I am currently 33,000 feet above the Caribbean Ocean, on my way to Guayaquil, Ecuador. After a long last week and a rousing weekend with the Suz, I am ready for a little vacation time and to catch up on some sleep a little. At 10pm (11pm Eastern time) tonight, I’ll land and start my 35 day South American adventure.
This past weekend was a good one, as weekends always seem to be for me. It started off with a sloppy backpack after my fruit salad leaked everywhere on the bus ride to Suzie‘s in NYC, and then a wetter sloppy backpack when the bottle of tequila I brought up exploded when we got to the apartment. After the surprisingly easy cleanup and a fun night out for Cinco de Mayo where we made friends with and got free drinks from a Polish bartender, we spent the majority of the weekend checking out apartments for Suz in Queens. We saw some “interesting” studios in some good and not so good areas. It is crazy to see the differences in what you can get depending on the location. 2 blocks away from the train in a relatively good area gets you a 70s pink-tiled grimy bathroom and a 5X5 kitchen, but further out away from the train gets you a pretty decent space. That’s just in NYC…the same amount in Clarion or somewhere similar will get you a pretty decent 3 bedroom place.
I am not sure if I could do the NYC life. Maybe just a little too many people and too little green space. There is a ton to do though, as we found out just by walking around with a little roadie and winding up at our favorite restaurant in Chinatown. We both ate curry (that combined with tequila = NOT a good combo for the next morning). Lets just say the bathroom was a warzone due to - as Jean Zamzow once referred to it as - “gunners ass.” The food scene is great in NYC. I ate a ton of empanadas, a delicious torta, and a huge spread of middle eastern food (see pics).
As usual, later in the night Saturday we got into some shenanigans. We did an Astoria dive bar tour. The first one we went to (Kelly’s) there were two other people, a 75 year old drunk lady, and a short-haired lady friend of the bartender. It was pretty uneventful and the smell of the place reminded Suz of an unpleasant time she had before, so we headed to Cosmos. There weren’t too many more people, but the clientele was a little more shady - a few hookers and a drunk/crazy/coked out Irish guy who started up a conversation with us. Needless to say, after 15 minutes of his rambling incoherence, things were too sketchy for even us and we headed to another bar where we posted up for the night. As luck would have it, karaoke was going on and I did the customary Chicken Fried. Karaoke is VERY different in NYC. People sing weird jazzy (the actual music…not the other type of jazz) songs that I have never heard before. Where is the 80s rock, 90s classics, and backstreet boys?!? C’mon people! New Yorkers must to either too cool or hipster for that. The night finished up with the bartender magician and his weasel puppet successfully finding Suzie’s chosen card out of the deck during a karaoke break.
Tomorrows plans are to check out some areas of Guayaquil and then bolt for cooler and greener pastures in Cuenca.
“I’m leavin’ on a jet plane; don’t know if I’ll be back again.” I will be, God willing.
No comments:
Post a Comment