Morning Tea Musings/NYC Recap

So, sucking down some black tea on a Sunday morning. Almost slept to 7am today--disgraceful! But it does set the stage for a lazy, lazy Sunday.

Yesterday I went to NYC--took the train up. It was my first time on an American train, I believe. Impressions: expensive and noisy. I mean, the train itself was fine, but the people on the train were so loud. Stepping onto the train was like being smacked with noise (I was going to say it was like walking into a wall of sound, but that is so cliched. Though, honestly, I can't really come up with anything too clever in the morning). The other thing is that I had that strange passing heart attack feeling when I realized that I didn't have my passport with me.

Anyway, the train ride took about an hour, and dumped us off at Penn Station, in the middle of Manhattan.

I really like NYC--I always have. I think that I could actually live there. It is different from other cities in the states because it... well, it just has everything. I think a person could live in NYC and never actually have to leave the city for anything. (Whereas in other cities my impression is that a person would still have to own a car to leave the city for some things they just couldn't get in the city). For me, NYC=No Car (and I love equations that =No Car).

Anyway, I'm pretty surprised that I can still walk today (I was a little stiff/sore when I got up, but nothing like Vienna). But yesterday I walked around Times Square, I visited NYC Public Library (I am a nerd, I know), I saw Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building (the Art Deco tour--I've reached an age where I actually like Art Deco. It just seems very American to me. This might just be a reaction to the Art Nouveau in Prague--which I liked, but... Art Deco appeals to my sense of aesthetic just a bit more. And this will all change in a couple of years--or even months). I also saw the Flatiron building (quite by mistake--I was looking for a subway). I finally found the subway and took it down to Wall Street, where I went to Battery Park, meandered Wall Street some, saw Trinity Church and St Paul's Chapel, walked past the WTC hole in the ground, saw City Hall, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (whew, I'm getting a little tired reliving my day), took the subway to Central Park, meandered through Central Park, walked back to Penn Station, came home (and managed to not fall asleep on the train--I have no idea how I managed to stay awake).

I had wanted to go to the Met and the Cloisters, but... well, as you can imagine, I ran out of time. I arrived in NYC just before 10am and I left at 7:15pm (and except for an hour total on the subway and about an hour sitting in Central Park, I was on my feet the entire time). I may try to go back (though the train ticket was $20 round trip, so I might try to drive a bit closer, park in Jersey, and take a subway or something in to the city). But I figure I just have one more weekend here--gotta do something great.