Note: My luggage has finally arrived – weather in Hawaii has been a ‘blast of wintry chill’ according to the news, lots of wind and rain but there was a nice spot of time, where I was able to do some discovering!
I began typing this on the Amtrak from DC to New York. Last night our study tour ended with a party at a local bar, the Santa Fe. We all had a fantastic time and it was an ideal place to let our hair down before we all went our separate ways. The photos from the night are up on Flickr. On to New York!
The Union Station Amtrak experience was just.. ridiculous. Queues of people, no public address system giving useful and clear information, they keep everyone queued up into the main area so they block everywhere else. I had to load my 100 pounds of luggage up the high train steps and then onto the carriage as there was not one person around who could assist me. Then I had to somehow lift this up onto the luggage hold area as well. I am strong but you have to be kidding me. I am not sure what their reasoning is for just not having checked luggage but it was absolutely ridiculous. Not everyone is a business traveler with only a briefcase and complete opposes every other Amtrak experience I have had. It seems that the North East corridor on Amtrak is definitely not friendly to the actual traveler who has luggage!
Also the announcements are barely a whisper so it is impossible to understand what is going on. Silly Jenelle was half asleep and woke up to see ‘Penn Station’ out the window. MY STOP! I ran down the carriage and somehow, managed to get my big suitcase off the rack in one swoop and literally throw it off the train and onto the platform and then I grabbed my 2nd bag and hauled that straight out the door and jumped the 3 steps off. It was then that one of the attendants saw me – as I was looking around thinking “Wait – this doesn’t seem like Penn Station… it is too quiet”. The attendant then looked at me and said “Girl – what you doin’ gettin’ off the train at Newark?” Still waking up I replied – “New York Penn Station?” He then replied “Girl you gotta get back on that train – New York Penn Station is the next stop. So get this… Newark and New York (both sound the same over a muffled speaker) are next to each other and both call themselves Penn Station. Go figure! So again, I hauled my masses of luggage up those crummy train stairs and embarrassingly slid back into my chair.
Now for New York, I was all booked in for my usual resting place, the Big Apple Hostel. In that last week at Maryland I ended up checking out one of those last minute travel sites and up came the Pod Hotel with an average of $70 per night for my stay. I was looking at about $110 per night with a shared bathroom at the Big Apple! Whoa! So I booked it. And what a great decision as I think you could tell from my Flickr photos – the place is pretty spesh.
The only issue I had was with slamming doors – it got a bit frustrating as the walls are paper thin, one night the people in the next room would not shut up and the housekeeping crew (who were all wonderful and did an amazing job!) when they would be firing up the industrial vacuum and knocking on every door saying ‘Housekeeping’ from9am onwards. Especially on a weekend, I think that is harsh especially in a place that has no noise insulation at all. I ended up keeping my ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on at all times at least hoping that people may be a bit quiet if they know someone is in the room. But – my room, for one person, is absolutely perfect and the location. Also perfect. I would definitely return, but I’m not sure if I would pay the $160-ish or so that a room like that would normally go for.
Sunday in New York managed a very late sleep in and lots of laying in bed, eating fruit that I bought off 2nd Avenue and doing a bit of a (chilly) walk around midtown before catching up with some of the other RMIT students who had returned to New York. We planned to go out for dinner and meeting at the M&M’s store in Times Square while it was about -5000 degrees was fun! I suggested we check out ESPN Zone so we could catch the Giants Vs Packers game but – there was about 5 million other people that had the same idea. Guill suggested the Olive Garden – 45 minute wait. I then suggested Indian at my favourite little place – Bombay Masala on W 49th. Up those dodgy stairs and there were only a few tables taken! Yay! On past trips, I have done multiple visits to Bombay Masala and went Ev and I were staying at the Radio City Apartments we were there a little too often. One of the waiters ended up getting to know me on that trip and on our last night in New York when Ev and I decided to celebrate with… Bombay Masala… he jammed my takeout bag with lots of goodies and ice-cream.
Returning to the restaurant with ‘the crew’ I couldn’t believe it when we had that same waiter and he remembered me! Ha! We ordered a multitude of different dishes and have a good time catching up and debriefing the whole two weeks at Maryland. Silly me didn’t take any photos but it was lovely catching up without thinking of class the next day. The trek back to the hotel was frightfully cold – even on the subway that normally provides some decent warmth! But at the same time, New York at night is just beautiful and I didn’t mind feeling my snot basically freeze in my nose to see all those city lights!