Day 4: From Amish country side - to Big City Brooklyn

How could I have failed to mention yesterday that I spent over 30 dollars on tolls - and I hadn't even made it to New York! Ughhh!! Anyway, I am sure I will have 30 more in tolls by the time I am out of New York. This morning I woke up to myself taking up the whole entire bed.

After eating breakfast I headed out to Amish country. The woman who pulled my car around handed me a brochure for “Intercourse, PA” – what kind of girl did she take me for? Ha! I headed down the road toward Lancaster County and decided I would make my way to the Amish house tour. When I got there it was in the middle of everything modern. Upon entering the house I was told that I could tour the 20 acre farm/house there or pay 20 bucks extra to be taken out to the Amish countryside. I opted to tour the 20 acre farm. I was so enamored with the animals that I totally missed the house tour but I got a great look into the kitchen. They still use intricate rug beaters, wood burning stoves, and meat houses to store their meat!! Not only that but they hang all of their clothes and they have milk houses for storing milk. The FDA made a law requiring milk houses to be properly refrigerated so many Amish farms have to have electricity in order to sell their milk.

There were all sorts of animals – including goats, chickens, pigs, roosters, donkey, sheep, and cows! There was one hilarious looking chicken that I swear was posing for the camera with his intricate plume of feathers cocked all the way forward. In the school house an Amish woman named Katie explained how the children learned. They are still subject to all of the same testing as non-Amish children but all of their lessons are tailored to the Amish way of life; their grammar books use a character named Spunky the Donkey ha! In addition they also have to learn German. They use a hymnal that dates back to the 1500’s and is the oldest hymnal still in use today, it’s written in German.  Once I left, my GPS took me on a back road to New York – about 1 mile down I saw Amish people with their horses hooked up to a plow. I squealed so loudly with excitement that I am pretty sure everyone thought I was nuts. I kept repeating “oh my god” over and over practically hyperventilating. It gets better – there was a horse tied to a one-man-buggy outside of a church!! They just mosey on in and park their horse and carriage!!

Needless to say I ended up doing a drive-by-picture of some Amish people and when they looked over at me I ducked. Coward ha! When leaving Pennsylvania I stopped at a gas station over-run by guidos and 40 year old snookis – one even sporting a hot pink polka dot bra under her stark-white-too-tight-tshirt. Listening once again to my book on tape, the drive to New York went fairly quickly. Along the way I noted that every other person owns a BMW and when you look at the people in the cars next to you, you tend to feel as though you should sit up straighter and pretend to be Gatsby.

Once I spotted the bridge going from Jersey to New York I got a burst of energy. I was taking pictures and videos – it’s so big! New York drivers are absolutely insane so I had to put on my Brooklyn pants and start cutting people off. While on the bridge I excitedly took a video of New York City, only it wasn’t New York City, it was some other city and New York was at least three times the size of that ha! After taking 30 minutes to travel 9 miles to Megan’s apartment I found myself staring down a street of garbage and gangsters standing in every door way.

Now, I am being extremely judgmental here but let’s be honest – I’m a skinny little white girl from Minnesota! I parked and Megan helped me hide everything visible inside of my car, including my atlas! She even made me hide my pretty little garbage can!! Ahhh!!! We grabbed my stuff and headed into her apartment, where a rasta man asked if we needed any help. Very nice guy. Megan’s apartment is ridiculously nice! The outside is so deceptive – she has granite countertops, stone-lined bathroom, colored backsplashes, and high ceilings. Beautiful!! I donned my purple dress and large white hat and we headed out to the subway. I bought an unlimited 7 day pass for 30 bucks and off we went to Manhattan.  Megan took me out on the highline where sadly, after one picture, my camera battery died. The highline is so beautiful – it’s an old railroad converted into a pedestrian walking path complete with large lawns to stop and picnic or rest on, huge bundles of flowers and gardens all along the way, and wonderful views of New York. We even saw where someone had put a fake naked man in his window waving at everyone – scared the crap out of me! Next we headed out to eat. We tried three different places, all of which were closed – oddly.

We finally found a little French place and we sat outside to eat. Megan had the most delicious smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich! Afterward we walked around the bustling streets in search of nothing. I kept commenting on how much money people had – shallow maybe – but for some reason when I think New York I think Sex and The City. Inaccurate as it may be I walk around as if I’m Sarah Jessica Parker sporting Jimmy Choos and some wacky designer outfit. We finally made our way to a little bar and sat for a drink. Me, a Shirley temple of course, Megan a whiskey and honey – it tasted good on my lips but not once I took a sip ick! After the bar we headed down to a place called Crocodile Lounge where you get a free pizza with every drink purchase. YEAH! FREE PIZZA!! Megan and I hung out while waiting for her cousin.

During that time we played ski ball and buck hunter – two rounds of competitive hunting later her cousin and his friends showed up! We played yet another round of buck hunter and then got our pizza and headed out. At the next place – called Bar None – we danced our butts off with all of Megan’s friends and her cousin Ben’s friends. Two black girls were taking videos of their friend Rachel – I assumed it was because of her white girl dance but Ben told us that Rachel was on the last season of the bachelor. I didn’t watch that season but she made it to the top 6 apparently. Really nice girl! Also, Megan and Bens other friend owns a studio in New York where 50 cent just shot his newest music video. I feel like everyone in this city is famous for some reason ha!
At about 1am Megan and I went out in search of a cab. Hailing a cab in this damn city is near impossible. When we finally got one we couldn’t get the door open and the guy just sped away! DANGEROUS! The next guy laughed when we said we needed to get to Brooklyn and also sped off. Finally this nice man took us all the way to Brooklyn, after nearly killing us and violently honking at anyone who got in his way. New York. When we got home I showered up, turned on Megan’s roomies huge loud fan, and slept – like a baby!! From Amish country to New York City – exhale.