I drove out from Connecticut up and over to Hyde Park, New York, which is pretty much as far north as the Metro North train line goes from New York City. There was a cool little park near where I was where FDR's house was. There were some historical sites and some nifty little trails that went by the Hudson (which is brown and red in color, if you didn't know). So, pretty, yeah, but beautiful, no. It was a very suburby neighborhood that you could say exceeded my expectations.
I took the Metro North down into NYC and stayed in Bushwick, which is in Brooklyn. The rent there was pretty cheap, and the food and beer was, too. For New York, anyways. A bar in Bushwick to check out is The Gotham City Lounge. This bar pretty much looks like the bedroom of some nerdy comic book reading, sci-fi enthusiast. It was decked out with all kinds of action figures, models (toys, not babes), posters from superhero movies, etc., except it's also a bar. They also had a Marvel vs Capcom arcade game. This bar was awesome. The guy running it, Jeff, was a really cool guy. He let my buddy and I hang out and drink until 5 a.m. (bars close at 4 a.m. in New York). It being the case that a shot and a pbr can run you $3, us being there until 5 a.m. spelled out hangover pretty boldly for the next day.
Not far by train from Bushwick is a place called Dumbo. If you find yourself at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, look for a restaurant/bar called Superfine. Really cool staff, fair prices on good beers ($5 for a Coney Island Lager, $3.50 during happy hour), free pool table. Kind of a weird variety for a crowd there, but that shouldn't stop you.
Williamsburg, hipsterville capital of Brooklyn. Had a lot of fun here. There's a few places that need to be checked out:
The Alligator Lounge - I didn't get to go here, but I don't care. They serve 8" pizzas with every single beer you order for free. Well, the beers are $4, but that's an amazing deal. Take it.
Barcade - Oh my god. If I were 5 years older this place would be some kind of haven. It's a bar packed with arcade games from the 80s. I'm sure they'll rotate their game selection as the generations pass through. Would have been sweet to be playing Mortal Kombat and Area 51 and stuff. Guess I'm just not hip enough yet. This is a bar that had like 20 craft bres on tap, all for $6 each (except really heavy beers >10%abv, They're $7, oh well. Still worth it). Their selection was amazing. They had a McNeil's brew on tap, which is from VT. Hat's off.
And the place to go if you're trying to bro out and pick up chicks - Union pool. Pretty sweet, they had a taco truck out back outside. Good looks. There was also a sign by the bathrooms that read "Due to debauchery, one person per bathroom." Nice. But be wary here, like most places to pick up or be picked up, there's a high volume of douchebaggery.
There was one other bar called The Turkey's Nest, I think. It was a sweet hole-in-the-wall dive bar in hipsterville, which was kind of neat. There was a guy passed out on the bar, bartender didn't care. My friend ordered a whiskey gingerale that was more like a whiskey on the rocks with a splash of gingerale. I got a Brooklyn Lager for $4. Not bad. Terrible music though, it eventually lead to us leaving.
Aside from Brooklyn, I went to one bar in Manhattan. Here's my advice - don't do that. Ever. We looked around for places that had something not hilariously expensive and failed for quite some time. We eventually found a bar called Twin's. We got a couple beers for like $5 a piece, and then ordered a round of shots of Jameson. That bottle of Jameson... I don't know guys. I'm pretty sure there was apple juice in it. My two friends and I all immediately noticed that our shots were way too delicious and tolerable. Not cool. Don't even bother drinking in manhattan unless you're some business executive with a silly salary.
I know New Yorker's say their trains aren't confusing, but that's a damn lie. The streets make perfect sense, and walking around manhattan was a breeze, but once I was out of manhattan and in Brooklyn, getting around was as effortless as building a working automobile out of nothing but toothpicks. It's pretty retarded, I'm sure it gets easier with time, but it's certainly not for me.
Now, as you can see, I had a lot of fun in NYC. And I'll bet you will too. Here's the thing: NYC is literally cancer. It is a tumor on the earth with it's routes stuck firmly into the ground. People traverse beneath the earth's surface here through the roots that glue that goddamn tumor to the surface. It's sickening, really. There's so man goddamn people, too. It's a fun place, but it's a terrible, terrible place.
But again, don't get me all wrong here, it's totally worth visiting. I mean, if you're an adult you probably know at least 100 people that live in that city, somewhere. They're there somewhere. Great place for reconnecting with old friends -- Excellent seeing you Jess, Dyl, Jamie, Dana and Chris! Meeting up with wonderful people is always a wonderful time, even if it's in America's favorite tumor.
No shred-vid for this post, or the next one. Didn't have the time. I'll update in Philly pretty soon.
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