NYC: Day One

With the effects of sleep-deprivation trailing us like toilet paper stuck to your shoe, we stumbled off the plane at JFK and made our way to the hostel I'd found online. The location was perfect... Upper West Side, right between two different subway lines, and within walking distance of great food and shops. My registration said check-in was at 11, so when we got there at 10:45 we had hoped to get in a quick nap before venturing out. Well, no such luck... that was the check-OUT time. We had to put our luggage in a locker and wait until 3:00. We walked down Broadway in a desperate search for caffeine. Actually, we must have been pretty out of it, because I can hardly remember what we did until we could check in.

Upon checking in, we discovered why we'd gotten such a great deal. The room was small, as in The Gap changing room-small! The rooms had a shared bathroom which were clean when we got there at check-in. We knew there was some sketchiness to the place, however, when a couple of German girls came downstairs complaining about their toilet on the third floor. They said, in broken English, "The toilet upstairs is not okay. It is full of... how you say? 'shit?'" The other girl, unsure if her friend had said the right word, added, "It is... you know... brown." At this point in needing some sleep, however, we would had taken a cot at a homeless shelter (as long as the homeless shelter had private rooms, a turn down service, and a view of Central Park.) Anyway, we did check in and promptly lay down to take naps. When we woke up several hours later, we took a walk around the neighborhood and stumbled upon a comedy club. We paid the $15/person cover charge, then after being seated, found out that they had a $16/person minimum for drinks... which you paid regardless. Since the Diet Coke was unlimited and I knew that despite how much I drank I'd have to cough up $16 for it, I kept the waitress hopping to keep up with refills. There was no way that I was going to pay $16 and not get as much pop as possible!