When we took the Subway to ABC, we took the 9. Well, after the test, I made the decision that if we took the 9 to get here, then we should take the 9 back. It should circle back around, right? I guess Subway trains don't "circle" back around like I thought.
We got on the 9, and we went up Manhattan. We wanted Times Square, 42nd Street. Unfortunately, the numbers were going up. 96th, 128th, 154th, 226th...We ended up in Van Cortlandt Park. For those of you not in the know, that's in the Bronx. When we started our jaunt, the subway was packed...it was around 5:15. When we finished, we were left with two lone travelers. A middle aged woman, and a college aged guy. We asked what happened after the last stop...
"Where are youse guys headin?" asked the college guy.
"Times Square." we responded.
Gasps from the woman and chuckles from the guy followed.
"Youse guys are in the Bronx...were as far away from Times Square as you can get!"
They were both extremely nice, and proceeded to tell us to cross the platform when the subway stopped and take that 9 subway to 96th street. Then, cross the platform again, and take the 2 all the way to 42nd street.
By the time we arrived, we had been on the subway for over an hour. Considering we were only trying to get from 67th to 42nd, I would say we did not make good time.
I would have to say, however, that the subway experience wasn't all that bad. There were some interesting things that happened.
1. We had a beggar on the train. This lady had her speech down verbatim. I will paraphrase here...if you ever rode the 9, maybe you know her.
"May I have your attention. If you have an apple, an orange, a cookie, a cake, a sandwich. I do not mind if it's been squished in your bag for three days. If you have a nickel, a dime, or even a penny. A lot of people just throw pennies away, but they help me to buy my food, to buy my clothing, to buy my cosmetics..."
2. This teenaged kid, very scrawny, made his way from car to car, before ending up in the car after ours. He then proceeded to grab the hand rails and do a series of flips, and non-sexual pole dancing type moves. We could see him flipping around, and I have to say, it was quite impressive.
3. When we first entered the train, it was standing room only. I nestled in by the door, so I could watch the numbers on the walls as they screamed past. Dan was behind me, looking in the direction of the people. After about 5 stops, the people who started the ride with us were all replaced by new people who didn't know that I was with Dan. This was important for Dan's plan...to cause a scene.
At about the 6th stop, the doors opened and Dan made his move. He turned and in his loud, booming voice called out..."This is your stop" as he proceeded to push me out the subway door. Of course, I wasn't prepared to be pushed out the door, so I stumbled out, and quickly had to make my way back aboard before the subway left without me.
I quickly took a look around, to see how people reacted. All I saw were shocked looks. Looks of disgust. "Why would that guy push him off the Subway?" I looked at Dan, he looked at me, and we burst out laughing. People shook their heads in protest and dove back into their newspapers.
Once we FINALLY found Times Square, we were starving. We walked to the Olive Garden. Above the restaurant was an ENORMOUS front end of an Escalade. We quickly took a seat in the bar. $15 for lasagna?!? It's only $9.95 in Greenwood! The place was cool, though. Main level housed several tables enclosed in glass walls so you could see the action. The second level was a bar, and the third had a beautiful view of Times Square.
A couple more stores, and we were beat. We made our way back to Penn Station and waited for the bus, which we were told would pick us up where it dropped us off. Wrong! We waited for 40 minutes...no bus. Finally, Dan called and found out we needed to be across and slightly down the street. Oh well, we made the bus, got back to Newark and headed home.
All of Sunday and all of Tuesday were spent driving (24 hours in total), and in between, we sandwiched a day of NYC. The trip was short but fun. I would definitely go back...watch out Holly and Fatima, cause I'm on my way!!
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