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We left the Boston Holiday Inn using their shuttle bus to the Tramway to take the train into South Station. This must define us as a little skinflint-ish as we deliberately left a half to an hour early so that we could use yesterday's subway tickets! However there was little we could have done with that time so using it as a cheap but stress free route to the station with our luggage was as good as any.
The time at the station passed reasonably quickly, even with the additional half hour wait due to the train being delayed. We were 'entertained' by the constant, and repeated, stream of visitors to the Lottery Ticket vending machine that was just by our seats. We have to say entertained in inverted commas because whilst it did keep us occupied in observing and discussing the behaviour of its customers it was too sad an experience to take enjoyment from. There were four users who repeatedly visited the machine, all male but otherwise different in social standing. They ranged from a station official (not uniformed but smartly dressed with a security badge so we assumed office/administration or some such), who spent around $40 over five visits, to a beggar. All clearly had a gambling problem. Needless to say no-one won anything whilst the machine was fed with at least $100 during the hour we watched. The machine was emptied whilst we were there: the operator just swapping the sealed cash box and walking away with the full one in a plastic carrier bag.
At last our train to New York was ready to board so we made our way onto the train and onto the last leg of our North American adventure. The four hour journey passed quickly with blog writing and glimpsing the scenery: Connecticut looked very pretty. Then into the fray that is New York. We found a step free exit from Penn Station that took us, luckily to a quiet side exit and no taxi cab line (or queue as we believe you say in England, how quaint!) so were able to hail a passing yellow taxi easily and quickly. Our taxi driver turned out to be a truly lovely man, how often could you say that about a NY taxi cab driver?! We had arranged to meet our airbnb host close to the apartment we'd be renting in Lower East Side but needed to fine tune the arrangement along the way, not a problem. We were soon in deep conversation with Putu (our driver) about the benefits of holidaying via house-swapping and we had an immediate invitation to his real home in Bali! Then as he was getting excited about the idea of joining the house-swapping scheme he missed the road we needed, when we pointed out to him that he'd gone passed he was so apologetic that he switched the meter off!!
And then to meet with Jake our airbnb host and find his flat. We're on the top floor of a small set of flats over Chinatown shops: actually over a most interesting fish shop with live sea urchins and live crabs! There is a rather fishy smell at the entrance door but you do lose that as you climb to our flat. The apartment is small and clean if a bit tatty but does have everything we need and is a third of the price of the cheapest hotel we could find and its location gives Dave a great introduction to New York life (Jill has been here before). And we have access to a shared roof terrace which could be a nice spot for breakfast if the weather allows.
We didn't have time to explore locally immediately as we had to get off to Upper Broadway to the Steely Dan gig. This entailed a longish and educational journey on the subway. We managed fine if not always 100% certain we were going the right way, and learnt a lot about the identification of subway lines and direction of travel, up- or downtown. Having found the Beacon Theater we walked round the block looking for somewhere to eat. We discovered a nice organic restaurant that had good food and allowed for the cocktail craze to be continued. Living dangerously Dave asked the waiter for a "Strawberry Kiss" whilst Jill had the safer "Pomegranate Cosmo", both we're delicious.
But to the real goal of the day: the Steely Dan gig. We'd been advised when we bought the tickets that there were no bad seats in this theatre but were still dubious of our Upper Balcony seats, however no lies here, they were perfectly good seats. Pretty amazing to manage to coordinate our first night in NY with the last night of the band's sold out tour! And the event was great: Dave being very happy that many of his favourite songs were played by one of his top ten all time favourite bands: "Ricky don't lose that number", "Reelin' in the years", "My old school". So been there, done that, got the T-shirt! The subway journey back downtown went smoothly if a little slowly but within an hour of the end of the gig we were back at the flat and experiencing our first night of sleeping in the hustle and bustle of a city. Have to say it wasn't as noisy as it could have been, clearly a benefit to be at the top of a building.
- comments
Sally Loved this blog :-) Lottery machine insight is amazing as well, so so unethical to keep filling it up :-( ...Unless, next time, he actually wins...
Jill Thanks Sally! Yes, criminal that there are lottery vending machines anywhere, but in people's workplaces seems particularly cruel. Debate though, is this any worse than the station worker addicted to Dunkin' Donuts that he/she can buy freely throughout the day.......