Chicago to New York

I awoke before my alarm scared me awake so I got up and moving before I changed my mind.
I was on the street and rolling towards Adams station by 6:30 and caught the orange line train to Midway Airport at 6:49.

At the airport it was the usual check in, go through security and sit and wait for boarding – some things never change.

Having boarded the plane – I had a window seat this time, and a slim attractive blonde young lady sitting next to me, so it was almost an exact opposite of my flight to Chicago.

The young lady asked me where I was from after she heard me ordering my drink from the flight attendant. I asked her to guess – and she got it wrong! Anyway, it was the start of a conversation. She had travelled around Europe quite a bit and rated London as her most favourite city in the world! As her husband is “in the military” (I asked no questions) she had spent a few years in Germany (no, I did not say “as part of another occupying force”) and they had travelled around Germany and its surrounding countries – so she knew Europe existed and where it was. One of her ambitions was to travel from London to Paris through the Chunnel (she knew that exists too)! I told her about my travels and where I was up to in my itinerary, which she seemed very impressed with and thought I was very cool to be doing it. (This helped the ego rather although I always keep it on a very short leash as I do not suffer from delusions of grandeur or believe I can only be harmed by kryptonite!)

This was a really great way of passing a two hour flight – which cost me three hours due to another time zone crossing – as before we knew it the captain was announcing our final approach to La Guardia. I had a view of this sprawling urban mass on the ground which just seemed to get bigger as we got nearer – and then we were landing in the middle of it! First impressions: New York is big – really big – in fact huge!

Having landed we said farewell to each other and I went in search of my luggage.

There are a few stressful times I suffer in travelling:
1. Making sure I get to the airport/station/terminal on time
2. Ensuring I am on the right plane/train/boat
3. Wondering whether the bastards have lost my checked in luggage or sent it to some distant part of the world

This time it was number 3 which caused me grief. After waiting half an hour for my bag I was beginning to hatch some concern. Yes, I had double checked that I was waiting at the correct carousel for the baggage from the flight I was on. I felt a little better when other people from the same flight were beginning to look anxious and annoyed and check their watches a lot. After three quarters of an hour a small glut of baggage was vomited onto the carousel. Mine was in the second issuing and a huge wave of relief washed over me.

I decided to celebrate with a cigarette and headed outside. This has a dual purpose, other than shortening my life, because it is there one can locate taxis and busses. Having established there is no direct Subway connection to La Guardia it was down to bus or taxi. I accosted a man lounging down by the exit door with a ticket machine slung over his shoulder and asked him about the shuttle busses which ran from the sign nearby. According to the sign a one way trip to Manhattan would cost me $12. The man was far more helpful than the sign as he asked me where in Manhattan I needed to go (it is rather big you see) and when I showed him the hostel address I had written down he said “Ah, come with me” and lead me back inside the terminal building and took me to the information desk. He told the guy behind the desk where I needed to go and said “this guy will help you” and went back to lounge by his sign. I thanked him for his assistance and the guy behind the desk told me where to go for the M60 bus (M = Manhattan, Q = Queens, etc) and said tell the driver you want 103rd and he will let you know. All very helpful people so far – New York was impressing me on arrival.

The bus cost $2 and covered a 33 Km journey into uptown Manhattan. At the end of the line the bus driver got off the bus with me (it was his break before turnaround) and pointed over the street saying “This is Broadway, the next block over is Amsterdam, make a right and the hostel is two blocks down.” Bloody marvellous, I didn’t even tell him I was looking for the hostel just 103rd Street. I thanked him very much and he said “You’re welcome. Enjoy your stay in New York.” Well so far the myth that New Yorkers were rude unhelpful bastards was totally null and void in my opinion so far. I came here with an open mind anyway and so far I was pleasantly pleased.

I found the hostel – right were the bus driver said it would be – and checked in.

Having dumped all my stuff I ventured out for my usual orientation walk and to find something to eat as I hadn’t all day and was very hungry.

It is true that one can eat anything one desires 24 hours a day in New York – whatever you want: Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Sushi, Italian, etc, etc, for the whole world cuisine. If it isn’t on ones doorstep one can have it delivered as there will be a 24 hour version of one of the above. The only problem I had was being understood. Once you have stopped laughing dear reader it is because of my accent – that is what two vendors told me anyway “sorry sir, I couldn’t get your accent”. This doubly proves the fact that English is the second most popular language in America – Spanish is the first. In fact I have heard more Spanish here than I did in Spain!
Anyway, having managed to acquire food and some damn fine coffee by translation of English into gibberish (in my opinion) I returned to the hostel for an early night in order to be refreshed and ready to take my first bite from the Big Apple.

As it was still rather early I thought I would ring my brother. I had just purchased a new ‘phone card and thought I would ring him first so we actually got to finish a conversation instead of getting cut off. This I duly did and during the following two hours I spoke to him and all the family.

All in all I would say my first impressions of New York were good.

I slept soundly.