So after a very late night Friday I got up early because I didn’t want to miss a single second of my trip. Again we ate breakfast in Cafe Gigante; the coffee was really all I felt up to having after drinking a little bit too much the night before. They made me a Cafe Au Lait that was to die for! So we get to the con and I meet up with fellow relater Eric Ratcliffe. Both of us being video game dorks as well as comic nerds we wanted to try and demo some of the games that were at the show.
I had my eye on the Mass Effect 3 Demo since the show started but hadn’t been able to make it over in time before they closed the line the day before. But true to form I made a new friend! Chris who was working at the Xbox booth, and has an adorable cat on his phone’s background, said I could stop by in the morning and play the Demo before the regular attendees got in. There are really no words to describe how exited I am about Mass Effect 3 after playing that Demo! The graphics looks great, the play was solid like I remembered (not that I was playing all that well with the excited flailing around I was doing). They have added some great new things to the game, and the story looks to be amazing!
By the time we were done with the Demo the doors had opened and people were starting to come in. Tickets for Saturday had sold out a while before the show started so I knew it was going to be a crazy day. I headed back to the CR table and hung out for a while. I had a bit of one of John’s hotdogs, which I ended up regretting. I am not a fan of hotdogs and even an NY dog could not change my mind on that. Around lunch time I made my afternoon trek out into the city to wander around 9th Avenue.
After I got back I walked around the show for a while. It was absolutely insane, wall to wall people! I have been to a lot of cons but nothing like this before. It was neat but still really overwhelming. After that I hid behind tables for the rest of the afternoon.
After the show closed we planned to get a taxi back to the Hotel to drop stuff off and then go back out for dinner. There was not a cab to be had. Everyone said the con was making catching a cab really hard. So instead John, Eric, and Jessica got dinner and figured we would try for a taxi afterward. We went to a great sushi place on 9th Avenue; like everything else I have talked about the food was amazing! I love how you can go anywhere in New York and the food is going to be good. Everywhere I went for food I had the same problem too, I would be full but the food would be so good I would try to keep eating.
After dinner we tried again to catch a cab back to The Jane, but there still weren’t any. We ended up walking to the Subway station and taking the train back to the hotel. Apparently everyone else in the city had the same idea, the station was the busiest I had seen yet, and there were a few cosplayers riding the subway. From there the CR crew kind of splintered out to do their own thing. I ended up going to a party at a bar called The Limerick. It was awesome! There were a bunch of artists and writers there along with a bunch of the guys from Comic Geek Speak, and H2Awesome. This bar was crazy awesome, every type of person imaginable was there, and at one point a band came in and started playing. They were called The Stumblebums and it was three guys: one on a snare drum, one playing tuba, and one singing into a Megaphone and playing trumpet. They were punky with a little ska and brassy New Orleans sound thrown in.
We stayed at the Limerick for a very, very, very long time. I ended up leaving around 3:30 when some other folks also left and were heading my way. We parted at the subway station and I headed down to catch the train. So I am a bit of an adventurer, and a little fearless, and most media would have you believe that the subway at 3:30 in the morning is the most dangerous place you could find yourself. I had no trouble, at all. People pretty much leave each other alone and mind their own business. The highlight of my trip home was when someone asked me for directions. Me! First time in the city and I seem like enough of a local that people ask me for directions, that or I look friendly. So I get off the train and make the now familiar walk back to the hotel and pass a guy peeing in a phone booth. Stay classy New York!
Thoughts:
New York really never sleeps, the station was pretty empty at 3:30 but the train was still full enough that I had to stand.
The rats really aren’t that big in New York, I saw one at the Subway Station (8th Ave/14th Street) and one the street they were actually kind of cute.
If you are driving an Off-Duty Taxi, please do not stop to tell us we are going to have a hard time getting a cab, we know that already.
And up-streaming (walking up about ½ a block from someone trying to get a cab and hailing one) is really freaking rude.
Plans for Sunday:
Finally eat New York Bagel
See a little bit of the area around the hotel.
