It was busy, and crowded, and stressful. Perhaps this was partially my own fault for not budgeting my time well, but I felt like I was constantly running around. For example, on our second day we decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History (which actually was awesome), Central Park, 5th Avenue, and Yankee Stadium. While AMNH, Central Park and 5th are all near one another, they are all large and involve a lot of walking. The end result was that I didn't see all the exhibits I would have liked to at AMNH (luckily it was pay by donation, so I didn't fork out $16 to see 1/5 of the museum), power walked through Central Park and didn't enjoy the stark contrast of it between the bustling NYC the way I otherwise would have, and raced down 5th. Then we went back to the hotel to drop things off (not that I bought much, just RayBans), and rushed to Yankee Stadium. Basically, it was not an enjoyable experience. Friends have suggested returning in the future, now that I know what to expect, and maybe planning less and/or staying longer. It's definitely a good idea, but if I didn't enjoy it the first time, and I have the money to spend on a vacation, maybe I should go somewhere new I don't have a negative impression of.
What did I enjoy? Well, AMNH, like I said, was amazing and cool and informative. I particularly liked the people exhibits, and the marinebiology hall. Yankee Stadium was also incredible, and the Yankees smoked the Rangers 12-4, Sabathia pitching. Although there was a rain delay, and it spit intermittently throughout the game, the atmosphere in the stadium was exciting, and supportive of their team. Coming from Toronto, which an ESPN report declared has the lowest fan satisfaction rating of all the MLB teams, it was refreshing to go to a city where the team actually does well, fans actually care, and seats are actually sold out -- regardless of weather! It's unfortunate that the Jays are so poorly supported... and that they do so poorly.
Back to NYC, we actually didn't do much, which is why I'm so surprised by how exhausting and busy the experience was. We landed in LaGuardia (worst flight ever. Dry heaving = bad.), checked into the hotel, which was on Queens Blvd in Long Island, then took the subway directly to Times Square. The closest subway station to us was 33-Rawson, and it was super sketchy. Dirty, and metal partitions to divide paid and unpaid areas that looked like a mix between a cage and a prison. As I realized later, many of their station have these barred partitions, but that doesn't make it any less intimidating. Times Square was packed, and a total sensory overload with a zillion lights, stores, people, cabs, honking, and advertisers trying to convince me to go to their comedy shows. The Naked Cowboy was there too. We grabbed food and walked up and town Times Square, doing some shopping and taking some pictures. Then we headed back to the hotel to watch game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, which sucked and I fell asleep in the middle of.
Day two, as mentioned, we went to AMNH, Central Park, 5th, and Yankee Stadium. We also had the most epic lunch off a food truck (Toronto -- get on that shit!): an amazing chicken gyro outside Central Park. En route to Yankee Stadium, we needed to transfer from the 7 line to the 4 line that goes north to uptown and the Bronx. When we got to Grand Central, our transfer point, a 4 train was already at the platform, but so packed people seemed to be bulging out the doors (welcome to New York), so we decided to wait for the next train. The next one came, and I realized after we got on that it was not only an express train, but the wrong one. We'd gotten on the 5 instead of the 4. This wasn't really an issue thanks to my amazing public transit skills, and we got off at the closest stop to Yankee Stadium, before the 5 line splits off, and just waited for a 4 train to take us the rest of the way.
Day three: We subwayed to Times Square again, then walked to Avenue of the Americas and visited the NHL store. I was surprised by the complete lack of Canucks gear, especially since there wasn't all that much Bruins swag either. They did have quite a variety of teams though, and to Mike's great pleasure they had a bunch of Devils stuff. This makes sense, of course, since New Jersey is so close, but Mike always has such a hard time finding Devils paraphernalia in Toronto, which is, unfortunately, Leafs Nation. I debated buying a Pens henley (like a baseball shirt), but it was kind of expensive so I decided against it. Then we walked to Macy's, wandered around briefly but were overwhelmed and had nothing particular in mind that we wanted to buy, so we left and walked along 34th where I did a bit of shopping and bought Birkenstocks. We continued along to Broadway, and then walked all the way down Broadway to Canal Street. Yes, holy shit, what an adventure. Along the way we passed Madison Avenue Park (not sure of the name, possibly making that up entirely), which I initially mistook for Central Park and was epically confused. We passed by Union Square, which I recognized from that Jennifer Lopez movie The Back-up Plan, and was a little too excited about, especially given the amount of crowds that were there. We hit up the Converse store, which was a complete disappointment for me, since they didn't carry yellow Chucks, and then didn't have teal ones in my size, went into a random store where I found yellow Chucks, and then continued along to Canal Street, which we walked up and down a couple times, bought some fake shit, and then found a subway and headed back to the hotel. We planned to nap and then go out to a bar for Game 7, but we ended up sleeping a bit too late, and then showering took too long since we were both dirty and sweaty and disgusting from our NYC walking marathon, and ended up staying in the hotel again and ordering pizza. Which was good, because Game 7 also sucked.
Day four we slept in, then went to LaGuardia.
What I learned while in New York City:
- Takeout is called carryout.
- Nobody pays attention to traffic lights. If there is a break in traffic, people walk across. Even if there isn't a break in traffic, people walk across. And if someone is paying attention to the lights, they aren't paying attention to their own. They're watching the other lights, and walking across the instant they turn yellow.
- They don't sell Gravol. They sell an equivalent called Domamime, I think. It saved my life on the return flight.
- EVERYONE has a Yankee accent. I mean everyone. Even if they don't appear to at first listen, like the announcer at Yankee Stadium who was advertising birthday parties at the facility, they will say something where this accent slips out. In the announcer's case, she said "hawt dawg".
- Americans drink their beer warm.
- All menus list calories.
- Escalators don't exist except in Macy's. Not even the subway stations have escalators, despite there being 849029351035 floors you need to go up or down to transfer subways/get to the street.
- Any kind of food you could possibly want can be bought off a truck.
- At any given time you will hear sirens and horns. They may be close, they may not be, but they are constant.
- New Yorkers love their Starbucks. There's a Starbucks on EVERY SINGLE CORNER. Amazing.
- Only people from New Jersey and cabbies are crazy enough to drive along 5th.
- New Yorkers love their Snapple. I remember having Snapple as a kid. Then it disappeared off the face of the planet. Apparently it all went to New York City. Snapple is everywhere. Food trucks, restaurants, corner stores... Some guys near us at Yankee Stadium were discussing peeing in bottles in desperate situations, and the one guy specifically mentioned peeing in Snapple bottles. I will never understand this Snapple obsession. I like Snapple, but holy shit. (Since returning home, Mike found Snapple somewhere, somehow, and brought me one.)
Pictures will be added to this post as soon as I upload them onto my computer. Which might be a while.
