von Lena & Rico

Posts tagged metro

Up high! (part 2)

In the evening Rico was frustrated and dying from boredom. I chose the way better option in taking a small nap.

Rico, however, ran to the front desk and asked whether something finally happened and the case was there. Nope – of course not. Rico again on the phone. This time he had another person on the other side. He asked where the case is and mentioned the name of our hotel. BUT the good man probably did not want to talk with him and hung up. He tried his luck again. Meanwhile the part on the other side got really annoyed. The guy was like „where or from whom did you get this number?“. Well – now Rico thought he was in the wrong movie and the guy wanted to kid him. Rico was like „From Singapore Airlines!“ (who else?). The guy searched on his computer and then said „between 22 and 1:30 your luggage will arrive“. Before Rico could say something the guy hung up again. Now Rico was really mad, not because he did not have his bag but because he got hung up x times and none of their promises came true! Typical case for: Rico will write a complaint to Singapore Airlines.

He dashed back to me and let go of all his anger and then we headed out: ready for high up part 2 of our journey! From our Empire State Building ticket we still had the second „ride“ for the same day but at night. We definitely did not want to miss the lights of New York at night 😉  So off to the subway…

… and here the next hassle showed up. Therefore a brief excursion in the Metro of the metropolitan New York:

First of all we took the wrong ticket. Because Rico and I always pay $5.50 per person per ride. In the meantime we found out that it is way cheaper to buy a 7 days pass.

Next up: the information distribution at subway stations in New York is super modest. You can only guess how the system works. Then you freeze to death in the train, because the air con is every time set to arctic mode! Result: what is cold in here is super hot outside! Because the tunnels of the subway are way warmer and stuffy than the air outside. Currently we have about 29-32°C in New York. Since it is much warmer in the subway, you can imagine that we have here at least 35-40°C. Really creepy!

And if you have to wait now, then the air is torturous. Plus, you will need to wait for the subway every time! We intend to never rant about the HVV in Hamburg ever again, well because compared to that New York it is way better. In New York you have:

  • no scoreboard for the current operation status of the subway
  • no timetables
  • no rate information
  • no line plans

But the worst: the delays. You hear nothing about it – the train simply won’t come. And that happened on our way to the Empire State Building. There should be some construction going on … well somewhere dunno where.

Nevertheless, we made it :-) And now we will let the pictures speak.

WP_20150825_23_32_15_Pro WP_20150825_23_37_45_Raw WP_20150825_23_57_58_Raw WP_20150825_23_30_28_Raw WP_20150825_23_29_53_Panorama (2)

When you’re already out at night in New York then you should make it right. So off to famous time square – something like the Kiez of New York. We tried to look for a place to drink cocktails at night. Unfortunately it did not work: at the Hard Rock Café we were formally kicked out, because the bar wanted to close… in an Irish pun the waiter let us down … many other bars: closed. Anyway … have a look at the time square in 3D.

All the places in New York started to close and we were also kinda tired so we decided to go home… So we thought….

We went to the closest subway station. The App said: There’s a train coming. We agreed, there were lots of trains … but all in the wrong direction! Then a construction train passed us, several workers walked along the tracks and then nothing happened. Only more and more people joined to wait for the next train and the heat was getting unbearable. After a perceived eternity: we decided to walk home and lose the money for the tickets.

The walking was a stupid idea – we were close to 1.5h on the road and have arrived dead at the hotel. Now it was already 2:30 AM and in the middle of the night.

But Rico’s bag had arrived :-) So the world turned out to be a bit better despite our  steaming feet.