Also, for the complete experience, I suggest you follow the links when you can!
***
It was 3:00 am, our shuttle was running ten minutes late,
and I was yelling expletives on the street corner. At this point, however,
there was nothing we could do, it was too late to change our minds, our trip to
New York City had begun. After six more aggressive phone calls to our driver
(who by the way, had passed our street two times already and kept saying was
five minutes away) and twelve more embellished renderings of the f-word, I told
my roommate and travel companion Joanna that it was time to surrender those 32 dollars and call a Lyft. That was how we met Edwin, our Lyft driver and hero of the day,
who was far more capable than PrimeTime Shuttle driver #6262246786 and got us
to the airport on time. As you can imagine, though, by this point I had already
convinced myself that this entire trip was a bad idea, I was on verge of a
nervous breakdown, and was about to repeat the airport meltdown I apparently
had at the solemn age of three. Not sure what exactly went down, but my
parents still bring it up, so it must have been bad. If you think I’m dramatic
now, you can imagine what I was like 17 years ago. This was also
exacerbated by the fact that there were only about $85 on my bank account at
that point, as my money transfer took forever to get through (and I also might have
taken a trip to Macy’s the previous day).
But it was gonna be okay, I told myself, everything was
gonna be okay. We boarded our plane to Newark just fine, I got some much needed
sleep, and we were in New York in no time. See! Flying is fun after all! Said
no one ever. As it is, of course, around halfway through the trip, this guy
ended up passing out right next to me on the plane. Just as in movies, he
passed out in the middle of the aisle, and the crew was calling for “doctors,
nurses, or medical professionals” to identify themselves. For the few minutes that he was unresponsive, I was honestly terrified. But then he woke up, said he was fine, didn’t comply with regulations, and ended up being very rude and dismissive to everyone, so by the end of the trip, I had lost most compassion I had felt for him. Though I still hope he got home okay. But yeah, eventually we got to Newark just fine, somehow made it to the AirTrain, then again somehow made it to the train to Penn Station, then somehow managed not to get lost on the subway and make it to Carroll Gardens. And in the meantime we had an unfortunate run-in with a pizza-less pizza rat. Because every rat in NYC is pizza rat, of course. I also had a 40-pound suitcase with me of course, which I had to drag up and down the subway stairs, but not even that could stop us.
But yeah, we eventually got to Carroll Gardens (which is
BEAUTIFUL and their holiday decorations are something else!), and after a
10-minute walk, there we were at our Brooklyn AirBnB, a gorgeous building with
an even more gorgeous eviction notice on it, and four flights of narrow stairs
that were just waiting for aforementioned suitcase. Yay! After settling down
for a bit and chatting with our host Manisha, we decided to venture into
Manhattan to see the tree and ice-skate at Rockefeller Center.
Yet before we get into all this, let me tell you one thing
about NYC in the winter: it’s gorgeous, yes, but it’s also cold af. And yes,
I’m sure you knew that already and so did I, but like, it was cold. Like, cold cold, the kind you think
you’re prepared for but really aren’t, unless you're one of those people who walk around in ski
gear 24/7 of course.
So, due to the weather conditions (and the $40 admission fee),
we decided we would not be ice-skating at Rockefeller Center. My “marvelous”
dreams of being Sally Hayes from The
Catcher in the Rye were crushed. (C’mon, we all know that Holden was an
unreliable narrator, and Sally really wasn’t that bad. She’s my secret
favorite.) It was a sad, sad moment. But hey, we still got to see the
tree, which was pretty, but also pretty anticlimactic. It turns out it isn’t that big after all. (At least it’s still
not the Montreal Christmas tree, though.)
 |
| "'I have a marvelous idea!' She was always having a marvelous idea. [...] 'Let's go ice-skating at Radio City!'" (page 113) |
 |
| For your full enjoyment, they were also playing this song on repeat. |
We were at Rockefeller Center for a while, taking
pictures and all, and once we got bored of being squished in a crowd of
aggressive tourists, we decided to walk around, eat a pretzel of unknown
origin, and head to Times Square. This moment also marked the beginning of the
“Lilla Can’t Read Maps and Decides to Head the Opposite Direction” saga. But eventually
we did make it there, took some cute pictures, got a few weird comments about my USC beanie (and
jacket and sweater, I went full on out) and then headed on a quest to find Krispy
Kreme, because apparently you have to go all the way to the East Coast to find
Krispy Kreme nowadays. While that was quite a challenge, because I can’t read maps we did end up finding it (hint: it’s in Penn Station, not inside Madison
Square Garden lol) and decided to head home.
 |
| Times Square can't shine as bright as you/ I swear it's true |
No comments:
Post a Comment