“We could take a cab,” Frank half-heartedly suggested, knowing already my thoughts about it.
“No way!” I said. “Figuring out how to get there using public transportation is half the fun. Getting a cab is like cheating and admitting defeat.”
Yes, my sister taught me well.
We took the AirTrain to Jamaica, then transferred to the E train. We got off on 42nd St. and walked a long way to the 2 express train headed Uptown. (More about that walk in a minute.) Two stops later we hiked up some stairs (a challenge with our forty-five-pound suitcases) and we reached our destination: Brian and Ted’s apartment on the Upper West Side.
Did I plot out this feat of urban transport? Heck no! Frank did almost all of it, relying on his Blackberry and Google Transit. The trains themselves give more information than they used to, with the electronic map showing the next and upcoming stops. It’s not cheating as long as you’re not paying too much for it. I guess I should edit what I’m saying from “cheat” to “cheap.”
About that long, underground walk to transfer trains. Where else can you go and experience that many people facing each other in a tight space, and yet it be quiet? All you could hear was the sound of people’s shoes clacking on the concrete floor. Each person was lost in his or her own thoughts, oblivious to the people around them, or seemingly so. I was looking at the people around me. Perhaps others were looking and me, the tourist with the oversized bag trying to navigate his way through the subway system.
Walking through that underground tunnel defines New York for me. Taking the subway isn’t so much about saving taxi fare as it is experiencing the city and it’s people.
Brain took us to a Peruvian restaurant near his place called Pio Pio. YUM. Ted met us not long after we got there. Good food, good friends, great city!
icanhasgrace 
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