Oct. 7th, 2004
compare & contrast: SC & NYC
Oct. 7th, 2004 08:27 pmAs I have documented in my LJ, I've been doing a bit of traveling lately. The two most recent stops on my itinerary were Traveler's Rest, South Carolina & New York City. Could there be two places less alike?
As you can see, Traveler's Rest is all about RELAXING - having a drink on the gazebo, listening to the hummingbirds buzzing the flowers in the hedge, enjoying the warm (nay, hot!) temperatures, & generally taking it reeaal slow.
My parents' house is very gracious, filled with beautiful things designed for comfort & ease. Many pieces of furniture are antiques or heirlooms - for instance, the bed I slept in was handmade by my great-grandfather, & is held together with horseshoes. My great-great-grandfather's photo album & traveling kit (which he carried with him along the Oregon Trail in the late 1800's) sits at the foot of the bed.
While it certainly is relaxing to stay here for a few days, it's never long before the isolation & the boredom begin to eat at me. I need more variety, more activity, & certainly a few more people in my daily living arrangements. Living this far out in the boondocks would drive me insane in short order.
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But then there's New York City! New York! BRIGHT lights! BIG city! There's nothing relaxing or restful about New York City, especially not Times Square, which is where I met![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
vulgarbarbarian, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaosvizier, & katieledge for dinner this evening. And there's also nothing relaxing about prices in this stupid city, either: $17.50 for a round trip train ticket from Stamford, plus $20.00 to park the car ... & I won't even get into the prices for dinner. But they did have a couple of good single malts at the bar, & they served generous quantities of them. No 25 mL drams in America, nosiree! *hic*
When we stepped out of the restaurant at 9 PM, the sky was as bright as day - because we were in Times Square, & darkness is not allowed there. I have never been anywhere else in the world like Times Square. I have heard that Tokyo is this big & this bright, but I've never been there. For me, there's no other place like it.
But it's TOO big for me. There are eight million people crammed onto this tiny island & it overwhelms me when I think about it. I like cities, don't get me wrong, but could I have something a little less brash? How about a city of about 1.7 million, cooled by ocean breezes, warmed by a laid-back attitude, & just for fun, punctuated with some big-ass hills?
Yeah.
As you can see, Traveler's Rest is all about RELAXING - having a drink on the gazebo, listening to the hummingbirds buzzing the flowers in the hedge, enjoying the warm (nay, hot!) temperatures, & generally taking it reeaal slow.
My parents' house is very gracious, filled with beautiful things designed for comfort & ease. Many pieces of furniture are antiques or heirlooms - for instance, the bed I slept in was handmade by my great-grandfather, & is held together with horseshoes. My great-great-grandfather's photo album & traveling kit (which he carried with him along the Oregon Trail in the late 1800's) sits at the foot of the bed.
While it certainly is relaxing to stay here for a few days, it's never long before the isolation & the boredom begin to eat at me. I need more variety, more activity, & certainly a few more people in my daily living arrangements. Living this far out in the boondocks would drive me insane in short order.
But then there's New York City! New York! BRIGHT lights! BIG city! There's nothing relaxing or restful about New York City, especially not Times Square, which is where I met
vulgarbarbarian, chaosvizier, & katieledge for dinner this evening. And there's also nothing relaxing about prices in this stupid city, either: $17.50 for a round trip train ticket from Stamford, plus $20.00 to park the car ... & I won't even get into the prices for dinner. But they did have a couple of good single malts at the bar, & they served generous quantities of them. No 25 mL drams in America, nosiree! *hic*When we stepped out of the restaurant at 9 PM, the sky was as bright as day - because we were in Times Square, & darkness is not allowed there. I have never been anywhere else in the world like Times Square. I have heard that Tokyo is this big & this bright, but I've never been there. For me, there's no other place like it.
But it's TOO big for me. There are eight million people crammed onto this tiny island & it overwhelms me when I think about it. I like cities, don't get me wrong, but could I have something a little less brash? How about a city of about 1.7 million, cooled by ocean breezes, warmed by a laid-back attitude, & just for fun, punctuated with some big-ass hills?
Yeah.
