New Year's Eve in Times Square |
For New Year's 2003 I wanted to go to New York City and experience Times Square. Although I made it to NYC for the festivities (along with seven friends), the closest I got to Times Square was Club Float, a shady club next to the theater where "Hairspray!" performs. Long story, it was a disaster. Anyway, for 2005 I was determined to make it not only to NYC, but to Times Square. I could go to New York anytime of year. For New Year's I wanted to be right in the center of everything!
So the plan was to go to the Olive Garden in Times Square, like we wanted to do in 2003. The group going this time around was me, Dan, Micah (Dan's roommate from Seattle), and Kate (my roommate). The Olive Garden sold out a day early, so that was out. Not to worry. Liz, who is now in her third year of law school at Queens College, and was with me the last attempt at New Years in New York, and had made her own Times Square plans, invited us along.
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Dan, Micah, Kate and I left bright and early on New Year's Eve for New York for a little siteseeing. Here's a typical picture of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. It's huge, although I'm sure it looks much more impressive at night when it's all lit up. Talk about touristy. To ice skate there (a postage stamp rink), you would have to wait about three hours. |
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Here's the only picture I have of Dan, Micah, Kate, and me. For Christmas, I met up with Dan in Spokane, Washington, and then we drove to Elk City, Idaho to spend the holidays with his grandparents. On the return flight, we had a layover in Seattle, and picked up Micah on our way back, since he has never been to the east coast. |
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This is to give you an idea of how insanely packed Times Square was. All of the stores closed down by 4pm (which stunk because I wanted to do some more shopping). Since there was nothing else to do, we all went back to the hotel, took naps, and got ready for the craziest night in New York City. |
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Clearly, Liz has the connections. Her classmate used to work for a guy in the Paramount Building on the 18th floor (which is one of the few floors that has a balcony). Here are pictures of all of the people below, and the ball nearby. |
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Kate and me. |
Dan, the Ball, and me. |
Micah and all of the people below. |
MTV Studios |
The rest of the people on the balcony. |
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We celebrated with lots of food (mostly shrimp for me), drinks, and an awesome view up until the big moment came. Finally at midnight, the ball dropped and Times Square went absolutely nuts! |
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There was a designated Confetti Crew stationed on our balcony who dumped boxes of confetti on the people below every hour. At midnight, they dumped truckloads of it. It was really cool to see the confetti everywhere. We celebrated a little while longer, then went back to our hotel. Yes, we were lame and did not party all night. But come on, we had been up since 4am. |
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The Paramount Building. |
To give you an idea of how close we were to the ball. |
Micah doing a little siteseeing. |
On the subway. |
Thoth in Central Park. |
The next day we decided to do some touristy stuff before heading back home. Since the weather was great and visibility was really high, we went to the Empire State building. There was a line wrapped around it, so we decided the view from the ground was just fine. We made sure we bought hot dogs from a street vendor, shopped on Fifth Avenue, and walk around Central Park.
That evening we headed back home, totally wiped out, but thrilled that we got to spend New Years Eve in the center of it all. If you get a chance, once in your life to go to Times Square for New Years Eve, take it! It's definitely worth it. |
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