Day 5-6: NYC & flight to Toronto, Canada

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Day 5: April 10 - New York City
Accommodation: Manhattan Inn Hostel

Time to head back to NYC on another American Eagle flight. I arrived back at JFK around 12:30pm expecting to get back to my hostel soon after with no real agenda for the rest of the day. Waiting at the subway station to head back to Manhattan was taking longer than expected. Every 10 to 20 minutes a train would roll in and it wouldn’t pick up passengers. After an hour one of the drivers said someone had fallen on the tracks and the lines were down, so I took his word for it. So we were told to catch a bus into the city, but this only took us as far as somewhere in Queens along Jamaica Boulevard. Then we were told to get a subway down to some sort of junction and I had to squeeze into this bus with all these shifty looking people and I was a bit worried about the situation. So then I got off and had to get another connecting subway which finally took me back to Manhattan, some 3 hours after I left the airport. Well, it’s not like I wanted to do anything today anyway.
Still, I got back to the hostel and seeing I actually checked out I had to move into another room. This time I got to meet some people there and found one guy from Nowra (3 hours south of my home in Sydney) and another guy from Taiwan. I’d read up about this bar which had $2 and $3 beers so they agreed to come and check it out with me. It was way down in 3rd Street near NYU, some 39 blocks away, so we eventually got there by subway and walking. It was a nice looking neighbourhood, and when we arrived at Bar None it was tiny. Sure enough, the beers were cheap except Budweiser was the only $2 beer, so I opted for the rest. I started to get a fondness for Samuel Adams that night. Tonight was also 80’s night where they play and we could request 80’s songs. They had Tiffany! Whoa that was awesome hehe. Then they started playing theme songs from TV shows and the first one to guess it won a free shot. I got 3 in a row haha! I was starting to feel guilty over winning all these shots so I gave one to the Taiwanese guy. This is where the trouble started. After those shots I don’t remember much else and from what I heard the next morning the Taiwanese guy threw up in the bar and instead of sending him home the bar staff took him to hospital and he got billed several hundred dollars. Bummer. Oh well, it was a good bonding night up until the shots came out. I must go back there when I’m in NYC next, but I’ll stay away from the shots!

Day 6: April 11 - New York City; CANADA - Toronto
Accommodation: Global Backpackers

With a slight hangover from last night I packed up and put my bags in storage all ready to say goodbye to New York City. I thought I’d just wander the streets and see where things took me, so I headed towards Central Park. On the way I passed the place where David Letterman has his show and I saw a Hooters restaurant but I looked in and the hooters weren’t as big as I imagined and I wasn’t ready to spend loads of money on average food just to stare at a bunch of boobs. So I walked up to Central Park, found a bench, and sat there for a while watching the world go by and relaxing. I headed back towards the hostel and found some Taco Bell which I’d been craving ever since they went bankrupt in Sydney and closed all their stores. It was so disappointingly bad and sloppy that after finishing it I had to buy a soda to get rid of the taste! It wasn’t fair. Australian quality Taco Bell was so much better! Oh well, time to grab my bags and scoot off. I caught the subway out to visit JFK airport for a 4th time and I was off on my final American Eagle flight to Toronto, Canada, on another 30-something seater plane also surprisingly.
When I arrived there was no frisking and searching and strict routine as I found when I went through US customs each of the three times. At passport control the guard asked me where I’d just came from, what I was intending to do in Canada and how long I was staying for, and within 30 seconds I was off towards the airport shuttle. The driver was talking on his phone to someone along the trip and he must’ve said “eh” at least 3 times. I was finding it hard not to giggle so I kept it to myself. My hostel was really nice and I was glad to finally be in Canada, which I intend to return to for travelling the whole country. I found my room which was empty and quiet and I flopped into bed.

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