I Finished My 10th Boards at Jain International residential School and there was a sense of happiness because my schooling got over but i was even more happy as i was about to go to USA.
So finally on April 2nd we were at the Kempegowda international airport at 11.59.We departed Bengaluru at 3 and reached Dubai at 7 .We boarded Airbus 380 which is supposed to be the biggest and the best plane in the world. It is a Double Decker flight and I was delighted to be in it. There were varieties of movies which were available on the flight.It was a 13 hour journey. We reached John F Kennedy international airport in New York . We waited for 6 hours in JFK . And we departed to Jacksonville at 9 and reached there at 12 . My uncle came to airport to pick us up. Finally we made it to the largest city(area wise)of the United States Of America.
First Couple of days we were just exploring the local stores, beaches, restaurants and the beautiful downtown of Jacksonville. I had the chance to visit my uncle's office. We watched couple of movies like Captain America and Race gurram and also went for Bowling.
We went to ST.Augustine ( the oldest city of USA) it was fabulous and we saw the whole city on train. I came to know about their customs, religious beliefs , there way of living etc. We went to Ripley's - believe it or not. It was a museum of unbelievable things. We had lunch in a Mexican restaurant .We went home and my uncles friends came to visit us.
On 12th April we went to Magic Kingdom. It is a theme park of Disney. It was just awesome. There were roadshows , electric parades,fireworks,laser shows,rides etc. This is located in Orlando(2 hrs from jax) and we had a wonderful time.
On April 19 we went to Epcot .Epcot is a theme park in Orlando and is a part of Disney world.It's a place where we can see culture and traditions of different countries.We saw Mexico,China,Canada and Norway. When we see these things we get a feeling that we are in that country. Televisions are fixed to the ceiling and through them we are shown their way of living, traditions and many other things of that country. We went to space ship earth, which is like a train ride in which they showed us our universe, galaxies in the opening act. We saw flower garden and butterfly garden which were very good. Then we went to soaring which is an open flight which took us all over to California, where we saw the Thames river. We felt that we were going in a hand glider and so were the others.We saw Grand Canyon. I was truly having the best days of my life.
On 22nd April we started our journey to Orlando. This time we went to the famous Universal Studios and the best park called the Sea World. Universal Studios was lively with all the Attractions, its famous Harry Potter World, Castles,Rides such as Transformers, Despicable Minion, Shrek etc. It also had the Human sized live characters of Disney which were interacting and were posing with the public.
Sea World was amazing. There were live shows of almost all the sea animals and we were amazed by how well they were trained and they were performing. The various shows included Sea lions, Dolphins, Birds, Crocodiles , snakes, tigers etc but Shamu the Whale was the special attraction.
We Then went to the Key-west Islands. Key West is the southernmost city in the contiguous United States and the westernmost island connected by highway in the Florida Keys, it is just 90 miles away from Cuba. The scenery was beautiful, thanks to the beautiful bridges. we went to the southern most point of USA and watched the sun set. It was a sight to behold.
We later went to NASA. The trip to NASA was truly informative and exciting. we could see the various spaceships in live. We had the privilege to see the rockets which carried the satellites of USA to space. We had interactive games, machines so that we learn more about the space and the universe.
Tour Of New York
First we went to Rockefeller center. It is a group of 19 buildings spread over 22 acres. The view at the night was amazing. I am told that the construction of these buildings started in 1930 and was completed in the year 1939. It gave employment to a lot of people during the Great Depression and hence Rockefeller is greatly respected.
We then proceeded to see the lively or lovely Times Square. The illuminated atmosphere at the Times Square cannot be put into words. It was just awesome. The Times Square is awake and rocking 24 hours a day and that's why it is called as the City that never sleeps. We saw the Times building. We sat and took photos on the stairs. The place was so crowded and colorful and we could see the people from all parts of the world. I am also told that Times Square is the most visited tourist place in the entire world and one of the most expensive place in the world.We still wanted to spend more time at Times Square, but alas the time was running out and we had to leave as the time was 9.30.P.M. We left the place with a heavy heart.
We then went to see Jersey gardens, which is at elevated place and from where we could see the beautiful illuminated Skyline of NYC. It looked beautiful and all the tall buildings were looking like toys from the Top. We returned to our room at around 10.45 P.M after a wonderful day at the Big Apple( that's the nick name for New York).
We started our next morning at 6.30 am.We first went to the Empire State Building . We went to the 87th floor and enjoyed our view from there. We should thank our guide as he booked our tickets the previous day. It was an amazing view from over the top of the building. We could see the most of the New York from the Empire State Building . At the moment I saw Empire State Building it reminded me of King kong movie. It was too cold as it was early in the morning and we enjoyed the early morning breeze.
Next we proceeded to the most famous Statue of Liberty.It was the most awaited part of the tour. Statue of Liberty was given as a gift from France as America supported them for gaining independence. It's other important significance is anyone could identify that they are entering the New York borders. So we were excited as we were going near that great monument. It is situated on liberty islands . We had to take a cruise for going near the monument. As we had little time we could not go to the island, but we saw the statue from a distance from the boat.We took a lot of pictures and were delighted to be at this great venue.
Our next attraction was Wall street, which is the financial hub of the world. We could see the New York Stock Exchange and other important buildings. We took the pictures of George Washington the first president of US.We saw the famous Bull statue,the significance of which dad explained. Dad took some pictures with the Bull and took some souvenirs for memory.
Our next attraction was intrepid museum which is basically about space and aircraft. We decided to skip the same as we had seen a better museum at Kennedy space center. We along with another Indian family had our lunch at an Italian restaurant. The pizza at the Italian restaurant was awesome.
Our next beautiful attraction was the Central Park, which is situated at the heart of Manhattan. It's a huge park and I am told it is spread over an area of 843 acre with beautiful lakes and as it was a weekend there was a huge sea of people who came to the park there was almost every kind of people from many countries of the world. Some were walking , jogging , skating, roller skating, boating. We took a lot of photos and had coffee.i am told that nearly 40 million people visit Central Park annually. We were surprised to see such a huge park at the center of the city,this old park was started In 1857 and is designated as national historic landmark.
Our next wonderful attraction was Madame Tussaud's. Madame Tussaud's is located near Times Square in New York. We were very happy that we are going to see the worlds famous celebrities made of wax . We saw Kingkong at the Empire State Building entirely made of wax, we saw the wax model of Spider-Man, superman and other super heroes. It has nearly 200 lifelike figures of the biggest stars and icons in sports ,entertainment and history from merlin manro to Gandhiji. We saw the wax figures of celebrities like Obama , MK Gandhi, Amithabh Bacchan, Sharukhan etc.It was a memorable evening and to save in our memories, we took lot of pictures .
On the way back we once again saw the Times square,Jefferson memorial and beautiful skyline of New York and had hash browns,cheese burgers and coke in MC Donald's.
We started our day at 8 am. We traveled for 2 and a half hours and reached Corning museum of Glass. This is the largest glass museum of the world. Initially we were not sure whether to go or not as it was a paid attraction, but we decided to go. We did a good thing as we saw a wonderful Exhibition of glass work collection of the whole world. It featured live glass making demonstrations, 35 centuries of glass artistry, make your own glass experience and an international glass market. You can find more information about this museum at www.cmog.org .We saw different varieties of glass paintings, chandeliers, artworks, you name it in glass and it had one. It was a great learning experience.
We had a quick lunch at the museum and continued our journey to see the famous Niagara. It was a 2.30 hrs drive and we reached Niagara at 4 p.m. We rushed to the Observatory to see the much awaited falls as the Observatory would close at 4.30 p.m . Our joy knew no bounds as we saw the breathtaking view of the mighty falls flowing with such a grace and might. The sight was awesome and we had literally scramble for space to click some pics as it was so crowded. We did manage to click beautiful snaps and still were enjoying the magnificent view, the people at the management started to ask us to leave the place as it was closing time :(
It was very cold outside and amma and Naimi had great difficulty in coping with the biting cold. The funny part was Mom has left her pullover in the bus, so I had to lend mine. Me and dad somehow managed. We then went to see the rapids and the fall from a different place. By the time cold was too much and we went to the restaurant, an Indian one and ate bhelpuri, samosa and Naimi ate idlis to her heart's content and we had hot chocolate and tea to keep us warm. We went to the souvenir shop and bought some key chains and went to see an Imax movie - which showed us the history of the falls, some crazy adventures in 40 minutes.
It was 8 p.m and we again went to the falls to see the night view of the falls. It was chilling out there - 6 degrees and it was not dark till 8.45 and lights were on at that time and we could see the beauty of the falls in the night and rushed to the bus to save us from the chilling weather.
The next morning we left the Hotel at 7 a.m. We had planned to see a in depth tour of Niagara which included some power generation station etc but decided to skip it in the last minute as we thought that it is a better idea to spend some more time at the falls and have breakfast, relax than taking that tour as we had to undertake a long journey after this to go to Boston. The time was 7.45 a.m. We got down from the bus and lo! It was biting cold outside. We went in search of some restaurant but none were open at that hour. At last, we could find Denny's, which I am told is a 24x7 restaurant. We rushed in to save us from cold and once we were in it was warm and pleasant. We decided to spend the next one hour in the restaurant and ordered our breakfast, what else, pizzas for me and Naimi, burger for amma and Omelette for Nanna.
We came out at 9 and the weather had become tolerable and we again went to see the Falls for the last time. We went to the falls and enjoyed it's beauty, took more pictures and bid goodbye to Niagara Falls and came back. The bus came at 10 a.m and we boarded our bus to start our journey to Boston.
We then went to Boston and visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard University. Both the universities were very big and it was all what the college students dream of.
We finally finished the New York Trip and came back to Jacksonville. We stayed for a few days in my uncles home and came back to Chitraduga.
I stayed in The USA for two whole months and it felt like it went by so fast. That is What travel makes you do. it refreshes your memory, wants you to have different experiences, makes people bond and i really wish i visit US again. What a Wonderful Trip it was. To many many more..........