(Location: Jone's Beach, Long Island)

Even before I had arrived in New York, the plans for going to Times Square for the new years countdown were already in motion. But after my sister had spoken to a number of local New Yorkers, the prospect of ringing in the new year with 750,000 strangers started to dwindle. "You have to wait 6 hours!", "You're not allowed to go to the bathroom!", "You have to stay in one spot the whole time",and other such comments had a considerable effect on our new years plans.

On the 31st we made a unanimous decision to stay home and spend new years quietly.

So on the eve of the new year I finally decided to hit the city by myself. I first decided to go to Union Square by taking the subway from Grand Central station.


I had to take a photo of the Grand Concourse.

I took a walk from Union Square in an Unknown direction. My form of exploration. This is when I came upon the famous Flatiron building.


I think this building was in one of the Spider-Man movies.

From there I took a subway to Times Square.

As I came out of the station, the first thing that caught my eye was the amount of people. Along with the thousands of tourists getting ready for the evening festivities, the whole NYPD force seem to be out on Times Square.



After feeling the excitement and the overall energy of the crowd, I knew that I had to come out to Times Square for the countdown.

When I got back to the apartment I told my sister about what was happening down there, and somehow I managed to change her mind about going out.


So there we were, in a crowd of 750,000 people that stretched form 43rd to 59th Street...

...and it was only 6pm...



Killing time was not as difficult as I thought. We sat and played some hand games, talked, ate, and we made sure not to drink anything because the word on not being able to go to the bathroom was true.

We became bored a number of times and took a few random photos.


For those who know the Japanese singing duo "Chemistry", this is a photo of them.


BroSis, a new rock group following in the steps of the White Stripes.

The six hour wait rolled by, not so fast...

As we went into the final hour before the new year, time decided to slow down for some odd reason. It slowed down even more when we went into the final 30 minutes.


At the final 5 minute mark.

The final 10 second countdown was something I will remember. 750,000 people screaming at the top of their voices. Everyone concentrating on the huge numbers ticking down on the big screen. And the cheering, the loudest roar of excitement I have ever heard in my life.

The fireworks and the confetti were the icing on the cake.



Happy New Year everyone!