Hostile Traveler

This week brings me to the Big Apple - New York City. Why they call it that, I have no idea, but I’m far too lazy to look it up right now. I’ll leave it as a homework exercise.

There are some options to get from Boston to NYC, but I went with the high-speed rail line, the Acela. While it’s not as blisteringly fast as the Japanese bullet trains, for the rails in the US it’s pretty damn fast. The unfortunate thing is it’s not able to sustain any high speeds due to local noise ordinances, decrepit rails, and the occasional fair maiden tied to the tracks. So, the trip takes a little over 3 hours. Still, when compared to dealing with the crackhead airport security or traffic/parking while driving, it’s not a bad way to go. (Again, sorry for the quality of some of the pics, but my camphone sucks.)

You basically get an airline-ish seat, and if you’re lucky like me, you get one with a table. If, however, you’re unlucky like me, you get some droning suited financial asshole on a cellphone sitting across from you the whole trip down. Still, there are power jacks available for your notebook/etc, and I spend most of the time watching movies doing work on my notebook.

One of the main advantages over flying is that you actually have a bit of space, and you can stretch your legs and take a short walk. Mind you, it’s a bit of a wobbly one due to the bumps and such, but it’s a walk nonetheless. The walk may take you to what is perhaps the greatest feature of train travel: the cafe car. Here, you can purchase any number of overpriced snacks and drinks, but the key is - they have beer. Mmm…

The ride itself is actually pretty pleasant, and the scenery isn’t too bad. The line gets close to the coast in Connecticut at a couple of points, so you get to see some boats and such. Read on for more blurry overexposed pictures.

Finally, you get into the city and arrive at Penn station. This is the fun part - the part where you know you’ve arrived. Within minutes of exiting the Amtrak area, you’re likely to experience a fascinating array of humanity. You’re going to get jostled, bumped, glared at, muttered to, and all of those other things that make New York the friendliest city in the world. Add to that the myriad of smells you get on a nice hot and humid summer day, and surely you’ll feel as if you’re in heaven too.

Upon arrival, I met up with a friend of mine and took the subway to meet his wife in Brooklyn. Now, as I may have mentioned, it was a hot, humid day. The subway has this magical way of amplifying that experience by a good 20 degrees, and then adding a slight tang of urine to the air to really bring the experience home. Needless to say, by the time I humped my shit up and down more stairs than I care to remember, I was dripping with sweat. Nice way to go to dinner. Ah well.

Dinner itself was at a very cool Thai restaurant called Sea. Okay, in retrospect, maybe not the most creative name. Still, if you’re going to go monosyllabic for a restaurant name, I guess it’s better to go with that than, say, Ass. The neighborhood around it is pretty unremarkable, but when you step inside, it’s a massive place that seems more suited to club than restaurant. Still, great food, and good company. And I finally dried out.

After dinner, my friends dropped me off at my hotel in Times Square. Okay, near Times Square. I was given a room with a “view” on the 19th floor, but the actual view part is a bit debatable. It’s mostly the back of a billboard. I guess the lights are pretty…

The next day (Wednesday) was spent in class, so I won’t bore anyone with the details. Lunch, however, was interesting. I went to a quasi-famous deli (aren’t they all?) called the Stage Door Deli. They put together what can only vaguely be called a sandwich, but it’s only that because it happens to be between two slices of bread and held together by a toothpick. In between is a pile of whatever meat you ordered. I got some sort of belly bomb that contained pastrami, corned beef, and turkey, so I expect to die at any moment. Still, pretty tasty…

The heat and humidity decided to go out with a bang last night, and torrential thunderstorms came through blowing rain sideways and turning the filth on the streets into a kind of hellish stew. I didn’t really feel like wandering around in that, so I hit a dingy mexican joint across the street where the marginal burrito was made up for by the firewater margaritas.

Today, on the other hand, is beautiful. Sunny skies, warm temps, no humidity - perfect. Well, it’s NYC, so I’ll shift that over into tolerable. So I’m going to head out this eve and snap some photos of Times Square and its surroundings. Maybe tomorrow morning I’ll try to get on Good Morning America with the rest of the sign-toting retards. Yeah…maybe not.