The ride through Upper New York State from Montreal to New York City was beautiful. The landscape changed all the time, going from forests to mountains, lakes, fields and brief outposts of civilization. And then all of sudden, without warning, you find yourself in New York City. I didn’t do much on the train other than stare out the window, which is how scenic trips should be.
Ah, New York City, the place on the American east coast I somehow always find myself coming back to and I still love it. When I was there two years ago I did most of the touristy stuff, so this time around I could relax a bit more. At least that was the idea. In the end I found myself going through long days and short nights. That’s just how life is in New York City.
First though, coming off the train, I had to go into the subway. You have not experienced heat until you’ve been in the New York subway. The stations are all hotter than the fires of hell, especially in the summer. There were a couple times when the air-conditioning on the subway trains was down too. You just sit there, doing nothing, feeling your body turn into a waterfall of sweat. Every time I took the subway I wanted to take a shower right after. I had mostly forgotten about that, but the city was quick to remind me.
In celebration of the first meal I ever had in New York about two years ago, I went out to get me some pizza on the first night after checking in at the hostel. In hindsight this probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, since I ended up eating a lot of pizza. It was everywhere and for the low price of 2.75 dollars you could for two good slices of pizza and a soda. I also ate a lot of burgers (Hard Rock Café for the win), so much so that after I left New York I ate nothing but salads for a few days. I couldn’t look at any more fast food.
I stayed at the HI hostel again and like last time I had a lot of fun, especially on the tours organized by the hostel. Those were a great way to meet some fellow travelers.
The first tour I did was a walking tour to the Bronx. I’m of two minds on this one, since it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t really good either. The Bronx has a history of being a poor and dangerous area, so you don’t really want to go there alone. Thing is, that’s mostly the south Bronx. The rest is actually fine and that’s where the tour went. Other than Yankee Stadium there wasn’t much to see at all. We also had to wait for a bus for 45 minutes at some point to go to the Van Cortlandt Park, which I could have gotten to myself by taking the number 1 subway from the hostel. I also didn’t hear much that I wouldn’t have discovered on my own, so, not really worth it.
The second tour however was worth it. The last time I was in New York I did Jerry’s Grand Tour and it turned out that not only was Jerry still doing that tour (not that I went this year) he also did a shorter five hour tour to Midtown. This tour was a recent addition and not very popular yet. That showed in the numbers, we were with six or seven people. The people who skipped this one didn’t know what they were missing though. Jerry’s still got it. We started in Central Park and then went on to Midtown, to see places like the Time Warner center and a Trump building. He also took us to a food market and we all thought we were going to eat lunch there. Not so, he just showed us where to get food after the tour, which wasn’t going to end until 4pm. That was hilarious.
And speaking of hilarious, Max May still does his comedy tour on Fridays, so I joined in on the fun again. It’s been refined from two years ago. For one, one of the comedy clubs has been scratched (last time was amateur night, which wasn’t very funny) and we spent more time at another with comedians who knew their stuff, with Max at the top. After that we went on to the Coyote Ugly bar and a nearby club. That club was busy, so much so that if anything happened there everyone would be dead. Especially down below on the dancefloor. Not going there again, definitely.
Aside from the organized tours I hung out with some other travelers at the hostel, just going all over the place, doing a lot of walking, and just having a good time. One of the best things to do, which I found out about on Instagram looking at photos from travel bloggers, was the East River Ferry. This ferry went from the east side of Manhattan down to the piers at the south end for only four dollars. The view of Manhattan from the ferry is spectacular and on route the ferry goes below several bridges (including the Brooklyn bridge), which was perfect for photos. The ride itself took about half an hour, so there was plenty of time to do other things afterward.
In our case we hired some bikes and went cycling back north on the bike paths. It felt good to do some exercise again and it was a nice ride, however I can’t in good conscience recommend the Citi bikes we hired. Even though we bought a day pass we could only ride for 30 minutes at a time before having to pay for overtime (which is bullshit if you have a day pass in my opinion). What we had to do was dock the bike at a docking station, wait two minutes and then continue, to prevent overtime charges. It was quite easy to miss a docking station too. So, biking yes, Citi bikes, no.
Now, I would be remiss if I had gone to New York and not seen a musical. Back in 2014 I saw the Book of Mormon, which is still one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen and hard to top. I originally wanted to see Aladdin, because the last Disney adaptation (Lion King) I saw in the theater was so well done. Unfortunately it was all sold out so I couldn’t go. Instead I got a ticket for the Phantom of the Opera on the next day. And then I walked past another theater where they showed Matilda and I remembered hearing good things about this musical, so on a whim I went inside and found out they had a matinee performance that afternoon. So I bought a ticket for that one as well. A costly venture, but worth every penny.
- The Phantom of the Opera: The Phantom is the longest running Broadway musical and has been on since 1988. I could see why. This one had some of the highest production values I’ve seen in a musical yet. The decors, the costumes, it was impressive. And the story itself is a timeless classic.
- Matilda: This was a very funny musical based on the story by Roald Dahl. I was very impressed by the child performers. The girl who played Matilda was only nine years old and she did it like a pro.
Loved these musicals, though for me the Book of Mormon remains my favorite, along with Wicked (which I saw in London last year).
Ah, New York. Planned to stay there for only five nights, but I ended up extending that with two nights before leaving for New Jersey for a few days…after which I came back for a weekend for a friendly meet up and some Pokémon Go. You’ve not experienced Pokémon Go until you’ve been part of the zombie horde thundering through Central Park at night.