#luim in new york

[luimnigh]

I will say, the fact that US Federal Minimum Wage is only $7.25 an hour hits different when you see that's about two sodas in New York.

[luimnigh]

Miscellaneous New York Observations:

Why does anyone drive here.

I was given a dollop of butter with French Toast at one point, and I legitimately thought it was Cream Cheese until I tasted it. Why is it white.

On that note, I get why you guys are going nuts over Kerrygold. The difference is stark.

Why is tax not included on the price. The tax is 8.875%. That is not a number you can do in your head.

So many fucking metal detectors. So many.

Your tourist attractions are quite frankly too expensive. Except the ones run by your National Park Service, those are fantastic value for money.

[luimnigh]

You know that trope where Shady Government Agents in TV and Movies always drive black Chevrolet Suburbans?

Yeah those are fucking everywhere in New York. I spent the first few days thinking there were government officials in each one until that became very unrealistic.

[luimnigh]

I'm in the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, the one that's just a glass cube up top and the entire store is in the basement.

And there's something so symbolic about it looking so cool on the outside, and then the steps to get in the store are so poorly designed and awkward.

[luimnigh]

Day Five In New York!

Yes, I did just post Day Four. I've been a day behind this whole time.

Today got derailed. I wanted to do MoMA or the USS Intrepid, but a handbag my Aunt bought yesterday was defective, so she went back to New Jersey to replace it.

I meanwhile took in some local history I'll let you know about once "local" no longer gives away my current location.

After my Aunt got back, a hour late because US Public Transit is sorely under-resourced, we went somewhere I couldn't leave New York without visiting:

Yes, it's the famous Hess Triangle! A tiny plot of land left over from when the City of New York used eminent domain to claim land owned by a man named David Hess, so they could expand Seventh Avenue. His estate installed the mosaic over a hundred years ago in 1922!

And also across the street there's this:

There was no way I was going all the way to New York without visiting here. I missed my chance to see the memorial to the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft when I was in Berlin, but I wasn't going to miss this.

And here it is:

I went into the visitor's centre. It's smaller than I expected, but quite well done. Maybe a little too many mentions of the corporate sponsors who helped build it.

I still can't believe I stood inside that building.

And then we went up to another building I wanted to go inside:

This is one I've been inside in videogame multiple times, mostly as Spider-Man. But goddamn is it a beautiful piece of architecture:

And the roof is no slouch, either:

After this, we caught the subway from Grand Central (!) to Times Square again. We ended up in the Disney Store, where I found this... questionable Tinkerbell:

"Help me step-Peter I'm stuck."

We then walked back to Macy's again, where in the Basment they have the Actual Floor Piano From Big, the Tom Hanks movie:

Unfortunately, I cannot play Chopsticks, either normally or on this.

[luimnigh]

So, Day Three of New York.

Day Three ended up a pretty sedate day. The plan was to go up to the observation decks of some tall buildings. Like this one:

Unfortunately, tickets for two to the top of the Empire State are a hundred and one fucking dollars.

Same for Top of the Rock and One World Trade.

I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing, but that's fucking ridiculous.

So I ended up drowning my sorrows in Large Beverage:

And so Top Deck day became "Admire Architecture Day" as we walked up Fifth Avenue and looked at all the famous buildings:

One of them had been decorated to look like luggage:

And unfortunately I was too late for Breakfast:

And also a building I didn't know was next door until I got there:

After that we went for a walk in Central Park.

[luimnigh]

So, Day Two of New York! Well, actually, I crashed when I got back to the hotel again (is this that Jet Lag stuff?), so I'm writing this on Day Three, but here's the recap:

So my Aunt accidentally booked the Statue of Liberty ferry for 9am instead of 2pm. At 7.30am. We ended up having to rush to Battery Park to catch the boat, using the Subway. No pics of that, too many people's faces everywhere.

What I did get a picture of was this:

Apparently, a Church.

Anyway, while we were waiting for the ferry I saw more helicopters than I usually do in a year (my helicopter diet is mostly made of Search and Rescue ones), and the Disney Cruise Ship Treasure passed and played "When You Wish Upon A Star" on the horn.

But yes, Lady Liberty:

Managed to finally have some breakfast, of mediocre lukewarm pizza.

What can I say? It's a fun and interesting experience to see this literal icon of America up close. It's a little bittersweet, given that America has never fully lived up to her promises, both the original idea of her creator (Liberty and Justice for all) and the reinterpretation by Emma Lazarus ("Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free"). But she was always supposed to be ideal to strive towards.

Also I got to see the bolts that hold her to the pedestal!

It was like 30 cents and another security screening to go up the Pedestal, would recommend. Great view of Manhattan from there:

Also, the original (though heavily modified over the years) torch is found in the nearby museum.

After that, we went to Ellis Island, because it's on the same ticket. Actually, that ticket's great value for money, €25.30 for Liberty and Ellis.

I didn't take many pictures, but it was a very interesting experience. Irish emmigration to America has never really stopped, but I am of a generation where it slowed to it's lowest levels. If I had been born in any other generation, it's likely I would have had to leave myself for America.

Case in point, my Aunt who's with me on this trip did emigrate to America. She spent a decade in California, before being able to come back to Ireland in the 90s.

So after we got back on dry land, we made our way through the Subway to the Oculus, the big fancy Mall:

Grabbed some lunch in a nearby deli my Aunt likes.

And then we went into the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

...so. I have a complaint. And it feels shitty to be complaining about a memorial, but I swear it's a fairly serious complaint.

We were ushered into a theatre, where we were told we were going to be shown a 26 minute movie before experiencing the exhibit. We assumed it was going to be a film about the events of 9/11.

We were wrong.

It was a very detailed film about hunting and killing Bin Laden. Like, animated diagrams of troop movements during the raid.

It felt celebratory and congratulatory and the CIA director was grinning and saying people were chanting "CIA! CIA!" in public when the news broke.

It was a propaganda film and incredibly clashing with the tone of a fucking memorial.

The rest of the museum is well-done and appropriately sombre except for the section where it goes back to the topic of fighting Al-Qaeda with ever mentioning the millions of Afghanis and Iraqis that died-

Sorry. Yeah. Mostly well done except for those two sections and the random brick from the Abbotabad compound. Just sitting across from the exhibit on the long-term effects of the dust clouds.

Yeah, that kinda threw me and my Aunt. That felt inappropriate and not in keeping with the intended tone.

And after that we went back to the hotel.

Yeah. Bit of an awkward one.

[luimnigh]

I genuinely thought people were making up "Happy Honda Days".

[luimnigh]

Day Six (Epilogue) of Luim in New York!

Well, I'm not in New York. I'm now back home in Ireland. Though because my flight landed at 6am local time, but only 1am according to my body clock, I slept through all the daylight and thus haven't seen the sun since Queens.

Not much happened on Day 6. We checked out, my Aunt did some last minute shopping, there was a small electrical fire in the diner attached to the hotel so while we sat in the lobby we ended up surrounded by the FDNY:

But apart from that, most of the day was dedicated to going home.

So now let's show the details that would have doxxed me.

I stayed at the New Yorker Hotel, a fairly famous Manhattan hotel. There's been some famous clientele over the years, as depicted in a little museum exhibit in the basement, including Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Muhammad Ali.

Most famously of all, however, was that it was the home of Nikola Tesla for the last ten years of his life. It's even where he announced his Death Ray.

They have plaques up on the doors of the rooms he stayed in:

I unfortunately was not as fortunate to get those rooms.

Did get a direct view of the Empire State Building, though:

It's also right next to Penn Station and Madison Square Gardens.

And while the hotel is operated by Wyndham, it's owned by the Unification Church. The cult. The one that Shinzo Abe was involved with, and was subsequently shot for his involvement with them.

Yeah I didn't know that until my Aunt had booked and paid for it. But there's nothing more American than accidentally getting involved in fringe religious movements, so really it added to the authenticity of the trip.

And that's a wrap for my first visit to America. It's gonna be a while before I see it again.

And by that I mean my family is planning a trip in July.

Yeah, you wait twenty years to go somewhere and end up going twice in twelve-month period. It's like buses.

[luimnigh]

Day Four of New York! And I went to an iconic part of New York City:

Which, fun fact: directly across the road from this:

I can't remember which billionaire owns this one.

Anyway, I took a bus! Through a Tunnel!

Yes, I have achieved a Second US State in this visit, and it is the state of New Jersey! The state that multiple bands and musicians have dedicated their careers to talking about leaving.

And like, if your only view of New Jersey is from I-95 (I was on I-95! The famous one!), I mean, I guess why you might think the state is miserable.

So I mentioned I was here with my Aunt, and this is what she came here to do. She really likes this one Outlet Mall, The Mills at Jersey Gardens, and so we spent the entire day there, browsing stores and buying stuff.

I did Christmas shopping, and managed to get presents for my Mom, my Dad, my sister and one of my brothers.

Also the Mall is really close to Newark Airport:

On the way back the bus passed through Union City, which was very interesting architecturally, as it is was full of wooden houses and more typical architecture of the area.

Also we passed by a USPS depot:

(There's more mail vans off camera to the right.)

And that was Day Four in New York, featuring New Jersey.

[luimnigh]

So, meant to make this post last night, but after a ninteen hour day I kinda just crashed.

Anyway:

I'm off out of the country again! And my first time with Aer Lingus, which felt like first class compared to Ryanair. Screens in the seats! Free food and drink! SEATBELTS THAT FUCKING FIT.

By the way, forgot to get a picture of this last time, but Shannon Airport has a delightful collection of diecast models donated to them. They have exhibitions both public and in the depature lounge:

Anyway. Seven hours of flying and two movies (Monkey Man and Game Night) later, we sighted land:

And upon landing, big fucking buildings were sighted:

Those sure do scrap the sky, huh.

They look even bigger up close:

Yeah, I think it's obvious where I am now.

Despite years of interest in the place, this is my first time in the States, and it's pretty overwhelming.

Because the airport I came through has US Customs pre-clearance, we were treated like a domestic flight, and exited into a departure lounge. So effectively I walked off the plane and into a Mall, which was fucking surreal.

Later I went to a Target and it felt like a parody of a store. Everything looked massive.

So, first stop was the NHL store at Madison Square Garden, because I'm here with my Aunt and she wanted a New York Rangers Jersey.

And then we went to another store:

I say a store, but that's a Mall. That's absolutely a mall. It had stores within the store.

And also wooden escalators:

After that we walked up to Sensory Overload Central:

Which is fun to go to for the experience, but is clearly a place people go to because other people go to it. Including myself.

I also tried to take a picture of the Ball, which is apparently just... left up there all year, I guess. It did not come out well:

And after that, we grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel.

This still feels surreal, and I'm writing this halfway through the second day here, eating lunch in a deli.

[luimnigh]

AND THEN I FUCKING SAW IT.

As we were going back to the hotel, I fucking saw it! A sighting! I thought I wouldn't see one. They're so rare. Less than twenty thousand in the entire country. I was hoping I would see it, but I resigned myself to going home without seeing one.

But there it was. Doc McStupid's Losermobile itself:

I was so excited I almost failed to get a picture, but goddamn is it stupider in person. Fucking glorious end to the day. I am so happy I got to see this stupidity in person.

Day Five In New York!

Yes, I did just post Day Four. I've been a day behind this whole time.

Today got derailed. I wanted to do MoMA or the USS Intrepid, but a handbag my Aunt bought yesterday was defective, so she went back to New Jersey to replace it.

I meanwhile took in some local history I'll let you know about once "local" no longer gives away my current location.

After my Aunt got back, a hour late because US Public Transit is sorely under-resourced, we went somewhere I couldn't leave New York without visiting:

Yes, it's the famous Hess Triangle! A tiny plot of land left over from when the City of New York used eminent domain to claim land owned by a man named David Hess, so they could expand Seventh Avenue. His estate installed the mosaic over a hundred years ago in 1922!

And also across the street there's this:

There was no way I was going all the way to New York without visiting here. I missed my chance to see the memorial to the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft when I was in Berlin, but I wasn't going to miss this.

And here it is:

I went into the visitor's centre. It's smaller than I expected, but quite well done. Maybe a little too many mentions of the corporate sponsors who helped build it.

I still can't believe I stood inside that building.

And then we went up to another building I wanted to go inside:

This is one I've been inside in videogame multiple times, mostly as Spider-Man. But goddamn is it a beautiful piece of architecture:

And the roof is no slouch, either:

After this, we caught the subway from Grand Central (!) to Times Square again. We ended up in the Disney Store, where I found this... questionable Tinkerbell:

"Help me step-Peter I'm stuck."

We then walked back to Macy's again, where in the Basment they have the Actual Floor Piano From Big, the Tom Hanks movie:

Unfortunately, I cannot play Chopsticks, either normally or on this.

[luimnigh]

Central Park very much did live up to it's hype, it's a very beautiful park:

Also the Squirrels are very used to people:

Seriously, I've only ever seen Squirrels before in Dublin Zoo.

They weren't an exhibit, they were just walking around.

We ended up going as far as Bethesda Terrace:

And on the way back I caught a picture of the Stupid Skyscraper:

And a Melanistic Squirrel!

And that night, I had a proper New York dinner:

So, Day Three of New York.

Day Three ended up a pretty sedate day. The plan was to go up to the observation decks of some tall buildings. Like this one:

Unfortunately, tickets for two to the top of the Empire State are a hundred and one fucking dollars.

Same for Top of the Rock and One World Trade.

I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of thing, but that's fucking ridiculous.

So I ended up drowning my sorrows in Large Beverage:

And so Top Deck day became "Admire Architecture Day" as we walked up Fifth Avenue and looked at all the famous buildings:

One of them had been decorated to look like luggage:

And unfortunately I was too late for Breakfast:

And also a building I didn't know was next door until I got there:

After that we went for a walk in Central Park.