(New Jersey, via) New York

Amy, Micah and I went to New York, New York last week. We flew into LaGuardia Airport, which is almost impossible to say without an American accent. We were actually on our way to New Jersey for the 2nd International Conference on Duckweed Research and Applications (which I will review in full soon). We took the New York Airporter into the city. Driving through the city, I felt a little claustrophobic; everything was so close together, as if it had been crammed in by a toddler who wants to take all his toys on holiday. We also saw eight Starbucks in the space of two blocks, which, considering the working population of NYC, is probably not enough at 11 on a Monday morning.

The first thing that hit us when we stepped off the bus, was the pungent smell of body odor. There were other smells mixed in, but the overwhelming smell was BO. We caught the bus from NYC to New Brunswick, NJ where my conference was to be held. For reasons that sound boring when written down (believe me, I got bored reading the first draft of this), catching the bus was confusing and annoying, but we got to the Hilton in East Brunswick in the end.

Despite what people say, NJ is actually OK. The part we stayed in was certainly less crowded, and a good deal more friendly, than NY. The problem is, it's kind of boring from a tourist's point of view. Not much to see or do. We stood on Wall St. though.





















On the last day after the conference had finished, we went out to dinner at a really good falafel place.

This sign pretty accurately describes what happened when I ate some of their hot sauce on my falafel.

The next day we took the train back to NYC to spend the day there before flying back to St. Paul that evening. We first headed for the Empire State building, carefully avoiding the spruikers and scalpers. One stopped us and tried to sell us VIP tickets to the Empire State building for almost double the normal price. We didn't take his offer. And we got up to the top with very little wait time (less than 15 min from entering the door to reaching the observation deck).

It's an impressive building, and an even more impressive view from the top.

 I got in a bit of trouble for doing this. But Micah enjoyed it while it lasted.

The only problem was that we had all our bags and it was very crowded on the observation deck.

After visiting the Empire State building, we set off down 5th Ave to find Central Park, sans map. How hard could it be? After many hours of walking we admitted defeat. We couldn't find it and one of the wheels on my suitcase broke, making it increasingly difficult to drag along. But on our way we accidentally stumbled across the New York Library, Rockefeller plaza, Hell's Kitchen, Time's Square and Broadway! This more than made up for the constant smell of BO.