Welcome (*cough*) to the Land the 'Free'
For a change, not going to post any pictures as I am writing this from w-lan spot in downton Manhattan, while waiting for lunch. So far the trip to the States have been fairly boring, 3 days in Durham(/Raleigh), during which I only worked and had one evening free to go sightseeing.
Much to my surprise, for the first time ever, I wasn't classified for a "random" security check at the airport when changing planes in Chicago. In hindsight, I figured out why - I got the boarding cards to Durham (Narita-Chicago, Chicago-Durham) from Tokyo, and they put the "S" markers (that are something along the lines of "suspicious", "security check needed", "spy" or something else) only when doing check-in in the States. Therefore, the way up to Durham wasn't actually too unpleasant.
Of course, for the Durham-New York leg of my trip, "Sir, you have been chosen for random security check." (...), and the plane was delayed. Despite thinking of swearing off US travel for awhile when I heard that, not to mention the fact that plane was delayed one hour, I got to see a rare sight when arriving at NY - shortly after sunset, we flew over downtown Manhattan to the La Guardia airport without a cloud in sight. Now _that_ was one impressive sight! (Unfortunately, at that point we were already in the 'landing mode', so couldn't take pictures). After that, the trip from the airport to the hotel was fairly uneventful, although I put my airport shuttle reservation to my big suitcase and forgot about it (I had woken up around midnight that day, as I was still terribly jetlagged despite having been in the States for 3 days by then). Luckily, I got to the hotel anyway (which incidentally is "the dump", but the price is right so I don't think I'll complain), and even tipped the shuttle taxi driver excessively (13$ fee, I paid 20$ and said something about "forget about the change, I want to sleep.").
Today, been walking around, the weather's excellent and the number of pictures taken so far is also excessive (in the region of 200-300). I doubt I'll keep many of them, but at least there's something to choose from. The weather forecast for the weekend is excellent, but after that it will get cloudy, and from Wednesday onward it supposedly rains until I leave on Friday. So, I decided to do my sightseeing walks today and tomorrow, and go for the indoor sightseeing/museum/concert/theater/shopping angle next week.
Funnily enough, one small plane crashing to a condo on Manhattan has led to prevention of private plane traffic on the rivers - good old-fashioned "terrorists might do that!?!?!" argument again.
Much to my surprise, for the first time ever, I wasn't classified for a "random" security check at the airport when changing planes in Chicago. In hindsight, I figured out why - I got the boarding cards to Durham (Narita-Chicago, Chicago-Durham) from Tokyo, and they put the "S" markers (that are something along the lines of "suspicious", "security check needed", "spy" or something else) only when doing check-in in the States. Therefore, the way up to Durham wasn't actually too unpleasant.
Of course, for the Durham-New York leg of my trip, "Sir, you have been chosen for random security check." (...), and the plane was delayed. Despite thinking of swearing off US travel for awhile when I heard that, not to mention the fact that plane was delayed one hour, I got to see a rare sight when arriving at NY - shortly after sunset, we flew over downtown Manhattan to the La Guardia airport without a cloud in sight. Now _that_ was one impressive sight! (Unfortunately, at that point we were already in the 'landing mode', so couldn't take pictures). After that, the trip from the airport to the hotel was fairly uneventful, although I put my airport shuttle reservation to my big suitcase and forgot about it (I had woken up around midnight that day, as I was still terribly jetlagged despite having been in the States for 3 days by then). Luckily, I got to the hotel anyway (which incidentally is "the dump", but the price is right so I don't think I'll complain), and even tipped the shuttle taxi driver excessively (13$ fee, I paid 20$ and said something about "forget about the change, I want to sleep.").
Today, been walking around, the weather's excellent and the number of pictures taken so far is also excessive (in the region of 200-300). I doubt I'll keep many of them, but at least there's something to choose from. The weather forecast for the weekend is excellent, but after that it will get cloudy, and from Wednesday onward it supposedly rains until I leave on Friday. So, I decided to do my sightseeing walks today and tomorrow, and go for the indoor sightseeing/museum/concert/theater/shopping angle next week.
Funnily enough, one small plane crashing to a condo on Manhattan has led to prevention of private plane traffic on the rivers - good old-fashioned "terrorists might do that!?!?!" argument again.
posted by Wanderer at 20:11
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