I [don't] Heart NYC

I know its rather late to be putting up a post about a trip that I took almost 6 months ago, but since I'm a chronic procrastinator and I live by the motto "better late than never" I thought it was better late, well, than never! so here are some thoughts on Sarah, Dana's and my trip to New York City back in September:

After the memorial, the Apple Festival, a "barbecue" at my cousin Eddie's house and a quick look at my Uncle Dan's Porsches, Sarah, Dana and I were off on the train to New York City. There were several firsts for me in that last sentence: it was my first trip to New York City, my first time riding a train in the United States and the first time I had ever been to a barbecue with no barbecue (apparently they apply this word more liberally on the east coast). The train ride was uneventful except for when Dana and Sarah began dancing to "I like big butts" which was playing over the iPod they were listening to together. If people had three ears, then head phones would be equipped with three speakers, we don't so they are not and I did not get to share in the iPod music >:-(.

Uncle Dan in his famous Porsche workshop

When we got to the main station, the whirr began. In fact as I sit here writing, a fog (or rather a smog ;-) has descended on my brain and the details of the trip are all a blur. Everything about New York City is an overload on the sences. I don't really know how we got from place to place. I just got off the subway when Dana said get off and we would emerge into some new area of the city. Then we would descend back down into the dark, hot subway tunnel and arrive somewhere else (not always where we were intending on going... ).

The first two nights we stayed at a youth hostel. It was ok, but I have the feeling that I'm getting too old for youth hostels. It reminded me of living in the StuSie (student dorm here in Freiburg), where it was always kind of dirty and loud and when you took a shower you were afraid that a body part might inadvertently touch some part of the shower, worst of all the curtain. Yeh, I think I'm done with dorms and hostels. Fortunately, the next two nights Dana and I stayed at my friend Ashley's, who lives in Manhatten.

Dana and Sarah hitting up one of the many hot dog stands in the city

We had dropped sarah of at the airport that morning, well it was more of a "drive by" since we didn't actually get off the subway with her. Dana and I continued on to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge which happened to be on the same line as JFK. After a long, hot walk from the subway station with Dana's body language telling me in no uncertain tones, that we had better find this place quick and it had better have been worth the travel. We did find it and it was quite nice, although we didn't actually get to see any wildlife. We did see an old German man with Alzheimer's that spoke German but didn't seem to understand it when I spoke it to him.

Dana and I at Central Park

Thanks to Dana's culinary enthusiasm, we dined at some of New York's most elite restaurants as well as some out of the way, yet incredibly tasty restaurants like Momofuku's. I have always thought of New York as being the center of all things cool, or rather things trying to be cool. One perfect example, is that restaurants that have any self respect do not post their name on the outside of the building. This makes them difficult to find unless you already know they are there. This means you have to be "in the know" to be able to eat there. Rather pretentious if you ask me and a whole lot of nonsense. Never the less, I was in the know about Momofuku's because Dana had already been there, so I gained the priveledge of eating there.

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge with the NY skyline in the background

Dana and I explored the city, checking out Central Park, the Staten Island Ferry, Ground Zero (by accident actually), Filene's basement and several hot dog stands. I did make it to one museum, the Met. It is rather large and overwhelming and Dana rushed me through the ancient Greek and Roman section which is what I was particularly interested in and then after large format Dutch paintings we both sort of lost interest and hit the gift shop. After four hot, sweaty, dirty days and several hundred dollars later our trip was over. Dana was flying back to Seattle and I was heading down to Washington DC. Again, I did a drive-by-drop-off at the Newark Airport and continued on my way.

The Verrazano Bridge which my Grandpa Boompa (Edward Mullowney) worked on as an engineer - viewed from the Staten Island Ferry

Disclaimer: These are just my (Libby's) thoughts on the trip, I'm sure you'll get two totally different versions from Dana and Sarah. I do hope they will supply us with these versions!!