Back again
September 16th, 2006
After a very enjoyable week I have returned home once more. Click the above image to see some of the photo’s taken by Ralph (or at least with his camera). Manhattan is a great place to live, provided you have the kind of cashflow needed to survive there, with incredible energy and (what surprised me most) friendly and relatively laid back inhabitants. The city is so big that you don’t ever need to go to the same place twice. The grid structure makes it an easy place to navigate and the seemingly hundreds of metro lines are an easy and effective way of covering larger distances.
Even though we were in Manhattan on 11 September, five years after the event, we hardly noticed anything different at all about the city that day. Apparently the media made it appear as though the whole of New York was grieving at the memorial site, but that was simply not representative of reality. Sure, at the site there was a crowd with the occasional grieve-stricken Manhattanite, but on block down and it was business as usual. More generally, my expectations of a terrorist-attack fearing town were put to shame.
Besides Manhattan we also drove up to Vermont to stay with my aunt & oncle for two days. They live near a place called Middlebury (with its proud College) and it appears to me that they have found the perfect place to enjoy the perfect outdoor lifestyle. Besides fishing and hunting there are vast forest covered mountains in the vicinity good for hiking or skiing and langlaufen in winter. My oncle built a “Banya” (which is Russian for sauna) in the backyard which makes the relaxation possibilities complete.
To get to and around Vermont Ralph and I rented a Chevrolet Trailblazer, which is an awesome SUV as long as fuel consumption is not an issue. Powerfull in the mountains and perfectly comfortable on cruise control on the interstate. What a car.
Some conclusions I have drawn this week:
- Roel has it figured!
- I have to visit my aunt & oncle more often!
- The USA and its population is not half as bad as it appears in the media.
- If I ever have lots of spare change floating around, I have to take Mayke for a shopping spree in Soho, Nolita and on Fifth! 