Three days in New York

We had to go to NYC to put in a visa application and, contrary to the title, it was more like 2.5 days, really, since we flew in early Sunday morning and flew out Tuesday afternoon (from Newark) but we were technically there for three days, so whatever. It had been many years since either of us had been to the city; many more so for me than for Tricia. I told her that the last time I'd been there, the number of strip bars in Times Square was far more than the lone one that we saw this time, if that gives you any indication. There had also been much more neon and many fewer giant video screens so, yeah, it's been a while. I didn't really even want to go to Times Square, since rampant commercialism is not really my thing (and, no, I wasn't there for the pr0n during previous visits, either), but it turned out to be a decently positive experience, anyway.

All of that said, in macro terms, the city really hasn't changed since I was there last. A lot of people veer away from concentrated humanity/urbanity of that sort and I can see why. Many people are a lot more conscious of "personal space" issues, but I'm generally oblivious to them. If it means that any sidewalk has to be an exercise in dodge'em, then that's what it means. You just adapt and keep moving. Just like London or really any big city, most people who live there have their own agenda like anyone in smaller towns and aren't really interested in what yours is until or unless they physically run into you. Even then, it's the price of living in a place with a lot of people so you just brush by and move on. In most cases, they didn't mean to collide with you or you with them, so no one cares and everyone has places to be. In terms of getting to those places, we mostly walked but often took the subway, as well. While it is far more modern than the last time I was in town, I have to say that the NYC subway is a small step down from the London Underground in terms of comfort and navigability. It wasn't terrible. Just not quite as good as across the pond and both of them still pale in comparison to the DC Metro, which is still the best train system I've come across in my limited experience. We did end up on the wrong train once and ended up in Brooklyn for a few minutes (first time I've ever been there, as my previous visits were confined to Manhattan and Queens) but otherwise it was about what you'd expect out of the trains. Nothing really thrilling.

As usual, I didn't take many pictures because that's just not my inclination. I'm more about being there "in the moment", I guess. However, the two of mine that are inhabiting this post are from the two bars we ended up visiting, The 11th Street bar in the east Village and Carragher's downtown. As Tricia remarked after we were sitting at the bar at the latter for a few minutes: "We always end up in a bar. And usually a Liverpool bar." To which I could only respond with a shrug and a "Whattaya gonna do?" expression. Thankfully, most of those turn out to be pretty good bars, with 11th Street winning out in this instance. Not only is the neighborhood better, but the bartender spent a lot of time talking to us about the place and where we were from and so on. It's the hangout of the OLSC (Official Liverpool Supporters' Club) for New York. We had missed match day by some 24 hours by the time we were there, but he was still eager to talk to fellow Reds. That wasn't really the case at Carragher's, despite that place being far more festooned with Liverpool regalia as opposed to being the neighborhood Irish joint on non-match days, but the bartender at Carragher's was also dealing with a much larger crowd, since there were only 4 or 5 other people at 11th St, as opposed to the two dozen or so downtown. Football was the source of positive feelings at Times Square, as well, since we discovered the Pelé Soccer store and were able to duck in and grab a couple shirts for this season that I'd wanted from the club but missed out on when the XLs sold out so quickly. A side benefit was the M&M store. PB&J M&Ms aren't bad.

And speaking of that touristy side, we did indulge in a couple things, like the 2nd Avenue Deli, which is a very traditional Jewish joint that is known for their pastrami (partaken; excellent) and their Matzoh ball soup (partaken; also excellent and with kasha(!)) One of the highlights there was the elderly man running the front of the house, who kept up a fairly steady patter with the people cramming in alongside staff and takeout customers to wait on a table. At one point, he turned to a couple fellow waiters and said: "I have a place for you. The problem is that it's at 48th St. but, really, you'll love it!" We also saw a show, which was Drunken Shakespeare at the Ruby Theater, which was well done and involving those three near-essentials of the human condition (sex, alcohol, and Shakespeare.) One of the best things about both of those stops and other places that we went to is that most of them were in Midtown, which meant that we could either walk the whole distance or hop a train for a couple minutes and then walk (or vice-versa) and be where we wanted to be, as opposed to the completely car-centric existence that most people in Michigan have to maintain. This just reinforces my desire to live in an urban area, simply so that I can literally walk a block or two from my front door to find all of those other essentials (food, etc.) and not have to drive miles away to find them. In point of fact, I continued to ogle at the number of non-taxi/non-Uber cars in the city, especially in congested places like Times Square, wondering why anyone would want to endure that frustration when they could knock elbows for a couple minutes and get where they wanted to be. But, again, that's the difference between those accustomed to living with other humans and those trying to avoid that condition. Whattaya gonna do?

Two more days in Iceland

We got back to Iceland at the end of a mildly harrowing experience at Luton airport,.. and arrived in Reykjavik in the middle of an Icelandic version of a Nor'easter. Except this was in the southwest of the island, so whatever. It was winds between 30 and 50 mph (That's 48 to 80 kph for you metric types, which includes Icelanders. It was mildly jarring going from metric to the only other nation stupid enough to use Standard and then back to metric) and driving rain. Combined with the wind, when the rain hit our faces, it was actually painful, so that was fun. When we landed, we were supposed to go right to the Blue Lagoon, but because of some confusing email traffic, we missed the bus. $90US for a cab ride later, we were at the famous Blue Lagoon (another hot spring with a lot of blue silica in the water) and it's always fun being in a hot spring and wading up to the bar... except when you're constantly trying to not face at least one direction to keep your eyes from being hammered by the stratospheric bullets. So, yeah.

The day was mildly rescued by finding a place to eat that night that was the best food we've had on the entire trip: Salka Valka. It's down on the western end of the city, a little off the main drag of Laugavegur, and there's not a ton of seating. But it does traditional Icelandic food with modern preparation. There was a fish soup with a chickpea base that was astounding (especially fitting for a day when a nor'easter has been drenching us the whole time) and their fish stew and lamb shank were also excellent. Seriously, this was beyond everything else we've eaten. If we ever come back, we're eating there again. Maybe twice. The day was also rescued by our being able to find that weird candy shop with the salty licorice: Taste of Iceland. If was trying to find anything I could on Google and then went down to Laugavegur to see another more famous candy shop (Vinberio) because I knew we'd passed that at some point. I started walking east and was about to give up when we found Taste. Of course, I later discovered their wares in Keflavik airport, so maybe I could've saved us some of the hiking.

On our next (and last) day, we took a tour of what Iceland tourism refers to as the "Golden Circle", which is an area in this part of the island that has the most tourist attractions. We went to the continental divide, where you're standing in the 5 km gap between the North American and Eurasian plates, the first named geyser (Geysir, which is where the word comes from), the most impressive waterfall we've seen here, and yet another hot spring, known as the Secret Lagoon. It was a worthwhile way to spend the day, but followed with some less than impressive food at that same food court we visited last week. Seriously, the fish and weak-ass fries thing (instead of chips) just has to go. I realize it's a lot cheaper for restraurants to just get already-produced stuff, rather than asking staff to slice into dozens of potatoes a day, but it's really disappointing. 

On that somewhat down note, I will say that the transportation options in Reykjavik are a little aggravating. In Liverpool, we just Ubered everywhere and had a driver within one minue almost every time, no matter where we were going. In London, we had the Tubes and still had three other options (bus, taxi, Uber) if we wanted it (The service we used to get to the airport on our way out is called Bolt.) The bus system in Reykjavik is divided between city buses and tour buses with no seeming connection. Also, taxis seem to operate strictly between airport and city, as we never saw one sitting on a curb waiting for a customer and failed to find a way to call one when we weren't interested in walking a dozen blocks in the driving rain. And there is no private driver service like Uber yet operating. So, if you want to get around, you're either walking or renting a car; the latter of which is something that our friends, Katie and David, recommended to us so, y'know, they were right.

So, anyway, that's a wrap. We're leaving at the crack of dawn (that's a joke in Iceland around this time of year, where it stays light outside for around 20 hours out of the day (we have to draw the curtains and blinds to blot out the light at 11 PM so Tricia, at least, can get some sleep.)) There were a lot of highlights to the trip (Liverpool game, attending a Shakespeare performance in Shakespeare's theater) and no genuine lowlights, so a success, overall.