Cinderella in New York City (I also got lost)

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I got into New York City at 6:30AM completely exhausted and not in a good mood. Bus arrived at the Port Authority which is right in the middle of Manhattan. I couldn't check into my hostel until 11AM so I could wander around Manhattan until than. My first mistake was to eat at the first breakfast place I ran into. I will say that Mama's kitchen is a terrible place to eat. The food was expensive and the omelet, toast and coffee was just terrible. The bacon was just about the hardest bacon I have ever eaten and I am really disappointed with the meal. So I condemn Mama's kitchen for such a terrible meal. OK that is enough about my breakfast.

I didn't have a fixed plan for today beyond my broadway show at 2pm so I just did some general wandering around. The last time I was in New York I just saw times square and the Chrysler building. This time I wander around Manhattan in every direction and just took pictures of whatever sights I ran into. Manhattan is full of sights to see and every few blocks I stopped and gawked at monuments or buildings. Just in the 3 hours from the time I left the Port Authority I saw the Empire State building (didn't go up), Chrysler building, Garment district, David Letterman's studio, Rockefeller center, New York Public Library and the New York Times building. I was not well oriented at this point so I ended up getting lost which is one of the reasons I saw so many sights. Around 10AM it was time for me to head to my hostel. I than took the Subway C line to Brooklyn and than switched over to the G line once I was in Brooklyn and took that to the my final stop which was Bedford station. I enjoy taking subways when travelling because it is a quick way to get around most cities. I will say New York City's subways are efficient but they are not clean places and people unfortunately have a habit of throwing garbage onto the line. They also need to have a better subway map system. For the life of me I could not find a single map of the subway system and most cities had them at every station. That is the biggest weakness of the New York City subway system, the lack of information. So if you do visit New York City go online and print off usable maps beforehand of the subway system.

My hostel was called the NYC guest house and was located in Brooklyn. I could have stayed in a hostel in Manhattan but it was considerably more expensive and with the NYC subway system it didn't take that long to get to Brooklyn. I chose this hostel based on its reviews on hostelbooker. It is always a good idea to read traveler's reviews of the hostels because they will give you detailed information about the places you are going to stay.

The hostel itself was just an old residential house and apparently was replacing their previous building which had flooding issues. Check in was easy and I got assigned to the dorm room that was located through their backyard. The room itself was basic 12 beds but it didn't have a bathroom yet because it was still being installed. The staff was friendly enough and I didn't meet any of my fellow travelers because it was the middle of the day and as expected everyone was out exploring the city. By that time I got settled into my room it was time to head back to Manhattan for Cinderella.

I purchased my Cinderella tickets online before coming on this trip and I budgeted so much for my next trip to Asia/Australia I could only afford the cheapest tickets at the cost of $55. Cinderella was playing at the broadway theatre which was surprisingly enough was located on broadway street in Manhattan. It is on a road with a lot of theatres so you can't miss it. The show starts at 2pm in the afternoon which was very early for a theatre show. I had no choice in this because Carly Rae Jepsen does not perform at the 8pm show. This is one of the more awkward shows I have went to because I was unable to convince my regular theatre buddy to come on this trip and the fact with it being a family friendly show and was in the afternoon there was a large number of children dressed up as Cinderella. Felt funny standing in line at this point but I got over it because I am a fan of theatre.

The show itself was incredible and if you want to read my full review of it feel free to visit my facebook page. The performance itself got a standing ovation at the end which I don't see too often. My only souvenir was actually for a friend in Australia. She had requested a Cinderella word magnet. I did my best but unfortunately they were all sold out and would not have anymore anytime soon. I settled on a regular Cinderella magnet so it was not too bad. I was feeling good after the show which is common for me after a really good theatre show.

Wandering around Manhattan after the show I went into an official souvenir store to buy a gift for my sister's birthday. After a bit of looking around I settled on a nice New York pink hoodie. I was pretty tired at this point so I opted to head back to the hostel to rest. The subway trip back to the hostel was a bit of an adventure. The C subway was delayed so I ended up waiting at the port authority station for 30 minutes for the subway to arrive. The grumbling from the New Yorkers was getting pretty loud by that time. 2nd piece of bad luck was when the subway got stopped at Chambers station and everyone was ordered off the subway due to some kind of disturbance on one of the trains. The other people on the subway were not amused and a lot of grumbling was mildly threatening. Thankfully next train came around in 5 minutes and I got back to my hostel.

I was too tired at this point to really do anything else but sit around the hostel and chat with people. It was good diverse crowd at this hostel. I met people from France, Argentina, Italy, Japan and Germany. The lady from Tokyo, Japan was very helpful at this point as she gave me a spare copy of a subway map she had. This was primarily the reason I did not get lost the next day. I also met Jasper the hostel cat who is a large gray tabby and is fairly assertive of his territory. He would tolerate being petted but will swipe at you with his claws if he doesn't want to be touched.

The only interesting event to occur that night was a lady from Germany who had arrived very late and got assigned to the wrong room because there was some kind of mixup and was being charged a higher rate on top of that. There was no manager available so it could not be fixed that night and she was mad but very quiet about it. In my travels I have seen situations like that evolve rapidly into shouting matches but the German lady just stormed out without saying anything. I later saw her near a market near the hostel and avoided speaking to her because she looked PISSED!!!.

I have run into situations where hostels charge more than they are suppose to and I have gotten assigned to wrong sized rooms but I usually don't care enough to argue it out if it is late at night. The better idea is to wait until the morning and try to sort it out with a manager. This is primarily to avoid starting your trip out with a loud argument because it will set a bad mood.

So that ended my first day in New York and tomorrow would be my 2nd and last day.

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Photos

Hannity and Limbaugh
They had posters all over town and they constantly being vandalized