New York City, USA

First proper entry here so prepare for a wall of text.

So, back in the States after a long while. The immigration process was smooth to my surprise, no queues and no crap about whether we're terrorists or similar crap. Guess their "national security" paranoia has improved at least a bit. After airTrain/subway rides we settled in at YMCA west side, which, at 110USD a night, is among the cheapest options in mid/lower Manhattan (wtf). The showers are icy cold, mattresses terrible and on the first night some kind soul decided to bust through the door of the room next to us. And I wouldn't have it (well, except the room price) any other way, stuff like that adds up to the travel experience ;p

On Saturday we walked around mid-lower Manhattan for about 6 hours, and later with the feet screaming for mercy found a perfect oasis in the form of a microbrewery pub at the outskirts of Little Italy. American beer has never before tasted as good to me. Compared to the usual offerings of Coors Lite and Budweiser, the local products were just excellent. Also, one'd be surprised how many people are jogging around Central Park at 7 o'clock on Saturday morning!

With both of us having been to the city before, we didn't really go to any standard tourist attractions rather than just wander around pointlessly. The ground zero reconstruction site was quite striking, with some 20-30 floors already done of the upcoming World Trade Center One. One thing left to do for sure is attending a stand-up comedy night, it's a rare opportunity to see such big names of that field here.

One thing I find cute is how they still have public cord pay phones on the streets, whereas back home those have been extinct for a good 10+ years. Guess the mobile is a relatively new phenomenon here still. That, and/or the mobile device penetration isn't quite the 100ish percent of Finland.

On Monday morning its time to move on. It's been quite cold here in New York, and I'm not at all sad to see that changing for a few months soon enough.





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