Day 1 - Airports, The Village, and Near Death Experiences

Hello from New York City! Well, actually Newark, New Jersey...

My first day of the trip has flown by (literally). I did a lot today that it seems weird to think that I actually lost three hours today with the time change. Maybe I'm not used to being awake for so long. Here's how it all went down:

The day started at like 5:30 AM. I don't remember much from the morning except that it was painful to be awake. Actually, I don't think i really woke up mentally until I was at Seatac Airport. My dad dropped me off and i went to check in my bags. I knew it was going to be an interesting day at this point when i came to realize the people at the check-in stand next to me also had the last name of Wilson. They were flying to Bismark. Our baggage tickets printed out at the same time and the Alaska Airlines employee almost mixed up our tags! That would have made for a long day. Anyways, that mess was resolved before it was a problem and i went through security (very smoothly, for a change).

I had a good hour and 20 minutes before my flight left so I sat in the beautiful new addition to the airport. There's this huge window that looks out into the mountain range and there are rocking chairs and cool artwork consisting of thousands of pieces of metal hanging from the ceiling forming the shape of a bird. Hard to explain, really. So I sat there drinking my Airborn medicine. Man, if you haven't tried this stuff, I recommend you do. It makes you feel like a million bucks. And i've yet to get any sign of sickness from the flight!

The flight took forever and ended up being delayed from this and that for about 45 minutes to an hour. I didn't want to watch a movie on my nifty portable dvd player because i need to save the entertainment for the long flight tomorrow! So i pretty much sat there and read the latest edition of Food & Wine magazine from cover to cover. Good stuff.

So we land and i find my way to my hotel. The Hilton at the Newark Airport. It's right next door to a bud light (blackstone, for those in the know) brewery. I think i was a little ambitious in my priceline booking. Don't get me wrong, the hotel is great, but the location is pretty far from manhatten. Despite the distance, i was ready to hit the big apple!

So i go down to the bellhop and ask what the best way to new york was. He gave me three options i already knew. I chose the best choice but thought i had the best idea in mind. I thought i could cut down a lot of travel time by just walking down the road to the closest New Jersey transit station. This was a big, stupid mistake. So I start walking blindly through Jersey City toward the direction of a station i knew of. I thought it was only like a mile but it ended up being about 3. Anyways, the path i took to the station led me through these really old Jewish cemeteries. They were really cool and surprisingly welcoming. After I passed the cemeteries, i ended up in this weird industrial part of the town and was literally walking on the train tracks. This was pretty sketchy.

So i follow the tracks for a couple miles. I forgot to mention that it's like 85 degrees out, so i'm working up a good sweat. I finally get to the station but realize I can't get to it from down on the tracks (again, hard to explain). The only option is to actually cross the tracks. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but let me remind you that there's quite a big amount of electricity flowing through a few of them! So smart-me starts jumping them. I get across 10 or so then go to jump over another and realize right as i'm about to jump that there's a dead, decaying dog right where i was going to land. Somehow my mind thought at a mile a minute. Sample of my train of thought: "Dead dog! Gross! Oh wait, I can't NOT jump, because i'll land on this track that will probably kill me. That's probably what killed this dog. Wait a minute, why am I wasting time thinking about what killed this dog. STOP STOP STOP!!!" Somehow i maintained my balance and quickly got across the rest of the tracks, as there was a train zooming toward me. So I start walking trying to find the entrance to the train station but realize there is none. I would have had to cross a freeway to get to it. So I decide to just hoof it another 2 miles...

Ever heard of the expression, "The wrong side of the tracks"? Well, that's exactly where I was, literally. I don't recommend anyone going into that area unattended or unarmed. ;) So I make my way through the ghetto for two miles, partly by bus (?!). I find my way to Penn Station and jump on the first PATH train to NYC. PHEW!!!

Ok, so I was thinking all day about how I really wanted to visit the Village. This is where NYU is. I've been to new york twice before and have never made my way to this part of town. Let me just say this...what a shame! This place is sooooo cool. The culture, the environment, the people, the businesses, the music. It has it all. A very hip part of nyc...

So at this point i'm hungry. I stop by the nearest cornermart and buy a banana to enjoy while walking through Washington Square Park. This place is awesome. It's not huge, but it's very happening. In the middle of the park is this big circle thing where people can sit. There was actually a pretty funny magic show going on that I sat down and watched while consuming my banana. The big memorial arch is in this park as well. For some reason i've always thought this thing looked really cool and have always wanted to see it. I enjoyed myself so much that i think i'll return tomorrow!

After enjoying the park for a while i decide to walk around the village. Some hilights included getting in trouble for trying to take a picture in the NYU library (the stairs looked really cool!), watching a really good pickup basketball game on a street corner, seeing a shoplifter in a tug of war match with a store owner over a pair of baby blue sweat pants, and scouting out dives to visit tomorrow for lunch. I found a killer cajun place. More on that tomorrow. OH, and I found "Other Music." Some of you are aware of my fondness of this store. It's a really hip music store in the village that is frequented by a lot of musicians that you're probably spinning in your discman or have queue'd in your ipods. There is just so much happening in this city, it amazes me. Makes me think of what it'd be like to be a student at NYU.

After walking around for about an hour I decided to take the long trip back to my hotel. This went pretty smoothly and allowed me to take another look at the world trade center. Here's a picture of one of the foundation support posts they left standing that's in the shape of a cross. For those of you that haven't been there since 2001, believe me when i say it's a very surreal experience.

I'm back in my hotel now writing this thing up. I just realized how long this is. Not every entry will be this long (i don't think, at least). But I'll try to be as thorough as possible and try to keep the typo's at a minimum. I'm actually typing this all in notepad and am not going to bother spell checking.

Anyways, I might not update tomorrow night because I'll be on an airplane to Germany! But I'll make sure to tell everyone about what happens tomorrow in some sort of "daily double" post.

Till then,

br