Overall, Nice Trip, but Never to Return

Author: Francis (not a traveler by nature)
Date of Trip: February 2017

This was my first trip to NYC as an adult (50+). I was very, very reluctant to go, but my fiance wanted to see a concert there and I wasn’t going to turn her down. The trip from the airport was so long (relatively) and traffic-filled. The airport was generally kind of nasty compared to my hometown (Atl.) I got into the long drive, however. The traffic, all the cabs, all the horn-honking, etc. I made a conscious decision to just take it all in for what it was.

Our Hotel, the New Yorker, was awesome. The rooms, however, don’t have much sound blocking and you can hear other people flushing toilets, talking, etc. However, it gives you the whole NYC experience. That’s what it’d be like to live there, I guess. My first experience there after checking in was food. We wanted a slice of pizza as NYC is so famous for. We were not disappointed. We picked any restaurant that had a name other than a chain restaurant, ordered a slice each, and were blown away! Every meal we ate in that city was incredible with the exception of the hotdog and papaya beverage (Papaya Dog or similar name of restaurant). That kept me at the toilet for at least a few hours, but hey, we were following a network TV star’s recommendation (what would you expect?). The food and atmosphere in Little Italy was incredible. I’m Sicilian American and know good food, believe me.

The 911 memorial and museum was so awesome! We spent 2.5 hours there and loved every minute of it, sad as that sounds. So well done. Didn’t do much cheezy, tourist attractions, but did walk through times sq. at night just to see it in person. The hordes of people walking everywhere all over NYC were amazing. So was all the horn-honking (almost non-stop, 24-7). It’s best described as ordered chaos. The pedestrians know when to cross the street and the cars know when to stop. I was so amused by it all. There seemed to be so may females walking the streets. Not as many males. It appears NYC is a very popular destination for women. I didn’t see many male businessmen. That was such a surprise. Lots and lots of homeless everywhere! So sad to see. Everyone walks right past them and ignores them. They even slept in sub-freezing temperatures. So, so tragic to see in 2017.

The absolute highlite of the trip was seeing a concert at Lincoln Center near Central Park. It was in the Appel room at night. Behind the stage is a 50 x 80 foot window background. The view is of the Manhattan skyline in the center and right and Central Park off to the left. So very incredible mere words cannot do it justice. When we had problems finding our way anywhere in NYC, and we did several times, I asked random people, obviously locals, and every one was so very nice. I wasn’t too wild about the subway, however. It’s kind of frightening to me and I’m 6’4 240 pounds. It was so dirty under ground and I was so concerned, perhaps wrongly, that something bad just had to happen, especially at night. Nothing did, but it still was so nasty. We took three cabs one day and that was enjoyable but the traffic was horrendous. Overall, it was an awesome trip. However, if you’re not into millions of people, homeless everywhere, trash all over the street in bags, stay away. I’ll end on this: Been there, done that. I’ll never go back, thank you.