We go to Lycoming College, a wonderful, small liberal-arts school stationed in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Williamsport is about three hours from New York and Philadelphia, five hours from Baltimore, and six hours from Boston, a prime region that makes all of these great cities easily accessible to us. But do you know what the best part about taking a day trip to one of these crazy places is? Knowing that at the end of the day, you get to return to the quiet, peaceful neighborhood in which your school resides.
That being said, it became apparent during our recent trip to the Big Apple to see the Broadway hit "The Phantom of the Opera" that we belong more within that peace and quiet. What follows is a true story of two small-town college students spending one entire day in New York City.
During the three-hour bus ride to the city, we had the chance to enjoy the brilliant movie "The Martian," starring Matt Damon. Little did we know that the film would be the perfect precursor to the adventure that awaited us. We too were somewhat stranded in a wasteland. Yet, instead of being the only living beings in a place full of natural wasteland, we were lost in a cluster of buildings, people and the unceasing honking of car horns.
Once we arrived, we began with an overpriced lunch at a family-owned pizza joint in the theater district. Two large slices of pepperoni pizza, one stromboli, one coffee and one Arizona iced tea later, we began to walk through the streets. We had about three hours until the show began, so we decided to start off by frequenting Times Square. We visited a few stores in and around Times Square, but everything seemed so overpriced compared to back home. Even the Express store, which usually has a great clearance section, seemed to have inflated, big-city prices. When an item of clothing is 75 percent percent off and still too expensive, you get a little sick inside. How many items of clothing did I buy? Zero. How many did Melissa buy? Three. See the difference?
With the clothes shopping done, we moved on to the worlds of candy, also known as Hershey’s Chocolate World and M&M’s World. Yes, there is a Hershey’s Chocolate World in New York about three hours away from the actual Hershey’s Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania. We both purchased our cute mementos and continued walking the streets, doing our best to hide our bright yellow bags, clear symbols of tourism.
We still had some time to kill before we saw the Phantom kill. We decided to use this opportunity to visit Central Park for the first time, since it was only about 15 minutes away from where we were. Yet as we got closer, we began to notice police officers lining the sidewalks in larger concentrations as we went along. Then we saw it: Trump Towers. Right in front of the building was a large group of people holding signs calling Trump a racist or that he is making America hate again. The anti-Trump rally was just beginning when we arrived, so it was not hard to walk through them to enter Central Park. While we wanted to watch the rally a little longer since we were both intrigued at actually encountering something we had only seen videos of before, the beating drums and desire to avoid politics made us slide right past.
Central Park! Finally! After seeing it in movies and on TV, we finally stepped foot on the grass in one of the most famous parks in America. We even believed we recognized a tunnel from "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (how appropriate) as well as a bridge Matt Smith ran over during a pivotal episode in "Doctor Who," although it turned out to be the wrong one. Kids were playing and birds were singing, yet this was probably the quietest part of the city. It was the perfect place for small-town students like us.
Next, it was time go see a Broadway show. I could go on and on about how wonderful the show was, but that’s not the point. It’s "Phantom" -- of course it was wonderful. But after the show, we and five of other friends gathered together outside the theater to come up with our master plan of the best way to utilize our remaining time together. It involved taking the subway.
So the seven of us, none familiar with New York, walked toward the subway station which Google Maps led us to, only to find out that the train would take us in the wrong direction. We wandered around the city aimlessly for some time, trying to navigate through people as well as overcome our stupidity and hunger. I had the idea of going to Little Italy, about 3 miles from Times Square, so we set the GPS and began walking toward the subway once more, only to realize that the Little Italy we were heading to was actually just a pizza place outside the theater district. Oops!
Defeated by our own technology, we kept walking, heading toward a restaurant we had seen earlier. One would think a group of seven intelligent college students could navigate New York City since it is laid out like a perfect grid, with avenues and numbered streets perpendicular to one another, yet it is the most confusing place in the world. At one point, we were convinced that there are actually two Times Squares.
Our little group wandered inside what appeared like a classic diner, though it had not-so-classic prices. Frustrated and famished, the two of us (just Melissa and Erik) went our own way and ate at a small deli for dinner. We had a prior distrust of restaurants named after their own address, but this deli we found actually had some incredible pasta and chicken fajitas. However, even a little deli could not escape the grip of the city’s high prices. Both of us suddenly wished we were back in Williamsport, a quaint city where the average meal is about $10. After strolling around Central Park once more and enjoying some top-notch gelato (one of the best parts of the trip, in our opinion), we hopped back on our bus and headed home.
It was certainly a successful trip to the city. We jam-packed so many great things into one day. But after wandering around, we could not imagine a permanent venture throughout New York City. How do people do it? Is it the endless amount of opportunity available? Is it the beauty of the lights at night? Is it the allure of the theaters where famous stars perform their hearts out multiple times a day? For us, it just seems like too much chaos all the time. It truly is the city that never sleeps.
