Return to Gotham

View of East River
Originally uploaded by kardinalsin.

Right. It's been a couple days and I've finally been able to decompress a bit from our whirlwind trip to Manhattan and parts thereabouts. Fun was had, much food was eaten and many pictures were taken. Check out the Flickr Photoset for more in depth photo analyses.

As far as specifics go, we spent Friday resting from our arriving flight and meandering about the Airtran navigating our way through the subway to the Upper East side abode of our very good friend, Anusha, who was gracious enough to keep us as her apartment-guests for the weekend. After resting our somewhat weary feet, I crashed from the effects of my dramamine and didn't wake up again until sunlight poured into the apartment.

What came next was a short trip crosstown into the East Village for a tour of Parsons, a brief visit to the eclectic shop Mxyplyzyk and an awesome lunch. From there, it was off to The Met via bus.

The museum itself is very large. Perhaps the largest I've been too, but unfortunately, we were unable to experience the vastness of it all due to our walking everywhere and due to time constraints. This also led to us missing out on the awesome experience of seeing any Central Park foliage. A little disappointing, but with the unusual warmth and rain of the last few weeks in New York, there wasn't as spectacular color as one might expect.

The main event of friday was eating at the excellent restaurant, Babbo. In the least amount of words: exquisite. The service was terrific, the food delicious, and there was plenty of ambience to spare. Mario Batali truly outdid himself with his flagship restaurant and being there made me want to see what his other restaurants have to offer as well.

Too full for any more food or activities, we retired and prepared for a massive saturday full of shopping, a trip to the Chelsea Market, and a requisite trip to Toy Tokyo before watching a dismal drubbing of the Stanford Cardinal football team at the hands of the number 1 team in the nation. Nothing to be ashamed of as the second half was much easier to watch than the first.

At any rate, we closed out our trip with a trip to Queens for dim sum in Flushing, an Indian Market in Jackson Heights, and a mad dash to JFK on the R train, the G train, the E train, and the Airtran yet again.

New York was better than I remember. As an adult, I can actually enjoy the late night pizza, the fascinating vibe of the city, and the experience of wandering about on our own just finding our way wherever we want to go. Seeing Parsons did make me think about the possibility of moving back east and the unknown future that I have to face. I've written about this apprehension in a previous post so it doesn't need to be reiterated that the first step is always the most difficult. Being there, however, made it seem much more a reality than ever. The solace I can take now is that I truly have nothing to lose by trying and ultimately, I have the most supportive and loving girlfriend who will support me no matter what. In this I find strength and confidence. So New York waits for now, just as I left it: bustling and hustling ahum with the vigor of an old and dense urban energy.