The last time I went had been to New York City was in December 2005 when I did some volunteer work for the Committee to Protect Journalists. It was quite an experience, working with the CPJ and spending more than a week in Manhattan.
The chance came again to go to New York City with my international friends at my university where we organized a group trip before the end of the semester. People at the International Programs wanted the trip to be to Washington DC but almost everybody wanted to go to NYC and so we did.
We wanted to see the Statue of Liberty first, but we were stunned to see dozens people waiting in a long time which if we joined, we might have spent the entire day there. So, we forget about it and decided to take some pictures for the Statue from far away and then continued the trip in the city.
A few days ago, some of my American friends and one of my Polish friends suggested we go to Sahara East, one of the most famous Hookah bars in NYC. I searched online last night and found out that it came out on the top of the lists of the Hookah Bars in the United States. So I printed out the map to make sure we find its exact place, and so we did.
Sahara East is a wonderful Egyptian Hookah bar marked by its unique Egyptian celebration tents and traditional Egyptian lamps hanged in the middle of the tent which makes you feel nothing but being in one of the cafés in Cairo. Of course, we ordered hookah. This time, we didn’t order the “two apples flavor”. Instead, we had the strawberry one. My friend Adam is officially addicted to smoking Hookah [only flavored tobacco] especially after we hanged out several times smoking it in my apartment. My lovely family at work in Baghdad gave me a wonderful and fancy Hookah as a present the night before I left Baghdad.
As we smoked, we ordered some Arabic Egyptian black and lemon tea which was perfect for the day since it was chilly and mostly cloudy.
Long story short, we spent most of the time after the Hookah bar walking enjoying the beauty of Manhattan. We went to Union Square, Ground Zero, Empire State building area, and of course, Time Square which was our last stop where we were picked up and driven back to Philadelphia.
It was an amazing trip. I had so much fun with my international friends, especially Adam and Jan from Poland whom I consider now two of my best friends. The trip came on the right time where I needed a break from work, my graduate studies, the bad news from home and the worry about my loved ones which haunted me since my feet stepped on the American land.
I posted my photos on my photoblog, Random Images. I hope you enjoy them.
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