Monday, May 14, 2007

Today's Travels

I got up about noon today and decided to see the city. I wanted to take the subway down to work again to make sure I knew how to do it, but I also wanted to see stuff. One of the places I wanted to see was the local Nerd Store, which was as I found out really close near 81st and 3rd.

Part One took me down to the Nerd Store, over to Central Park and finally to the subway station that takes me to work. The Google Maps Pedometer tells me this leg wasn't even a mile and a half. Child's play, really.

When I got off the subway down on 14th and 8th, I took a walk around the block that is the Google building. Instead of just getting back on the train, though, I decided to challenge myself. I would walk almost exactly above where the subway would take me, for as long as I could. Not only would this be a nice exercise, but it would let me see the city I'd miss out on travelling underground. And if I got sick of walking, I'd be close to a subway station that could take me the rest of the way. I had nowhere to be, so why not?

Part Two ended up taking me all the way from 8th and 14th across 14th to Union Square, then over to 2nd and all the way back to my apartment north of 83rd. A grand total of more than five miles, all by foot. I saw a lot of things on the way north, stopped at a restaurant to get a slice of pizza, and spent a beautiful day outside for once.

I'll be honest though, about 70th St. I didn't really feel like walking anymore, but by then it was quicker and easier to just get through the last ~15 blocks than to find a subway station and pay for a ride.

Once I got back I took a short nap, talked to Lauren for a little bit, then went across the street for some dinner at a place called Szechuan Cottage, a nice little sit-down white-linen-tablecloth Chinese restaurant. It was great food, but too expensive to go there every day.

I'll have to write a post some time about the block I live on. It's literally got everything I need, all within a single block. Amazing, really. Tomorrow's my first day at Google, though, so I'll probably have more exciting things to talk about.

Stay tuned for that one, though.

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