Going to the Gunks in New York
Last week Haychoi, Eric and I flew to New York to go bouldering the the gunks. Eric and I flew separate flights over night to New York and met up on the other side. From then the trip was on. Here is how it went.
The first day was all about relaxing and getting some rest from the night before. It was hard to get rest on the over night flight with a cat meowing, yes someone brought one in a carry on. That someone was the person next to me. Not to mention the meowing, but there is always at least one person who has to open their window knowing full well all they are going to see are some bright ass white clouds.
The first day was really nice. We spent the day walking around. We went from Chinatown down towards the Brooklyn Bridge, then west to Tribeca and through Greenwich village. We made our way to midtown on the subway and got off to see Central Park. After some "bouldering" in Central Park we caught the train back north to meet Haychoi's sisters French friends at the The Cloisters. This is an old French abbey built from pieces of abbeys in France that were back to the United States.
For a pre-dinner snack we went to a great Hungarian Bakery. Forget the name, but not the guy we saw next to the church smoking crack as we walked there. Dinner that night consisted of Indian food at Banjara. After drinks were served we were joined by two cockroaches. It was so New York.
On Saturday we were woken up late with traffic and the Frenchies breakfast of crepes and soft boiled eggs. It was delicious. After food and haircuts we went to see the bodies exhibit. The line was long and our time was short, so we took a short walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. On the way home we stopped at the The Dumpling House to get some dumplings and hot and sour soup by recommendation of Choi's sister. We all loved it and I got a chance to speak some Chinese.
Sunday night consisted of more walking and eating. I don't think they should call it traveling, just walking and eating. We went to SOHO where Eric got a sweet ring and then we ate some really great food at Cafe Habana. If you go, you need to get the corn. It is simple, yet tasty.
Our plan in the evening was to go climbing at Chelsea Piers, but decided it was not worth $50, so we went back to Central Park to boulder around in the dark on wet rock. I am glad no one got hurt.
One of the main reasons to go to New York was to boulder at the Gunks. We made it from Friday to Sunday without going, so we decided rain nor shine we would at least go to the Gunks on Monday. Thankfully the rain brought in by Hurricane Ernesto had blown through by Monday, so we had great weather. We made our way up to to Hudson River Valley by way of rental car and we were bouldering by the afternoon. The area had some nice routes, but the bouldering is very under developed compared to the trad climbing, so it was nothing like Squamish, but fun anyways. We met a guy named Booth from Providence Rhode Island who was very intense and psyched about climbing. Sort of all over the map too. I hope we can run into him again if we are in that neck of the woods again.
After a long day of climbing we came home for some home cooked food. Manicotti by Eric and apple pie from Choi's sister. We were zombies making and eating the food, so shortly after eating we all passed out.
Tuesday came along and was supposed to be our last day in New York, but due to some poor time management on our parts and two straight hours of traffic we all missed our flights. I swear we missed ours because Choi jinxed us. I guess he thought it would be funny if we missed our flights too. Yeah $250 funny. The whole car ride was fun even though we all had to make calls to our respective bosses and tell them we were going to be gone for another day. We made a new word, 'sowned' because everyone was 'so owned' by Choi's driving. Eric was giving everyone the bird and it was another New York experience to have a green light, but still see all of the cross traffic cutting you off for multiple cycles of the light.
On our actual final day in New York we checked out the World Trade Center site, Empire State building, a viewpoint for the Statue of Liberty and had a final lunch with Choi's sister. A nice relaxing day. Without big plans and being car free we were certainly going to make our flights. Choi almost missed his again. I thought that would have been hilarious, but luckily for everyone he convinced them to let him on his flight even though he was late getting his boarding pass again.
I had a really fun time in New York. Tuan was great, Kai and his fish were cool. Everyone seemed so fashionable and all the cultures were amazing to see. The Jewish people were awesome, especially their curls, you can see them at B&H photo. No joke, everyone who works there is Jewish. There is some sort of twilight zone where the single women are much more attractive than single men that they want, so the average joe is more likely to find and date an attractive woman. There were rats, lots of them. They would hang out under cars in their rats families having rat parties. Lots of people were selling fake purses. Times Square is bright at night, almost like daytime and you should chat it up with the girls who work in the Element Store at Times Square. Don't commit crimes in or near the subway or you will get arrested. We saw multiple people getting arrested, one of whom was getting his head ground into the pavement. Finally, eat Cuban and Venezuelan food when you are in New York. It is much tastier than what you can find in Seattle.
The first day was all about relaxing and getting some rest from the night before. It was hard to get rest on the over night flight with a cat meowing, yes someone brought one in a carry on. That someone was the person next to me. Not to mention the meowing, but there is always at least one person who has to open their window knowing full well all they are going to see are some bright ass white clouds.
The first day was really nice. We spent the day walking around. We went from Chinatown down towards the Brooklyn Bridge, then west to Tribeca and through Greenwich village. We made our way to midtown on the subway and got off to see Central Park. After some "bouldering" in Central Park we caught the train back north to meet Haychoi's sisters French friends at the The Cloisters. This is an old French abbey built from pieces of abbeys in France that were back to the United States.
For a pre-dinner snack we went to a great Hungarian Bakery. Forget the name, but not the guy we saw next to the church smoking crack as we walked there. Dinner that night consisted of Indian food at Banjara. After drinks were served we were joined by two cockroaches. It was so New York.
On Saturday we were woken up late with traffic and the Frenchies breakfast of crepes and soft boiled eggs. It was delicious. After food and haircuts we went to see the bodies exhibit. The line was long and our time was short, so we took a short walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. On the way home we stopped at the The Dumpling House to get some dumplings and hot and sour soup by recommendation of Choi's sister. We all loved it and I got a chance to speak some Chinese.
Sunday night consisted of more walking and eating. I don't think they should call it traveling, just walking and eating. We went to SOHO where Eric got a sweet ring and then we ate some really great food at Cafe Habana. If you go, you need to get the corn. It is simple, yet tasty.
Our plan in the evening was to go climbing at Chelsea Piers, but decided it was not worth $50, so we went back to Central Park to boulder around in the dark on wet rock. I am glad no one got hurt.
One of the main reasons to go to New York was to boulder at the Gunks. We made it from Friday to Sunday without going, so we decided rain nor shine we would at least go to the Gunks on Monday. Thankfully the rain brought in by Hurricane Ernesto had blown through by Monday, so we had great weather. We made our way up to to Hudson River Valley by way of rental car and we were bouldering by the afternoon. The area had some nice routes, but the bouldering is very under developed compared to the trad climbing, so it was nothing like Squamish, but fun anyways. We met a guy named Booth from Providence Rhode Island who was very intense and psyched about climbing. Sort of all over the map too. I hope we can run into him again if we are in that neck of the woods again.
After a long day of climbing we came home for some home cooked food. Manicotti by Eric and apple pie from Choi's sister. We were zombies making and eating the food, so shortly after eating we all passed out.
Tuesday came along and was supposed to be our last day in New York, but due to some poor time management on our parts and two straight hours of traffic we all missed our flights. I swear we missed ours because Choi jinxed us. I guess he thought it would be funny if we missed our flights too. Yeah $250 funny. The whole car ride was fun even though we all had to make calls to our respective bosses and tell them we were going to be gone for another day. We made a new word, 'sowned' because everyone was 'so owned' by Choi's driving. Eric was giving everyone the bird and it was another New York experience to have a green light, but still see all of the cross traffic cutting you off for multiple cycles of the light.
On our actual final day in New York we checked out the World Trade Center site, Empire State building, a viewpoint for the Statue of Liberty and had a final lunch with Choi's sister. A nice relaxing day. Without big plans and being car free we were certainly going to make our flights. Choi almost missed his again. I thought that would have been hilarious, but luckily for everyone he convinced them to let him on his flight even though he was late getting his boarding pass again.
I had a really fun time in New York. Tuan was great, Kai and his fish were cool. Everyone seemed so fashionable and all the cultures were amazing to see. The Jewish people were awesome, especially their curls, you can see them at B&H photo. No joke, everyone who works there is Jewish. There is some sort of twilight zone where the single women are much more attractive than single men that they want, so the average joe is more likely to find and date an attractive woman. There were rats, lots of them. They would hang out under cars in their rats families having rat parties. Lots of people were selling fake purses. Times Square is bright at night, almost like daytime and you should chat it up with the girls who work in the Element Store at Times Square. Don't commit crimes in or near the subway or you will get arrested. We saw multiple people getting arrested, one of whom was getting his head ground into the pavement. Finally, eat Cuban and Venezuelan food when you are in New York. It is much tastier than what you can find in Seattle.
posted by Jon Keto at
11:41 PM
1 Comments:
when are you gonna make dumplings for us to eat?
Scrawled on the wall By
trizanh, at 6:53 PM
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