New York and the Conclusion of The Trek

Can you believe 7.5 months have gone by since I took off. I can not even fathom it! What the hell did I spend 7 months doing..... oh wait..... I remember ;-)

I was recommended to take the Bolt Bus service from Washington DC to New York. Not only was this bus cheaper than the others I checked, but it also had onboard WiFi! Amazing stuff. I had an easy start to the day as the bus only left at 2pm. I woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast and said goodbye to Stign and the others I had co-habited with recently. The bus was on time and I hopped on. Washington had been great and I think I had just about seen everything I wanted to!

From warm and sunny Washington I travelled to wet and warm New York City. As I could use my laptop, I could keep myself easily entertained for the 4 hour ride. I was dropped off and promptly got on the metro and made my way to Steph Ligon's apartment in the West Village. This area is around the 20th street region of NYC (bottom half of Manhattan Island) and is known to be super trendy. Steph is a friend of mine from my early days in London. I got to her front door and realised that the handle had been ripped off. Luckily for me I had my Leatherman so I applied the appropriate tool and gained access. Slightly illegal but better then staying out in the rain! We did not linger though as we were both hungry and had a lot to catchup on. We ate at a small gastro-bar nearby and related all we had been through in the 2 years since we had last seen each other. After dinner, Emily was ready to receive me so I collected my bags and walked the short distance to her apartment. Emily had been my housemate in London for close to a year when we all lived in Kensington. This was almost 2 years ago. We had seen each other a few times since but but only on brief holiday trips. I also caught up with her girlfriend Katrina whom I had also met in London. They shared a very nice studio apartment right between the West Village and Soho. I was shown my large sofa bed... quite a luxury considering the dorms I had been living in of late. As it was fairly late, we just talked for a while and then went to sleep.

Katrina and Emily went to work in the morning and I had a chance to start exploring New York City. I had been to New York on two separate occasions and had seen just about all the sights typical of a tourist trip. The weather was pretty bad so I kept indoors as much as I could. I didn't do too much but I did spend time getting admin done. That evening we all went out for some Malaysian food. I also sampled a Sake Bomb which is quite entertaining when you take it. A tall glass is half filled with beer and two chopsticks are laid parallel on top of it. A shot of hot sake is balanced on top. Then everyone sings a song which goes like this:

"I say Sake, you say Bomb.... SAKE!.... BOMB!.... SAKE!.... BOMB!!!!" On the second chant of BOMB! everybody smashes their fists on the table which makes the shot teeter off and fall into the beer. You immediately have to down the glass.

Setting it up

SAKE BOMB!

After a few of those, it was decided to go to a nearby bar called The Standard where chilled for a bit chatting. The plan had been to go to a club called Kiss n Fly as the Roots were playing there. One look at the front of the door made us decide to avoid the place and move to another small boutique club. Somehow we managed to sneak in without paying the cover but beers inside were a whopping $10! Compared to the $1 beers I had been sipping on before, there was quite a New York premium laid on!

Sara and Jen, two Italian fast-talking New York Ladies

Don't mess with those guns

The next day was time to see the NYC sites. I took a huge walk from West 3rd St all the way to Times Square on 45 St. I was dismayed to see the Virgin Megastore there was shutting down... it is one of the places I always visit to pickup some music. I had lunch at the New York Burger Company which was better than McDonalds at least! Walking back down through the West Village was like walking in a separate city with shady trees and greenery and quaint little buildings.

Times Square

I rested back at the apartment for a bit before meeting up with Lauren (a friend I had met in Costa Rica). We were at the Town Tavern where her friend worked. I think the bartenders there were more drunk than any of the patrons as they frequently stepped up onto the bar and poured shots down to the eager people below. Sometimes their aim was off and I saw a girl get totally splashed with red gooey liquor. From 6:30 till 8:30 we were literally having free drinks thrown at us. I needed to get out to eat and recover from that heavy session!

Friday was another walk around day. I saw the east village and enjoyed the brief respite in the rain until it started up again forcing me to retreat inside. Everybody was up for a party that night again... sigh! We met at the office of one of Emily's friends, Kayte. She works for Yelp in the middle of the city. The office had free alcohol and food so, as we were all cheapies, we indulged. We were having so much fun we realised that it was too late to go out! We had a load of fun though, playing random music, throwing large inflatable balls around and generally trashing the office. I actually feel really guilty about the state we left it in! I did manage to break my camera when I dropped it! Luckily the memory card still works so I have all my pictures. Once we had had enough we just caught a cab back to the apartment and fell asleep.

Drinks at the Yelp office

Ready...

Impact was spectacular!

On Saturday, Emily and Katrina were off to a Maxwell concert in Connecticut with Katrina's cousin Sophie. I was intending to go but the event had sold out and ticket prices had tripled to over $120 which was out of my price range. I sadly watched them depart but still had some friends to hang out with that evening. Sara, a born and bred New Yorker, and some other friends showed me to the Off The Wagon Bar. This place is called a Dive Bar and appropriately so due to its shoddy upkeep and slightly off-beat crowd. It was, however, brilliant! The music was good and the beer was surprisingly cheap!

The rest of the house returned early in the morning. We brunched at the trendy Bar Pitti restaurant where we all ate the pappardelle pasta! Desert was at the famous Magnolia Bakery where I had a delicious cupcake. Next stop was the Standard where we lounged on the sunbeds a while before moving to a theatre to watch 500 days of Summer. The movie was alright... bit of a chick flick and the characters could get annoying. A thunderstorm had occupied the city whilst we were in the theatre so we were greeted by flooded streets and Metro stations. Back at the apartment we said goodbye to Sophie as she headed back to Washington DC. Sara and some friends picked me up and took us on a drive through the city at night while we blasted tunes out of the car.

My last day dawned hot and muggy. There were 8 hours for me to finish up in the city. My first choice was to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). This had a great collection of Picasso, Cezanne and Pollock (to name a few). The museum conveniently supplies free audio phones to guide you through the exhibits. I plodded around in interest and occasional amusement. Museums have a bad tendency to put me to sleep after a few hours so once I felt my eyelids droop I knew it was time to move on. I got one hour to finalise all my travel arrangements and triple check my details. Then I was off to JFK to end the odyssey.