This is what I typed out in New York...
I couldn’t fall asleep on the train right away though… I managed to for a while in the afternoon. This was a single level train instead of the double level I had on the West Coast, so it was similar but not quite as nice looking. The seats were the same though… I managed to get pretty comfy though by sleeping across two seats :)
The train was an epic 30 hours. Midway through an Egyptian proffesor sat beside me, so I couldn’t lay down anymore. He did not want to stop talking to me… It was entertainign at first – he showed me practically every photo on his computer, including like 20 pictures of his wife and daughter standing in various rooms in his big house in Washington. His wife worked for the UN, so he had one of his wife shaking hands with Bill Clnton.
There was an awkward moment where he was talking about how pretty he thought I was, and how I am such a sweet girl… then he reached his hands towards me and asked if he could kiss me! I turned my head and said no pretty loudly and not very nicely. He was all “oh no no no I meant on your cheek! I am very respectful! That’s what we do - you are like my family blah blah blah” so I kind of went “oh”.
After that he would try to apologize repeatedly or express embarrasment about asking every couple hours. I was getting annoyed with this guy. I tried to watch some Deadwood I’d downloaded, but I was missing a codec so I pretended to be listening to other stuff while I typed a bunch of this catch up stuff up lol.
Eventually I tried to sleep again, but it was uncomfortable so I’d never last more than a couple hours before having to wake up. Once the Egyptian guy was gone, I was able to lay down, but it was only a few hours till NY, so I again I didn’t make it for more than a couple hours before getting up.
My first few hours in New York were confusing. Penn Station is MASSIVE!
I knew the numbers of the trains I could catch to get where I wanted, but there were sooooo many options and knowing the numbers 2 or 3 was not enough. There were actual trains there as well as subways, and people like to use the word train and subway interchangibly. I didn’t know if I was supposed to go to tracks 2 or 3 or go to subways 2 or 3, plus there’s two or three levels and lots of long hallways leading to a million different things. It took me over half an hour to get a coffee and find out what I was supposed to do. Once I was on the subway it all made so much more sense.
The house was super easy to find – I didn’t take one wrong turn :) Someone was home too which was a bonus, so I picked my couch and ened up taking a long nap. I slept until about seven pm.
Turns out I had perfect timing because the New York weekly couchsurfing Meetup was on Thursdays, and it started at eight! I was able to freshen up from the train, and get there in perfect time.
I was one of the first people there, but the bar slowly turned into couchsurfing central, and by eleven most of the bar had nametags lol. Yes, that’s right, they give you name tags out here it was charming! They had a bunch of food for us too; I was pretty happy with how active the scene is here I ended up talking to a guy from Paris for a while – he’s been living here for three months or something. We got pizza after. The pizza is the same price here as san franciso pizza – they have not figured out the whole 1:50 slice thing that we have. They’re double! WTF.
So I slept in again yesterday (Friday). I know, I know, one day and half of it is sleep. Silly Leanne. Meh. I am a lazy traveler, and I would much rather sleep than be tired on a subway. For my day I decided to:
Take the subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. WOW. I have never been to a museum that has even 1/1000000th of what that one has. Just unbelievable. Seriously. WOWOWOWOWOWOW.
Behind the Museum was Central Park. Walked around there.
Went back to the city part and walked down a Lexington street for ages half looking for a coffee shop, half just looking around. My feet got sore from walking for so long though, and I eventually found a little place after walking for over 20 blocks (started around 80th ended up around 60th).
I walked down Fifth Avenue, found Rockafeller Centre, the ice rink thing, a few big cathedrals, radio city, a big Apple thing (Minka you would like it), Union square, some other stuff… then got some gloves because it’s FREAKEN COLD here especially compared to the deep South. I got used to wearing a thin little hoodie thing out at night and it being plenty warm. NOT HERE.
I met up with my host - finally met him for the first time haha! He had been working a lot, and had to go play hockey while I was at the couchsurfing meetup. He took me to a much better part of the city, in the lower east side area. We went to a couple dive bars and ate poutine. I was much more happy with this!
I sort of realized that one day really wasn’t going to do it here. I mean, I hadn’t even been to Times Square yet… or seen the statue of Liberty.
I drunk called Amtrak at two in the morning. Amazingly I was able to change my ticket to tomorrow (the 15th! Just squeaking in!! ) for only seven dollars more!! Mwahahahahaha. That also means I could sleep in – still have to wake up tomorrow early but oh well. I will not drink gin tonight.
Today I went to Battery Park and saw the Statue from far away! Now I have seen it! I am currently in a coffee shop in I’m guessing Greenwich villiage – a funky area so far, tons of tattoo shops and café’s and the like. They have really good coffee here. It’s super yummy and has not hurt my stomach somehow. I am off to Times Square next :)
Well my battery is dying so I best be off!
.... and end the copy & paste time. more to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment