New York!

Ah, the Big Apple... After spending only a few days in New York City, I am not ready to say that I am completely, 100% positive that I would LOVE to live there. But I do think it would grow on me very quickly, especially once I was acclimated to life in the big city.

I really enjoyed the variety, the languages spoken, and how easy it was to get around, using both subways and buses. With all the transit-related stuff I have been doing for the past year, I will admit that I had a lot of fun taking the subway out to the far reaches of Manhattan, and then riding the bus back downtown, with a great view of the neighborhoods (i.e. Fort Washington, Harlem, Upper West Side, Broadway, Midtown, etc) on the way!

The highlights of my trip were a visit to The Cloisters and St. Paul's (next to the site of the World Trade Center) on Friday, spending time with friends on Saturday, when I went to the Met with a friend who came down from New Haven, and to a bar in Greenwich Village called the 55 Club with family friends who were also in New York from Kansas! I also had some really great meals, Italian food in Greenwich Village, Mexican at Grand Central Station, Peruvian in Rahway, NJ, and South Indian in a town near Rahway. It was all fantastic!

I did discover that it is not all that difficult to find a quiet place in the city, or nearby, if all the humanity gets to you -- The Cloisters, and Fort Tryon Park where they are located, were just gorgeous, and I also spent over an hour at the beach before heading to the airport. Yep, there is a beach in New York City, at Rockaway. With a strong, cool breeze off the ocean, and hardly anyone on the boardwalk, it was very relaxing.