Advertisement
Published: August 2nd 2009
Edit Blog Post
Chelsea Hotel
All kinds of insanity has happened here - Kerouac wrote On The Road, countless rock bands have trashed hotel rooms, Dylan Thomas had his heart attack on the lobby steps. And this is it...the final travel blog entry!
The flight from London stopped in Reykjavik, Iceland for a couple hours. So I was really excited about seeing Iceland, from the air if nothing else! One caution: Iceland Air doesn't necessarily market itself as a discount airline, but it *is* - imagine a trans-atlantic flight (London-Iceland-NYC) without any food! Well, unless you want to pay for it...
In any case, by the time I landed in NYC, went through customs, took the C train all the way to Penn Station, walked all the way to my hotel with my pack, and found some dinner, I was fairly delusional. If you've ever had that feeling, the combination of jet lag, being up for over a day, travel fatigue, and general culture disorientation...it almost feels like floating on choppy water, like being below decks on a small boat. So I didn't last too long before collapsing in sleep last Friday.
Last Saturday I spent 2 hours running - up to Central Park, a loop around the reservoir, and back down into Midtown. And I got schooled - folks in Manhattan are incredibly fit, at least the ones I was running with!
Iceland from the Plane
Just outside of Reykjavik. It was an incredible morning, though, cool and sunny.
Then I set out for the Upper West Side to see some new stuff, including Columbia Uni and the Seinfeld restaurant. Then walked all the way from Midtown to Downtown, seeing Ground Zero (which is still very much under construction), the Brooklyn Bridge, and Battery Park. There were so many other things I would have loved to see (the Met, MoMa, and so much more) but you can only do so much in one day in NYC.
The next day, Sunday, was to be my final "official" day of travel. It greatly fascinates me that the most trouble I had with travel connections happened in the States, considering everywhere I'd been and the dizzying methods of transportation I'd used.
First off, the shuttle bus that I'd reserved at the hotel didn't show on time...well, at all. Turns out the concierge took my money and gave me a receipt, but never actually called in my reservation. Dork. So I had the front desk convince the shuttle driver over the phone to make an "extra" stop for me - the front desk was super helpful, so I wasn't too angry.
Got to LaGuardia and checked in, we boarded the plane, I had my coveted window seat...and we sat. And sat. Close to three hours later, the captain comes on, very apologetic, and explains that the plane's computer isn't working and we would need to get off. Now, this sucks...but this flight went to Atlanta, not Denver, which meant not only would I be missing my connection, but I would still have over 2 hours on another plane when we finally did leave!
Because I missed my connection, the kind folks in Atlanta shoved me in a middle seat in the very back row for my flight to Denver. One of my seatmates had to be close to 7 feet tall and was by no means small, so being in the middle, I wasn't exactly "comfortable" for what ended up being a 3-hour flight to Denver.
So after a shuttle bus back north...I entered my apartment, where I had left 40 days earlier.
That was Sunday, 5 days ago. I knew that I would have all kinds of new perspectives and thoughts upon returning. The odd thing was, the first couple days back I didn't feel all
that different - in fact, Colorado just felt like the next destination on the trip! But now things are beginning to process for me, and I'm seeing things about my life, my town, my work, that I would have never seen in my normal routine before this trip began.
I have a lot to think about. And to process. While the travel blog has come to an end, I intend to blog more about my observations (which are life-changing, and I'm trying not to lose perspective on that fact or to fear it) and maybe even start a video project about everything I've learned.
But for now, thanks for reading, thanks for enjoying my pics, and hopefully the next trip will be soon! YHWH bless!
- steve g
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0675s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb