Hope you guys are all doing well.

I came back yesterday from Montréal, after spending some days in Toronto and a week in NYC. My brain is still upside down but

At first thanks again for all your advices, I used that metrocard to death, had to buy another pair of sneakers cause my feet were really hurting, and had an awesome (to say the least) time in New York.

Without looking like a poor country man from eastern russia, I’ve been living in Paris for the past 10 yrs, had the chance to live in Beijing, spend a few months in Atlanta & London… Fact is, I had forgotten how you can feel tiny in a big city, a feeling I really rediscovered in NY. Guys, this city is huge. We love walking and are used to that, but this time we did that till we couldn’t walk and fell asleep on a sunny day in central park. Funny thing is that Toronto looked like a tiny village after NYC. Sad but true, it was very hard to fairly judge and appreciate toronto after a week in the big apple.

To date, 2 things I’m really sure of :
1 Though we tried to see as many things as possible in the less “tourist way” as possible, I think we only saw a fraction of the treasures NY can offer. So, we have to come back.
2 Next time I’ll come, I’ll do my best to come and see a game at the garden.

Seeing it for the first time with my own eyes and not on TV, wow, I was so excited. A great moment to be in front of this mythic arena, though I would have given a lot to have an opportunity to hear it rocking.

I feel I now much more understand why this city can’t accept the knicks to rebuild. Noise never stops, people never stop running, walking, driving… So I guess the knicks can’t stop either and take their time. Things must go quickly, results must be brought right now and long term plan must be erased from the dictionary.

Thanks again. I wish all fans here a great year and great season. Gonna be a tremendous year. Heck, I have to come back soon.

Peace !

raven

gonna put it here for a little while just cause everyone has been asking.

Dunno who moved my OT topic (I swear I tried to do the things "the right way", ) thx andrew & martin.

So, what did i do ?

a lot of tourist stuffs, of course :
- empire state on a sunny day, great view & pics from there

- central park, so surprising to see a so big "green" area in a city. I even had an opportunity to save a turtle that was stuck between 2 rocks under the sun (please vote for raven as the hero of the day). This place is really wonderful and... so clean. No dog **** that you usually have to avoid in parks. great ! a lot of those tiny animals (don't know the word and don't have a dictionary), those rats with long tails that climb the trees.

- staten island ferry night and day to see the skyline, impressive though the guy that was working on the ferry seemed really sad and hurt when we talked about it. Wounds from September 11th seem to never fully heal. We went to ground zero, not as a tourist stuff, but to try to feel what this place used to be before that. I have to tell you that I was born on sept 11th 1976 and it was my 25th birthday the day the planes struck. So in a way it is a day I will never forget, and I wanted to go there to be sure I would not.

- wallstreet (on labor day the first time, that was empty like in the movie vanilla sky). Could only find one place open to drink a beer, a place named Ulysses I think. Nice beer.

- time square. ouch, that is a special place too. I went there a couple of times, night and day too. No camera can tell what your eyes catch there. I even had the chance to get myself lost on a party (brazilian or caribean, don't really know).

- the MET. Spent an entire day there. Though I visited many museum and am quite a knowledgeable person in terms of arts, painting... I'd like to to underline the fact that I was amazed by the quality (as well as quantity) of great paintings, sculptures, relics... that are showed in that museum. Never seen a museum like that out of Paris. What I appreciated the most is how things are showed in a very simple way, so that every single person has a chance to get close and take his time to appreciate and try to understand the paintings.

- shopping between canal street and union square. OK, i have to say that I nearly had to kidnap my own girlfriend as she was buying her 5th pair of sneakers, using the same sentence each time "look it's much cheaper than in France, and since the dollar is down right now, I have to buy them. I didn't check our bak accounts since that day, but in the hotel, I willingly put my bed against the exit door so that she could not shop while i was sleeping. Before criticizing me, think that I had not a lot of choices ! ļ

- chinatown. great experience too, as it reminded me my days as a student in china. I could practice my Chinese a bit, as it sometimes was easier for me to order in some restaurants that way.

- Greenwich and east village. Nice areas and so different than the place we were staying at (our 1st hotel was on the 53rd st and the second one was on the 59th). Small houses with a very special style. My girlfriend told me that Greenwich would be the only place in NY where she could live right now. It¡¦s a good point, at least she didn¡¦t say no when I asked her about moving. Call that a good first step.

- crossed brookly bridge by walk. Longer than planned, unfortunately, weather was cloudy and freaking windy that day. While we arrived in Brooklyn we had to retreat to get some warmer clothes (which took us 1h and a half btw). We could eat a very good pizz at the bottom of the bridge though.

- I though about one of you while I was I think in Washington square, and that I had just took a place on a bench a rasta guy came and wanted to sell me some weed. I kindly refused thinking and explained the whole story to my girlfriend. She asked me why it could possible for them to sell weed in that park if everybody knew about it. Instead of answering cause I didn¡¦t know what to say, I simply offered her to visit another foot locker store. ƒ¼

- of course we went to see MSG and took a few pics there. Next time, be sure I¡¦ll have tickets and the knicks will be playing. Hope some of you guys be there too.

¡K so many things we saw and did. I cant¡¦ even remember right now and write them all down. It was a great great time. Can¡¦t wait to come back !

raven

Posted by martin:

gonna put it here for a little while just cause everyone has been asking.

thanks.

Great post. I had a good feeling while reading this. And when u mentioned about the city always moving, the one thing that came to mind were car horns and the smell of the hot dog stands. I miss and Love N.Y.

btw raven, welcome back to the boards...it's great to hear you had a good time in NYC...hope you come visit again soon.

cool man...what kind of restaurant are you thinking of opening? French cuisine?

btw, i had read on a Maxim magazine article that Vancouver was the place to visit in Canada if you planned on going wild & having fun...maybe things have changed? how long ago were you there? what kind of fun can you have w/o any attractive females around?

Posted by OasisBU:

Glad you enjoyed NY - I live out on Long Island but used to work in the city. It is am amazing place to say the least.

Oasis, what part? I am from Glen Cove, in the Nassau area on Long Island.

And raven, glad you had fun! NYC sure is fun man.

Posted by Kwazimodal:

It was great but the next summer I saw here she went from cute to dressing up punk.Not a pretty sight.

LMAO

How did this thread go from 'raven is back' to 'I was in Montreal for ....'?

Hey, welcome back raven. Glad you had a blast.