The only living boy in New York?

Na, there were plenty of people there. On my way to Mexico City on business I had the pleasure of walking the streets of Manhattan for some twenty-eight hours. I would've liked to have more time to spend there as there's an incredible amount of things to see and do but I had to make the best of it.

I started out in Midtown where I also stayed the night and the ventured down to the financial district, Battery Park and Ground Zero before taking a beautiful, but expensive, boat trip around lower Manhattan, Ellis Island, the statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge.

Later, I went further up on Manhattan, checking out the skyscrapers of Midtown and Times Square in the late afternoon. I was also silly enough to queue to get a pretty decent view from the Empire State building. I probably spent some 9% of my total time in New York on this and I guess it was worth it. After having been on my feet for God knows how long I was pretty tired after having dragged my feet around Times Square and 42nd street so I went back to the hotel and slept like a baby for a few hours.

The next day I had to get up early to see whatever I could before heading for the airport. I took a walk down to the well-guarded UN building, continuing north on Lexington before strolling around in central park, which is even more massive than I'd imagined. The day, and my visit in the biggest of apples, was rounded off with a walk around Chinatown, Little Italy and SoHo.

So is New York everything that it's cracked up to be? I guess so. If money's no object you'll have the best time here, you can get anything and everything. I don't know if I could live there permanently though, but that's not an option right now either so who cares? But I'd love to go back. Here are a few images of the place:
"They live in trees down there!"
Later that same evening I arrived in Mexico City. My thoughts, of course, went back to the time when I visited my sister here. This time, sadly, she wasn't waiting for me at the "Freedom Bar" (or whatever it was called) right outside customs. Have you ever tried the customs button at Benito Juarez airport. No? Quite funny, really. Before leaving the security area you push a big worn button and the light'll go green or red. If it's green you can proceed. Personally I think there's someone sitting behind a door somewhere watching and making it go red each time someone from Guatemala appears.

Apart from this there really isn't too much to tell from my four-day trip to the Mexican capital. I didn't get out and about very much since this was a business trip but on the last day we managed to get on a tourist bus and ride around the main sights for some two hours. This is a collection of what we saw from the bus deck:
Luckily for us, the sorest-ever loser in any presidential campaign anywhere had left the Zócalo meaning there were only lots and lots of people and white and green VW Beetles blocking our bus' path.

I had forgotten how racist people can be in Mexico. When speaking of people in Yucatán I heard someone, without the slightest bit of embarrasment, proclaim that the people down there still lived in trees.

No trip to Mexico is of course complete without drinking tequila and eating stuff like enchiladas, quesadillas and frijoles. This time, too, I had tacos from street vendors but my stomach didn't go all funny until I was back in Stockholm having multigrain cereals for breakfast. That won't keep me from having healthy breakfasts in the future, though.