Day 10-14: Oh hosteling...

We were pretty much freaking out about where we were going to stay. A cheap hotel averages about $115 a night and we weren't quite prepared to lay down five or six hundred bucks. We were going to camp in Long Island but I took a chance and called some hostels. I had heard horror stories. (including Blair's where she got locked in their room and a pipe burst and flooded the whole place.) We entered the city via Harlem and I must admit, I was semi-frightened at first. I was also frightened going into the hostel... but gathered up my courage and did. Once inside I felt like I was in a European hostel; people playing cards, funky art on the wall... everything was fine. And $270 dollars later (for 4 nights), we were out seeing the sights.

It took us quite a while to figure out the subway... if we even did... and ended up seeing one or two sights at a different time than we had planned because we ended up there. The first night I wanted to go the MoMA because its free on Fri after a certain time but the subway had other plans for us. We accidentally ended up in Harlem and I was almost killed by a kid with a basketball and all his friends sitting on a stoop. It was as if we were in a movie. Two white tourists are lost in Harlem and the kids in the neighborhood get their kicks by trying to terrorize them. I felt silly... and very white... but we tried our subway luck again and ended up at Rockefeller Center and Time Square. We stood in awe for a good 10 minutes and realized why the city has blocked off traffic to one lane and left the rest of the streets for pedestrians. They even provide folding chairs out on the street for people to sit and gawk.

Our room in the hostel had two bunk beds and it was always a mystery each night who would be in those other bunks. Two nights we had the room to ourselves. One night we had two Russian girls who invited in their other two Russian friends into our tiny room at 11pm to discuss something very serious in Russian. The last night, we had English people I think. We came in late at night and they were sleeping. The smell in the room made me want to vomit. It was horrible! They woke up at 5:30am and talked the whole time... to us even! Oh hostelling.

I'm tired of thinking about all the things we did/saw, so I'll just list them:

American Museum of Natural History (whoa, crazy Dinosaurs), visited Chinatown, Little Italy (best pasta ever, old Italian waiters, best canoli ever... ok, well practically first canoli ever), SoHo (really cute shops), the MoMA (finally), the Intrepid Museum (aircraft carriers are huge... huge. And the CIC was just like the one on Galactica, pilots ready room too. We also got to tour a submarine, the Growler, that hid off the coast of Russia during the Cold War with 4 nukes), Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The only complaint I had was my feet. I hurt them the first day on my uncomfortable sandals and never recovered... a few times to the point of tears. But, the show must go on I guess. You can't do much in New York without walking.

On our last night we met up with Sam's cousin, Molly and her boyfriend. They were totally typical New Yorkers. It was really fun to hang out with them. We had a great time drinking and eating. They took us to get Polish beer, Peruvian food and real Italian cheesecake. We also saw an awesome park that was built on an old abandoned train railway raised above traffic. It was great experiencing night life with someone who knew what they are doing. Before we left the city we walked through Central Park to the Guggenheim, drove over the Brooklyn Bridge and finally left the city via the Holland Tunnel (which is super long and goes underwater!!!).