Road trip: NYC

As you may or may not know, the goats took a trip over the weekend to the biggest of apples, New York City. Here are a few things learned while wondering why Philadelphia's public transit system sucks so bad.

- Memorial Day is a great time to visit the city, as long as you avoid the tourist areas. A lot of native New Yorkers are out of town, which means you can actually find a place to sit at Union Square or on the 6 train.

- The "Chinatown bus" is a revelation. I guess eastcoast city dwellers have known about it for years, but I come late to every party. In summary: Only costs 10 dollars, runs every hour, and they let you toss your bike underneath. Plus you get the bonus of watching an old man complain about the service to the chinese woman behind the counter, to which she responds, "Is how I talk." I'm going to go out on a limb and say this the best way to get from Philly to New York (and possibly DC), until they finally invent hoverbikes.

- Speaking of bikes, getting around the city is pretty fun on them. Except when you wreck. But a knee scrape can easily be mended with a field dressing, as long as you have a roll of duct tape and a feminine pad.


- You can find some randomly interesting places. We went to a bar/coffee shop called Goodbye Blue Monday in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The only reason we went to this place was because my host happens to live in Bushwick, which is a bit of a departure from say, anywhere in Manhattan, or even Williamsburg.
The bar was awesome though: thousands of pieces of kitchy crap on the walls (hey look at the creepy gasmasks/doll sculptures), a small selection of beers served from a fridge that would be more at home in your kitchen, good live music, internet access, and a garden in back where people may or may not smoke chronic. Not to mention the clientèle of anorexic hipsters served by tranny bartenders. Also: there was a dog in the bar that was fun to pet.

- Coney Island beach is actually pretty nice. But the amusement park is a bit overwhelming.

That's it for now, I gotta go look at the New York board on journalismjobs.com.