Times Square

After my very first blog posting ever, my son the smartass asked me if we teleported from New York to South Carolina. It was a really stupid question because of course we came from Florida. But maybe I do need to elaborate more on our travel plans.

We left Cape Coral on Friday, traveling by car.  The plan was to travel to Florence, as described which, as it turns out is exactly half way on the 20-hour drive from Cape Coral to New York. We would spend Friday night in Florence and on Saturday stop far enough from New York to get a decent hotel rate but close enough to have an easy drive into Manhattan on Sunday. This plan brought us to Edgewood Maryland about 170 miles from Manhattan. (I still am not completely adjusted to the closeness of East Coast locales, being from the West. I mean 170 miles takes me through 5 states. In Montana, thats Billing to Bozeman. Even in Florida it's only Cape Coral to Orlando.)

From Sunday October 10, 2010

New York City - Manhattan

It took only 3 hours to drive the 170 miles from Edgewood to Manhattan. This was only my second time taking a car into New York and I was dreading every minute of it. But, how busy could it be on a Sunday afternoon. We hit the traffic about 2 miles out of the Lincoln Tunnel. A little over two hours to get within 2 miles of our hotel; another hour to complete the journey. Even after we paid the toll and merged into regular lanes, the traffic merely creeped through the tunnel. I am not a phobic person, but there was way too much time to think about being trapped under the middle of the Hudson River, envisioning a wall of water cascading through the tunnel inundating our cars with no hope of escape. I much rather zoom through these tunnels at warp speed.

We are checked into the Chelsea Star Hotel (30th Street and 8th Avenue), which is basic lodging at its best. Needless to say, finding reasonably-priced lodging for 4 wasn't easy. The Chelsea Star bills itself as a hostel but they have some "apartments" in the building next door. The apartment in one pretty large room with 3 queen size beds. (Olga and Valeriy are not related so 3 beds was a necessity this whole trip.) There is a small kitchenette in an alcove and a very basic bathroom. The halls are a little decrepit and the walls are well worn. The furniture is less than Motel 6 quality. But the beds are clean and comfortable, there are plenty of pillows, and the location can't be beat, literally across the street from Madison Square Garden. (Madison Square Garden is actually round. When Olga asked about this, there is just no way I could reconcile the shape of the building with the name.) There was self parking available down 30th Street for only $45 per day.

We left at 3:30 to drive to JFK to pick up Valeriy and Olga. Theoretically, it should be a 20 minute drive, according to Mapquest and Garmin. And it's Sunday afternoon - light traffic, right? I knew we were in trouble when I saw the remnants of two parade floats crossing 9th Avenue. This was at 4:15 and we were only two blocks from where we started! Today must have been Manhattan's Columbus Day parade. Well, it explains the traffic jams coming in, and now going out. We did get to JFK in time - 25 minutes after the flight from Kyiv arrived but a full hour before Valeriy and Olga cleared customs.

I'm glad I started this blog because now I have a forum to rant about Kennedy Airport. What a disgrace! I experienced the drab, miserable departure part of the airport with Veronika. Now I got to see the arrival section. JFK rates right up there with the best second and third world airports I have traveled through. My immediate complaint is a greeting area where dozens of people wait for up to two hours for their friends and loved ones to clear customs and there isn't a seat in the entire hall. It embarrassed me that this pigsty would be the first impression of America for our Ukrainian friends. New York should be ashamed. If I were a Kennedy, I'd demand that the name be changed back to Idlewild. But maybe I'm overreacting; the Ukrainians didn't seem to mind.

Olga, Valeriy, Carol
On Broadway near 42nd Street, approaching Times Square

We returned with our guests to the hotel fairly quickly, had a quick cup of tea (The room even had a чайник [chainik] (electric water kettle), something I've never see in an American hotel before.) We didn't have a minute to lose because we had a lot to see in our 1 1/2 days in New York. We walked up to 34th Street and then over to Broadway to get the most impressive approach to Times Square. This took a while, though. About 20 feet from our hotel, Olga encountered a sidewalk flower stall with a array of maybe a couple dozen large pumpkins. She was amazed to see so many and was sure they were fake. When assured they were real, in true Ukrainian style, we snapped several photos of Olga with the pumpkins, none of which survived the quality test. Use the flash next time, Phil. This scene played itself out over and over again with the Empire State Building and the lights of Times Square. It is very important to Ukrainians that they, or someone they are with, are in all the photos. They cannot understand our habit of photographing only the object; if a person isn't in the photo it is not interesting to them. The problem being that at night you can usually only get a decent focus on the person or the object but not both.

Olga was fascinated with having her picture taken with policemen. Here are two willing volunteers in Times Square near the hottix booth.

Olga's first Manhattan, which she quickly traded for my Cosmo

We ended the night by stopping first at a New York style deli - the kind that has the perpetual salad-bar-like buffet set up where you pay by the pound - before having a nightcap at an Irish pub style bar on 8th Avenue. I was disappointed that the bartender didn't know how to make stingers. I can get this level of mixology in Cape Coral. We had to settle for Manhattans and Cosmopolitans, good theme drinks for the occasion, except a Manhattan is Carol's usual drink of choice.