Day 4 - Museum of Modern Arts (Selima)

Todays Plan was to visit the Museum of Modern Arts. We had to get up earlier than usual and take the metro. 

When we got there, we handed in our jackets and bags and waited for Ms. Krehl to get our tickets. While we were doing that, Veronique and I tried to get prepair for our short presentation. (Everyone had to do a presentation) We wanted to find a quiet spot in the sculptur garden to present it.  We had some struggel finding it and we even lost some of our students on our search. It took us a couple of minutes to find them. Veronique and I presented our presentation. (we weren't that good). After that we spent some more time walking around the museum until we had to leave. We got free time to grab some lunch or to go on a short shopping trip. Tizita, Veronique, Tania, Wibke, Hanna and I went to "Burger Heaven" and had delicious burgers there. We also did some shopping.
Back in the hostel we relaxed a bit, before we headed off to the Brooklyn Bridge.
We had a stunning view over the city and took many pictures including some with the whole group. After that one group went back to the hostel with Ms. Krehl because they were tired, the other half crossed the bridge with Mr. Bühring. I was in Mr. Bühring's group. It was nice to see the skyscrapers covered in lights for the last time. We went back to our hostel, exhausted but it was definitely worth to stay awake.

That was our 4th day in New York.

Day 3 - Ground Zero (Hanna)

Short Video of Hanna at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.

                                                           
                                                                   Click to watch the video

The day began like every other befor.
But I was very exited to this day because it was my birthday! After a little breakfast we got some hours to discover the City by ourselfs in litzle groups.
We went with the Subway to Soho. At the beginning we had sone problems with the ticket machine but in the end every one got a ticket. We saw nuch of the New York daily life because it was the rush hour. The Subway was full and on the streets every one was on the way to work or shopping. Later back at the hostel wa hadn't much time to have a break or something because the plan was to go to the Ground Zero. From wide away we already saw the new World Trade Center. It was so big and huge. But when we got near to the Ground Zero Memorial the mood of the whole group turned very seriously because of the reason that this Place is such a sad one. When I saw the many roses on the graved names from the victims from 9/11 I felt very sad. First I thought it hasn't a real meaning but the rose shows that this person would have had his birthday at this day. I was shocked because I can celebrate my birthday with cacke and get presents and come together with my family and friends but they can't. They never get this chance again. That was a moment of sadness and also when I don't have a personal conection with this place because it happend when I was to young to recordnise it it very toched me. The day went on and I got later in the afternoon so we slowly started our way to the Empire State Building. I was so excited to have such a nice view over the whole city. And I mean in the end it was so fantastic and better than I've ever imagined. To stand there and look down to the city was such an unforgatteble moment in my life. We were there at time of sunset and the sky was so beautiful cllored in pink, orange and red. We were there until the sky turned black and the night began. All lights of the city shindes so bright and beautiful and there was no dark place. At the end the group had a surprise for me. The have sung for me a german birthday song also of it wasn't allowed to sing and I got a I love NY - T-shirt were all names from all school mates who came to the US. This day was so wonderful and filled up with exciting moments I'll never forget but as well I felt very tired. So now to walk back to the hostel even if it only took 20 minutes I and my friends took a taxi. We felt a little bit like in Sex and the City to stand at the street and surching for one but it was funny! All in all the day began fantastic and ended fantastic, what is needed more?

Day 2 - Bus Tour > Statue of Liberty > Ellis Island > Times Square (Till)

It was a busy day here in New York: Bus Tour > Statue of Liberty > Ellis Island > Times Square

After a short night we all got up for our first American breakfast: The classic peanutbutter & jelly sandwich. 
Now we were ready to head straight to Grand Central Station, which is relatively popular and known through many different hollywood films. There we took our first 10 group pictures. From there we took the bus to Battery Park.
On the way we already saw a lot of New York, from the Empire State Bulding to the bull of Wall Street. We got a first impression of all the different districts of Manhattan, such as SoHo or the Financial District. Most of us used half of their cameras memory space photographing all the things we saw only during this tour. Approximately one and half hours later we finally arrived at Battery Park. The view over Hudson River was fantastic, we could even see the Statue of Liberty from there.
As we all were hungry we had some free time. I went with Isi, Niklas, Hanna and Yandamé to TGI Friday's and let me tell you, the chicken there was literally the best I have ever eaten.
Next on our To-Do-List was a trip to Liberty Island. On the ferry we had an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty. As we didn't have much time there everyone got rid of their audio guide as soon as possible to take pictures. We also took 20 more group pictures.
After a quick walk around the island we got back on the ferry to Ellis Island and the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The museum is special for us from Hamburg as we have an emigration museum there. You can see how the people emigrated from Germany there. The museum on Ellis Island is dealing with the immigration to the US. To see what procedures the people had to go through in former times, I had to do a test. Click here to watch As you can see in the video, people, who wanted to immigrate, had to prove that they were sane. Luckily I managed to prove that I am healthy, so the officer let us go back on the ferry.

After a long day full of new impressions and experiences, we all were exhausted. But the day was not over, though. The next trip brought us to Times Square, which is an absolutely insane place at night. There is so much light that you can easily forget that it is night. After a short walk back to our hostel we finally arrived at our destination... The bed

Tag 1 - New York calling... (Isabel & Niklas)

... but Amsterdam won't let us fly.                      

Angesagt war, dass wir uns um 12:00 Uhr am Hamburger Flughafen treffen sollen, damit wir das Check-In schnell über die Bühne bringen können. Jedoch haben die KLM-Self-Check-Ins nicht so gut funktioniert, wie wir dachten. Nach 2 Stunden haben wir auch dieses erste Problem überstanden. 

Nun ging es Richtung Sicherheitskontrolle, was zum Glück relativ schnell ging. Der brandneue BMW i8 im Abflugbereich war eine große Attraktion für alle. Auch das eine oder andere “Selfie” wurde natürlich geschossen. Nun hatten wir noch eine halbe Stunde Zeit, um uns in Ruhe umzusehen und ein paar letzte Besorgungen in den Duty-Free Shops zu machen. Um 14:15 Uhr trafen wir uns an unserem Gate, um den ersten Flug pünktlich nehmen zu können. Bedauerlicherweise hatte unser Flieger nach Amsterdam 30 Minuten Verspätung. 

Nach einem kurzen Flug landeten wir sicher in Amsterdam. Die erste Gruppe aus dem vorderen Abteil des Flugzeugs war bereits aus dem Bus am Gate gestiegen, als wir bemerkten, dass die Zeit zum Umsteigen in den nächsten Flieger Richtung New York sehr knapp war. Somit lief ein Teil der Gruppe schon zum nächsten Abfluggate und ließ ihre Pässe in Amsterdam prüfen. Während unserer kleinen Sprinteinlage Floß der Schweiß in Strömen. Zum Glück war die andere Gruppe schnell genug, um uns einzuholen, so dass alle noch grade rechtzeitig, wenn auch völlig durchgeschwitzt, am Gate ankamen.

Angekommen am Gate, hieß es dann jedoch zur allgemeinen Verwunderung erst eimal warten, da es, wie wir aus den unverständlichen Ansagen am Gate entnehmen konnten, zu einem technischen Problem des Fliegers gekommen war.

Auch nach weiteren 30 Minuten ging es nicht weiter, da das Problem nicht behoben werden konnte. Mittlerweile war zumindest der Schweiß wieder getrocknet.

"In about 10 to maybe 15 minutes we should probably, definitely know, if you can fly with this plane or.... something else."

Dann kam die Ansage, dass wir um 19:30 Uhr einen neuen Flieger bekommen würden. Wie bei Flugausfällen üblich, bekamen wir einen Verzehrgutschein über 10€ von unserer Airline, welchen wir auch gleich in den umliegenden Bistros und Shops auf den Kopf gehauen haben. 

Um 20:00 Uhr saßen wir dann endlich im richtigen Flieger Richtung New York. Die Freude war, trotz der großen Verspätung, immer noch sehr groß. Gestartet sind wir dann um 20:45 Uhr. 

Der Flug war relativ Ereignislos, da wir auf Grund der Verspätung in der Nacht fliegen mussten und gut schlafen konnten. Sicher in New York gelandet war die Stimmung dann auch wieder gut und die Gruppe eilte müde, aber dennoch aufgeregt, zur Einreisekontrolle. Dort waren wir dann auch nach nur zwei Stunden Wartezeit wieder raus und konnten unsere sehnsüchtig wartenden Koffer in Empfang nehmen. Puh!

Schnell waren zwei Vans organisiert, welche uns durch das Nachtleben von New York zum Hostel brachten. Völlig übermüdet kamen wir gegen 2:30 Uhr nach etwa 20,5 Stunden Reisezeit am Ziel unseres ersten Tages an... dem Bett.

Gute Nacht und bis morgen,

Eure Amis auf Zeit 

Warten in Amsterdam