Caribbean Spirit on Paradise Island/Bahamas...

...As announced earlier, I realized one of my long dreams last week. Together with David, a friend from Austria who also does an exchange term here in New York, we went for six (6) nights to the Bahamas.
We started our trip, last Thursday early in the morning and we took our jetBlue flight from JFK to Nassau. It's pretty nice, because the flight takes only 3 hours what is not too long. We arrived therefore in Nassau at around 10 in the morning and took directly a cab to our very nice Hotel on Paradise Island - RIU Paradise Island Resort. For some reasons, we got an unbelievable all-inclusive deal for this hotel. Normally I'm not a big all-inclusive fan, but this one was very nice - delicious food, good drinks, wonderful beach access and the club was also full of funny people...
Whenever you plan to go to the Nassau area for vacation, book a hotel on Paradise Island. It's a really beautiful island and the sea is nicer in comparison to Nassau. Another advantage is that you are closer to the Atlantis Paradise Island - the Vegas style hotel with a Casino in it. I have seen already many different and also amazing hotels like the crazy ones in Dubai (Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, etc.), but I've never seen something like the Atlantis before. Maybe the new Atlantis on the Palm in Dubai can compete against this one :-)

For all James Bond fans:
- James Bond film Thunderball was partially filmed on Paradise Island.
- Casino Royale was filmed at the Ocean Club on Paradise Island.

Our nice room, with Ocean view:
Mr. Atlantis:
Main towers of the Atlantis:
Atlantis from the bridge to Paradise Island:
Shark pool at the Atlantis:
The palm and me - beach of the Ocean club:
One of the wonderful sunsets - we had it every evening - really amazing:
During the days, we've spent most of the time at the pool or at the beach. In the evenings we always had a very nice dinner
and then we were hanging out at the hotel bar with our friends and afterwards we went to go out in downtown Nassau (Senior Frogs) or we went to the Atlantis like the Aura club or Dragons.

Downtown impressions:
On Monday we made a boat cruise where we did:
- Boat cruise: We were cruising through the harbor in Nassau and also next to Paradise Island were we could see all the "small" houses of the rich like a Saudi Sheikh, Tiger Woods, Steven Seagal, etc...
- Snorkeling: It was one of the best things I did so far in my life. I really felt like I'm part of a movie, because we were swimming through swarms of fish. The water was clear and blue, and the fish were reflecting amazing colors...just great!!!
- Jet Ski: Sure we did also jet ski rides. We got pretty good ones and it was fun racing over the nice sea ;)
- Para Sailing: First time, I did it. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me because the view over the Nassau and Paradise Island was really nice.

And some some going out impressions :-)

Senior Frogs/Nassau:
Senior Frogs/Nassau: Bahamas connection - David and me:
Aura/Atlantis:
At Dragons/Atlantis: Our two nice friends from the hotel (David, Daman, Karin and me):
At Aura/Atlantis: David and two other friends from Toronto (Ash and Krysta) - everybody was from New York or Toronto :-)
At Aura/Atlantis: Felix, David, don't know ;), Remy and me:
I have so many more nice pictures, but I could not upload all of them. Anyway once I'm back in Austria I will show you all of them
...
and last but not least
...
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everybody...

Christmas Time in the City...

...Christmas evening is coming closer and closer and therefore you can see it everywhere. Actually it really started the day after Thanksgiving as well as the famous Holiday Season with the Black Friday (the shopping day after Thanksgiving).

It's also very interesting, where the term Black Friday comes from:
"The term "Black Friday" originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red to being in the black. (i.e., turning a profit)."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping), December 13th, 2008)

Some impressions from the city:

After finalizing my classes and before it's getting too cold in the city I will have some days off and therefore time to fly to the Bahamas and get some sun.

Nassau and Paradise Island I'm coming - it will be awesome!

(Source: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&pwst=1&resnum=0&q=the%20bahamas%2C%20nassau%2C&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl, December 13th, 2008)

My 25th Birthday and Thanksgiving Day...

...It's a pity, but I'm also getting old. I turned on November, 27th 25 years - quarter century. After a long day at the college I met with some friends at a nice bar called "The Gin Mill" which is located on the Upper West side. We had an awesome evening there and celebrated the first hours of my birthday as they should be celebrated.

Peter and me:
Markus, Gloria and David:
I nearly "choose" the best day for my birthday, because this year the November, 27th was also Thanksgiving (it's always the forth Thursday of November in the U.S.). Also on the day before Thanksgiving everybody is going out and therefore the streets and bars were crowed.

We were very lucky because we've got an invitation from friends from the college. I always wanted to participate at a very typical Thanksgiving dinner and it was really like it should be...food everywhere where you looked :-)
We had some appetizer (olives, tomatoes, British Columbia salmon, etc.), than a very good salad, than the turkey with a lot of sides (stuffing, mashed potatoes, rice, etc.). After this we were already full, but we got a variation of cakes like apple pie, pumpkin pie, apple strudel, vanilla ice, cookies, etc....and we as the Austrians brought some wine to prepare hot spiced wine because the people did not know this. They all loved it.

Special thanks to Melissa and Jessica who invited us for the dinner, including the perfect prepared Turkey - Jessica you have fabulous cooking skills :-)
Last but for sure not least also thanks to all other cooks like Rachel, Melissa's mum, and all others...

I was Shipping Up to Boston . . .

...One of our next, long planned, roadtrips was to Boston, the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Boston itself is very important for the U.S. and is also one of the oldest cities in the States.

We left New York City on Friday morning and arrived in Boston at 01:00 PM (bus trip took us 4 hours). First we checked-in to our hostel (we were a bit scared, because the reviews were not good, but all of us got nice rooms and we had no problem):
After this we went to visit the Harvard University - I was really looking forward to that.
"It is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is also the first and oldest corporation in North America."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard, November, 26th 2008)

Below you can see John Harvard:
One building of the Harvard Business School:
Reading in the library of the Harvard Business School :-)
Harvard football stadium:
Very funny evening in a bar at Harvard Square:
(starting from left: David, me, Peter, Markus, Jessica (girlfriend of Nils) and Nils)
To conclude the campus and the buildings of the Harvard University are really amazing. If you are in Boston you have to visit it.

On the second day we went the Freedom Trail and watched all important sights like
- Boston Common
- Massachusetts State House
- Park Street Church
- King's Chapel
- Old South Meeting House
- Old State House
- Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market
- Paul Revere House
- Old North Church
- USS Constitution
there. The freedom trail is a red line on the ground which goes trough Boston and passes the most important buildings. It was very nice and it's a easy concept for tourists because otherwise you get lost without a good map.
On Sunday we visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as it is a must for us, because our majors are all on the technical side. MIT is one of the most famous technical universities on the world!
We went around the campus and made a short walk trough the buildings and also visited the MIT museum which is really nice and worth to visit. There you can see important research projects which originated at the MIT.

The main problem during our time in Boston was that it was really freezing all the time. We had some degrees below zero and with the wind it was even much colder.

Once again we took megabus to bring us to Boston. The bus trip was again safe and we had no problems. So for sure I would not hesitate to take megabus again.

NBA Matchup - New York Knicks vs. Dallas Mavericks . . .

...After the great NHL game some weeks ago, we rocked again the Madison Square Garden. This time we had tickets for the NBA matchup between the New York Knicks vs. Dallas Mavericks.

We were again quite lucky, because there were "enough" fans in the MSG, but it was not sold out as during our last session. The game was fun and we saw again overtime, what does not happen very often at basketball games. I really love American sports events as they really know how to entertain the people during the breaks or even timeouts. The atmosphere was again great, but unfortunately the NY Knicks lost in the overtime.

Sidefact:
The famous German basketball star Dirk Nowitzki, did also play yesterday and he was the best player on the field. It was also one reason why we watched exactly this game, because two Germans friends were with us.

At the entrance of the MSG:
A part of the NBA group (for sure all of us had a Knicks finger):
First look at the video cube:
Pictures from the game:
Earvin "Magic" Johnson was also in the stadium - one of the best basketball players ever:
The New York City Dancers:
Old school dance cam - this was really funny:
Knicks Singing Bee:
Now I have completed another part on my off-college-to-do list for my fall term here in New York City, because I visited now the most famous American sports events - tennis (US Open), basketball (NBA), baseball (MLB), football (Canadian League), and ice hockey (NHL).