I Heart New York

... well, not really, but NYC is okay.

I took a little trip to New York over Spring Break (woo!) and actually had a pretty good time. I wasn't really anticipating it to be that fun since I was mostly going for a job interview, but I met up with several friends in the area, did a ton of walking, and rode the Staten Island ferry more times than I'm willing to admit.

I used public transportation for my trip, which included $3 trips to get from Midway airport to my airbnb on Staten Island (bus to subway to free Staten Island ferry to walking 1 mile). It took close to 2 hours to cover that distance, but I have a weird love of public transit, so it was kind of perfect.

I found the subway system fairly easy to use; I'm not really sure why everyone talks about it like it's impossible to navigate, but I guess it could be confusing if you've never had to use a train system before. Other pros: $2.75 per ride, and trains run all night! (What! Not that it matters when you're asleep before midnight on any given night..) The only problem I ran into was that my Metrocard got demagnetized in my wallet, so I had to mail in a claim for the money that was stuck on it. Where are you supposed to keep a Metrocard so that it isn't near credit cards or your cell phone??

One of my friends found that the American Folk Art Museum was having an exhibit on Masonic imagery and symbols, so we ambled through Central Park (first stopping through Belvedere Castle) and made our way to the museum at Lincoln Square. The museum is free with donation-based admission and housed a cozy 3-room personal collection of paintings, sculptures, and clothing items amassed over the years.

The above dimly-lit picture shows all the major symbols of the IOOF (Independent Order of Odd Fellows), many of which are common to Masons. It's a huge mess of symbols, including heart-in-the-hand for integrity; skull-and-bones, coffin, and winged-hourglass as reminders of mortality; and a bundle of rods showing strength in numbers. Needless to say, we're pretty much experts now.

And here's the exterior of the lovely Staten Island airbnb house I stayed in. My room was approximately the size of a large walk-in closet: large enough to fit a single mattress, a small set of plastic drawers, and a little space for walking around the mattress. It was $37 a night, but I ended up having the whole house to myself! Not too shabby. I also nearly destroyed my phone during this trip by initiating dreaded Updates, but possibly more on that another time.

A Windy City Wedding

Back in April, one of my good college friends was getting married in Chicago. I had never been to Chicago, despite living relatively close to it for 4 years, so I was excited to finally pay a visit.

Evan and I both flew for free, thanks to sky miles, and we stayed in a hostel in the Arlington neighborhood near Lincoln Park, which was a really lovely area of town. This is what $85 a night can get you in Chicago (with a shared bathroom down the hall).

 

The hostel was being (inexplicably?) occupied by a large class of French students on a field trip, so there was never a shortage of people hanging around. Our hostel room had an unexpected guest who hung out with us as well. I think this is Katharine Hepburn, though I don't think Hedy Lamarr would be too far off either.

The weather was pretty dismal; highs in the 50s, gray, cloudy, and drizzly most of the time we were there.. quite a change from the South, where the redbuds had bloomed 2 months earlier and where we were starting to hit highs in the 70s and 80s each day. But I hear that's just how the Windy City rolls.

One of the best parts about Chicago is the L (or "el" for elevated train system). It took us everywhere we needed to go at any time, it ran regularly, and it was completely reasonably priced at $2.25 a ride to most anywhere in the system. We used it to get from Midway to the hostel, to bars and restaurants, and to downtown. We also used Uber for the first time, and it was a smooth, easy experience, waiting for 2 minutes on the corner and getting dropped off at the hostel doorstep (for free, since it was our first use).

We hit up the Lincoln Park Conservatory and briefly the Zoo, but mostly we caught up with my old friends who I hadn't seen in a long time, which was quite nice. Also, Lou Malnati's Chicago-style pizza, mmm mmm.

I Could Never Swim that Far

In October I went to Chattanooga to participate in my third "Swim the Suck" race. It's a 10-mile swim down the Tennessee River, but no, I was not swimming it. I've been a volunteer kayaker for it, which means I paddle alongside an impressive athlete who's actually swimming it, keep their unofficial time, feed them snacks every 30 minutes of so, and make sure they don't get run over by a motorboat.

This year's weather forecast was absolutely dismal. We were all prepared with rain gear and extra sets of clothes, and we knew what the emergency plan was in case of lightning. When I woke up at 6am the day of the race, it was raining steadily, and I thought about how miserable I was going to be sitting in a kayak for potentially up to 6 hours.

To everyone's credit, nobody chickened out on account of the weather. We showed up, and we were ready to go. And as luck would have it, we were all starting to mill about the starting ramp about 30 minutes before race time, when the sun came out.

And stayed out pretty much all day. It turned out to be an exquisite day to be on the river, as the sky gods rewarded us for our bravery. My swimmer made excellent time, and we were off the river in about 4 hours, with tasty food and libations awaiting us. A few swimmers dropped out due to hypothermia, and some powered through nearly-hypothermic, which was rough to see. But for the most part, it was a great day for a race.

... Where We Lay Our Scene

The rumors are true: trains traveling between Switzerland and Italy really do break down the second they reach the Italian border. Possible scenario for the commuter returning to Switzerland after a week's trip in Italy: your replacement Italian train will show up 20 minutes late, covered in graffiti, and with no working air conditioning. Since Switzerland is so keen on keeping its trains running according to a tight schedule, that super-late train you're on might be required elsewhere, so instead of taking you to your promised final destination, you get dumped off at Arth-Goldau and are expected to wind your way back to Zurich via Zug (the place) and Zug (train). Actual experiences may differ.

Speaking of "differing," never trust Kayak to show you an accurate depiction of the location of a hotel you're booking. I accidentally ended up staying in a 4-star hotel about 10 kilometers southwest of Verona in a little town called Azzano, which incidentally has a pizzeria with the best 4-cheese pizza I've ever tasted as well as some mafia-looking houses surrounded by razor wire. Getting from Azzano to Verona and vice versa was easily accomplished with the Verona area bus system, but the only catch is that the stop names are neither announced nor shown on the electronic signboards (which are forever plastered with the message "Buon viaggio"), so you have to do a little homework beforehand to know when you should expect your stop. (You can ask the busdriver, but he might drop you off about a mile away from where you actually wanted to go.)

I was a little worried that Verona would end up being pretty lame, but I really enjoyed it. Verona has a nice mix of tourists and locals. As it's home to the renowned Shakespeare play, most of the school children and tourists swarmed over to the Casa di Giulietta, but it was easy enough to avoid that location. The Torre dei Lamberti belltower provides a great view over the city and has the added bonus that you can go deaf on either of two different platforms within it when the clocks strikes noon! Neary by the Torre is the Piazza delle Erbe, which is a nice place to stroll through when it's not overcrowded for lunch.

Across the river is the Teatro Romano, perched on the hillside, which also provides a nice view over the city and houses the old theatre ruins and sculptures. The only real disappointment in Verona was that all the churches charge money for admission. Having seen lots of awe-inspiring cathedrals in Bavaria and Austria for free, I couldn't find it in my heart to cough up money to go into the Sant'Anastasia or the Duomo. Plus, there were plenty of interesting sights to see outside, like this artsy lump of locks on a bridge.

There and Back Again

I like the UK very much, partly because I can communicate with people there and partly because of the lovely towns. However, I've become spoiled by Switzerland's extensive public transportation system, so England's selection of trains and buses seem paltry by comparison. (One daily bus running from Bath to Glastonbury?? And at 6:15am? Get it together, National Express!)

With that said, I was able to see some cool stuff in Cambridge, Bath, and London all within one week without the aid of a car.


Most of the cool stuff was in Cambridge and Bath because London mostly sucks.

Not Mad, Just Disappointed. And Maybe a Little Mad.

Disregard everything I've said about the trains running on time.

Okay, maybe not everything... maybe not even most of it. But when it comes to morning buses, don't give yourself a mere 5-minute connection time to make your train from the bus. Twice this week my bus has just refused to show up, or possibly showed up at the time the next one was supposed to come. In any case, it starts the morning off badly for me.

My first late bus incident got me to the local train station about 3 minutes after my train left, which meant I needed to find a different route. I ended up in the Hauptbahnhof (Zurich main station) and had to walk 10 minutes across the entire length of the station to make my next connection. That train's arrival into Rueschklion doesn't coincide with the bus that goes up to IBM, so I walked up the hill that morning.

Today when my bus didn't show, I went back inside and waited for [one bus eariler than] the next one that would put me on the proper train. Unfortunately, all the free papers get cleaned out of the trains before the time I was on it today, so my commute was sans reading material.

Just fantastic, Zurich. Anymore behvior like this, and you might just put your buses on par with AC Transit. (Okay, that's a little harsh. But seriously, stop it.)