So that was New York!!?

On Sunday, we did some exploring around again. We tried to ride the subway, but that didn’t work out. There were thousands and thousands of people in the subway. We stopped at the information desk to ask which way we should go—and she told us. The escalators weren’t working so we descended into the depths by foot. Once there, we found about three ticket machines with lines about 50 feet long and two machines with much shorter lines. I always say, “go for the shorter line”—WRONG! When we arrived to the machine, we found it was only selling passes—no single tickets.

There were no signs identifying the machines and no subway employees down there to help with anything. It was pretty sad for anyone who didn’t know what they were doing. So we immediately gave up on that idea and went out and hopped back on our “hop on-hop off” bus. After touring the downtown area for the fourth time, we got off at the World Trade Center area. We walked around a bit—there isn’t really much to do there. They are in the process of re-building the area now. We also did some walking around Battery Park to look for some bargains.

When we were ready to leave we were going to give the subway another chance and ride it back—WRONG! There was a sign across the entrance, “No trains today”. So its back on the “hop on-hop off” bus again to see the rest of the downtown tour again—for the fourth time!

Earlier, we had noticed a street closed off for a street party. So we went back to that and walked around a little. We were close to our hotel, so we headed in that direction and ran into another street party for Little Brazil. There were thousands and thousands (millions?) of people out on the streets.

One thing we noticed on the streets was that there were no special arrangements made for all of the garbage generated by all the people. There were food vendors everywhere selling drinks, kababs, platters of all kinds of food. Pretty soon the trash cans were full. Then they were overflowing. Then people just threw their trash in the general area of the cans. Then people started just throwing their trash in corners. Then people just started throwing their trash anywhere.

We went back to the hotel to cool off and rest for awhile. But when we went back out to look for dinner, the streets were completely full of trash—curb to curb. Food, plates, cups, napkins, forks—everywhere. It was totally disgusting. We went out for sushi and went home.

I think, looking back overall, New York was not a pleasant city at all. Yes, there were lots of interesting things there. With our bus tours, we felt like we saw most of the city we wanted to see. We don’t really have any desire to go back and see anything else. Been there—done that.

And so we end another adventure. We traveled East, all the way to St. Petersburg, Russia and then worked our way back. Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, and New York. It was great. We really enjoyed it. Except for the noise in our room, our brand new ship was great. It was the longest cruise (25 days) we have done so far (out of 17 cruises).

We are taking the Amtrak train over to Harrisburg, PA to visit Maren and her family. Then we will fly of Columbus, OH to visit Kristina and Madalyn and then we finally fly home to officially end our trip. Print this post