Taking a bite: day 1

We had a party back home the night before leaving for New York. The party ended at about 2:00AM, at which time I started packing my backpack. I went to bed at 3:00AM to wake up two hours later, at 5:00AM to be at the airport by 6:00AM.

2 hours later we were in New York.

Just before landing, I managed to take a few aerial pictures of the Big Apple.

Well, the plan was to go broke since early by paying for a taxi to the hotel, until we saw the bus. $2.00 and they take you to Manhattan. How cool is that? We started this whole trip with the right step. That is, until we realized that we had no idea where we were or where we should get off the bus.

Eventually, we got off at a random stop and decided to walk while using our trusty Google Maps print-outs. Based on our guesstimated location, we calculated that we had to walk 67 blocks to get to our hotel, so we started walking. After 19 blocks and about 5 Starbucks, we decided to cross to where Central Park was supposed to be. From there we just took a cab.

At the hotel, we couldn't do anything since the check-in was at 3:00PM and it was still 11:00AM. We left the bags in storage and we went to Ray's Pizza. Then we decided to go back and use the really small restrooms in the lobby to get ready. By ready I mean dressing nicely for going to see The Phantom of the Opera at The Majestic theater in Broadway, but right before that, we walked all of Times Square and turned around after walking by The Empire State Building and Macy's. The Phantom of the Opera was just fantastic! It's no wonder why they've been showing it for so long. It's worth every cent of the three-digit-priced ticket.

After we got out of the show, we finally did the check-in at the hotel. For that price we should have had someone carrying us upstairs, but instead we got an elevator in which we could barely fit in. Nice room, except it was ugly. We had a compuer: that was a plus, except that it was broken and they said they couldn't do anything about it. Oh well.

We finally took a much needed shower and headed out to the city. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon, at 48th Street between Times Square and Broadway. I highly recommend it. I'm usually scared of Asian restaurants; my experience, at least in Ann Arbor, is that they don't know what vegetarian means. They won't hesitate to tell you that something is vegetarian, but in reality it's made with fish or chicken stock. Not in this place. Here, as soon as I said I was vegetarian, the waiter started changing things in my dish. He removed the fish stock and changed the beef sauce with peanut sauce. The result was quite excellent: vegetable skewers served over rice crêpes with peanut sauce on top. Yum!

After eating, we visited the Empire State Building and went all the way up to the observatory. Amazing view! I've never been up so high and not be in a pressurized cabin. We kept walking around just taking it all in...the views, the lights, the buildings. New York City is definitely a big and overwhelming place.