2018-19 Winter Break: Day 5 New York

Day 5. New York – Jersey City – New York: Liberty State Park. Burger King. Bento Sushi. Brooks Atkinson Theatre (Waitress). [HI New York City Hostel]

Today, I got up at noon, which was a significant improvement. I finished my day 4 post, and left the hostel after 3 pm.

Deserted Streets

It was a tough journey to reach New Jersey. I took the subway to World Trade Center ($2.75) and transfer to PATH. Somehow the turnstile was weird in the new station, ate my $2.75 fee and told me there was an error. My card failed to function after that. Couldn’t even try to add value to it. It didn’t help that the information desk wasn’t open because it was Christmas and the security near the station was kind of rude to me. I bought a new ticket (who in the world still uses reloadable paper magnetic stripe cards for subway tickets anyway?) and took PATH to Jersey Ticket ($2.75). Also, I think this was the second time I got charged for no reason on MetroCards.

It was Christmas, and Jersey City was pretty much deserted, and therefore, rather spooky, even though it was still daytime. I walked to Liberty State Park, spent a few minutes there, and immediately walked back to the subway station. There were too few people around and I felt uncomfortable about the situation.

Food

I took the same route back to World Trade Center, and realised I hadn’t eaten anything for the whole day. It was around past 5 pm and I walked into Burger King for a cheeseburger ($1.99 excluding tax; custom: no ketchup, no mustard). After finishing it in a few bites, I figured a small burger wasn’t going to do the job, so when I saw Bento Sushi, I decided to give it a look. Even though the small shop was jam packed and there was no way I could dine in, I still bought a big box of chef special: tuna & Atlantic salmon combo ($14.99 excluding tax). Since I believe eating is allowed on NYC subways, I had my sushi there. They were pretty good as I sort of missed sashimi, but the only complaint was that the tuna weren’t the freshest.

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Broadway

I reached Brooks Atkinson Theatre around 6 pm, but Waitress wasn’t starting in another hour. I walked around Times Square for several minutes, but still got back to Brooks Atkinson Theatre and went in line before the doors opened at 6:30 pm.

Since I never had anything to drink or eat in a theatre, I wanted Waitress to be the show that I did so. I got myself an Old Joe’s Horny Past (pecan pie whiskey, ginger ale topped with whipped cream) for $17 without being carded and an apple pie for $12. It was super expensive but worth a shot, and they weren’t too bad either.

I bought a very good seat ($119.00 excluding fees; $135.20 including fees), and it was worth every penny. With my binoculars at hand, I could see whatever detail I’d like to see, yet without them, I was still able to see everything clearly. Waitress is a very light-hearted, funny, and cute musical. I still cried a bit, but it was mostly because the musical was very beautiful. I loved every minute of it.

The family sitting next to me arrived late, missing a few songs in the beginning. I think they caused a lot of us to miss a dialogue as they were trying to make way through the seats. During intermission, the daughter, I supposed, was very angry at the mother, again, I assumed. I guessed that the mom was either late or forgot the tickets at first, and hence causing their late arrival. It was a pretty bad scene for those who can hear them, which weren’t many, but still made me uncomfortable just listening to their conversation.

Summary

Today ended perfectly. I can die happy now.

Have you seen any Broadway shows? What is your favourite? What other shows do you want to see?