The Jewrican Traveler

If there’s one thing I love about New York City, it’s that there’s always something to do at any given moment. It’s the perfect playground to be spontaneous, wonder around and see what the day will bring. Here’s what a random day for me looked like recently when a friend came to visit from out of town. We had a few destinations in mind just to have an idea where to go, but we ended up doing a whole lot more along the way. What was even better is that nearly everything on our adventure was little to no cost.

Gramercy Park

On the way to pick her up at the Gramercy Park Hotel, it suddenly hit me that we might be able to go inside Gramercy Park, a super exclusive park that’s only accessible to the surrounding building residents. After all these years I finally had an in because the hotel patrons were able to go inside. I was hoping to run into Julia Roberts, but to no avail. In any event, we were done with the park roughly ten minutes after going in because our ADD and boredom kicked in.

Museum of Sex

The Museum of Sex was one of the only things on our itinerary since it was within walking distance from the hotel. I feel awkward posting some of these pictures, but you should probably know what you could be in for. I had heard amazing reviews in the past about the museum, but for some reason it didn’t live up to my (s)expectations.

High Line Park

Although I already fulfilled my park quota for the day, I wanted to show my guest the High Line, a park situated on old railroad tracks that instead of being torn down, it was transformed into a beautiful public park. Read more about the history of the High Line by visiting their website at http://www.thehighline.org.

Kayaking on the Hudson River

Next on the random itinerary was to walk downtown and see what we could do from there. Conveniently, we saw a sign for kayaking on the Hudson River – for free! Too bad I’m not in better shape otherwise I would have stayed on the kayak longer than 15 minutes. If you’d like to kayak on the Hudson, check out The New York City Downtown Boathouse and their website at http://www.downtownboathouse.org/. It’s operated by volunteers and their kind donations.

Financial District

After our short workout session on the Hudson, we continued heading downtown. On any given beautiful day, it’s a treat to walk along the waterfront to view the Statue of Liberty and the Jersey skyline. On previous days I’ve run along the pier and it’s on my list to rent a bike.

Irish Hunger Memorial

One of the last places we saw was the Irish Hunger Memorial, a memorial devoted to raising awareness of the events that led to the “Great Irish Famine and Migration.” I never even knew this existed, which is strange considering it was kind of big. Check it out the next time you’re downtown.

Freedom Tower

The last place was us visiting the Freedom Tower. It’s incredible to see the progress that has been made over the last ten years and I can’t wait for it to be complete.