My Little Town Blues Are Melting Away

I would like to start by saying that hanging around this city for three full days had the Frank Sinatra song stuck in my head indefinitely. I felt like such a goober walking around singing that. Here, you can have a listen to the inside of my head for the last few days:



But on to more interesting fare: Our Three Days In New York City. We arrived in NY on Oct 20 after an eight hour flight from Dusseldorf (following 2 hr layover and flight from Munich) without personal televisions. If making someone sit in a ridiculously small chair for eight hours with no entertainment available isn’t a crime, it should be. But instead of pressing charges, we paid good money for those seats.

Fortunately, the plane arrived at JFK at the agreed time and our luggage came through, which I suppose were the main parts of the agreement. The flight landed at around 5pm, we had our luggage an hour later, and two or so hours after that we were finally in Manhattan approaching our sad excuse for a hostel. It was a long day.

But we were jazzed; we were back in our home country and only a few days away from being really home on the West Coast. I’ll talk about home later, now it’s time to discuss New York. I’ve technically been to NY when I was about 12, but I think that hardly counts since I don’t remember much, wasn’t in charge of anything we did, and had no concept of the layout of the city. Plus, I don’t think I had quite the introspective capabilities to analyze foreign lands (yes, I’m considering the east coast foreign – it is!) based on their customs and social practices when I was a pre-teen. I did know how to identify a crazy person though, and it’s true that they are still here.

New York City is a truly interesting place. It seems that when you smoosh a million or so people onto a tiny island things just go a bit nuts. Population density is proportional to insanity, I have found (I can make a chart if that would help). And NY is no different; it may, in fact, be the leader of the pack. More crazies per capita than anywhere I’ve ever been, that’s for sure. And I don’t just mean homeless people in your face or drunk teen-agers shouting on the streets (though I’m sure these can be found aplenty), I mean normal people like you and me that waltz around the city with a crazed glint in their eye.

They look normal, they’re dressed pretty standard, but they’re shouting obscenities into a cell phone in the middle of a Starbucks. Or, they look like they’re on their way to a business meeting, but instead of toting a briefcase, they are carrying an axe. Ok, I made that last one up, but you get the idea; these people are just a little off. Which does not mean they’re not friendly. Indeed, no, most of the people we encountered were extremely nice and helpful, offering subway advice and directions like we were old friends. Of course, some people are just surly jerks, but, welcome to the world, right?

My favorite normal-slash-crazy person we saw was a woman standing on a street corner. She was dressed in business attire with a long beige overcoat on. She had well-kept light brown hair, left down and reaching slightly below her shoulders. She wore makeup and carried a leather briefcase. She looked completely normal except that she was standing at a street corner waiting for the light to turn with her mouth completely open and a ridiculous, over-the-top surprised/shocked look on her face. It looked as though someone had just been murdered across the intersection in front of her white-collared eyes.

Turning to look where she was focused, there was nothing to be seen. Kane and I looked at each other. Maybe she just remembered something; she left the iron on at home or whatever. Glancing back after we passed her, she remained in the same position. It was as though she was catatonic. It was ridiculous and beyond speculation of an explanation. Which seems to be what a lot of New Yorkers are going for: you really need to be a freak to stand out amongst these folks.

Aside from the droves of people in New York, which can be a site unto themselves, there are also a billion noteworthy landmarks and attractions to see. Good ones too. We really didn’t even scratch the surface in only three days, but we did the NBC studios tour, went to the top of the Empire State Building, strolled through Central Park, were visually overwhelmed by Times Square, viewed the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry, wandered down Wall Street, stopped by the big empty space that is Ground Zero, and had lots of classic New York and American foodstuffs in between.


The first two days we were there the weather was gorgeous: sunny, warm, t-shirt time. The day before we left, Friday, the weather turned and we were caught out in the freezing windyness all day, much to my dismay. Overall, however, it was an excellent visit and I was glad to be re-acquainted with a city I visited so long ago. I would happily visit again, preferably in the early fall or late spring when the weather is likely to hold.

See the rest of our pictures of NYC here.

On Saturday, Kane and I boarded our respective flights to the West Coast, finally! I arrived back in Hayward at 4:45 with Dad waiting at the airport to pick me up, and Kane landed in Seattle at just about the same time, spending one last week visiting a couple friends and his momma in Washington and Oregon.

So, that was it, that was the trip. I will be further blogging regarding the aftermath of this whole extravaganza; spending totals (with charts included – you can’t wait!), summarizing musings, reflections, and our new life on the rebound. So, stay tuned for the epilogue, even though the pictures probably won’t be as exciting.