I have been to New York City several times. I've traveled there with family to see Broadway musicals and the Radio City Rockettes. I have been to the city twice with my high school, and I even spent my 16th birthday there with my mom and some friends. However, each time I have gone to New York I was always accompanied by an adult who seemed to know exactly where to go and what we were doing at all times. All I had to do was sit back and enjoy the sights and sounds of the city.
This past weekend was quite the eye opening experience to say the least. For my boyfriend's 21st birthday I bought two tickets to see his favorite baseball team play; The Yankees. The two of us decided to make a two-day trip to New York City all by ourselves. At first, we both thought that navigating the city would be an easy task. However, we quickly realized that would not be the case at all. We spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out exactly how to catch a train into Grand Central Station and what the difference between on-peak and off-peak hours are. After we successfully made it to the city, we were challenged with actually navigating our way around. For a majority of the two-day trip we traveled by walking or by subway. Walking was the easiest of the two but after a few hours I had developed some pretty nice blisters that still haven't healed. Probably the biggest mistake that I made was deciding to wear my brand new sneakers to the city to break them in. Needless to say, I learned my lesson the hard way on that one. A few times we accidentally walked in the wrong direction while trying to follow Google Maps directions, which definitely didn't help my blisters.
Navigating the subway was slightly more difficult. As it turns out, the New York subway system is extremely complex. There are different colored rails that go to different parts of the city and different numbered trains that go on these colored rails, each stopping at different locations. This may sound really basic to those familiar with subways, but for someone who originally thought that there was only one train that simply went up and down New York City, this was a bit of a shock. I also had absolutely no idea that certain trains go north and others go south, even though they are the same color and number. That resulted in us going the complete wrong direction a few times without being able to figure out why. However, after two days of riding the subway I am pretty confident in my subway navigation skills.
Our trip to New York City was a two-day one, and we were also challenged with finding a place to stay that wouldn't break the bank. We really weren't looking to spend $300 on a hotel in Manhattan for one night. We asked around for suggestions and were told to look for an Airbnb, a website where people rent out rooms in their house or apartment for cheap. We found a place near Yankee Stadium for only $65! This was an incredible deal for two college kids. Before we went to the game we went to the apartment to drop off our bags and take a quick nap before the game at 7 p.m. When we got off the subway, we were surprised to find that the apartment we were staying in was in the middle of Harlem. Although we most likely would have been completely fine, we decided to play it safe and take an Uber from the stadium back to the apartment, especially since it was a pretty far walk from the subway to where we were staying. This particular part of Harlem was full of little children playing outside or riding their bikes which was quite reassuring, but we didn't want to be walking around alone at midnight. Next time, we will be sure to check out exactly where the apartment is that we are staying before we get to the city!
All in all, the trip was a success. We got to check out Central Park, the 9/11 Memorial, and Times Square. The Yankees won against the Toronto Blue Jays 1-0, and we spent our whole second day at the Bronx Zoo. While we did do some touristy things, we also did our best to see the city as a typical New Yorker. Exploring the city was an amazing experience and I learned a lot about traveling on my own without someone else always telling me where to go.
