Sunday, March 21, 2010

New York - These Streets Will Make You Feel Brand New


The lyrics from Alicia Keys says all I want to say about New York City! 
   I was lucky to be in NYC for 10 days crashing at my college buddy Rahul's place in Queens, who is pursuing a career in film direction from New York Film Academy! During my stay in USA I had a couple of opportunities to travel to NYC for a long-weekend, but I let it all go. Before I even knew about any states in USA, New York was America & America was New York for me. I did not want to tarnish this image of NYC by hurrying up in a 2-day weekend. 
                Since I had about 10 days to spend, I decided not to fly to NYC but instead experience the now-forgotten railroad of America. Fortunately, Amtrak's Cardinal train passes through my car-town Cincinnati, on its way to New York Penn Station from Chicago. I had no excuse not to take the train for my journey. 
              Alas, just four hours before boarding I got a call from Amtrak saying the train will not be going to New York  due to heavy snowfall in NY state. The representative from Amtrak advised me to travel via Greyhound bus. I took the option since the Greyhound station is at 10 minutes walking distance from my apartment. Within 2 hours I was ready & waiting for the bus to NYC that will travel via Columbus,  Philadelphia  & some city in New Jersey.
             The Greyhound experience wasn't the one I expected. In my humble opinion, the MSRTC luxury bus traveling between Mumbai & Pune is much better. But then, maybe this is the only route that has crappy buses. I must, however, mention that Greyhound was punctual - so much that we reached Philadelphia 2 hours early! They told us that probably due to weather the traffic wasn't so bad between Harrisburg & Philly. I opted to spend the 2 hours in Philly by missing this bus and catching a later one. Of course, I had inquired about it from the officials. I had heard about Philly mostly through the movie Philadelphia (1993) starring Tom Hanks & Danzel Washington & the song 'Streets of Philadelphia' by Bruce Springsteen! 
             I so wished I could use the little time I had to walk the streets of Philadelphia! But I guess I wasn't in the right part of the city & did not want to wander far-away from the Greyhound station carrying my huge ruck-sack :( But this little experience did force me to add an exclusive trip to Philadelphia in my wish-list.  Probably I will make a long-weekend road-trip to Philly some day. Gotta find a friend who stays in Philly to crash at his/her place :)
           After this quick visit to Philly I boarded the bus to NYC and by evening 7ish I was at the NYC Port Authority; ready to see the dream city. I can only say that just thinking about that time gives me a goose bump...the awe kind :)
            Got too many experiences to log here...I am gonna try and record each and every day here. Stay tuned.