---
title: 'Day 1: It Starts'
date: 2010-04-25T11:09:40+02:00
Tags: []
Categories: []
---

## I want to be a part of it...

It was a great first day on the trip. After i made my way done to baggage claims, it became painfully clear that aa had screwed up the luggage. There were some 30 people without bags and some of them were starting to get upset. Not i... been there, lost the bags (even for good sometimes), so i was not upset at all. After a while the bags showed up on a different conveyorbelt and mine was actually one of the first. Okay, so i took the airtrain to terminal 4.

I sat there for half an hour or so. Turns out, pauls flight was canceled in ams, but with some amount of pressure he had rebooked from klm to delta, and was only half an hour late or so. I spent the time hanging out on internet, and offeren my phone to a man who had lost his wife somewhere. I did a good thing today, whohoo!

Paul and i cabbed it from jfk to 250 west 43rd street - the Carter Hotel. We checked in and upgraded our room to a double for ten bucks. We then sniffed up the atmosphere on times sq, quickly decided it sucked, and went downtown to a rodizio eatery. Google found it on 417 lafayette, but when we called nobody picked up. So we decided to go there hoping for a spot... but when we got there, no restaurant. There was a bar, and a rug/tapestry store, but no meat on sticks and we were famished!

We decided to eat at the first place we found, which was phebe's bar. We had beef burgers and fries (mediocre) and a local ale (yummy). We then cabbed to the regal theatre to watch a flic. It was: kick ass (the title as well as the movie) and we had tonnes of fun. We got out at around 10:30pm, still awake.

Then we walked up from 13th around union sq, up to 43rd again. At the hotel, we grabbed a beer (well i did anyway) and weird collapsed. He is now loudly snoring in his bed, and i think i will start snoring real soon now, too.

Tomorrow we hitch a ride to EWR to pick up our car and drive to DC. My alarm is set to 8am. G'night!

Location : [264 W 40th St, New York, NY 10018](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=264%20W%2040th%20St.%20New%20York,%20NY)

## Apple for breakfast

So, here we are. It's 07:44 right now and I just got out of the shower. Pim is still vast asleep, our bioclocks haven't completely synced up just yet. His (and my) alarm will wake him up in 15 minutes, so I have some time for a blogpost.

It's good to be back in New York, it's been 4 years since my last visit and I feel the same thrill I felt back in 2006. Felt it immediately when I saw the Manhattan skyline while we were on final for JFK. I don't know what it is about this city; it's hot, moist, loud and smells bad all too often, but I really enjoy being here. Now we'll be leaving soon for EWR airport to get our car an d drive to Washington, but we'll spent at least a few more hours here, eating breakfast in the Big Apple.

We're in for one hell of a ride, and we got off on a great start.

## Go west!

And we're on our way! After a very rainy morning in New York where we almost did but didn't visit Madame Tussaud but instead got soaking wet and visited the M&M's megastore and the toys'r'us on Times Square, we took a cab to Newark International Airport and picked up our car: a Jeep Compass. Brand new, only 621 miles on the meter, including fresh new car scent.

After the first few miles we pulled over for some lunch at the first available service area. BK was on the menu, and somehow our burgers tasted better than the ones we had the night before in Manhattan. We were also on the lookout for an audio cable to plug iPods or phones into the aux input of our car. Not really expecting to find one, we were pleasantly surprised when we stumbled upon just what we needed in the service shop. We also took care of some other important business, affixing a smurf to the windscreen (important ingredient of our roadtrip).

The first 100 miles are already behind us and now Pim is driving. We're listening to Soundbombing vol. 2 (thanks, bro) and eating smurfs, so the setting is perfect. Obama, here we come (we hope to catch a glimpse of the president when we're in Washington DC).

## Finally, steak!!

Sipping a pint of stella in Bobby Van's steakhouse. After failing to find the rodizio in nyc, we decided to try again. We had a fine drive down to dc, but a totally terrible checkin at the motel (some drunk and pee-smelling individual was trying to check in before i was and unfortunately the clerk was marginaLly smarter than the illiterate bumb), but we quickly bombed and went to the inner city.

It is stunningly beautiful. The architecture is crisp, huge, well maintained and folks here are a bit more friendly than in new york. We walked, what i believe is the usual loop. Washington monument, lincoln memorial (he is big!) and the white house, which unfortunately was blocked off by cops because the president was about to arrive. Anyway, we walked back via the smithsonian(s) and made a plan to visit them tomorrow (at least the space and history museums).

It then got dark, which our stomachs noticed and well, here we are at bobby's about to dig in on some aged beef steak :)

I will post some pictures later on, paul had the dslr.

Location : [1500 H St NW, Washington, DC 20005](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=1500%20H%20St%20NW,%20Washington,%20DC%2020005)
