Tuesday: Jet Lag and Central Park

Our descent into New York was quite unpleasant, after a red-eye flight on which they forgot to stock pillows and blankets, we got into JFK airport at 5 am. Not having slept at all, we sat around the airport for a couple of hours while we had breakfast and tried to plan our day. Of course, leaving the airport at around 7 am put us onto incredibly crowded subways, since, duh, it was now rush hour. It takes 40 minutes or so on a particularly cruddy subway line to get from JFK to midtown manhattan. When we tried to make our connection downtown to get to where we were staying, the trains were so jam packed we couldn't even get on them with our luggage. So we waited at some tables outside the subway stop until about 9:15 am, when we finally made it to the hotel. That day, after about a two hour nap, we just strolled in central park, then had some dinner and then went to the bookstore. Did I mention it was 100 degrees out with 95% humidity? I was hating NY that day.

But it got better. Our place was very interesting. It's like staying at a friend of a friend's who is never home and has roommates, and says, 'here's your key, the bathroom's down the hall'. Our host, Carlos, was very nice and helped us to our room and we only saw him occasionally the enitre time. As for the other guests, I only saw two. The only inconvenience was that the bathroom down the hall was sometimes occupied. But never for too long - it seemed the other guests were clean and friendly. But hey, for $100 a night, for two queen sized beds, a large room with a balcony (provided you can climb out the window) and 12 foot ceilings, you can't beat it. The room was definitely worn in its outfittings, but we didn't mind that at all.