not sure if i like big apples too much.

Well, namely I'm not sure if I like a particular "big apple" more commonly known as New York City. It's fascinating and diverse and everything, but it's also loud, too crowded, and ridiculously busy all the time.

And I'm thinking that someone or something I touched caused me to get strep throat this week. So I certainly don't appreciate that. But nevertheless, there were some good times (when you don't count the part about my legs feeling as if they were going to fall off after walking for 6 hours or so).

Like:
1) Central Park - really the only place in that city that has more than a few trees around. And it's an escape from all the honking horns.
2) Times Square - it was kind of strange yet really, really neat to see (up close and in person!) the place where the ball drops every New Year's Eve.
3) NBC Studio - Okay, we didn't really see the studio per se, but we did go inside the building where the studio is. It was pretty cool. Also kinda huge and pretty confusing.

Dislike:
1) Feeling closed in and surrounded by something at all times.
2) Hearing a car horn on nearly every street literally a second after a traffic light turned green. Do people have absolutely no patience anymore? And I thought I was horrible! I'm never moving to that city. Never, never, ever.
3) It's never quiet. A place with so many millions of people isn't really a place that I can stay in for too long. If they were spread out, then fine, but the last time I checked (which may have been a few years ago), NYC had over 16 million people. Crazy, yes?
4) The lack of places to get food at! - It's awful. Take Madison Avenue, for example. We walked probably about 20 blocks or so down that street, looking for a place to get dinner at (that wouldn't cost us an arm and/or a leg), but nothing! For 20 blocks!! So we found St. Patrick's Cathedral (pick-up destination) and walked a bit past there to 56th St., or one of those numbers, and found a McDonald's. Yeah, we had to settle for that. And yet it felt like we'd found a buried treasure. Hmm.

Amused by:
1) The fact that there's a $350 fine imposed for every time someone beeps their horn. Yes, it's really true. Hahahahahaha. But oddly enough, I still heard at least 5 dozen beeps during my lovely visit.


After all this rambling, I think this is my conclusion: I guess I like and dislike NYC at the same time, but it's more of an all right place if you have something planned. Otherwise, you may very well end up doing what Bob & I did for most of the day - wandering around aimlessly. Part of that problem caused by the fact that all the streets look the same.

Hey, at least the weather was fine. Breezy for a while too! Perfect for walking a lot... which I think my legs might still hate me for doing. ;-)