Falling Night from the Empire State

Hello! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or join me on Facebook to be regularly updated. Thanks for visiting!

Friday. After making our way through far too many shops, searching for additional winter clothing to survive NY's upcoming big freeze (and still not succeeding on finding a extreme-weather-conditions scarf), we decided to head towards the Empire State Building.

On the entrance, we had our first big tourist trap encounter - a couple of guys in a tour operating uniform offered us to buy the tickets outside to avoid the massive queue inside for a bargain - only 47 $, each. Not sure if anyone falls into that! We were a bit tight in time. It was getting dark and we wanted to watch the sunset from the top of NY. 

I'm not sure if it was luck or just the fact that it was -10ºC and no human soul was willing to be blown away on the 82nd floor of the building, but in fact, there was hardly anyone queuing. Ha! Take that, tour operating suckers!

I can't imagine a time during which this view could be even more beautiful: endless skyscrapers all covered in snow reflected with the last rays of light of the day. I think this was the moment I fell in love with the city. 

Besides for it's incredible view, the Empire State is all-round an interesting building to visit. And because I got a good feedback from the last fun facts (it's great to know I'm not the only freak out there, thanks!), here you go with 5 facts about the Empire State Building:

1. The top of the building was originally designed for mooring zeppelins
2. 1933, the building was set for the original King Kong movie (the remake from 1976 held its scene on the towers of the World Trade Center)
3. It has it's own zip code (10118) to accommodate its 1,000 businesses and 21,000 employees
4. With its 102 floors, it was the first building in the World with over 100 stories
5. The building holds an annual race up 1,576 steps to the 86th floor. The world record goes to a guy who reach the last floor after only 9 minutes and 33 seconds!