Will I Heart NY?

I have officially begun my East Coast Tour and safely arrived in New York. I will be here for the next four days and in that time, New York City has got to show me what its made of, baby! Since its inception, it has pretty much been the talk of the town; thus, I'm ready to see what's so great about the big bad city. Everyone seems to love the Big Apple, but the question of the weekend is: Will I heart NY?

I spent my first hour on the plane on the ground. Some computer issue kept us grounded on the west side (and behind schedule). Once we finally touched down, it was only an airtrain, subway, and bus ride until I made it to my cousin's apartment (for the record, this took me two hours....largely because I spent about 40 minutes getting OUT of the dang airport). But I am proud to say I figured out how to pay for all those things, boarded all the correct routes, and only had a minor detour when searching for the bus stop (and all with no map!) Not bad for a newbie.

After catching up in the kitchen over a Brooklyn Brewery beer, we had mojitos and fish tacos at a Colombian joint a few blocks away (with cilantro mashed potatoes on the side - I had no idea there was such a thing! They were light green colored and de-licious!!). First meal in The City gets two thumbs up.

NY stereotypes I have already witnessed to be true: graffiti on the subway, sirens, garbage on the street (perhaps it was garbage day?), easy-to-use public transit, sirens, aggressive pedestrians, crazy drivers, and sirens.

NY stereotypes I have already witnessed to be false: people are mean/rude (I met several extremely helpful/friendly people on my trek to Mary's apartment.)

Tomorrow we may try and hit up a farmer's market, little Italy, Empire State Building, talk to someone famous, check out Central Park for possible dead bodies, and something else...but I can't remember what right now. Stay tuned!!