Day 182: Return to Seattle

My flight would leave at 7:40am. I took an Uber at 6am a mere 15 minutes away to the airport.

Waiting in line to check my bag was a bit stressful due to the erratic behavior of the line attendant. I had a mobile boarding pass, but the line attendant kept repeating over and over "You must have a printed boarding pass", followed by a passing mention of "Mobile boarding passes are okay, too", before repeating ten more times how we absolutely must have a printed boarding pass to be in line. When I was just a few people from the front of the line, the same lady starts yelling out "Do we have anyone flying to Seattle?! Everyone flying to Seattle gather here!". I couldn't understand what the hell she was on about now, seeing that it was almost exactly 70 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave -- long enough that I needn't be expedited but short enough that she couldn't possibly want us to prioritize passengers on other flights. I ignored her, and checked everything perfectly fine at the counter, glad to finally be out of earshot of her. The rest of the boarding process was uneventful and I was in the air on schedule, on my way home.

Landing in Seattle, I met up with my girlfriend at the baggage claim (Yes! We survived 182 whole days apart!) and took the light rail back to the University of Washington, near where I had leased an apartment for the year. We stopped at Cafe on the Ave (our all-time favorite Ave cafe) for lunch. Even after all those stellar European cafes, Cafe on the Ave still holds its own pretty well.

I'm pretty sure weather conditions were exactly like this when I left half a year ago.
Thankfully it is now considerably warmer.

If we count the day I left Seattle, I spent just over half year abroad. I haven't done the exact calculations yet, but because of my quick pace of travel (typically a week in each location, then bus, train, or plane to the next), I spent about 10,000 USD. Perhaps a third of that was on inter-city transportation costs. Compared to simply living in the US, $10,000 is an astoundingly low amount to spend for half a year of traveling the world. But it's unfair to make a direct comparison considering I had no income of my own during that 6-month period.

Perhaps I will write some further posts, but until then, this journal has ended. See ya.

Day 181: In Baltimore

The next morning another aunt and uncle pair, Matthew and Phyllis, picked me up at noon to take me to Ellicott City for sandwiches and coffee.

The city is beautiful and visibly historic, and the cafe we went to looked so cozy with its courtyard full of tables. There was very loud live music there, making hearing anyone sitting across the table from you difficult. Of all possible times and places, I could not think of a more inappropriate moment to host a live rock concert than Sunday morning/afternoon at a cafe with a small courtyard. The absolute perfect venue for socializing, drinking coffee, reading the paper or a book, and the cafe thought what we needed was a bloody rock concert.

The food was good, but we left rather quickly after finishing our meals.

Ellicott City is filled with all kinds of knick-knack shops, and I had a good time exploring a few of them while hearing about the history of the town from my aunt and uncle. Returning to my cousin's place in the afternoon, I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the sofa while rays of sun filtered through the front windows. The house wasn't close to anything interesting, giving me the perfect excuse to lounge around all day while packing away my things for tomorrow's flight.

Day 178-180: In Lancaster, To Baltimore

The next few days I would eat better than I ever had in my six months of traveling. Every new aunt-uncle pair that came down to Lancaster to see me would take Grandma and myself out to a fine dining establishment and I would gorge myself on delicious food and drink. When I wasn't eating, you could find me lying supine in a recliner or sleeping in my own queen-sized bed. I think so much food and rest confused my body, and I spent most of my days in a soporific state.

When it was finally time to leave for Baltimore, I was loath to go -- but it had to be done if I ever wanted to get back to the west coast of the country. My uncle, Rich, was kind enough to drive me 40 minutes to York, where I snatched one of the last remaining tickets to Baltimore.

The ride went quickly enough, and at the bus terminal in Baltimore my cousin, Kelsey, picked me up and took me back to her place, which she shared with her boyfriend.

That night we went out to Fells Point, one of Baltimore's most happening areas of town (according to my cousin).

We met up with a few of my cousin's friends and went bar hopping. I can better appreciate the bars typically closing at 2am in the US, since a night out in Europe often entails staying up until four in the morning or later.

I look unnaturally out of place and tan in this photo

Day 177: To Lancaster

I took the metro to Port Authority Bus Terminal and caught a 12:25pm bus to Reading, PA, where I transferred buses to Lancaster.

My aunt picked me up from the Lancaster bus terminal and took me over to my grandmother's home where I would be staying the next few days.

It was beginning to dawn on me that my travels were coming to a close. Suddenly I had a room and bathroom to myself, a queen size bed, car transport around town, and as much free food as I wanted to eat. In exchange I'd be giving up meeting friends from all around the world, exploring a new, major international city every week, and experiences so unique and unexpected there's no way I could summarize them in a single sentence fragment.

I had dinner with my grandma and another aunt-uncle pair as soon as I arrived.

That night, I slept like a baby.

Day 176: Fireworks on the East River

Today is the Fourth of July! And also my last day in New York City.

I still hadn't thought of anything that I really wanted to do or see, and it being a federal holiday I presumed there wasn't too much open. So off to the park with my book I went.

I hadn't been reading too long before the writing on my shirt caught the interest of a park passerby. Of all people, it was the same guy I had seen performing on the piano two days ago.

This guy

We started talking and our discussion went on for another 45 minutes before he decided to wander off. His name is George and he's a retired linguistics professor. I told him about my trip and he told me about his time abroad on a professor exchange program in China. An all-around pleasant exchange.

After stopping at a Starbucks for a cool, cozy place to sit with WiFi, I met up with Kate at an Indian restaurant for dinner. Afterwards we took the metro to a park on the East River to get a good view of Macy's 4th of July Fireworks that night.

The park was fully saturated with people, but we still managed to find a patch of grass to sit on until the show started, then found an alright spot to stand at while the fireworks went off.

Of course, photos can never do fireworks justice.

But you can expect the main, NYC Fourth of July fireworks show to be stellar.

After 30 minutes, it was over. I walked back to my hostel and Kate took the metro back to the Village area.

Day 175: Reading in the Park

After taking tally of the remaining sights I wanted to see, I found there wasn't much left on my list. I considered going to MoMA, but it's relatively cheap $14 student tickets and renown couldn't top my historical lackluster experience at art museums, often finding myself way out of my element and over my head to fully appreciate whatever I'm looking at.

What I did find more appealing was stopping at a used bookstore to pick up a copy of Gulliver's Travels for $5, finding a shady bench in Union Square Park, and sipping on a Slurpee from 7-11.

And that's exactly what I did.

In the late afternoon, the day's sun and heat turned into storm clouds and wind. I took the metro back to the hostel before things got any hairier.

Day 174: Midtown with Kate

After restocking on groceries in the morning I met my cousin Kate underneath the Washington Square Arch in Midtown Manhattan at 12:30pm.

Kate was in NYC doing a research internship at NYU.

We spent some time talking on a bench in the park while listening to one of the numerous jazz groups that busk there during the weekend.

From the park we walked to the adjacent NYU main library, which I loved (plentiful seating, outlets, WiFi, reading rooms with fantastic views of the city!). Visitors aren't normally allowed, but security was kind enough to give me a one-time pass.

We were getting hungry, so we walked over to a weekend market that Kate had seen on her way to the park. I got a mango and pineapple smoothie, but had to go back a few hours later and get myself a pita gyro as well. We returned to the park, me with my smoothie and Kate with her kebab, and listened to a performer who had rolled a grand piano with wheels into the park to perform.

According to Kate, the university often rolls pianos into the park. Although we saw multiple performers on the piano, there wasn't any indication that it was a university sponsored event. On both sides of the piano are stickers with "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS" written on them.

After the second performer ended his set, they opened the piano up to passerbys. I wasn't confident enough in my piano skills at the moment, and Kate and I went down to the fountain to take a selfie for our parents.

We decided to go to Starbucks, Kate to study and myself to work on my blog. On the way there, we passed by the piano again. It was sitting empty, and my brain waves at that moment were running at just the right frequency for me to do something spontaneous like sit down and play something. I played the only thing I was reasonably confident I wouldn't mess up too badly, a sort of variation on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star where I first play the classical, harmonically perfect version of the piece then switch into a jazzed up version of the harmony and rhythm. Some people in the audience laughed (good naturedly, I'm sure) when I first began playing the "straight" version of the piece, but I got a healthy round of applause after I hit the last notes on the jazzy variation. The whole experience made me look forward to getting back to my own piano even more!

Thanks for the fun day, Kate!

After a few hours at Starbucks, Kate left and I followed shortly after, back to the hostel.

Day 173: World Trade Center and Times Square

After taking care of some necessary business in the morning, I took the metro all the way down to Lower Manhattan to where the World Trade Centers were located.

The World Trade Center is actually a building complex of five buildings, a memorial, and a museum -- the modern day buildings in the process of replacing the original seven buildings that collapsed during the September 11 attack. The main building we see today is technically called One World Trade Center, the others being sequentially named Two WTC, Three WTC, etc. Although Five WTC and Six WTC are not being rebuilt, one, two, three, four, and seven are.

I visited the memorial for the fallen towers and those who died in the attack. It's quite sad just being there. Water falls from all sides into the pool below, and slowly makes its way to a smaller hole in the center, where it falls down one last time. It's designed in such a way that you are unable to see the bottom of the second hole, no matter which angle you look from. On one of the sides of the smaller hole there is a somewhat obvious door for easy maintenance access, which I didn't like because I felt like it took away from the purity of the minimalist monument.

I spent some time exploring the nearby waterfront and Westfield mall before grabbing a calzone at a pizza shop and hopping on the metro elsewhere.

The white spikes belong to the modern architecture of this Westfield mall.

My destination was Columbia University. 

I wanted to see the campus and library of one of the most prestigious universities in the US, but when I got there I was in for a surprise.

Thunder and lightning!

The main campus looked beautiful, if small, but a flash downpour sent me scampering back towards the metro station.

I was intending to go directly back to the hostel, but after I emerged from the metro station during a transfer the sun had already come out again and I heard someone mention going to Times Square. I was only a few blocks away so I figured why not (more like "why not in spite of my socks being wet").

The sidewalks are, of course, inundated with tourists, but I found a space with some breathing room at the south end of the square to snap photos of the buildings from while the sun set.

After some confusion on the metro ride home with route changes during the weekend and scheduled changes for the June 30th to July 3rd period, I made it back to the hostel around 10pm. I had had a few interesting experiences on the metro that day. The first being when a flutist/beat boxer performed for us while on my way to the WTC. The second being when a clearly mentally unstable man kept raising and lowering his arms above his head on my way to Columbia, at one point telling the people sitting across from him "Ayyyy fuck you!" before remaining silent for the rest of the trip. The final experience involved another man playing a bluesy version of When the Saints Go Marching In on his harmonica on my way to Times Square.

It had been a very productive and busy day.

Day 172: Staten Island, Rooftop BBQs, and Carnegie Hall

I went with my latest kiwi friend to Whitehall Terminal to take a free ferry ride by the Statue of Liberty, onward to Staten Island.

We got a bit lost on the metro on the way and had to backtrack a few stations until we finally got to where we wanted to be. There's no tickets to be reserved, you just arrive at the ferry terminal and congregate in a large crowd until they open the flood gates and everyone flows on board. The ride to Staten Island takes only 25 minutes.

Jersey City, Manhattan, and Brooklyn from the Staten Island ferry terminal

After arriving on Staten Island, I got the sense that the ferry ride was free in part to help inject some money into the area via hungry and bored tourists. The ferry terminal looks like a mall and is easily the most lively part of the city. In stark contrast to Manhattan, Staten Island feels like any other small sized American town -- boring, quiet, and poor.

We bought a few snacks from a convenience store and consumed them in a nearby park before catching the next ferry home at 1:30pm.

I went back to the hostel while the kiwi went to see the Brooklyn Bridge. I was planning on going to the Museum of Modern Art, which I heard was free from 4 to 6 that day, but by the time I got food inside of me it was already 5pm and I was too jet lagged to go out. At 6pm there was a barbecue put on by the hostel atop their roof. The trains running by every few minutes and Empire State Building in the distance made for a really great vibe.

I had to leave the BBQ early to go to Carnegie Hall for tonight's concert. Fortunately it only took me 20 minutes to get there from the moment I walked out of the hostel front door.

The recital that night truly was an eclectic mix of old (like 16th century old) English music, minimalist pieces like Philip Glass, and self compositions by the performer. 

In general, I have an active dislike for minimalist piano pieces, but felt like the quality of the concert hall and piano this time were able to do the pieces more justice this time around (opposed to when I had to sit through an hour of minimalist piano performance in Belgrade). Overall, it was a tolerable recital, but not, for me, worth the $30 student tickets I purchased.

After the concert I went directly back to the hostel to get some sleep.

Day 171: Central Park

In the morning I took the E line to a few blocks south of Central Park.

 I walked all the way from the south end at 57th St. to the north end at 110th St.

Central Park has at least a dozen baseball fields of this size

Fellow tourists in Sheep Meadow

Perfect place to relax in the shade, Sheep Meadow

Beethoven and I meet again

A family by "The Lake". There's a beautiful fountain directly behind me, but photos don't do it justice.

Rowers in The Lake

The massive Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Popular with joggers.

Residential units with a view of "The Pool"

Central Park has these beautiful sedimentary rocks that are sometimes exposed at the surface. They shine in the sunlight from the silvery specks that spot their surfaces. Apparently it's this same kind of rock that makes the ultra tall skyscrapers of Manhattan possible, without which they would lack sufficient structural integrity. 

After ascending and descending Great Hill at the top left corner of the park, I took the metro back to Midtown. I had passed by Carnegie Hall on my way to the park, and stopped there once again to see if I could snatch some cheap tickets while I was here. I bought $30 tickets for "An Eclectic Exploration" piano recital, to be held in the Weiss Recital Hall tomorrow night.

I returned to the hostel and was so tired from walking and jet lag that I didn't find the energy to go back out again until a newly met friend from New Zealand took me out around 10pm to get drinks at a nearby bar, The Beast Next Door.

It was a good time, but paying 7 USD for a beer was a bit of a painful experience. I went to bed shortly afterwards.