days in NYC, visit New Jersey, possibly Boston, and other than that I don't know. One of my great-aunts has a granddaughter she'd like me to meet, but she's studying in Vancouver so that might be tricky. I'll have to check how expensive intercontinental flights are; my parents are paying for my flight to NA as a graduation gift so I can afford more travel than I could otherwise. My parents also told me a lot about the gorgeous national parks, maybe I could include at least one. I'd love to go to at least one hockey game, but the regular season will have already ended so maybe an Islanders playoff game? (And of course I'll try the Hamilton lottery but odds aren't good.)

I would also love to meet up with people I know in the area :) Until teleportation is invented it's an unfortunately rare opportunity. Let me know if you're interested!

Comments

[ambyr]

Welcome to the US! If you make it down to DC, I'd be happy to show you around. (There's a tiny chance I'll be in NYC the first weekend in April, but it doesn't look too likely at present.)

While naye's description of buses in the US made me laugh ruefully a bit, I do want to say that in my experience, the express buses serving the Boston-New York-Philadelphia-DC routes are largely occupied by 20- and 30-something professionals who spend the trip urgently poking at spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations on their laptops in preparation for their upcoming business meeting or academic presentation. MegaBus and BoltBus are the main companies serving that demographic. (If you're taking buses from small town to small town, though, yes, the socioeconomic demographic of people who do that tends toward poor, and also the service schedules tend to be limited/inconvenient.)

The train is definitely more comfortable than the bus, but be aware that the US's standard for timeliness of trains is . . . low. You're generally okay as long as you stick to the Northeast Corridor (Boston-DC, as noted above), but once you leave that stretch of track freight trains take priority over passenger trains, which means you may end up spending quite a while sitting on the side of the tracks while freight trains trundle by.

I love the National Parks of the East Coast--Shenandoah is one of my favorite places in the world, the Great Smokey Mountains are pretty beautiful themselves, and Mammoth Caves are breathtaking--but they are very difficult to access without a car, as noted above. You can find guided group hikes that leave from the city in the morning, drive you out a couple hours in a bus to a park, and then drive you back at night--they can be expensive, but possibly worth it as a tourist if you want nature and don't have access to a vehicle. If you want corporately organized ones, check out outdoor equipment stores like REI; otherwise, search Meetup.com for the local area.

[schneefink]

Huh, NYC and DC are a lot closer than I thought! Might be nice to visit :) Visiting the actual White House would be odd, I've seen it on TV and movie screens so often. If I do I'd love to meet up :D

[ambyr]

If actually touring inside the White House is something you want to do, you should contact your embassy ASAP about arranging that; for U.S. citizens, tours must be scheduled at least three weeks in advance, and I don't think it's likely to be shorter for foreign nationals (although I don't actually know, heh, maybe it is!).

If you just want to gaze at the White House from outside the fence, you can do that any time. And there's generally one day each April when the gardens are open to the general public, although the 2016 garden tour hasn't been announced yet.

The big touristy thing in DC at this time of year is the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which encompasses various concerts, movies, and street festivals over a several week period.

[schneefink]

I was thinking more of the outside (there's a park and a monument, I think?), unless the inside is a must-see?

The festival looks pretty, thanks for the info!

[ambyr]

Depends on your interests, I guess! It might be a must-see if you were a fan of The West Wing or similar :-).

There is a park with various statues outside, yeah. Some of them are remarkably homoerotic.

[schneefink]

Hee! I might try to find the "on your left!" scenery from CA:WS, though it will look less pretty without Cap or Sam ;)

[ambyr]

Heh! That's down on the Mall, by the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials.