It’s been a year and a half since I came to United States for my Masters. During the spring semester, there is a week long break from classes called Spring Break. Yes, the “Woohoo” spring break from the sitcom Friends.
Chandler doing the Woohoo from a Friends episode
I have only been on this one other trip with friends to Goa, during college which was a lot of fun. So the prospect of another trip was really exciting. I had a long break planned for the entire week, starting from the friends’ trip to New Orleans, visiting my family in Washington D.C. and finally visiting New York with a friend.
There were six of us who went to New Orleans – Pawas, Arush, Nikhil, Srishti, Rishabh and me. We left on March 3rd, 2017. According to Google Maps, it is supposed to be a 10 hour drive but we went stopping along the way and it took us around 13-14 hours. We stopped in Panama City during the evening and spent a couple of hours there in the beach, getting photos clicked and having dinner.
At Panama City beach
The beach was really amazing with white sand and the clear water with different shades of blue and green. The best part for me was that it wasn’t crowded at all. We saw the sunset at the beach, enjoyed around the boardwalk and went to a German brewery. There was live music there which was a lot of fun. These new events and the ability to experience them is something I really like about this country.
At the brewery
We had dinner at a Mexican place and left for New Orleans after that. The drive was really nice with a beautiful night full of stars and discussions about constellations. We reached around 2 am in the night and rested for an exciting weekend to come.
Next morning, we went to Jackson Square. There was a beautiful cathedral in the middle of the square. Outside the cathedral was a huge open space where different things were happening. There was live music, magic shows, tarot reading and display of paintings all around by local artists.
Jackson Square
The cathedral in Jackson Square
A short walk ahead from this place was the Mississippi River. We sat there for sometime enjoying the landscape. This area, also known as French Quarter is famous for public drinking. You can just take a stroll in the street with alcoholic beverages in plastic cups or bottles. New Orleans comes up in the top 5 best food cities in US but not for a vegetarian. I had to do with a bowl of mashed potatoes for lunch while there was alligator sauce, salmon and chicken on the table. It’s difficult being a vegetarian at times. Our next stop was the famous Bourbon Street. Like the name suggests, it’s an entire street filled with bars and clubs. The street falls inside the French Quarter and you can take a drink and just stroll through the street. It’s a really exciting street, filled with clubs, bars, souvenir and voodoo shops. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun roaming around, dancing, shouting and screaming leading to sore throats the next day. For vegetarians like me, my dinner was a slice of not so good cheese pizza. I’m not complaining, just stating the facts.
Bourbon Street
Sunday morning involved a trip to the Lafayette cemetery where we saw a space reserved for Hugh Grant. New Orleans is famous for cemeteries and I was really excited to see one, after watching countless fights and resurrections in the TV show “The Originals”.
Snapshot from the cemetery
Space reserved for the actor
We got our lunch from the Red Dog Diner, where the ambience and food were good and then proceeded to the Bayou tour, which is famous in New Orleans (https://www.groupon.com/deals/cajun-critters-swamp-tours-1). Bayou is like a swampland with flora and fauna. The tour involved exploring the bayou with a boat and guide.
The Bayou
We saw a couple of different birds – a few of them really colourful. We got to see alligators and even baby alligators. Fun Fact: Alligators like marshmallows. Our guide would throw marshmallows in the river and the alligator would come quickly to eat it up.
Baby alligator
The boat ride itself was quite enjoyable as it wasn’t too sunny. We went to an evening market in the French Quarter, which was sort of like a farmers market, after the tour and bought ourselves some souvenirs. It was interesting to explore the market since I hadn’t been to many of these in US.
Farmers Market
Our next stop was one of the oldest coffee shops in New Orleans – Café du Monde. It’s famous for beignets which are similar to croissants with a lot of powdered sugar on the top. They were quite tasty and the coffee was good too. I’d skip the hot chocolate there, though.
At Café du Monde
We went to the night market after that, which was also in the French Quarter. We took the streetcar to go there and it was fun to experience the different modes of transportation that aren’t there in Delhi, India. There were different types of paintings and jewelry in the market.
Still from the night market
New Orleans is an amazing place to explore art. Eventually, we ended up at Bourbon Street again – enjoying, dancing, singing, roaming the streets and soaking in the beauty that New Orleans is, on our last night here. Next morning, we packed up and left for Gainesville, making stops along the way for food.
The trip to New Orleans was a great start to my break, which was going to get even better. I flew to Washington D.C. to meet my relatives. It was great to get to eat home-cooked food, play board games with my cute cousins and gossip with my aunt. I was leaving for New York the next morning, where I was meeting a friend who was going to show me around. The first place we went to was a ferry to show us the Statue of Liberty. It didn’t take us on the exact island but we went around the monument. Our next stop was the Brooklyn Bridge and it was evening by the time we reached there. I have been told that the city looks much better in daylight from the bridge, but I was mesmerized by the lights, the tall buildings and river. The evening is also a good time to go to the bridge, from my experience.
At the Brooklyn bridge
Well, no New York trip is complete without a visit to the Times Square and it was just amazing. I have not been to a similar place like it, in my life. Evenings are definitely the best time to go there, with the screens blazing with advertisements, people roaming around and sitting on the stairs at Times Square – it felt like I was in a movie.
Times Square
The last place before heading to the Airbnb was Empire State Building. Even though I had never been here before, it holds a special place in my heart. Back in 2012, when I had started watching sitcoms, Gossip Girl was one of them and this place was shown and referenced innumerable times as a pillar of love. The view was breathtaking. It’s hard to describe something that beautiful in words, so here’s a picture of the sight before my eyes.
The view from Empire State Building
The next day, we went to Central Park and roamed around. A couple of scenes from the film Kal Ho Naa Ho were shot here, inside the park. The park in itself is quite big and pretty with lakes, bridges and an amazing view of the city. That’s been an amazing thing about this place – everywhere I go, the view is just incredible.
Inside Central Park
I have heard so much about the skyline of the city but words do no justice to it. The first time I saw it, I just paused for a second and continued looking, taking it all in. We ended up again at Times Square, walking from Central Park, to buy some souvenirs and chocolates and roam around some more. I also got a photo clicked with Mickey Mouse, Elmo, Pikachu, Minion and Olaf.
The best thing ever
The evening was spent chitchatting and catching up with my friend. I left for D.C. the next day, where more home-cooked food, a holi party and board games awaited me. The most memorable ten day spring break came to an end when I landed back in Gainesville on Monday evening, March 13th 2017.
Note: Most of us didn’t have any other ID proof except our passport. Just wanted to mention to be careful and take extreme care of it. A friend of mine lost his passport during the trip to New Orleans and it lead to a lot of problems. I’d advise to get a state ID made instead of taking your passports.
Special thank you to Rishabh, Arush, Nikhil, Pawas, Srishti, Gandharv and my relatives in D.C. for making this trip fabulous.
Image Source – https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XgchoB5AHrQ/sddefault.jpg
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