Mike Jutan's World: New York City

I took the Virgin America red-eye flight to NYC on Thursday night and met my big sister Norma at the JFK Airport. The Virgin America screens on the backs of the seats on the plane were SO COOL, you could watch whatever TV you wanted, and even cooler was that there was a sort of free iTunes music library where you could make a playlist. They had tons of Dave Matthews and it rocked, also I listened to a lot of Amy Winehouse (she is really talented, I wish she'd clean up her act), and Sara Barellis (who just might be the most attractive girl ever), good times. Anyway I got to NYC and met my sister there. We met up there, got an Egg McMuffin (apparently that's the only thing you want to eat at 8am after 1.5 hrs of sleep), haha - dropped off our bags and headed for Jamaica Station on the AirTrain. Cool, good, awesome, same as the AirBART in San Francisco... it just costs $5. :)

Then onto the Long Island Rail Road train, and 20 min later we were in Manhattan. We came out at Madison Square Garden, and then wandered past the Empire State Building and up Broadway. Lots of cool stuff, and a truckload of Wall-E photos and ads.

Then to Toys R Us, we went on the Ferris Wheel this time, and it rocked fierce. Then to Hershey's and the M&M Store and then to a glorious Kosher restaurant that a friend of Rob Kutner (the awesome Daily Show writer - see earlier posts) recommended via a friend of his. It was SO GOOD. We got the Blintzes (New York Times rated them the best Cheese Blintzes in the city... in NEW YORK CITY... i.e. they rocked), and some Chollent (which is kinda like Jewish bean chili). Good stuff. Then we wandered a little more, went to FAO Schwarz and then to their candy section, aptly named "FAO Schweetz", then to get some Cheesecake and head back to JFK.

Following that and somewhat of a commotion at the SAA Desk where they took my Visa by MISTAKE and I almost passed out cause I was so nervous that I could have lost it, and then found out the lady at the desk TOOK IT cause she just assumed it was a travel card and didn't read it and saw it was a Visa, then they thought we were on the wrong flights and told us Expedia had booked it wrong, and basically made me and my sister insanely worked up and nervious. Anyway, it all worked out. But thank goodness I had a huge NYC Peanut Butter Cheesecake to calm my nerves after almost missing our flights, losing my Visa, and getting our bags on the wrong flight. Oy. The joys of traveling, eh?! :) Anyway other than that insane ridiculousness and painful incompetence of the SAA Desk checkin lady, the rest of the time was relatively smooth and the 7hr flight to Dakar, Senegal was no worries.

Then another 8.5hrs or so to Johannesburg. I watched Juno and then Dan in Real Life on the flight, good times. Food was good, flight was smooth and it was all great. Now for some pics of NYC.

Getting packed

Norm and I on the LIRR on the way to Penn Station

Sweet, Madison Square Garden

Empire State Building

Norm with huge USA cookies

Sweet Wall-E ads

Haha hilarious dog purses

Funny spinning Red Lobster

Big Wall-E ads at Times Square

Hard Rock Cafe

Toys R Us

This rocks

Ferris Wheel

Me freakin' out at the glorious selection of Cars toys, I finally got "Gasprin" and another one I needed for my collection

This T-Rex growled, it was freakin' AWESOME!!

This was made out of LEGO, I love the NYC hat

That weird "Naked Cowboy" guy

Wall-E bus!

This looks so freakin' good

Norm at the Hershey's store

Haha cool shirt

Hahahaha!!!!!!!! The Red M&M guy scowling at traffic

Kurt Phillips, this is for you

Another Wall-E poster

National Jewelers Exchange, super random place... our Kosher restaurant was upstairs at the back, totally hilarious!!

The staircase to the restaurant... are we in the right place?!!!

Sweet!!!!!!!!!

They even had "benchers" for saying the after meal prayers. My sister and I joked that if some tourists came in and said, "Hey, what's with these weird letters on the menu?!" - they'd probably send them to McDonald's instead :)