Taking the Cliched Bite - Part 1

At long last! Weeks in the coming.... days in the writing.... and here we are with my Tales from New York!! Part 1.

That's right. I decided after being encouraged by Mike (read - hounded) to publish my 4-day trip to the east coast in sequels. I was simply being too detailed in the writing, in order to give you the best picture of my travels, to just jot down a few notes and be done with it. Always with my readers in mind (all 3 of them), I thought it would do best to stop delaying the fun and finally publish Something - Anything. So think of it as the old school radio serials and enjoy the excitement and suspense as I finish up the next segment of the journey. With that in mind... Let us begin...

It was a dark and stormy night, the car had broken down on the highway where a lone lunatic with a hook for a hand...... wait - wrong story! Begin again.



New York City has inspired many a movie maker, song writer and author. After all this hype, how can you avoid wondering one thing - is New York really all that great? I decided it was about time I found out.

My last trip abroad took me to D.C. upon leaving and entering the U.S. to visit my good friend, Mike. This time I went a different route out to Europe, I went up to New England before coming to Ireland. It seemed only fitting to leave from the very place that many Irish ended up in the last century. All that was missing was a really gnarly fight between Leo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis. Alas, I had to content myself with watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the plane ride from the new world to the old. But I'm getting ahead of myself....

First, I must admit something. I love to fly. I do. I know, most people would confess that they hate it, but I feel that loving to fly is somehow looked down upon. Like - how could you be Crazy enough to enjoy sitting in a giant metal contraption speeding along at hundreds of miles per hour thousands of feet above the earth?! But I do. I love especially the takeoff and landing. I try to feel just when the tires leave the ground or make contact with it (obviously the latter is easier as it's usually accompanied by a large jolt followed by the flaps on the wings spread frantically trying to slow down).

Anyways, as I was enjoying the lift off and the passing scenery I was reflecting on how Colorado from the air looks like a patchwork quilt. With all the fields and farms of differing greens and browns. Some square-shaped, some circular. It is beautiful. Then we began my second favorite part of flying - going through the clouds. They were especially fluffy and brilliantly white that day. I imagine that is what its like to travel through cotton candy. Climbing above the clouds we started our cruising and then the clouds looked more solid than before. Like they were actually stage sets suspended from the sky by invisible strings. At that point the beauty of flying was also suspended by the realization I'd be stuck in an airplane (the not-so-fun part of flying, unless you get business or first class of course) for the next several hours with little hope of moving about as I always try to get a window seat and my access to movement was blocked by the two men in the seats next to me. So I settled in for a nice long nap...

After a while I woke up to a nice little mid-flight meal. That's right!! An airline that actually still feeds its passengers - and without charging for it! Who could they be?! Continental Airlines. It was my first time flying with them and I was very impressed. Nice seats, good (and free!) food. Plus they had the great luxury for me of just making one stop from Denver to Belfast.

And so it was I found myself in Newark Liberty Airport, completely on the other side of New York from my friends Julia and Saul, with whom I'd be staying, but hey, I'm sure it won't be too much trouble to get to them. And hour's drive and one hundred plus dollars later.. I got to Julia's apartment in Brooklyn. (I made the mistake beforehand of booking a Super Shuttle ride to Brooklyn - note to self - they only work in Manhattan, but the don't really tell you that online. They will take you to Brooklyn but you'll get a whole van to yourself and pay well for it!) The driver was very nice, he was from Uruguay of all places. He had me sit in the front seat to get a good look at the scenery as we cruised along and then got in a horrendous (but probably normal traffic jam) around the Holland Tunnel. He pointed out to me the Statue of Liberty (the only view I got of it on this trip) and some other highlights of Manhattan, like Chinatown and Little Italy. At this point I noticed that there are no real rules of traffic in the City. It actually reminded me of Russia where people would make lanes wherever they felt like and move freely even when all else around them was a complete standstill. At least in Russia they didn't pretend to have lanes by painting lines on the roads, unlike New York where you would think some semblance of order would reign. But no, its all part of the fun!

That night, after eventually finding the apartment in Brooklyn, Julia and I had a nice Thai dinner at a place nearby to catch up on the years that have passed between meetings. I met her husband Saul for the first time later that night when he returned from a music rehearsal. Then the next day, Thursday, she and Saul went off to work as usual as I planned my first day out in New York. I decided to try and find Little Italy again, but this time by foot.....

Come back next time (whenever that may be) for the next segment!