# USA: Los Angeles – San Francisco – New York City – Boston – Washington DC



## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

* 8) FISHERMAN’S WHARF – TELEGRAPH HILL – LOMBARD ST. – COIT TOWER*




San Francisco is the opposite of Los Angeles. It is a way-smaller city, with its Downtown being very close (less than 10 blocks) to very peaceful zones such as the Telegraph Hill. It has a lot of piers in the coast who faces the Bay of San Francisco and a ferry system who connects the cities and towns of the bay. The most touristic one is the Pier 39 & Fisherman’s Wharf, with some great food, a little theme park, and great views of the Alcatraz Island. In this place I met one of the greatest shops ever, where you can buy original pictures autographed by movie stars, rockstars, famous sports players (especially Baseball), and some very cool weird stuff. All were a bit expensive, but also unique.

The first thing I did after sleeping in Fort Mason was going to Pier 39 at the afternoon. The next morning, I went to the Telegraph Hill, known for the Coit Tower, with spectacular views of the city and the bay. In order to get there, it is necessary to walk the hills (some take a cab to get there, but I highly recommend to walk and enjoy the surroundings). Just like in LA, the buildings of San Francisco share some essential details of its architectural styles with New York, like the old-brick buildings with its stairs to the streets and even the Art Deco (though there’s less than in LA), with more colorful designs. I would describe it as happy. The city gives a happy feeling everywhere and that feels really good. That makes me remember what it’s been said about how San Francisco is the most advanced city in the US. And this seems to be another key of the country: though their conservative face makes it a strong and organized culture, also with the disadvantages that this carries, the US also has a big sense of constant innovation and experimentation that create new ways of living in the society. In this particular subject, San Francisco is one of the most important cities of the country (and in my opinion in the global unconscious), known for being the cradle of the hippies, the gender equality, and the sexual freedom. In a very conservative country, the birth of all of these revolutions shows this amazing characteristic of the american society, somehow deep behind the progress of the american dream, and also showing this mix of ideologies among their people, which I find very interesting.

So after having launch in Telegraph Hill with a group of venezuelan girls (it was actually a surprise to see so many groups of young people traveling in the US, just like in Europe), I went to another famous place, the Lombard Street, on the opposite hill of the Telegraph Hill. The street is a red-brick snake between some cool gardens. A very interesting fact is that most of the streets of this neighborhood were actually very calm, but the Lombard Street was congested. A lot of people go there with their cars and get the experience of going down the street trough Lombard St.

Coming next: Chinatown and Downtown San Francisco. Meanwhile, these are the pictures:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

And the videos:


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## techniques1200s (Mar 11, 2005)

Nice pictures and videos! Looking forward to the rest.


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## El Cholo (Jul 19, 2008)

Cool videos...


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## raider12 (Jun 10, 2011)

SF is just unbelievable, I just never get tired of seeing it:cheers:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Glad you liked it. I believe you're gonna love the next one.


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## nedolessej197 (Oct 24, 2006)

should have swung by sacramento!


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

I've met an old couple from Sacramento in one of the flights. Does it count? :lol:


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## waccamatt (Mar 7, 2004)

Your photos and videos are wonderful; thanks for sharing. You're in for a treat when you get to NYC.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Thank you! New York pictures are gonna be awesome, I guarantee that.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

* 9) CHINATOWN & DOWNTOWN*




The Downtowns the american cities look all very similar, with International Style buildings and, most of the times, 1 or 2 towers with iconic designs. In San Francisco, these two are the 555 California Street (also known as Bank of America Tower) and the Transamerica Pyramid, a gorgeous brutalist pyramid. Just like New York, San Francisco is a very compact city. The skyscrapers of the Downtown are very close to low-residential neighborhoods, without any kind of transition between the heights of the buildings. Adding the hills all around the city to this mix, the views everywhere are amazing. The Downtown is in the lowest part of the city and it is surrounded by the neighborhoods of the hills, with direct views trough the avenues going up and down. Chinatown is one of these neighborhoods, plus one of the most known chinatowns in the world. Though its fame must have been acquired because its geographical place inside the city, it also has a unique charm because of the way they adapted the chinese culture and architecture to those of San Francisco and the West Coast. Far beyond its historical importance, I’m convinced that the fame it has on the new generations has its origins in the action movies, some of them very famous. My experience in the Downtown and Chinatown was very quick (just a few hours), but I found a very cool shop for collectors with very high-quality airplanes, World War 2 toys, and other very unique stuff for sale that I personally love.

Next one: the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito.

These are the images:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Videos:


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## marlonbasman (Apr 21, 2012)

very nice and clear photos.....


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^

Thank you. Golden Gate is coming soon this weekend.


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## Gustavo Costa (Jul 18, 2007)

Awesome pictures! I will be visiting SF very soon...


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^

Thank you! Feel free to ask any question or advices.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

* 10) Palace of Fine Arts – Golden Gate Bridge - Sausalito*




In my last day on San Francisco, I went by bike from Fort Mason to Sausalito. There’s a bike path, usually used by tourists, who connects both locations. Along the way, I stoped by the Palace of Fine Arts, a greco-roman palace (a very-used style in this kind of buildings) with a central pergola surrounded by lakes. In front of this place is Presidio, a mountainous area with a freeway who links the city to the bridge. The views from the bike path of the coast are pretty cool. Europe has many incredible cities, but this particular city really hooked my attention in a different way. I think the major key is: the aesthetic perfection is important, but it is just one of the elements who make an entire city. San Francisco has a large number of cultural and natural details who make the city unique.

So after going to Presidio, I finally got to the Golden Gate Bridge. As I remember with the Eiffel Tower and the Colosseum, I got the same feeling with this particular place. The legend surrounding this site in the collective imagination makes it look at it in a very different way. It’s like watching The Godfather. The movie is great, but there’s something more that only a classic film, built in our imagination trough all our lives can achieve. The Golden Gate Bridge has 2 big towers (it is actually quite surprising to see how tall they are when there in front of them), a lot of people from all the possible nationalities walking, high winds, foggy views to the Pacific Ocean, and one special detail: a phone with a direct-line to those who wants to jump from the bridge. It takes some time to cross it on foot (or even on bike), but going down the streets of Sausalito after all that effort really gives a lot of satisfaction. 

After that, it was getting dark. It was my last afternoon in the West Coast and I took the ferry back to San Francisco. It was a fast experience and I would recommend to stay there for 4 or 5 days. There’s really a lot to do and see, especially if you only use the bike, which I also recommend if you’re in a good shape. 

The next day would be awesome. It would be the moment I waited so long in my life. A dream I always had since I was a little kid: watching New York with my own eyes. 

But for now, these are the images:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

The videos:


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

A fab photo tour - love San Francisco.....


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## JS97 (May 4, 2014)

I prefer dense cities like san francisco! This series is really great cant wait for the next post!


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^

Thank you for the feedback! Just a fewdays now till the New York stuff.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

* 11) San Francisco: Overview*




San Francisco is one of the compact cities of the US. Most of the stuff can be seen in a relatively short range, compared to Los Angeles or New York, where the things to see are in places far away from each other (like Santa Monica and Hollywood or Brooklyn and the Bronx). My advice is to stay 3 to 5 days. If you’re in a good shape, the best choice is to walk and use the bike on the coast parts (from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate and Sausalito). Inside the city, because of the hills, the best option is to rent an electric bike. There’s also the classic option of taking a mix of buses, tramways, and cabs (or rent a car). The famous cablecar costs 6 bucks per trip and is mostly used by tourists. There’s only 2 lines and they go trough the neighborhoods like Downtown and Chinatown.

There’s a lot that I couldn’t see that a lot of people recommended me to go, like the Painted Ladies or the Castro District. It’s a multicultural city and one of the most interesting ones if you wanna see the sexual diversity in a more explosive way (somehow). In some of the neighborhoods of San Francisco were born some of the liberties and freedom we have today in our societies. It’s a colorful and happy city in a constant change. You can even feel that city’s charm in the “dangerous” neighborhoods. It has the best vegetarian restaurants I’ve been till today. It’s worth going, definitely.

In the next one, I’mg finally gonna show you the first part of New York, after almost 2 months of LA and San Francisco. Meanwhile, these are the videos of the San Francisco overview and some of the transport of the city.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates once again :cheers:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Thank you Christos! NYC is coming soon.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

* 12) SFO & NYC Airports*















My original plan consisted in going from coast to coast by train. I cancelled the idea after finding out that the costs were double the plane tickets, and that would also take 3 to 4 days to get from San Francisco to New York (I was getting used to the quick trips of european trains from the last year :lol: ), so I actually took advantage of this and went to know some more airports. I met the SFO International Airport at night, when it was empty. My flight was scheduled for the next morning, so I slept in a big comfortable couch. So I woke up after hearing the same audio every 10 minutes about the precautions against the terrorism and about the unaccompanied bags. I quickly got used to the safety issues in the country when I first landed in Miami a week ago cause they’re everywhere, from the airports to the train and bus stations in every city. That actually was kind of a contrast when I got to the New York Int. Airport: drunk security guards showing their beers while checking the passports on the lines and laughing (it was one of the images I remember the most about the whole trip). That and the “suspicious movements” audio on the back was like a scene from a movie. In my personal point of view, I realized that the terrorism problem wasn’t really as bad as told on the media, which was good (though I already knew that detail, considering I worked with some news channels in my country). So I saw the dawn in San Francisco, foggy as always. These are the videos of the incredible views of the city and the take-off from the airport:












After traveling on plane so many times in a short period of time, I was getting used to sleep in those seats with the sun light. Something that I realized it happens to me in my trips that doesn’t happen in my daily life is that my adaptability is markedly superior. What it would annoy me in my daily life when I go to work everyday is different from the feelings I have in my trips. Sleeping with the sunlight going directly into my face, with a lot of noise on the background, the sound of the turbines of the airplane, and the uncomfortable seats, actually feels really good. And I love that feeling. When I walked those days in New York, it was like looking myself on the mirror. The lack of the energy that these kind of trips give cannot be seen on the daily life. It is quite interesting how important is to travel and taking a look at our lives from a different point of view. It certainly can change us completely in a good way.
So after a few hours flying upon Chicago, Detroit, and Toronto, I finally got to New York. The airplane got into the clouds and suddenly Manhattan was there in front of me. The moment was just perfect. It was actually on that moment when I recorded what I consider one of my best videos: 










After flying upon Brooklyn, I landed on the famous and huge JFK Airport. I’ve seen thousands of pictures before in my life, but looking at the Empire State that far away and the Manhattan skyline from the airport was a dream come true. After getting off the plane, I went trough the hyper-classic american flags hall.






















I then took the train to the heart of Manhattan, with another cinematic scene I’m gonna tell you guys about on the next one. And as a different way of finishing it, a special detail that I first saw on the US airports: they got vending machines... of electronic devices. Quite bizarre :lol:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

* 13) Times Square – Central Park – Midtown NYC*




It took almost 1 hour to the subway to get from the airport to Manhattan. The NY subway network is literally a labyrinth. I got off at a little station close to the Penn Station. Suddenly, I was on the heart of New York, with its brown old buildings, International Style skyscrapers, a lot of people on the streets, chaotic traffic, and the gorgeous Empire State a few blocks away. I was a little confused by the name of the streets (most of the NYC streets are numbered), but some employees from the Penn Station told me how to get to my hotel in New Jersey. I noticed that the people were somehow angry, paranoid, or was just a bit violent when answering me (the 5 days I was in the city). I began to ask myself why would it be that way. San Francisco had very cool people everywhere. The same for Boston and Washington. So why the newyorkers were like that? Why it would suddenly change? I know that the city was in the top of the list of the most dangerous cities in the world. That may be one of the answers. Maybe also the WTC event more than a decade ago? I'm convinced that the specific place where we like determines the lifestyle of a particular person or a whole society. After traveling to so many places these last 2 years, I realized that there's a reason behind everything. Would the swedish people be the same if they lived in the Caribbean? Would the people of Venezuela be the same if they lived in the lands of Australia? The weather, the natural landscapes, the architecture and urbanism, the daily information that each society receives, among others defines a culture and a city (and a country). So though it was very hard to find an answer to my question, I definitely felt like I was looking at a city who is emerging from decades of some kind of abandonment. New York was the ideal of the world capital city when I grew up. Maybe I had very high expectations on the city. However, after accepting some of these things, I quickly started to find the good stuff of the city. With a mexican family I met in the trip to Boston we agreed that New York seems huge in the pictures but it actually looks smaller when looking at it in person, with its 2 main cores (where the famous skylines also are): the Midtown-Upper East Side (where the Chrysled Building and Central Park are) and the Lower Manhattan (place of the World Trade Center and Wall Street). Lima, Buenos Aires, or Milan looked bigger than NYC. It may be because of the high density of Manhattan instead of the european way of urbanism and the visual effect of the classic american sprawl 

My 2 keys when I was there were the Metrocard (freepass on the whole subway network for 5 days) and New York Pass (freepass for the museums and attractions of the city). Of all the options available, I highly recommend the NYPass. I could see with a relative small amount of money most of the attractions I wanted to, like the Top of the Rock of the GE Building, the huge museums (a whole experience on its own) and the Empire State Building Observation Deck. 

So my first day started in Midtown Manhattan. It's awesome to hear the sounds and noise of Times Square when getting there. In the surrounding blocks, it sounds like the waves of the ocean on the coast. It's truly unique. Though the city sleeps at night, Times Square is always moving. Chaotic and beatiful. I saw that they're building a lot of bike paths. I really liked that. If you're planning your trip to New York, I highly recommend to cover some of the neighborhood by bycicle, available for rent by using the credit card. I then went to Central Park, an excelent idea when they planned the city grill more than a century ago. It is a true air purifier in a very congested area who also gives color and some kind of harmony. The energy and vitality felt in the Central Park is one of the things I liked the most about NYC. I continued with Midtown Manhattan. Decades and decades of staggered skyscrapers, old-italian brick buildings with the classic stairs to the streets, darkness, the ideal of future of the International Style, the vitality of the parks on the middle of the concrete jungle, the shiny new skyscrapers between the old ones of Art Deco and american neogothic style, hidden churches that seems like they were directly taken from England, highways on the coasts, restaurants for all the tastes, and a very diverse cultural offer.

I finished my day in the Rockefeller Center and later in the Empire State to go watch the moon above the skyscrapers. After a week in (somehow) calm cities in the West Coast, I was again in the middle of the chaos I loved, getting used again to concrete jungle.

These are the images:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

The quick videos:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*14) Upper East Side - Park Ave - Grand Central Terminal*



On the second day I went to the Upper East Side, one of the most exclusive neighborhoods of New York. The agglomeration of skyscrapers goes from the Midtown to, mostly, the Upper East Side and the height goes down progressively till Harlem in the north, where the Central Park ends. Inside this neighborhoods is the Fifth Avenue and other important arteries. I saw, particularly on this neighborhood, a considerable amount of buildings with french architecture, somehow unusual in the US and New York. It has a lot of buildings with an immense patrimonial heritage that it seems had their golden age in the beginning of the 20th century. There’s also new buildings being constructed at the time. Some of them use the advantages of the New York system, which consists in buying the airspace of the surroundings buildings in order to increase the height and at the same time put windows on all the facades.

Later, I went to Park Avenue, with its boulevard connecting the south and the north of Manhattan. Below the avenue is the underground train who goes to the ground in the north of the city. The train was putted underground to allow the use of cars but also, as it’s been said, to sell the surrounding lands, which was a huge business for those involved. In the middle of Park Avenue is the Grand Central Terminal, one of the epic US train stations, used as a transport node for the train and the subway. It is as incredible as the old european stations and also somehow futurist for its time, with the bridges connecting it to the streets. It’s famously flanked by skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building and the MetLife, with its unique International Style design, who also once had the iconic PanAm logo on the last floors.

Later that night, I went to relax to Times Square and watched Denzel Washington in a Broadway theater. Next day I was going to be in Lower Manhattan and Wall Street, one of the most important archetypes of our culture and definitely determinant in our life today.

These are the images:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

The quick videos:


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## JS97 (May 4, 2014)

Another great update in a great series! New York City really is my favorite city in the world!


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^

Thank you! The next one is gonna be great too. Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, and the new World Trade Center.


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## marlonbasman (Apr 21, 2012)

great display of fantastic photos...you're doing an excellent job and thanks for that.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^

Thank you!


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*15) WTC – Wall Street – Lower Manhattan*


The second big skyline of New York is in the south of the island, in the Lower Manhattan. The classic grid that conforms most of the city suddenly change, with a street-layout that seems like those in of the old european cities. It is the oldest part of the city, once called New Amsterdam when the dutch bought the land and conquered some years later by the english. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there’s within its streets the first famous skyscrapers of NYC, some of them placed in entire blocks. Because the streets are so small and the buildings so high and close to each other, there’s only a few hours of direct sunlight every day. Among this mix of art deco and neogothic skyscrapers, there’s the old buildings of 3 stories-high, built there from 100 to 200 years ago.

Going trough Broadway, a few miles away from Times Square, there’s the Trinity Church where the Wall Street begins, known for the stockbrokers mystic and the image of the Stock Exchange, who paradoxically is in another street. Its entrance was closed to the general public (even in a small sector of the street) since the events of the Occupy Wall St. movement. The famous Raging Bull is a couple of blocks away, where I waited like 15 minutes for a clear shot without success :lol:

The most important and impressive place in the Lower Manhattan 
is probably the World Trade Center, today a re-born place with new constructions taking place: new skyscrapers (some of them almost finished), a big park, 2 fountains of the same size of the Twin Towers, and the entrance of the new transport node designed by Calatrava. 

Because it was starting to rain, plus the wind, I left Brooklyn and the Bridge for another trip in the future. The temporary subway station was full of police personnel and marines with trained dogs. Supposedly, the terrorism-alert had been quite high that week due to a attack threats on the city.

These are the images:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Y los videos:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*16) Museums of NYC*



New York has some of the most important museums in the world: the Museum of Natural History, the Guggenheim, the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), and the Metropolitan Museum (or just "The Met"). Just like Paris, you may need from 2 to 3 full days to see them completely.

I started with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The museums of this particular subject usually are the similar on the whole world. The difference, in this case, are the proportions. This one is huge, with a 3D IMAX theatre, and the dark Marine Life room with the famous whale pending from the roof.

The next one was the Metropolitan Museum. It is quite similar to Louvre when speaking of the amount of rooms and some design elements of its architecture. Because I love Egypt, I also spent more time in the egyptian rooms than in any other ones. For the first time, I saw smiling mummies (quite bizarre). There's a lot of paintings from famous artists, such as Rembrandt, Goya, Caravaggio, Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, and the self portrait of Van Gogh. What really got my attention were the musical instruments. I've never seen so many types of guitars from all around the world. Also the percussion instruments of 2 meters-high of the old China who looked like mummies.

The other 2 museums were the MoMA and the Guggenheim. Because I got there when they were closing, I could only see the MoMA from the main hall. On the Guggenheim, there was a display of Italian Futurism. What I found most interesting about this particular museum was the experience of the descendent floors, like a spiral. After taking the elevator to the last floor, the display goes down to the ground floor of the building. Quite cool.

Here are the pictures:



*Museum of Natural History*





















































*Metropolitan Museum*







































































































*Guggenheim*

































*MoMA (Museum of Modern Art)*


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

The videos:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*17) NYC: Tips & Overview*



From my point of view and despites the differences, New York is more similar to Boston and San Francisco than to any other american city. In Los Angeles and the towns I’ve seen from the bus in California, the usual urban concept consists in a big terrain with a house in the middle and open spaces for the garden yards, with the car as the main transport system. In those cities and towns, the visual image of the american dream is way more evident, like in the capitals of most of the US states. In New York, to see this kind of urban concept, you gotta go far away from Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. NYC is very “european”, if not the most of the whole United States (in my opinion, even more than Boston). In my particular case, I love the shops, bars, and restaurants who have a direct contact with the street and the people and cars going next to them. It is the beautiful european chaos, taken to the american continent.

Here comes some advices on NYC, if you’re planning to travel there:

NYPass: it is a free-pass for the attractions and museums of the city, such as the Empire State, the Top of the Rock, the Statue of Liberty, the Met Museum, and many more. You can buy it on their website and then go to the official stores in NY while you’re there. From all the free-passes, is the most recommended one. You may save a lot of money if you wanna go to many places in a short period of time.

Transportation: if you can do it only by walk and bicycle, go ahead. It’s the best option. You may also take the bus for some places. The other common option is to take the subway. There’s the Metro Card for the tourists. It works like the NYPass, but it is for the subway and elevated trains (it doesn’t include the AirTrain of the JFK Airport). I highly recommend not to take the cabs, unless you are in a hurry. They are quite expensive.

Acommodation: NYC is one of the most expensive cities in the world. The cheapest hotel in Manhattan goes from the US$150 floor. The cheapest hostel starts from US$50 floor. A very-used alternative is to stay in New Jersey, the Bronx, north of Harlem, or Long Island and travel everyday to Manhattan (have in mind that it can take close to 1 hour per trip to get from the hotel).

Museums & Food: these are the things I loved the most about New York. It has some of the best museums of the word and great food in every neighborhood. From my experience, I ate some of the best italian pastas and pizzas in this city. They really managed to improve the food from their italian ancestors.

Stay tunned for Boston this week!


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*18) Boston: Downtown – North End - Charlestown*


After a week in the NYC chaos, I got back to the calm I was having the previous days of the trip. Traditionally, Boston is the city of the highest high-class american families. In its oldest neighborhoods, it seems like a little piece of London taken directly from the 19th century. Like most of the East Coast cities, it has a major number of dark-red-brick buildings and a financial district with the International Style skyscrapers conforming its main skyline. Unlike NYC, it’s a much happier city. They knew how to convert the old architecture into new revitalized neighborhoods for a new era, just like the european cities. Some of their streets are now exclusively for pedestrians and the highway who crossed the Downtown is now underground: the famous Big Dig who turned a grey place in the hurt of the city onto new parks full of life. I’ve met some really cool people in the city. Though it is a conservative place, it paradoxically has very open-minded people.

In Boston, there’s a main path for the tourists called the “Freedom Trail”, who goes trough the Downtown and a few neighborhoods. If you take the whole day just for it, you may fully see it. I started in the South Station, where the bus left me, and went to the Downtown, who looks like a little replica of New York. Just in front of it , there’s North End, where the golden age of the italian mob of Boston took place. When I walked trough North End, I got the feeling that they were still there (gotta admit I’m a big fan of The Sopranos :lol: ), but in a far-more different and hidden way, just like the modern italian mob in NYC. If you are interested in the subject, I recommend you to look closely at the pictures and the video of North End below. You may find some interesting stuff.

After crossing the Charles River, I went to Charlestown, the USS Constitution, and Bunker Hill, a neighborhood who seems like an actual set of the movie The Patriot. Boston is one of the cities where the mentality of the great nation who started the United States can be felt the more. Someway, it achieves to communicate the patriotism and strong force who were the pillars of their culture. And somehow, those were the same characteristics who forged the new nations after their independence in the american continent. It makes me think on how interesting is that from very similar ideals and principles, every nation took its own road and turned to be very different.

These are the images:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

And the videos:


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## raider12 (Jun 10, 2011)

EMArg said:


> *18) Boston: Downtown – North End - Charlestown*
> 
> 
> After a week in the NYC chaos, I got back to the calm I was having the previous days of the trip. Traditionally, Boston is the city of the highest high-class american families. In its oldest neighborhoods, it seems like a little piece of London taken directly from the 19th century. Like most of the East Coast cities, it has a major number of dark-red-brick buildings and a financial district with the International Style skyscrapers conforming its main skyline. Unlike NYC, it’s a much happier city. They knew how to convert the old architecture into new revitalized neighborhoods for a new era, just like the european cities. Some of their streets are now exclusively for pedestrians and the highway who crossed the Downtown is now underground: the famous Big Dig who turned a grey place in the hurt of the city onto new parks full of life. I’ve met some really cool people in the city. Though it is a conservative place, it paradoxically has very open-minded people.
> ...


very well done, actually, excellently done sir. You did your homework and you know our city well, especially this "Though it is a conservative place, it paradoxically has very open-minded people." For a visitor especially from abroad, this is a brilliant observation


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

Great pictures, and informative text.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Well, thank you guys. After New York, it was essential to change places and get some fresh perspective of the country. The NY chaos really got into my nerves after a week :lol: About Boston, I remember when I left the station and talked to 3 workers who were in the street. They were pretty cool (they're in the fourth picture). I quickly felt quite good. I also met a lot of people troughout the city and they were also cool. It was nice to know that New York is an exception to the rule (when speaking on the US). I loved the city.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates; well done once again


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Thank you! More of Boston coming this weekend.


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*19) Beacon Hill & Boston Overview *




So when I finished with the Downtown, I found a very unexpected place: Beacon Hill, the old neighorhood of Edgar Allan Poe. It has a quite weird atmosphere who attracted me from the beginning, being some sort of combination between Amsterdam and Montmartre in Paris. Dark-brick houses on tree-lined streets, crossed by old passageways and a mystic that I’ve felt only in a very-few european cities. Beacon Hill was the last place I’ve seen in the city before going to Washington. The city itself was a big surprise, turning from the false image of a cold conservative city to my favorite one in the US with San Francisco.

Before the pictures, here are some quick tips for those of you who wanna visit the city:

Freedom Trail: Boston invented a very creative idea called the Freedom Trail, a path marked in the streets and sidewalks who goes trough the most important places of the city. My recommendation is to get lost in its streets anyway. It is a city where you can find many buildings and hidden places that can be very interesting. Boston is an essential root for the US culture and it brings a different point of view of the american revolutions, related more to the cultural codes of the British Empire rather than the Spanish ones in Central and South America.

Transportation: the New York tourist agencies sell Boston as a one-day tour. The bus takes only 4 hours and it is the cheapest option (from US$20 to US$50). The Amtrak train is the middle option and takes almost the same amount of time (it costs close to US$100). The plane, as always, costs more money, but it can be a trip of less than an hour. Within the city, if you take the entire day, you may see it all on foot. Some places like the Harvard campus are a bit far away, but it has direct subway stations connecting it to the Downtown. The South Station (bus & train station) is placed in the Downtown and the airport is quite close to the city as well, so that’s a big advantage.

These are the images:



































































































The video:


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## Sgt_Pepper (Nov 16, 2013)

Do those pictures and videos show everything that you saw in Boston?

Did you see the Boston Common, Public Gardens, Commonwealth Avenue, Christian Science Center, Newbury Street, Trinity Church, Fenway Park, or Harvard Square?

If you didn't see these things, then you definitely didn't get the full Boston tourist experience.

That means you'll have to come back someday and see the rest of the city! 

And please take more beautiful pictures and videos when you do!! :colgate:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

^^

I will definitely gonna have to go back :lol:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*20) Washington DC: Union Station & Museums *



Washington was the best way I’ve found of closing my research on the US. Like Boston with Amsterdam, Washington DC reminded me a lot to Vienna. Big parks, gigantic palaces, and diagonal avenues. There’s so many museums that you may need a few days to see fully visit them all.

So I got off the bus at the Union Station, one of the major US stations (in my opinion, more impressive than the NY Grand Central Terminal) and went straight to the museums. The 75% of the things to see in Washington are related somehow with museums. Because of its huge covered space and its interesting theme, the Air and Space Museum became one of my favorite world-wide museums, more attractive to me than the Louvre or The Met: huge rockets, very-old commercial airplanes, spaceships, and a wide look at the space race since the first steps on the human kind on the space and the moon. Several years ago, the Enola Gay, who launched the first atomic bomb, was also available to the public on the museum. The US war machinery can be seen from a quite particular perspective here. For the modern military strategy, the aircraft carriers and war airplanes are the most important part. These have a strong presence within the museum. I also went to the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of American History, the Museum of Natural History, and the famous red Smithsonian Castle. 

I remember seeing a lot of students in all these places. It seems like the city is quite important for the american education. It makes sense. The city has a lot to show from that point of view. But what I found the most important about Washington comes in the next one: the city outside the museums, the epic memorials, the monuments, and the huge open big spaces where the most relevant protests and social movements ended throughout the last century.

These are the images:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

And the videos:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

*21) Washington DC: Overview *



After a whole morning at the museums, I started to visit the city. my first stop was at the US Capitol, where I saw an interview to a republican senator. Quite a spectacle. Washington has a set of linear parks called National Mall who connect the most important places. Almost a mile away from the Capitol is the Washington Monument, an obelisk who looks like the one in Buenos Aires. It is also a few blocks away from the White House. Once planned to be demolished in the past, the true value of the White House stays within the importance of the popular imagination and the heart of the image of the US in the world. What it really looks magnificent is the Eisenhower Office Building, just in front of the White House, a huge building with a weird and unexpected strong french influence. I must say that it was a surprise. In front of the White house also is the headquarters of the IMF and the World Bank, looking like brutalist and International Style bunkers. I then went to the gorgeous Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, with their greco-roman style. Both statues are worth the trip to Washington. There’s something on them that can’t be explained. 

If I return to Washington, I’d rent a bicycle. The distance between the things to see are quite large and just the individual trips may take a lot of time. Unlike Boston or New York, there’s only a very-few things to see between the major attractions. I remember that, in the afternoon, after the school groups left the city, I saw a lot of people running and making exercise in the parks. Earlier that day, I couldn’t see that because of the massive amount of people, and I liked it a lot. That was my real last day in the US except for the trip back to NYC and the whole wait on the JFK the day after. Like a metaphor of the US culture and history, and just like the contrast of the concept that Wall Street represents in front of that of the Statue of Liberty in NYC, in that particular moment the US Capitol was looking at me on one side while the Lincoln statue, with the spiritual calm that only noble ideals can give, was looking at me on the other side. The main pillars of the US culture trough the history. That’s the beauty of the architecture and the urbanism: it’s a raw demonstration of the culture who makes them. A piece of the history who can live forever for the next generations. My trip to the United States had left me a very positive image of its people.


Here comes the images, before the last text and videos of the thread:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)




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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

And the videos:


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## EMArg (Aug 2, 2013)

Next page ->


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