Last Friday, in the middle of all my presentation chaos, I left for a weekend vacation with a friend from my ward, Emily. We basically had packed all of our things into a backpack to carry around the city. And since I was going straight from work to Penn Station to catch the bus to NYC, then I had to take all my stuff to work. Therefore, I had to take my laptop to NYC with me, because I have to take it to work (which ended up being beneficial because there was wifi on the bus and in the hostel). Long story short, the backpack was heavy.
I left work early (around 3:30) and caught the shuttle with Emily to Penn Station. We waited for our bus to NYC. We had booked tickets on the Bolt bus. Tickets are $20 each way. Well...the bus was like 45 min late to Penn Station. So we sat on the street of Bmore on our laptops. I think I'm becoming desensitized to the city.
The bus came, and it ended up being a much nicer bus ride than I expected. The seats are fairly comfortable for a bus. It was similar to an airplane on the inside I guess, not like a public bus or anything :) But not much like a coach bus either. Kinda hard to describe. I slept probably half the time because my motion sickness meds knocked me out. The rest of the time I just played on my laptop. The bus ride was about 3.5 hours long.
Me and Emily on the bus to NYC!
We then arrived in NYC. We got out of the bus, and it was SO AMAZING! I LOVED it! Words can't even describe. It was like a dream come true! NYC has been my dream vacation for years. No idea why. Esp. since I've discovered that cities aren't totally my thing. But I still loved it. NYC is a lot cleaner than Bmore, and the people there are a lot different, too. I also noticed a different smell there. It still had the stench of a city, but I think what I smelled was the lack of the smell of Baltimore. I'm not sure though. I told Emily I thought NYC smelled nice. Perhaps I was still a bit drowzy on my meds. Again, I'm not quite sure.
My first glimpse of NYC!
Emily and I love frozen yogurt. There's a little shop called Pinkberry that Emily likes to get froyo at, and it was only a few blocks away from the Penn Station in NYC where we were dropped off at. We walked there and got some froyo as a welcome to NYC treat! Food in NYC is expensive.
Pinkberry :)
Next, we went to the Empire State Building!! It was night time, and Emily was excited because it was the first time that she had come to NYC and had actually had enough visibility atop the building to be able to see anything. I guess I was lucky that on my first time there I was able to have a clear night. It was about 9:30 pm when we first entered the doors. It cost us $22 for a ticket to get to the 86th floor observation deck. Once we had our ticket, we had to wait in a line. And then another line. And then another line. And then another line. And then another line. ETC. for what seemed like forever. An hour and a half! Maybe two hours. I really don't remember exactly. But it was a long time. But. When we got to the top...it was SO worth it. The views were absolutely spectacular!! There were a lot of people there that night, but when we could fit in around the crowd, it was amazing what we could see!! The pictures show maybe one tenth of one percent the magnificence of the experience.
I swear every car in NYC is a taxi!!
By the time we left, it was pretty late, probably around 11:30 or midnight. We then went to Times Square and walked around. It was night time, but the lights were so incredibly bright that you would think it were daytime. The nightlife was also so unbelievable! Stores were wide open, and street vendors were out selling their merchandise as if it were noon, not midnight. People were dressed up as different characters (Elmo, Batman, Reese's PB cups, Spiderman, etc.) every block or so getting their pictures taken with passersby. It was such a cool place to be. Words really cannot even describe it!
The world's largest department store
A view down Broadway!
Times Square
McDonald's in Times Square
Broadway billboards in Times Square
From there, we went to the Times Square subway station, and got on the metro line toward our hostel. Yes. We stayed in a hostel. Our hostel was in upper Manhattan, in more of a neighborhood area, so it was also cool to get to see a titch of what the less touristy areas looked like. We checked into the hostel at like, 1:30 in the morning. The guy at the front desk asked me if anyone had ever told me if, from the photo on my ID, had told me that I looked liked Lindsay Lohan. Ummm...no. They definitely have not. haha!
We were in a 12 person, all female dorm room. We got there and 2/3 of the beds were filled with sleeping people, so we had to get ready for bed quietly using the lights from our cell phones in the room. Down the hall was the bathroom. I actually think the hostel was waaay nice. I probably had skewed perceptions though. 1) everyone had told me awful things about hostels besides Emily, and 2) I've been on an air mattress all summer, so a real mattress made me feel like I was royalty or something.
Anyway, the overall day (once the trip to NYC began atleast) was incredible. The dream vacation had begun at that point! Tune in tomorrow to read what happened the next day on my NYC adventure :)
Love your blog. Thanks for taking me to NY with you.
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