the idiot's guide to how not to sleep. ever.

Yep, NYC is the perfect place not to sleep. I don't even know why I wasted money on a hotel room. Alright, I did get some sleep, like 5 hrs but believe me it's not even close to what I'd need after 32 hrs of exciting awakeness. :)

And just when I wanted to upload the next batch of pictures my camera's battery went dead. So I'll just have to make up for this later.

Anyway, yesterday was really busy. Once I landed and settled in my hotel room, I realized I haven't eaten for quite a time. So I thought it would be the best reason to explore some parts of the city. The first obstacle to be tackled was to find a subway station. I picked one out on Google maps but when I got there it turned out it was closed down. I learned later that it's pretty common in NYC that public transportation doesn't operate the way the books and websites have it. It constantly changes so it teaches visitors a lot of flexibility. When I was pacing around to find another station a guy asked me for directions to ... the nearest subway station. :) We then joined forces and asked another guy who was a local Jamaican guy (as this part of town is called Jamaica) and could give us some hints. We had to walk through like 10 blocks. It turned out that this guy asking for directions actually lived in NYC just in the Bronx part. Once we found a station he was very helpful and told me how to get to where I wanted. I never imaged that people would be this helpful. Definitely not Budapest.

I was asked to bring some stuff to an ex-colleague so we agreed to meet around 10pm. I told her to just give me the place and I'll figure out how to get there. I ended up getting to know the Friday night Manhattan even though it wasn't my plan. First I couldn't even find the subway station she gave me and I thought there was a typo in her message. So I got off at a station similar to what she said and tried to walk to the junction we agreed. I walked halfway through Manhattan by the time I realized I wasn't even in the right neighbourhood and saw most of 5th ave, the UN HQ ad lots of interesting stuff, it's just that I planned to do that the next day. Finally I got to W8th street and 6th ave. I gave her the stuff and we went on to a party one of her friend was hosting. Apparently we got there too early as the guy was in some T-shirt he seemed to quickly put on when answering the doorbell. So until he got ready he introduced us to his neighbours (!) who were having another party on their balcony. We had a really good time there since the guys were already high on some beer and it was fun watching them doing pranks on each other. Later another friend of my ex-colleague joined us who was from Brussels and have been working in NYC for about a year. We then went to a place called Niagara Bar a couple of blocks away and had the best of times despite the worst choice of music I even heard. A real DJ never plays ABBA's Dancing Queen before 5am. Ever. And they don't just play songs simply one after the other. They mix them. Well, we had enough of it and then went on to explore a place in Brooklyn, which was a true gem. It was a little bar where this girl's friend was bartending (so much for spending more on drinks...) and they were playing reggae when we got there. Then they turned to trip-hop. I'll just have to get my hands on those records. As usual, I got "home" early. Early in the morning that is. :) I'll now have to work on not screwing up my timezone adjusting.

Today I tried to visit as much of Manhattan as I can. It's a pity that I couldn't fit in any other part of the city. So I guess I'll just have to come back sometime. Maybe I'll come back a couple of days before my flight for Budapest would leave in next May.

As I said, pictures will follow once I get new batteries to my camera.