Day 4 was saaaaaaaaaaad:
Woke up, brushed teeth, kissed my hostel goodbye, got to Pennsylvania Station by noon, ended up waiting for our bus outside Madison Square Garden, and took off. The ride was nice...they have a Moe's grill inside the Garden, so I bought two tacos to eat on the bus ride home. We sat at a table on the bus and the tacos melted right through the bag and stained the table. I was so depressed I listened to some sad songs on my iPod. I'd miss NYC so much, we all agreed there was nothing that would top it. There are TOO many things to see. Anyways we slept most of the time and played an imitation game, imitating people close to us for fun. At around 9pm we arrive at the border.
THEY SEARCHED US.
Not a simple search, a serious frisking and questioning for non-medicinal drugs. Here's how it went:
We four went into the building as a group with the rest of the passengers. We wait in line and we're called up to a booth. He takes our passports and does a background check. Three of us are fine but then when he pulls up Greg's profile he sees a dropped weapons charge that was responsible for what would happen in the next forty minutes. I didn't know at the time about the weapons charges. The officer asked if we were carrying any tobacco back into Canada and Greg honestly claimed five Cuban cigars. The officer then leaned over his booth and asked how many bags we were carrying then walked around and said, "follow me". We walk to the other side of the office and sat down outside a room that looked like the room in The Dark Knight where Batman interrogates the Joker, very illegitimately. Both officers walk into the room first and we see their mouths moving from outside, they keep looking at the four of us and we're looking at each other like, Alright, who the fuck has the drugs this shit is not funny. One of them came out and asks who wants to go first. Farhan jumps up and says "I'll go!". He goes into the room and one of the officers shuts the door behind him.
I can't see what's going from where I'm sitting, and I was afraid to move because I thought the officer outside would tell me to shut up and sit down, so I was like fuck this I'm sitting quietly. I see Greg and George seeing what's going on. Then the officer outside the room puts on a pair of jet-black gloves and he snaps that shit around his wrist in a threatening manner while walking by us. So that one disappears into the room as well. Ten minutes later the door opens and I hear Farhan say, "Thank you so much" to the officers. He walks straight out and out of the building without so much as a glance or word to us.
Greg goes in next and same deal. I switch seats and I see Greg seems to be relaxed with these guys, but the officers seem to be giving him a hard time. George turns to me and says, "You're going to blog about this aren't you," "Hell yeah I am!". Greg comes out after fifteen minutes. I go in next and bring my luggage inside. Officer number one tells me to leave my luggage on the stainless-steel table. The room is tightly-spaced and smells of cold metal. He then asks me to sit down. Before he searches my bag he asks me, "I'm going to give you the same chance I gave your friends. You can claim any marijuana or guns you have in your bag right now. If you do and I find less than 30mg's of it I'll let it go. If I find more I'm going to arrest you. If you don't claim if and I find any amount you will be arrested." Knowing I smoked every inch of the weed garden we were growing at the hostel, I confidently reply, "I have none." (That was a joke by the way)
So they begin searching my bag. Officer number one asks me, "Hiding any marijuana in your boxers?" I chuckle a bit and say "aaaahhh no." He then mocks me, "aahhh no? What, did you have to think about that?" Then I'm like Shit don't shoot me I'm living a better life than you ever will so I answer "No definitely no marijuana in there." He continues to search the bag. He then asks officer number two to frisk me. Officer number two then snaps on the gloves and walks up to me. Here was the thing about these two cops. I understand it's their job to strictly enforce mandatory methods of preventing any kind of border-hopping or drug smuggling into the country, and these two definitely deserved an award for doing their jobs right. Officer number two was a very nice person, and I'm not saying that because the way he was about to frisk me felt like a massage, but because he knew who to suspect as a criminal. He was also polite. Officer number one loved being a hardass.
So Officer number two came to me like this. "I need you to stand up, turn around, interlock your fingers behind your back and spread your legs." In my head I'm thinking, Damn, I've asked my girlfriends to do this at one point or another. So I do what he says realizing I can't escape the frisk if anything is found on me. So he grasps my two interlocked hands in one hand and frisks me with another. He searches my entire body for...God knows what. He says I'm clean and I sit back down. At this point officer number one is done his searching. He looks at me and says, "So you said you've never been around marijuana recently? And I tell him, "Nope." He then eyes the luggage and looks back at me saying, "then why have your bags been around them." I paused here and thought to myself who the dumbass was that smoked weed near me in the last 48 hours. I came up with 0 dumbasses and I told the officer, "I have no answer to that. I WAS staying in a hostel and maybe someone there had been around it and came in contact with--DAB HIS HANDS. Officer number one cuts me off abruptly and number two gives me a small cloth. He tells me to rub my hands and forearms with it. I comply and give it back to him. He exits the room and I sit uncomfortably in there with officer number one. I don't know what he was thinking, but I was thinking about those tacos I ate, they were terrific. Then I realized if that cloth came back with a positive for the marijuana, I'm done for. I knew it wouldn't, but my bags were positives for some reason, so I was partially concerned. My escape plans was to throw my socks at them then steal the megabus. Then I'd call Farhan and the gang and tell them to rendevous back at a Red Lobster in Toronto.
Number two came back with a negative, thank God. "He's clean...for now." The fuck do you mean for now, I'm always clean. I've only ever smoked that shit once, it's nothing special. Then he asked me to pack up everything he pulled out of the bag. Before I left the room he told me, "When you go out, not a word or look to your friend sitting out there." At the time it was George and I walked right by him and out onto the bus platform. All the other passengers were looking at us like we were criminals. I stopped walking and looked back hard, then they found something else to look at in the sky. I met Farhan and Greg and told them what happened. So here's what really happened:
Farhan was pulled into the room and questioned. He was told about the marijuana deal and responded, "I can't be around marijuana or alcohol because of my medication." They checked his medication and just searched him and he was out of there, which is why he seemed so cheery upon departure, because they were harassing his ass.
Greg walked in and they searched his stuff first.
He told them, "I know why you're doing this,"
"Oh yeah, why?"
"Because you saw the weapons charges that were dropped back in 2005."
Apparently these things are invisible to employers but ever-present on your federal record. They frisked him up like they did me and demonstrated cocky attitudes towards him. They let him go with upset expressions after failing to find anything incriminating.
So we waiting about fifteen minutes for George, who we were very concerned about. George is a nice guy, but he ALWAYS looks like he's spliffed a tree, it's just his natural behaviour. George came out after a similar ordeal and we boarded the bus after holding up the other passengers for about half an hour. I was relieved but worried that this would affect my trip to Sri Lanka in two months. I later found out it wouldn't, but if I were to travel back to the United States within the next five years they'd ask me about it. That's a bitch.
So we got back to Toronto, it felt nice. Hopped on the subway at Bay Station from the bus terminal and for once appreciated the cool atmosphere of Canadian weather. It's the one thing Tdot trumped NYC on.
About New York:
People are nice, don't be fooled.
New York has plus 40 degree celsius weather.
Subways in NYC are another ten degrees on top of that 40, but the trains are well chilled with orgasmic air-conditioning.
NYC is too big to see in three days.
You'd need about $500 to shop, eat, and sight-see in three days, I brought $200 and borrowed money:P
NYC in real life is EXACTLY how it is in the movies.
People in NYC look a lot like Torontonians, but some actually LOOK American.
Central Park is too fucking big.
The top of the Empire State Building is very sighty.
DO NOT eat in Times Square unless you're a millionaire, if you have a girlfriend that wants to eat there, tell her to fuck off.
Ten hour bus rides there and back are negligible, not boring at all if you bring what entertains you...I brought porn, lots of it
JUST KIDDING
The New York Loft Hostel in Brooklyn is a safe and comfortable base to stay in for travellers on a budget.
And that is the last blog about one of my greatest vacations ever to my favourite place on Earth, hope you had as much fun reading it as I did living it! Highly unlikely!
-NEW YORK BLOG OUT LOYAL READERS-
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
New York City Day 3: A Walk in the Park/1,000 feet above Manhattan
Day 3 in New York City was a criminally insane trek through the better parts of north Manhattan. We started off in Central Park, which is massive in its grandeur. There are so many small subsections to the Park that you just can't visit in one day, so we just walked where we walked. I can tell you one thing about New York City, there are friendly people there. Everyone we asked for for help with directions was more than happy to give it to us. I know this squashes a lot of the grounded rumors about the generic New Yorker attitude, but we asked more than fifteen people (all over Manhattan) for things from directions to subway stations to places to eat and places to find souvenirs, and in my experience it's true. We were lost in Central Park and we talked to a jogger, maybe a fifty to sixty year old man who led us in the right direction and asked where we were from. Turns out he liked Toronto.
We sat on huge rocks elevated fifty feet above ground level, we went to fountains in wide-open areas, we saw break-dancing performers, also we walked barefoot in a large open terrain known as Sheep's meadow in the south of the park, and ate lunch there too. We exited the park from the south side and ended up in Columbus Circle, which is sort of like a roundabout in England. Amazing little spot. The next stop would be the Empire State Building, but before then, we found a small branch of Dr. Jay's clothing (RUN DMC's Jam Master Jay's clothing store) and got some gear. We also bought postcards and souvenirs for the loved ones back home. Nazeem, Julie, Jasmine, Jodi, Abdi, Pradip, and Sarah I hope you guys like your souvenirs :P...Sorry for anyone I forgot I was sort of on a budget :P, I owe y'all one.
We came to the corner of 33rd and fifth avenue and looked up. We found what we were looking for, the Empire State Building. Looking up at the thing is like looking at the CN Tower from directly below it, it's a neck-breaker. Although the CN Tower is taller, the Empire State is definitely a lot to take in at once. So we enter and find a long hallway. We manage to buy our tickets and we get a good deal, but 1 get 3 free. Yeah, you heard right lol. We saved about sixty bucks. That admission ticket also included the skyride tour, which is a virtual simulator tour that describes the history of the Empire State Building, the top attractions to see in NYC, and a virtual ride through NYC with host Kevin Bacon. So we get on the skyride, which is like on the second or third floor. It starts off when a group of about twenty enter a dark room, similar to the debriefing room at Laser Quest. The wall TV's that you didn't know were there and scare the shit out of you when they suddenly turn on begin playing some depressing music and then there is a patriotic video showing the construction of the Empire State and its impact on American culture and its endurance and persistence throughout the years. It was good enough that we all watched it undisturbed. Next you see the top 10 places to visit in NYC, with #1 being the Empire State Building. Ten minutes later, you walk a bit more and take a seat in the virtual skyride. This is a giant platform that holds about twenty or so people and the ride starts with Kevin Bacon taking you through NYC in a helicopter that seems to go ANYWHERE it wants to. The entire platform moves in coordinance with the film on screen. It's pretty fun. We get off that another ten minutes later and go to the elevator to the 80th floor. Here you have to transfer elevators to get to the 86th floor. As soon as we get to the observation deck we see all white. The entire landscape that fell outside of the viewing deck was near-white and clouded over. This frustration was temporary because when you get closer to the fence and look out over Manhattan the haze starts to clear and everything becomes clear, though things in the distance are still unclear. The view from up there is breath-taking. You feel like a God seeing all the little cabs moving so slow down there. It was also a bit chilly up there that day. Each of the four sides of the deck tells what direction you're looking.
We left after about an hour atop the observatory deck and we'd swore we'd go back to our hostel because our legs had been demolished by Central Park and Empire State Building. But we just happened to keep walking some more, eat lunch at the Wendy's just outside Empire State, then found a souvenir shop in the same area. Then we saw the Chrysler building in the background and swore that would be our last stop. We saw it, looked phenomenal from up close. I pulled out the itinerary and saw we hadn't seen Rockefeller Center yet, so made one more walking trip at a hefty pace towards it. Also incredible, much larger when you're at it than what it looks like in pictures and movies. Then on our way to the Subway Station we saw the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, which caught our eye from its appealing exteriors. We went inside and took loads of pictures. Greg said he'd meet me outside when we were done because I knew he wanted to pray for his mother who had cancer. I did the sign of the cross before I left and met George and Farhan outside. This time we really did go back to the hostel, and the whole train ride home we reminisced about things that happened no more than two days ago.
Damn would I miss this city.
We sat on huge rocks elevated fifty feet above ground level, we went to fountains in wide-open areas, we saw break-dancing performers, also we walked barefoot in a large open terrain known as Sheep's meadow in the south of the park, and ate lunch there too. We exited the park from the south side and ended up in Columbus Circle, which is sort of like a roundabout in England. Amazing little spot. The next stop would be the Empire State Building, but before then, we found a small branch of Dr. Jay's clothing (RUN DMC's Jam Master Jay's clothing store) and got some gear. We also bought postcards and souvenirs for the loved ones back home. Nazeem, Julie, Jasmine, Jodi, Abdi, Pradip, and Sarah I hope you guys like your souvenirs :P...Sorry for anyone I forgot I was sort of on a budget :P, I owe y'all one.
We came to the corner of 33rd and fifth avenue and looked up. We found what we were looking for, the Empire State Building. Looking up at the thing is like looking at the CN Tower from directly below it, it's a neck-breaker. Although the CN Tower is taller, the Empire State is definitely a lot to take in at once. So we enter and find a long hallway. We manage to buy our tickets and we get a good deal, but 1 get 3 free. Yeah, you heard right lol. We saved about sixty bucks. That admission ticket also included the skyride tour, which is a virtual simulator tour that describes the history of the Empire State Building, the top attractions to see in NYC, and a virtual ride through NYC with host Kevin Bacon. So we get on the skyride, which is like on the second or third floor. It starts off when a group of about twenty enter a dark room, similar to the debriefing room at Laser Quest. The wall TV's that you didn't know were there and scare the shit out of you when they suddenly turn on begin playing some depressing music and then there is a patriotic video showing the construction of the Empire State and its impact on American culture and its endurance and persistence throughout the years. It was good enough that we all watched it undisturbed. Next you see the top 10 places to visit in NYC, with #1 being the Empire State Building. Ten minutes later, you walk a bit more and take a seat in the virtual skyride. This is a giant platform that holds about twenty or so people and the ride starts with Kevin Bacon taking you through NYC in a helicopter that seems to go ANYWHERE it wants to. The entire platform moves in coordinance with the film on screen. It's pretty fun. We get off that another ten minutes later and go to the elevator to the 80th floor. Here you have to transfer elevators to get to the 86th floor. As soon as we get to the observation deck we see all white. The entire landscape that fell outside of the viewing deck was near-white and clouded over. This frustration was temporary because when you get closer to the fence and look out over Manhattan the haze starts to clear and everything becomes clear, though things in the distance are still unclear. The view from up there is breath-taking. You feel like a God seeing all the little cabs moving so slow down there. It was also a bit chilly up there that day. Each of the four sides of the deck tells what direction you're looking.
We left after about an hour atop the observatory deck and we'd swore we'd go back to our hostel because our legs had been demolished by Central Park and Empire State Building. But we just happened to keep walking some more, eat lunch at the Wendy's just outside Empire State, then found a souvenir shop in the same area. Then we saw the Chrysler building in the background and swore that would be our last stop. We saw it, looked phenomenal from up close. I pulled out the itinerary and saw we hadn't seen Rockefeller Center yet, so made one more walking trip at a hefty pace towards it. Also incredible, much larger when you're at it than what it looks like in pictures and movies. Then on our way to the Subway Station we saw the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas, which caught our eye from its appealing exteriors. We went inside and took loads of pictures. Greg said he'd meet me outside when we were done because I knew he wanted to pray for his mother who had cancer. I did the sign of the cross before I left and met George and Farhan outside. This time we really did go back to the hostel, and the whole train ride home we reminisced about things that happened no more than two days ago.
Damn would I miss this city.
Friday, August 14, 2009
New York City Day 2: From Lady Liberty to the Brooklyn Bridge
Sorry for the late post, but when you're having fun, priorities tend to shift...
The first day in NYC was what we considered to be unsurpassable in terms of the amount of travelling and sight-seeing done in a single day. We thought wrong. Day 2 was significantly more eventful than its predecessor. We woke up to a free breakfast at the hostel, where thirty-something people would collect for a healthy start to the day. We boarded the L Train in Brooklyn for the third time in 24 hours and once again headed to Manhattan. We then took the 1 train south to the South Ferry docks. That's right, the Statue of Liberty was next on the itinerary. We exited the subway at Battery Park and walk over to the ferry docks. We took some photos of the beautiful scenery and it was utterly exciting to see the Statue in the distance. Standing in Battery Park seeing almost everyone there taking pictures of the Statue or shadowing their eyes with their hands to get a view is typical, I think that's all people come to Battery Park to do. We found the lineup for the fairy, which stretched for almost half a mile. A french tourist and his girlfriend held the line for us while we went and purchased tickets, and believe it or not we came back and the lineup was near done. We were on that boat in no time.
The ferry is a lot like the ferry to Center Island in Toronto. It's almost exactly the same. It's amazing to see the Statue of Liberty grow in the distance and you get closer and closer over the course of twenty minutes. We got off the ferry and crossed Liberty Island and walked along the main pathway that leads right around the Statue. It's stunning because looking up is a strain on your neck. I took maybe over 150 photos on the island itself. I was very impressed by it. It's stellar proportions and the detailed carving on its green-copper structure kept my eyes stapled to it. The view of Manhattan from the Island is also remarkable. The four of us sat barefoot on the grass in front of the Statue for about half an hour, just to say we did it ;). We were enjoying pointing out the infamous landmarks from across the Hudson River. We also spotted the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge, as well as some places in New Jersey. What a great sight it is.
On the ferry ride back we stopped over at Ellis Island, but UNFORTUNATELY didn't have time to visit the immigration museum because of schedule/time constraints. When we got off the boat, there were snake-handlers with some steroid pythons on their shoulders. Greg, George and I went over and paid ten bucks each to hold them ourselves. They were so cool, you could feel the movement and the scales sticking to your skin and they tried to maintain a grip on your body. I called it off when the python I was holding turned its head towards my crotch as if though to bite it. "Okay sir you can take it back now, thanks."
The New York Stock Exchange building was just how I pictured it would be. In fact the entire avenue looked so financially important I felt like an idiot walking by all these New-Yorkers in suits, holding briefcases. The only time we were close to each other was when we were ordering drinks at Dunkin' Donuts :P. We stood around drinking slushies for about ten minutes before we realized we were DIRECTLY in front of Ground Zero. We paced speedily towards it and came to a closed off fence. For those of you that don't know, the Freedom Tower is being built over Ground Zero to commemorate the fallen Twin Towers, too bad construction was underway. Fortunately we didn't give up hope, we walked around the site and talked to another New Yorker who explained to us all the revealing spots at the site, which we went to and snuck in some amazing pictures. God bless you stranger. We left Ground Zero after about half an hour to head towards the Brooklyn Bridge, right nearby in South Manhattan. What an amazing structure, the Brooklyn Bridge. When you walk on it, you walk in the center of it. The center pathway then gets elevated above the traffic below and you're virtually walking over it. The visibility from the bridge that evening was so incredible and it offered me some stunning landscape pictures of Manhattan and Brooklyn, even the Hudson River, Statue of Liberty, Manhattan Bridge, and the South Street Seaport. We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge twice. I swear someone sells water every one minute while walking up the bridge. It's a long walk too, maybe about fifteen to twenty minutes one way at average speed. It's so worth it though. the bridge itself rocks and shakes like an earthquake simulator, it's definitely a lot of fun. On the right side pedestrian walk both ways, and on the left cyclers bike both ways. There are a lot of people on the bridge as well, from tourists to hobos to just regular New Yorkers exercising their way home with a brisk walk across the bridge.
The sun was going down and we had a dinner date with Farhan's cousin. She works on Wall Street and lives in the area as well. We met her on South Street and had dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant near the South Street Seaport. All the meals were written in Italian and the prices were rounded to the dollar. The food was also ridiculously overpriced (and just when I thought TGI Friday's the previous night was bad). At least it was a fancy place and a spot to keep in mind for the future, when I bring my wife back with me;). Dinner was served by candlelight which set the mood for romance but created an awkward setting for four guys and one girl (who was actually on break at 9pm from her job on Wall Street). We talked and ate with her for about an hour about the expensive lifestyle that is a necessity to live comfortably in NYC and about the passion for overpopulation and steam-broiled streets. I loved every word, she spoke like a true New-Yorker and got me excited about living in the city, the only thing she was missing was the accent. At around 10pm we departed and walked along the South Street Seaport. I took some more fabulous pictures and bought some souvenirs for my peoples back home. I also found another bottle of this brand-name mango juice I saw the day before at a hot dog vendor. It was so good I bought another bottle.
From the Seaport we walked to Pier 11 and up along Wall Street again. We walked along a narrow, stoned road and came up to a junction that was surrounded by massive, important-looking buildings. One had the Trump name on it, the other had a George Washington statue in front of it (Federal Hall), and the final one just a little way away (New York Stock Exchange) had an impressively oversized American flag hung across its entryway. There were few people in this corridor at that time of night, which was at the intersection of Wall Street and Broad, so we exploited this absence of humans to go outrageous with our pictures.
We called it a night and went back to the hostel for sleep, which came easily. Little did we know what Day 3 had in store for us...
The first day in NYC was what we considered to be unsurpassable in terms of the amount of travelling and sight-seeing done in a single day. We thought wrong. Day 2 was significantly more eventful than its predecessor. We woke up to a free breakfast at the hostel, where thirty-something people would collect for a healthy start to the day. We boarded the L Train in Brooklyn for the third time in 24 hours and once again headed to Manhattan. We then took the 1 train south to the South Ferry docks. That's right, the Statue of Liberty was next on the itinerary. We exited the subway at Battery Park and walk over to the ferry docks. We took some photos of the beautiful scenery and it was utterly exciting to see the Statue in the distance. Standing in Battery Park seeing almost everyone there taking pictures of the Statue or shadowing their eyes with their hands to get a view is typical, I think that's all people come to Battery Park to do. We found the lineup for the fairy, which stretched for almost half a mile. A french tourist and his girlfriend held the line for us while we went and purchased tickets, and believe it or not we came back and the lineup was near done. We were on that boat in no time.
The ferry is a lot like the ferry to Center Island in Toronto. It's almost exactly the same. It's amazing to see the Statue of Liberty grow in the distance and you get closer and closer over the course of twenty minutes. We got off the ferry and crossed Liberty Island and walked along the main pathway that leads right around the Statue. It's stunning because looking up is a strain on your neck. I took maybe over 150 photos on the island itself. I was very impressed by it. It's stellar proportions and the detailed carving on its green-copper structure kept my eyes stapled to it. The view of Manhattan from the Island is also remarkable. The four of us sat barefoot on the grass in front of the Statue for about half an hour, just to say we did it ;). We were enjoying pointing out the infamous landmarks from across the Hudson River. We also spotted the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridge, as well as some places in New Jersey. What a great sight it is.
On the ferry ride back we stopped over at Ellis Island, but UNFORTUNATELY didn't have time to visit the immigration museum because of schedule/time constraints. When we got off the boat, there were snake-handlers with some steroid pythons on their shoulders. Greg, George and I went over and paid ten bucks each to hold them ourselves. They were so cool, you could feel the movement and the scales sticking to your skin and they tried to maintain a grip on your body. I called it off when the python I was holding turned its head towards my crotch as if though to bite it. "Okay sir you can take it back now, thanks."
The New York Stock Exchange building was just how I pictured it would be. In fact the entire avenue looked so financially important I felt like an idiot walking by all these New-Yorkers in suits, holding briefcases. The only time we were close to each other was when we were ordering drinks at Dunkin' Donuts :P. We stood around drinking slushies for about ten minutes before we realized we were DIRECTLY in front of Ground Zero. We paced speedily towards it and came to a closed off fence. For those of you that don't know, the Freedom Tower is being built over Ground Zero to commemorate the fallen Twin Towers, too bad construction was underway. Fortunately we didn't give up hope, we walked around the site and talked to another New Yorker who explained to us all the revealing spots at the site, which we went to and snuck in some amazing pictures. God bless you stranger. We left Ground Zero after about half an hour to head towards the Brooklyn Bridge, right nearby in South Manhattan. What an amazing structure, the Brooklyn Bridge. When you walk on it, you walk in the center of it. The center pathway then gets elevated above the traffic below and you're virtually walking over it. The visibility from the bridge that evening was so incredible and it offered me some stunning landscape pictures of Manhattan and Brooklyn, even the Hudson River, Statue of Liberty, Manhattan Bridge, and the South Street Seaport. We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge twice. I swear someone sells water every one minute while walking up the bridge. It's a long walk too, maybe about fifteen to twenty minutes one way at average speed. It's so worth it though. the bridge itself rocks and shakes like an earthquake simulator, it's definitely a lot of fun. On the right side pedestrian walk both ways, and on the left cyclers bike both ways. There are a lot of people on the bridge as well, from tourists to hobos to just regular New Yorkers exercising their way home with a brisk walk across the bridge.
The sun was going down and we had a dinner date with Farhan's cousin. She works on Wall Street and lives in the area as well. We met her on South Street and had dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant near the South Street Seaport. All the meals were written in Italian and the prices were rounded to the dollar. The food was also ridiculously overpriced (and just when I thought TGI Friday's the previous night was bad). At least it was a fancy place and a spot to keep in mind for the future, when I bring my wife back with me;). Dinner was served by candlelight which set the mood for romance but created an awkward setting for four guys and one girl (who was actually on break at 9pm from her job on Wall Street). We talked and ate with her for about an hour about the expensive lifestyle that is a necessity to live comfortably in NYC and about the passion for overpopulation and steam-broiled streets. I loved every word, she spoke like a true New-Yorker and got me excited about living in the city, the only thing she was missing was the accent. At around 10pm we departed and walked along the South Street Seaport. I took some more fabulous pictures and bought some souvenirs for my peoples back home. I also found another bottle of this brand-name mango juice I saw the day before at a hot dog vendor. It was so good I bought another bottle.
From the Seaport we walked to Pier 11 and up along Wall Street again. We walked along a narrow, stoned road and came up to a junction that was surrounded by massive, important-looking buildings. One had the Trump name on it, the other had a George Washington statue in front of it (Federal Hall), and the final one just a little way away (New York Stock Exchange) had an impressively oversized American flag hung across its entryway. There were few people in this corridor at that time of night, which was at the intersection of Wall Street and Broad, so we exploited this absence of humans to go outrageous with our pictures.
We called it a night and went back to the hostel for sleep, which came easily. Little did we know what Day 3 had in store for us...
Monday, August 10, 2009
New York City Day 1: A Fondness for Rainstorms
August 9th, 2009 at 7:30pm was my departure time from Toronto to NYC a la Megabus. My chaffeur Pradip Sharma dropped me off at the Toronto terminal and I hopped on. The ride from Toronto to the border went smoothly, I was listening to my NYC playlist and contemplating my life. Megabus was a double decker coach comprised of two floors, satisfactory AC and a tiny ass washroom in the back. As soon as the bus entered the gardiner expressway and there was a spark of realization that I was finally going to the one place on Earth I wanted to go to more than heaven itself, I saw an LG billboard that quoted their infamous slogan, "Life's good." To this I leaned back and thought to myself, Damn right.
We reached the the buffalo border around three hours later and they asked me what my business was in the States and I told them to fuck off then they let me go...;)
Then I reached Syracuse and we stopped off at a terminal that hosted a Subway Restaurant and a Dunkin' Donuts. You know you're in America when everyone gets off the coach and lines up for Dunkin' Donuts. The server at Subway was very giddy black man who processed orders quickly, he reminded of Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He was also singing to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cindy Lauper. Great guy, very strange though. Syracuse and Buffalo suffered severe thunderstorms. The entire bus ride to New York City presented a night sky used as a canvas by mother nature. Lightning crowded the rainy night and I sat back and enjoyed it while the other passengers slept. I arrived in NYC at 5:15am and the first iconic landmark that caught my eye in the still-dark sky was the Chrysler building, because of its characteristic architectural attributes. I got off at 7th and 28th street and just stood there for about half an hour, taking everything in.
They call it the city that never sleeps...that's because it doesn't. At 5:30 in the morning, the sky was dawning but there were still surprisingly a lot of people on the street with me.
I realized I had another hour and a half before my boys would show up in the city so I walked from 7th and 28th to Madison Square Garden, which was just around the corner. Amazing. Just like how I pictured it would be. Astonishingly large, too. Then I walked back to where the bus dropped me off and noticed the Empire State Building in the far back of my line of sight. It was only seven or so blocks away but I caught an exciting glimpse of its top half. Laying my eyes on it made me giddy. 7:00a.m. rolled around and another megabus pulled up around the corner. I waited for the passengers to evacuate and saw no sign of my peoples. So I sent a text to a couple of them asking where they were and didnt get an answer back for another hour. In that hour I went to the southern tip of Central Park (still carrying all my luggage because we couldn't check into the hostel until 3pm). At 9:30a.m. the boys finally arrive and I welcome them.
We walk around a bit to Madison Square Garden, we buy tees and souvenirs on fifth avenue, we see Madison Square Garden, Penn Station, NY Post Office before taking the train into Brooklyn to leave our luggage in the hostel. We get there at 11am, drop it off, then come back into Manhattan. We get off the L Train at Union Square and buy a couple of unique posters by some sidewalk artists, as well as some amazing murel duplications. This time we manage to reach the New York Public Library (where such movies as Ghostbusters and Day After Tomorrow were filmed), and we even walk into the reading room and take pictures, incredible place. Next we eat lunch at a pizzeria on Broadway somewhere, then visit the Flatiron Building. Then we went to another of NYC's most infamous attractions, Grand Central Station, and took half a hundred pictures there. Really a stunning piece of architecture, inside and out.
Then we went back to the hostel, showered, chilled with some of the other backpackers in the rec room, played the piano for them a bit, then checked my facebook. At 7:45p.m. we took off for Manhattan for the third time that day. Our final destination for the day was Times Square. Here were numerous corporations that lit-up central Manhattan with flashy ads and towering scrapers. Times Square is too much to take in at once. On the street within Times Square, we met NYPD officers who were friendly enough to allow us to take pictures with them, and pose like criminals being arrested. We also met Elmo live and got pics taken with him and Little Red Riding Hood. Moreso we got a group picture and had it superimposed onto a Time Magazine cover for ten bucks American. Then we ate dinner at TGI Fridays, an establishment with overpriced meals but good views of the Square.
Now I sit in my hostel, typing this blog, while Greg, George, and Farhan are lying in their bunks ready to catch Z's for an even bigger day tomorrow...
We reached the the buffalo border around three hours later and they asked me what my business was in the States and I told them to fuck off then they let me go...;)
Then I reached Syracuse and we stopped off at a terminal that hosted a Subway Restaurant and a Dunkin' Donuts. You know you're in America when everyone gets off the coach and lines up for Dunkin' Donuts. The server at Subway was very giddy black man who processed orders quickly, he reminded of Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He was also singing to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cindy Lauper. Great guy, very strange though. Syracuse and Buffalo suffered severe thunderstorms. The entire bus ride to New York City presented a night sky used as a canvas by mother nature. Lightning crowded the rainy night and I sat back and enjoyed it while the other passengers slept. I arrived in NYC at 5:15am and the first iconic landmark that caught my eye in the still-dark sky was the Chrysler building, because of its characteristic architectural attributes. I got off at 7th and 28th street and just stood there for about half an hour, taking everything in.
They call it the city that never sleeps...that's because it doesn't. At 5:30 in the morning, the sky was dawning but there were still surprisingly a lot of people on the street with me.
I realized I had another hour and a half before my boys would show up in the city so I walked from 7th and 28th to Madison Square Garden, which was just around the corner. Amazing. Just like how I pictured it would be. Astonishingly large, too. Then I walked back to where the bus dropped me off and noticed the Empire State Building in the far back of my line of sight. It was only seven or so blocks away but I caught an exciting glimpse of its top half. Laying my eyes on it made me giddy. 7:00a.m. rolled around and another megabus pulled up around the corner. I waited for the passengers to evacuate and saw no sign of my peoples. So I sent a text to a couple of them asking where they were and didnt get an answer back for another hour. In that hour I went to the southern tip of Central Park (still carrying all my luggage because we couldn't check into the hostel until 3pm). At 9:30a.m. the boys finally arrive and I welcome them.
We walk around a bit to Madison Square Garden, we buy tees and souvenirs on fifth avenue, we see Madison Square Garden, Penn Station, NY Post Office before taking the train into Brooklyn to leave our luggage in the hostel. We get there at 11am, drop it off, then come back into Manhattan. We get off the L Train at Union Square and buy a couple of unique posters by some sidewalk artists, as well as some amazing murel duplications. This time we manage to reach the New York Public Library (where such movies as Ghostbusters and Day After Tomorrow were filmed), and we even walk into the reading room and take pictures, incredible place. Next we eat lunch at a pizzeria on Broadway somewhere, then visit the Flatiron Building. Then we went to another of NYC's most infamous attractions, Grand Central Station, and took half a hundred pictures there. Really a stunning piece of architecture, inside and out.
Then we went back to the hostel, showered, chilled with some of the other backpackers in the rec room, played the piano for them a bit, then checked my facebook. At 7:45p.m. we took off for Manhattan for the third time that day. Our final destination for the day was Times Square. Here were numerous corporations that lit-up central Manhattan with flashy ads and towering scrapers. Times Square is too much to take in at once. On the street within Times Square, we met NYPD officers who were friendly enough to allow us to take pictures with them, and pose like criminals being arrested. We also met Elmo live and got pics taken with him and Little Red Riding Hood. Moreso we got a group picture and had it superimposed onto a Time Magazine cover for ten bucks American. Then we ate dinner at TGI Fridays, an establishment with overpriced meals but good views of the Square.
Now I sit in my hostel, typing this blog, while Greg, George, and Farhan are lying in their bunks ready to catch Z's for an even bigger day tomorrow...
Saturday, August 8, 2009
T-minus 1
I can't believe that after all these years it's come down to one day until the most infamous departure of my lifetime. Fourteen years ago I saw movies like Vampire in Brooklyn, Rumble in the Bronx, and Die Hard: With a Vengeance and I fell in love with New York City. My wanting to visit really blew up though when I watched Godzilla (1998), it wasn't really the movie I enjoyed but more the setting it took place in. The way they portrayed NYC in the film just made me want to visit. All these famous landmarks being destroyed by a giant lizard really made me want to visit the place and see them for myself. Then of course there were other films like The Day After Tomorrow and Cloverfield and Ghostbusters that just fed the hunger. Tomorrow night I leave, and I may not sound excited now but I am PUMPED.
Between now and departure time stands one super long opening shift at work. I have to open the store, do a forest of paperwork, survive 10 straight hours (though I only get paid for 9), and then I come home and enjoy sleep. I'm off to shower and get uptown early so that I can buy a french vanilla and blast some music loud as hell in the store to prepare me for the rest of the day.
As I mentioned before I will update my blog daily while in NYC. I will be staying in a hostel in Brooklyn and making frequent trips back and forth into Manhattan. We're still unsure about whether we will be travelling to the other boroughs because everything is in Manhattan and we may not have time. Anywho, I depart tomorrow at 7:30pm alone from Toronto and I arrive in NYC at 5:30am Monday morning. The rest of the guys will meet me at 7am at Grand Central Station because we couldn't get the same megabus tickets, so sacrifices were made and I took the bullet to travel alone. I don't mind because I think I need the ten-hour zen time to mentally prepare myself for four days of awesomeness. Between 5:30am and 7am I think I'll run around central Manhattan a bit, visit all the local places near Grand Central like Madison Square Garden and the NYC Library before meeting the guys back at the Station. We'll see how that goes, it'll be 5 in the morning and no one will be up so...:D. Talk to you soon loyal readers.
-BLOG OUT-
Between now and departure time stands one super long opening shift at work. I have to open the store, do a forest of paperwork, survive 10 straight hours (though I only get paid for 9), and then I come home and enjoy sleep. I'm off to shower and get uptown early so that I can buy a french vanilla and blast some music loud as hell in the store to prepare me for the rest of the day.
As I mentioned before I will update my blog daily while in NYC. I will be staying in a hostel in Brooklyn and making frequent trips back and forth into Manhattan. We're still unsure about whether we will be travelling to the other boroughs because everything is in Manhattan and we may not have time. Anywho, I depart tomorrow at 7:30pm alone from Toronto and I arrive in NYC at 5:30am Monday morning. The rest of the guys will meet me at 7am at Grand Central Station because we couldn't get the same megabus tickets, so sacrifices were made and I took the bullet to travel alone. I don't mind because I think I need the ten-hour zen time to mentally prepare myself for four days of awesomeness. Between 5:30am and 7am I think I'll run around central Manhattan a bit, visit all the local places near Grand Central like Madison Square Garden and the NYC Library before meeting the guys back at the Station. We'll see how that goes, it'll be 5 in the morning and no one will be up so...:D. Talk to you soon loyal readers.
-BLOG OUT-
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