WNTW Diaries: The Journey Begins

So we made the trip last Saturday. The train ride was awesome. I ate a little, I napped. It was the most relaxing part of the trip.

Our cheap luggage began exploding in Penn Station. First it was a clasp or two, but soon, wheels were coming off.

To put it in perspective, we had all the clothing and shoe belongings of a shoes-horse man and a clothes-horse woman. Or in another perspective, 5 extra large travel bags (approx 3' x 4' x 2') weighing near or about one heaping fuckload.

In Penn station we argued about which way was the best way to get to 7th avenue. I favored staying below ground on level ground with fewer people and air conditioning, but her 'take-it-to-the-streets' idea won out. My luggage fell over 7 times on the uneven pavement.

The driver assigned to pick us up was mighty pissed at the amount of luggage we had. Well, he can just fuck himself and his herniated disc, I'm the one that had to carry it everywhere else and it ain't my fault the good folks at BBC sent the Lincoln instead of the Dodge Caravan. Oh, and buddy, fuck your laptop, you're here to drive me and my luggage around New York, not look at porn. It'll be fine under the seat for 5 freaking minutes.

The hotel was really, really sweet. Battery park city (It's Locale), however, is lame. By 6:30 pm there wasn't a person to be found. What can you say about a place where half the bars CLOSE at 5 pm. Oh, and you can't smoke in the bars. And when you smoke on the streets, people look at you as if you killed Christ.

Just across the water from us was Jersey City, which does allow smoking in bars. Just along the shoreline I sat huddled with a small group of smokers who lifted their collars up against the cold Hudson breeze and stared longingly across the river toward that shining beacon of excess that is Hoboken and Seacaucus. How fucked up is Bloomberg? He's made New Yorkers envious of Jersey.

I put my lady love to bed and went to the nearest bar I could find. A&M Roadhouse. Good people, cheap Guinness. I could only get through 3 that night because I kept having to go outside sans-bier to smoke. Perhaps that was a good thing. The car was supposed to pick us up at 7:30 am the next day.

I was not the only person to go out drinking that night, however...