New York, New York

OK, first of all, why haven't I ever been to New York and Manhattan before? Seriously. What an extraordinary place.

I've been to lots of cities.... including..... London, Sydney, Tokyo, San Francisco, Bangkok, Paris, Munich, Rome, Athens, Barcelona, Edinburgh, Venice, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Seoul, Las Vegas, Mexico City, Caracas, Guatemala City, Belize City, Aukland, Berlin, Katmandu, Georgetown, Jakarta, Istanbul, Honolulu.... ha! those are just the tip of the iceberg. I'd have to say that New York and particularly Manhattan is now one of my favourites. Not so much for the architecture, or city itself, but for the energy and people.

I had the good fortune to have some amazing friends who live in the area. Two of whom, Kelly and Laura, I hadn't seen since we taught English together in Japan 15 years ago. Nicholas, I met at Burning Man. He was dressed as a giant monkey. I'll write more about this on the Burning Man pages - still to come. We've kept in touch since the event and I'd been thinking about heading to New York to visit him. However, I was feeling guilty about doing so because my parents live in New Brunswick and I figured if I went to New York, I wouldn't be able to afford to do both. WELL... I spoke with my parents mid-November and Mum told me SHE was heading to New York on a bus trip the first week of December. Hmmm... that got the brain spinning.

So, I looked into flights to New York from Calgary, and then from New York to New Brunswick. Well, turns out, it was almost the same price to fly to NY and then Moncton than it was to fly directly to Monton (go figure - gotta love Canada's airline monopoly!!). Continental Airlines actually offer one way fares, including taxes, from New York to Moncton for $150 Canadian!! Crazy deal. Flights to New York varied from Calgary - but they were around $180 or so. If you're looking for flight deals - there are several seach engines, and some of the best I've found are - www.cheapoair.com, www.flightnetwork.com, www.redtag.ca, www.cheapflights.ca. Good luck! It pays to search around.


So... New York. It became my agenda to surpirse my mother in NYC. I found out where she was going to be staying with the tour bus and booked a few nights at that hotel. We stayed at the Ramada Wayne in New Jersey. It was a nice, clean hotel with reasonable rates (be sure to book online, the rates there were about $20 cheaper a night than booking directly through the hotel) BUT the hotel is really out-of-the-way and almost impossible to get to without a rental car. Which, after seeing traffic in Manhattan, I do NOT recommend!

The first night I spent at my friend Kelly's place in Westchester. I used to teach English with Kelly in Japan 15 years ago and was very excited to see her after so long. I'd also just seen the movie "Precious" and the main character had wistfully mentioned Westchester as 'the' place to live. So I approached my visit with great excitement. I wasn't disappointed either. Public transit around the New York metropolitan area is exceptionally easy to get around on and almost always available.

Kelly's house was only a five minute drive from a main stop and she picked me up in the evening with her lovely son Riley. Getting reacquainted we headed to her lovely home where we talked the night away and had some good laughs remembering out time working for the JET Programme. I'd put in only a year in Hokkaido, but Kelly managed to complete three. She's a trooper.

The next morning we hopped on the transit and headed into her office in Manhattan. She is a partner in a company called Searchlight, which specializes in personnel placement. It sounded like a lot of fun, and their office was in a totally cool collective space - right off Union Square. So, arriving onsite, I quickly checked my email and FB and gave Nicholas a quick call. Nicholas is an awesome guy I met at Burning Man. He and I have kept in touch since the event in August and I was going to hang with him after connecting with my Mum a few days.

So, getting my city bearings, I head out for the day and explore. Getting below ground and onto the subway is always an interesting adventure. In New York you can buy passes for four trips which will save you about $2 overall. I only took a few wrong legs... but that is always fun. Everyone I asked for help was, well, helpful! And really friendly. Surprisingly New Yorkers overall were really, really charming and kind. Not the stereotypical perception of big-city folk. A very nice surprise.

Be prepared to do lots of walking. My friends from the "city" warned me to bring good walking shoes, and I didn't. I paid for it with sore feet and back. But, I didn't want to 'look' like the stereotypical tourist. Ah, the pain of vanity.

So, my first day in Manhattan I did just that - walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. I walked for hours. And then I walked some more. I explored most of the South East and Central areas of Manhattan. I ended up at Museum of Modern Art or MOMA for their 'free' Monday tours. Mum's group was at Radio City watching the Rockettes, so I had to get myself there to meet their bus. This was quite a trip as the woman who I was calling on the cell phone, wasn't a natural English speaker and I couldn't understand where she wanted me to go. Ha! If you had seen the crowds around the Rockefeller and Radio City area you would have understood my trepidation.