09/09/09 Arrival

11pm-ish 09/09/09

Well- I ARRIVED! My friend, Ini, was there waiting right on the platform. Best surprise ever! I didn't even have to try to navigate upstairs Penn Station looking for him. Bill, my across-the-aisle buddy was all prepared to chaperone me upstairs and baby-sit me til I found I found my Manhattan Greeting Committee, luckily, I didnt need a sitter, I felt a bit silly at my naivete.
Baggage took forever to make its way upstairs, but once we got my (4) bags it was up the escalator and *plop* out onto the streets of Manhattan! I never knew Penn Station was underground beneath Madison Square Gardens. I feel like half this city exists under ground. Totally explains the roach issue.
Ini was kind enough to book a hotel for me somewhat near his apartment (a measly 12 blocks) so I can be close-by on my first night in the city and feel a little more secure. I will not say the hotel is ucky; it isnt, but it does bring new meaning to 'shabby-chic' and vintage.
The Alga Hotel is a semi-converted apartment building that maintains some permanent residents and rents out the rest of its furnished rooms for 12-hour stretches, which works out perfectly since I want to be up and out early in the morning. My room(s) include a living room area with tons of seating and tables and a dresser. I could fit a dozen people in here and no one would have to rest their buns on a seat like any one else's (i.e. nothing matches *wink*). Yet it all coordinates in a vintage/shabby/eclectic type of way. The chic is just a given since, well, I am in Manhattan. I am so geeked about being off the train the furniture could have been made from re-formed pop-bottles and I still wouldnt mind. After 6 days on my friends couch and almost 20 hours on a train, the Alga closely resembles Heaven... Until I realized I have no shampoo and will be washing hair with White Gardenia Shower Gel from Bath and Body Works... Brilliant! Oh! and I have no phone charger, so all the gabby "I am safe in New York and here's what I have seen so far," phone calls are being put on hold. (Since I couldnt call anyone, here's what I have seen so far- 34th St, Madison Square, One angry crack head, 6,000 taxi cabs, the Hudson River and New Jersey). Bummer deal, not quite what I was expecting my first night in the city.
Luckily, I have great company in the form of Ini (my personal city-guide, body guard and all around New York expert) and am honestly too pooped to mind too much about the lack of shampoo or the dead phone. I am preparing to pass out now while Ini is preparing to lug the second load of my luggage the twelve blocks to his apartment so it will be out of the way while we run around town tomorrow getting me settled. The first load involved 2 wheeled suitcases (one of which has a broken wheel), and a lovely a flowered carry-on, this one will be a little easier, just one manly blue suitcase. He is such a blessing to have around. I cannot imagine how hard this would have been without someone to help show me the ropes and ease the burden.