Day One

FINALLY.


It's almost 2am here in NYC. Finally made it after my 21 hour train ride from Chicago... Not sure exactly what I expected, but it was overall a pretty pleasant ride. Sleeping in the coach car was only awkward because I was in a chair next to a stranger in a room with two dozen other strangers... Met a few really kind people though, a girl from Switzerland that game me lots of candy and some nice old folks that I sat in with for lunch. They were both alone so I kinda scooted in with them---not unlike getting assigned seats in the lunchroom. The ride through Pennsylvania and Northern New York was beautiful though, most of the ride was right alongside the Hudson River.







Stepped out of the train station and the Empire State Building was right there---half the size of the Sear's Tower (errr Willis Tower). Got a soda and hopped on another train. Thank Frank Nathan was there I would have ended up God knows where on that system... Dropped off my stuff at his place (which is enormous and quite lovely), got some $1 slices of pizza, and then, of course, bar hopping!
Don't ask me how I did it I'm totally f@*#ing exhausted.
We met up with a few of Nathan's friends at Sweet & Vicious and then another place across the street. Nice people! Nice bars... good time. Met this one guy Austin that's got a "Key to the City" (You can check that out here: (http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2010/keytothecity). Now, I am very tired. I'll post more pictures on my Flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tothegunwales) throughout the week.