Another US trip report - but this one's about the home of disco balls and hand transplants

[NSun]

From there, I caught the subway up to Columbia university with the intention of walking through the northern part of Central Park. I saw the restaurant that was used in Seinfeld (at least for the exterior shots - the interiors were filmed elsewhere).



I just walked and walked.

 

[NSun]

Northern parts of Central Park.









Then back on the subway, down to around 30th st.



I found a new travel hack in New York. That some apartments have free wifi downstairs for visitors and I took advantage - was good enough to watch the '440 Coffee Club' on Instagram. I had a late lunch at a place called Pio Pio that was Peruvian focused.



We both had salad and the lunch special of quarter chicken.

 

[NSun]

After the Peruvian lunch, I went to the far south of Manhattan to Brooklyn Bridge.

 

[NSun]

More of the southern part of Manhattan.









The closest I could get to the Statue of Liberty short of going there, given the lookout was closed.

 

[NSun]

Then I made the journey back to New Jersey stopping for ice cream at Penn Station. I went to a chain called Anita's that is in Australia but is from Israel originally. I had vanilla, raspberry and banana.













Finally got 'home' at 7pm. It took over 2 days, but the cats were beginning to grow on me.

 

[NSun]

The next day marked time to say goodbye to New York and head back to Texas for the flight home. To save money, I took the NJ transit (bus) to Newark. Took 40 minutes for 8km but I got to see a lot more neighbourhoods.







Newark was a lot more modern than I was expecting. Or perhaps it was just the Admirals Club. I had low expectations, but it seems it had a renovation done recently and had some decent food options. It also had a 'Coke fountain' - the same one I saw in Atlanta, so I could indulge in Diet Cherry Vanille Coke once more.

 

[NSun]

Was on N922NN, a 12 year old 737. Better a 12-year old 737 than a 24-year old 737 like in Australia, eh?

Bye, Bye New York and New Jersey.



Crossing over Allentown, PA about 10 minutes in.



Somewhere over My Old Kentucky Home (near Lexington).



Osceola Tennessee, on the northern outskirts of Memphis.



Arkansas



We approached Dallas from the south, did an 'upside-down U turn' over Providence Town and landed at DFW from the north. As we landed, it looked like storms were brewing.



And made it.

 

[NSun]

The plan now was to go to Fort Worth and have a look around. From DFW, there are two trains, the DART light rail that goes down torn but then the Trinity Metro that goes to Fort Worth. The latter is light years ahead of the former.

Landed at Terminal E so had to take the Sky Rail to Terminal B to get out. Saw VH-ZNL in the distance, the same one that took my over.



See what I mean about it being modern. You could almost be on one of those intra-city trains in Italy.














And here is it, Forth Worth. It is the 11th largest city in the US, ironically ahead of Austin, San Francisco (just the city, not the whole Bay Area), San Jose, Charlotte, Boston and Washington DC. It does trail Dallas proper and San Antonio, but the combined DFW metropolitan area is the 4th largest behind New York, LA and Chicago...apparently set to overtake Chicago in the coming years.



Within 2 minutes of getting off, I found myself on a bus. You see, I wanted to visit the Stockyards and had Googled how to get there from the station, but the bus only went every half hour, I thought I missed it and was too far to walk. But a bus was there and I jumped on it, taking 10 minutes to get to the Stockyards

 

[NSun]

The district used to be a live cattle auctioning 'outlet'. Now its just a tourist attraction to show off the 'cowboy' image of Texas. I spent an hour or so there before I had to walk to the closest station (I grossly overestimated the time needed to walk there though). I'd love to come back for a longer visit.

 

[NSun]

Continued.