It’s been a few days since last post, and, as might be expected, lots of things have happened. I didn’t blog before because this is the first time I have internet and nothing that’s going to happen if I spend 10 minutes on a post.
On Friday, we left Boston, left the Hostel, even left the nice people we’d met there (bye, Lawrence, Howard and Ronald). Well, except for my brother, who cribbed some girl’s e-mail. Hehe. After picking up the car at the rental, I got my first experience with SUVs, automatic shift and american interstates, in that order. Our car is a “medium-sized” (meaning: small beached whale) SUV. For two people, a total waste, and I suspect massive fuel wastage. The cruise control is nice, and was our best friend after leaving greater Boston. Before we did that, we located a mall and got some affordable groceries – a much more cost-efficient way of feeding yourself, and healthier to boot.
We headed down to Plymouth to visit the Mayflower II, a rebuild of the ship the first english settlers in New England used. Next stop was a beach at Cape Cod for a relaxing walk, then onwards to a motel near Providence. Motel turned out to be cheap and comfortable, just very far out. The next day saw Newport, RI, and a lot of highway. We crossed Connecticut and New York into New Jersey, touched the NJ turnpike and headed into the little town of Secaucus. Despite being about 5 km from Manhattan, it’s a little thing with huge outlets in a swampy area. For some reason, nobody seems to use it for commuting. There’s a hotel there, which we booked for a little bit more quiet and higher standards than the barebones hostel in Boston.
After finding our drive across NY interrupted by a severe thunderstorm that flooded the interstate and caused 80% of all american drivers to go catatonic, we were pretty beat and wanted little more than to sleep in our beds. Note the plural, as we had booked two beds, non-smoking. Unfortunately,there’d been some problem, and we could only get a one-bed. Accordingly, the night was a bit… mobile. We were also annoyed by the noise of the central AC, 12 floors below our window but very audible. This is not how you build fans, people! Next strike happened when breakfast was not included, which is absolute standard in Germany, and I expected here as well, simply for 140$ a night… ah well. The last frustation was of our own making, though: Secaucus train station, which is the best way into New York, is somewhere on the other side of town. We decided to walk. After several re-directions and 90 minutes, we arrived sweat-drenched (hot and humid, thanks to the rainstorm before). A service lady that chatted us up replied “You walked all the way across stinking Secaucus?!?!” Yupp, we did, but only once. After that, it’s cab or car for us. So, if you know not to walk and where to find parking near the station (the station itself has NONE), then Secaucus is a smart choice to bunk. The hotel is still a little bit pricey, though.
Heading on… Manhattan. Pretty full, but not as much as usual, apparently. Supposedly, most of NYC is in the Hamptons or on NJ Beach. We got around pretty well, liked the subway, the streets, Central Park, the skyline… almost everything. The Hudson river was very nice to look at. We visited the Jewish Museum, which has a pretty solid historical timeline supported by high-class exhibits. The Holocaust is actually only a side topic; most of the museum is about 1200BC to 1800 AD. Recommendable.
After that, we wanted to visit the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, but the old aircraft carrier it’s on is apparently absent from its dock, and will return in 107 days. Or so the display says. That’s what you get for not using an up-to-date travel guide. We spent the rest of the day walking around and assimilating the flair of the city. After the return voyage, we bought 24h of Wifi access at the hotel, so we could plan the next few days and check opening hours and rates. We’ve got a pretty tight thing planned, but it’s going to be a lot of fun, too. I’ll post when able.
