More New York

I got pretty excited when I saw this SpongeBob thermometer in Target the other day.








I was even more intrigued by all of the options it gave me.







Anyway, back to New York!

So this was the Whitehouse. Not to be confused with the more famous White House. I know that it looks like I was being clever here because the window sign says "real broke", but that was just a happy coincidence.

The elderly gentleman at the front desk wouldn't let me pay for the room before we'd been escorted up to see it. Apparently there have been problems in times past with angry customers demanding a refund after they'd realized what a crappy hostel this was.

Here's the hallway.











Now, I am not one to complain about hostels, but the one irritating factor above all was that the rooms' walls did not reach to the ceiling. It was like one big cubicle dorm maze. So that meant that anything anyone did, anywhere, could be heard by the entire floor of 50+ people.

This was the luxurious triple bed suite. My bed was the one closest to the window. The beds actually weren't so bad except they were covered in some sort of plastic wrap that rustled when you so much as blinked. I was always terrified to change positions in fear of being shushed by the other occupants.




The bathroom. I liked the checkered tile; I did not like how there was no door, the urinal looked like crap, and the bathroom doors had this gapey edge when you closed them and anyone could look in.






This was behind one of the stall doors. Was this a Halloween decoration from years past? A criticism of the hostel by a fed-up Bowery guest?







I did enjoy the pretty tile borders that were in the stairwell.







Ice cream trucks like these always make me laugh. It's about on par with those yellow street signs that say "slow children crossing".





Empire State Building! This is one of the only pictures I took of actual New York landmarks.









I was too busy taking pictures of my perfect, tasty Root Beer Float from Wendy's.






Welcome to the neighborhood, Meredith! This was in the Auntie Anne's in the NBC building, and it had no explanation so I asked the counterhelp who Meredith was, and she told me in hushed tones that Meredith Viera had come down to do a piece about pretzels, apparently, and in even more hushed tones she let me know that Viera could have been friendlier to the staff.


We went to the Telephone Bar and they had the nicest bathrooms of any bar I've ever seen.






Of course, when we saw Bamn! The Automat! we had to stop by. Travis and Pat both got something, I wasn't hungry for tiny greasy niblets so I will have to wait until next time.



Bamn! mirror.








So we go down to Battery Park and there's all of these Statues of Liberty standing and berating tourists that take pictures of them and don't pony up any dough. We walk a little further, and...



OH GAWD LADY LIBERTY IS A DUDE!!!!!! We saw about three Statues changing in the not-too-private area behind some vendor stalls. They were all portly Italian guys.




Here's one in just the green catsuit, no crown or anything.







This clown was taking off his mask right at his station! Where are their standards? What about the children!








Pigeons in luuuuuuv.








The real Statue of Liberty was pretty far away and did not disrobe at any point.