After finally getting some sleep in the horizontal position I showered and shaved in preparation for my first full day in New York City.
In the above shots you can see my room at the Chelsea Lodge. It is different from a normal hotel room. It has a shared bathroom in the hall but the room contains a sink and shower. The room is perhaps a little small by normal hotel standards but I really like the place as it has great character. You also can’t beat the location (a few minutes walk to the subway) or the friendly staff. If you are coming to New York I really recommend you take a look at the Chelsea Lodge.
I hit the pavement (the above shows the street where the Chelsea Lodge is located). After my first good nights sleep in a while my next priority was a decent breakfast. The best place to find one of these in NYC? A local diner. A block or two away I found a great little place and hoed into a full breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast. Ahhh…much better.
I then headed to the local subway station to catch an Uptown train to visit my business contact for the day. Being a smarty pants I thought that I’d get my Metro subway card from a vending machine. It was certainly glad to see me and welcomed me to NYC by shallowing my money and then claiming to be out of order. Hmmm, ok some things about this place haven’t changed.
No major drama (apart from losing a bucks), I went over and purchases a 7 day unlimited Metrocard from the man in the booth, which is honestly easier than trying to insert a wad of well worn bills into a vending machine.
With Metrocard in hand I swiped into the subway and waited for my ride Uptown.
After a short while in the train I realized that I had come too far Uptown on this particular line. No problems. I simply hopped off, went back a few stations and transferred to the appropriate line. That is the really great thing about the subway here in NYC, any mistake you make is rarely fatal. You simply transfer to the right connection. It all seems so intimidating with the vast array of stations and lines but honestly, if you can master the subway your well on your way to getting the best this city has to offer.
My business contact was located around 125th street on the upper east side. His place was a penthouse suite with access to a roof where we spent the morning shooting the breeze.
For lunch we headed back downtown to 36th and 9th to meet with his business networking group.
After lunch we headed back to his place to conduct some more business.
It was now about 6pm so while there was still daylight I decided to head down to the Wall Street area to have a look at my old stomping ground (having worked here for 15 months prior to Y2K).
The place has changed a little, with security certainly more evident, but much of it is how I remembered it.
I continued east to Pier 17 (which hasn’t changed much at all) and then back west to Ground Zero.
There is not much to see here apart from a lot of construction. There is really not a lot for the tourist to see at all. If I get some time tomorrow I might go again and have a look.
I decided that I’d catch the PATH train to Hoboken across the river in New Jersey, where I used to live for a time when I was here. One of the PATH stations was under the World Trade Centre and still operates today. I used to catch this train every day to and from my job on Wall Street. So it was back down memory lane.
Even though the entrance is a little different you can certainly tell that much of the station is the same.
I emerged from the PATH train to the familiar scenery of Hoboken. Again, things are very similar, more than 10 years since I was last here. If anything it is perhaps a little trendier but the local Starbucks is still here along with many of the places I used to frequent.
I discovered that my old address appeared almost identical to what it looked like when I was last here. Some things just don’t change, even after all these years.
I headed back to the PATH train and hopped off at 23rd street (again, very close to the Chelsea Lodge). I called into the local diner again for dinner and headed by to the Chelsea Lodge to catch up on some more sleep as I could feel my energy waning.
One more full day tomorrow. Whatever shall I do?
