The New York City subway sucks!

Self portrait in front of the United Nations

So, there you have my opinion, right in the blog title. I don't have to worry about hurting my buddy Barry's feelings about my dissing the sub since he doesn't read my blog ("I want a handwritten note or phone call from you so that I know how you're doing," he said last night while we had a huge pastrami sandwich at Katz' Delikatessen). Yes, I know it runs around the clock, and that's about the only positive thing about this rumbly, outdated, slow, unpredictable, prone-to-service-outages dinosaur. I take the Paris metro or Berlin U-Bahn any day over this outdated monster. Yuck. And did I mention the rats?

The R rumbling into Lexington

An interesting advertisement in the subway

Otherwise, New York has been great since I got here on Friday afternoon. My friend Liz is attending a medical seminar here and she had asked me whether I wanted to tag along, and so I did. I got us the upgrade on the plane, and she's covering the room. While she listens to presentations discussing psycho-drugs I wander the streets and do some interesting sightseeing. So far I have joined two walking tours (a third one was cancelled because of the on-going Wall Street occupation by protesters), looked at some of Malcolm Forbes' treasures in his "Galleries," inspected the operations of the Brooklyn Brewery (and sampled their suds, of course), and have been drifting through Manhattan, looking and enjoying. The weather so far has been perfect for these types of activities.

Protesters in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan

Saturday night Liz and I went to the legendary Blue Note where we were treated to a mind-blowing performance by one of  my favorite artists, Pat Metheny. For an hour and a half (amazingly long for a club gig) Metheny and bassist Larry Grenadier played old and new stuff, and I couldn't have enjoyed it more. I left the place emotionally drained. It was the best live music I have ever witnessed.

Saturday night in front of the Blue Note

I'm updating the blog while sitting in a Mickey D's just a few block away from the United Nations, my next stop. McDonald's may have the crappiest non-food in the world, but they provide free Internet and have clean bathrooms. Since the Hyatt charges an arm and both legs for Internet access (and don't get me started on the fact that the $300 room doesn't get any direct daylight and that it is even impossible to see the sky when craning one's neck) I have to resort to the plan B of bloggers anywhere—invest a buck in a Sausage McMuffin and get connected to the world. BTW, the buck in NYC is actually $1.29. It's New York, after all.

Inside of  Brooklyn Brewery

Lenin himself greets New York from atop the Red Square apartments on the Lower East Side

I just updated this post from the New York Public Library, which has blazing fast internet access. Enjoy the pics. I hope there will be another post with more photos before too long.

Jürgen