Monday, March 9, 2009

The Big Apple

My Favorite Trip: “The Big Apple”
By Darin Lopez

I have done quite a bit of traveling in my lifetime thus far. From the many countries and states that I have been to, my trip to New York City would rank in as number one of all of the trips that I have been on.

My favorite road trip/ vacation began as a random conversation with friends about how we are all from the south and never been to New York City. Somewhere in mid conversation I had the bright idea to make a weekend road trip to the Big Apple. The confirmation of the spur of the moment road trip literally was brought up and decided on within twenty minutes or so, the day before the weekend started. To most people the conversation would have probably started and ended as just a great idea, but being the charismatic and convincing person I am, I somehow convinced three of my good friends which had little money to spare to make this trip with me.
The next day seemed to come rather fast, and even after the workday was over everyone was still in on the trip. By the time we had all gotten off of work and packed we would arrive in New York at anywhere in between 9:00 and 10:00 P.M. The Drive was long and boring, even though the scenery of places I had never been was nice. It seemed as though long drives, although not liked, have a tendency to be appreciated upon the arrival of the destination.
Around 9:30 or so we had made it to the toll pass that lead to the entry of the city. None of us had ever been to the city before and were all clueless on where exactly we were going. Our strategy then became very simple, we would drive around for a bit until we saw the type of crowd we were looking for. By 10:00 P.M. we had found the spot we were looking for and were checking our car into a parking garage. Upon entry the first thing we saw was a brand new Bently parked right in front in a V.I.P status parking spot. We then realized that taking a trip to NYC should have probably waited until we had enough money. Scared of finding out the cost of the garage, we asked the guy for the rates and some good ideas of places we should visit for first timers. Being the person I am, during our conversation I jokingly mentioned that it would be great if we could get a V.I.P. parking spot as the Bently did. A few seconds later, my friends 7,000 dollar Pontiac GT was now parked in front of a 100,000 dollar Bently. The parking garage worker obviously had as big a sense of humor as we did. It was time to go out and explore the night life of the city that never sleeps. By 10:30 we had walked the streets and found our way into a bar. We began to drink a little bit faster than usual to make up for the time we had missed driving. The bar was great. I had no idea what the reason was but in no time at all I had already been hit on and met a number of women. We bar hopped and continued drinking and holding bar talk until around 12:30. We decided to move on and finally got away from the bar scene and made to a club type place where it everyone was dancing. It reminded me of any typical over exaggerated club scene in television and movies. At this point, someone looks at the time to realize we had only and hour and a half left to stay out. We walked straight to the bar and ordered a few shots per person, including some of the women we had just met. In the time span of two hours we had drank enough that we were all decently intoxicated. Enough so that two of my friends were making out with the random “hot club girl in the dark”, women. We were all dancing and having a great time. A far better time I myself had ever had in a club. Before I know it we were back at the bar ordering more rounds. The amount of alcohol consumed at this point was ridiculous. It was almost 2:00 A.M. and we were all aware that the night was coming to a close. Or was it? We had all had a blast and could not complain if the night would have ended. Somehow we all lost track of the time between dancing and ordering more rounds. Somewhere in between 2:00 and 3:00 A.M. we realized that the place was not closing. I decided to ask one of the women I had danced with what time the place closed. It’s now 3:00 A.M., we are miles away from home with little money, literally drunk, had just found out that the clubs didn’t close until 5:00 A.M. and we didn’t have a place to stay. Within all of the commotion of the night, we randomly called hotels and realized we did not want to spend as much as they were charging to have to check out after five hours of checking in. I somehow remembered that I had an old high school friend that attend the University of New York and gave her a call. To my surprise she was there and said we could stay at her dorm for the night. All of my friends were exited. We had a free place to stay, in a college dorm, and didn’t have to drive anywhere. This was a great opportunity to celebrate more. We ordered more rounds for us and more strangers. By this time our bar tab had reached a ridiculous amount. The next thing we know it was almost 5:00 A.M. We all went to the bar to close our outrageous tab. I went to the female bartender that had served me most of the night to pay our tab. What happened next did not make any since and made me feel like a rock star. Our bar tab was just over five-hundred dollars to no surprise. She goes to ring our total up and give us our ticket, turns from the cash register and utters these exact words, “don’t worry about it”. She instantly became my favorite random person ever. I still have no idea why I did not get her phone number but I never talked to her again. I will just assume that it was a mixture of decent looks and an amazing personality.
We then were ready to call it a night at the club and find some food quick. On the walk down the block we saw a New York style pizza shop and decided to stop. We could not pass up eating New York style pizza in New York. We all order enough pizza to feed a bus full of kids on their way to fat camp. While we were stuffing our faces like we were in eating competition with each other we noticed that this pizza place was even better than we had imagined, it served beer at all times. It was a great idea to drink more beer at 6:00 in the morning. We stayed there for quite a while drinking more, throwing food and carrying on before we decided to head to the dorms for sleep to get ready for the next day. We were beyond drunk and headed to the dorms. Between the pizza shop and our destination, one of the guys decided he could not handle the amount of alcohol consumed, or the amount of food he had eaten, and gave it back to the city from which it came. My friends vomiting sparked a serenade of gagging from all of us in front of a homeless mans castle of bags and boxes. If you were there to witness this event you would probably agree it was quite amazing, and seemed to be well orchestrated between the four of us. We laughed, vomited, and cried, all at once. It was such a site even to us that we later joked that the homeless guy would probably pay money to see it again. We had no idea where we were going and somehow managed to make it to our destination safely. It had been a long day, and an even longer night. We at one point were filled with plenty of alcohol, full of pizza, and feeling worthless with a smile. Now we were ready to sleep in the city that never does. The night ended then for all of us but one. To keep it short and sweet my friend that came with me thought that my friend from home was fairly attractive and they stayed up past sunrise holding “deep conversation”. I find it funny how there have been many other nights including the same activities, but still somehow don’t compare to the New York City experience.

The rest of the weekend was very similar to the night before except with a little more sight seeing. We saw the Lady Liberty, Time Square, the Empire State building, Ellis Island, and met a lot of very interesting and fun people that we will most likely never talk to or see again. There were a number of items checked off of my bucket list on this particular weekend and I loved every second of it. I can’t decide if it was the people I was with, the place I was at, the events that took place, or the experience as a whole that will always rank the New York City adventure my favorite trip.

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