Sunday, June 22, 2008

A boring apartment hunt update... essentially.

So I've finished my first full day in the city, and a good chunk of it was spent walking. According to Google Maps, I probably walked about seven miles or so today.

I also got my first taste of a screaming baby on the subway, which was fun. It was kind of like on an airplane except the sound was a lot crisper.

I also visited both Brooklyn and Staten Island for the first time.

The ferry ride to Staten Island was actually pretty painless...

It is at it's own station, so you can't get on the wrong ferry. People can see when the ferry pulls up, then they just mass like cattle and when the gate opens people just file onto the boat. It's free so there's no waiting for tickets to be checked or anything.

Staten Island itself was actually pretty nice and the apartments I looked at were nice, but I just don't think I could live that disconnected from the city.

There are too many working parts involved in getting to and from anywhere in Manhattan, and if anything went wrong I would end up being at least 30 minutes late for work.

Side note: somehow I walked uphill both ways between the apartment building and the ferry station. Somebody explain that one to me.

One of their apartments did have a killer view out the window of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty. There is also this really ugly looking peninsula in with the spectacular view that looks like some sort of industrial dump and I asked the leasing agent what it was and the landlord just matter-of-factly said "Oh... that's New Jersey."

We both knew nothing more needed to be said.

I also went to Brooklyn for the first time today. It was a little east of Brooklyn Heights. It reminded me of wandering around less fancy parts of Manhattan except it was less crowded, the buildings were a little shorter and I was definitely in the minority in that part of Brooklyn.

It was surprisingly painless to ride the subway to and from Brooklyn though, so that's cool.

That being said, there are a couple of apartment buildings near Prospect Park in Brooklyn I plan on looking at soon. There is also one in the Bronx I'll probably check out Tuesday after work.

I still haven't gotten a chance to see the Washington Heights apartment I mentioned earlier yet, and there are still a few random apartments in Manhattan on my radar.

All in all, I'm still optimistic, but I've got a lot of looking around to do...

Well, tomorrow is my first day of work, so I should probably hit the hay. Exciting stuff.

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