I just came back from a quick weekend trip up to New York City to meet up with Gus, my buddy from college. I’ve been cooped up in my house for the past five weeks and this has been a much-needed break from the homestead. I caught an 8:15am bus up to NYC and these photos are what ensued for the next few days.
Even though I’ve been to New York City before I have never experienced New York before. Previous times I was under age/ broke, so this time was definitely a baptism in the experience of New York. I was greeted by Gus in midtown around noon and eager to explore the city. We quickly exchanged greetings, caught up and made way over to his apartment to drop my things off. The apartment was on the fifth floor of a slim pre-war building in the East Village, so old that they did not have an elevator. We climbed up five floors of stairs and finally reached his place. Gus swiftly opened the door and the room smelled like pine sol, crisp winter air and hand rolled cigarette smoke.
I took in my new surroundings, immediately dropped off my backpack, got two fresh cups of coffee in my system and then went out to snag some lunch. We ended up going to this small little Sichuan restaurant, which was absolutely incredible. This place is THE TITS. It’s some of the most delicious and authentic Chinese food I’ve had since living in China. We got a spicy medley of meat and veggies marinated and seasoned in this deliciously spicy mix along with a side of fiendishly spicy fried rice. We were profusely sweating, shedding all of our winter layers in the process while gorging on this delicious food. With full bellies and excited minds, we left the restaurant and traipsed around downtown New York.
We walked a good sixteen miles today and finally made our way back Gus’s apartment with sore feet and satiated hearts. We climbed up the five flights of stairs, crumbled on the couch and promptly passed out. After waking up from our long deserved nap, we made our way out to a spattering of bars. We drank merrily in the chilled, holiday filled bars of downtown and indulged in a couple of slices of great pizza and a few Papaya dogs. They were the perfect night cap and we geared up for the next day.
I woke up next day with my feet throbbing and looked down and saw blisters the size of eggs on both of my heels. I knew today was going to be rough. I stayed nestled up in my sleeping bag for a while until I got restless and made Gus and myself some coffee. Once we were both extremely caffeinated, we got ready and moved on outside into the chilling winter weather. The game plan was to go all around Midtown, Times Square, Central Park, Little Italy and Chinatown. We took the train to Grand Central Station, went to Times Square, tried to get on Good Morning America and snagged some breakfast at a diner that was close by. After we warmed up and had some food we were ready to start our journey uptown.
After spending the whole day walking about 14 miles, we passed out and took another much-needed nap. About an hour passes and we gently awake from our slumber. We brew some more coffee, open a few beers, and trade music suggestions back and forth. We listened to everything from folk to hip hop to jazz. Louis Prima was pumping through the speakers and I quickly picked him out as King Louie from the jungle book and still have the whole soundtrack stuck in my head. We listened and chatted for about two more hours until we got hungry again. We then wandered outside to go to a personalized hot pot joint which was interesting, considering I’ve only had communal hot pot before. I got the extremely spicy Sichuan pot and it was delicious. After leaving with full bellies we ventured out again into the cold climate to get dessert at the Milk Bar which is a pretty popular dessert place in New York, I even saw an episode of the place on Chefs Table (great show and episode if you didn’t know). I got their cereal milk ice cream with corn flakes and was in absolute bliss, it was really bomb. I ate this thing all the way home, swiftly unrolled my sleeping pad and sleeping bag and once again promptly passed out.
Finally it is my last day in NYC, so we decide to go to Brooklyn for breakfast and a swift change of pace from Manhattan. It was absurdly easy to get to Brooklyn, it only took about a fifteen-minute subway ride and BAM we were there. We both wandered around through Greenpoint and Williamsburg, before we finally settled on a polish breakfast spot. I got a kielbasa, ham and cheese omelette with amazing hash browns which needed no ketchup. They passed the true hash brown test. Then we made our way back to Manhattan, I picked up my mom’s birthday present and read my Tai Pan book for the next few hours in Gus’s apartment. Right before the sun was about to go down, I packed up all my things, put on my beanie and heavy jacket, and made one last trek out into the cold. I walked all around downtown and made my way to the skyline which was extremely cool. It was kind of like going to the zoo, but this time the animals were millionaires with huge windows and no blinds. After wandering around the skyline for a while, I made my way back to the bus, waited in the cold for what seemed like an hour and then crashed on the first seat I could find as I slowly made my way home.