Planning for NYC

I am getting excited for my NYC trip next month.  Granted, it will be quick (not like the leisurely 5 day trip I did last time); I will basically only have 48 hours in the city.  However, since I don't have super-long list of must-do/must-see items, I think it is totally doable.  The main reason for going, similarly to last time, is to see a show.  Well, last time I saw 2 shows, but the point is, theater was the motivation for getting on the plane.  This time, I'm seeing the off-Broadway show "PUFFS: Or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic". 



A bonus for me on this trip is that I now know someone who lives relatively close to the city.  I met this person through an online group that is scrapbooking-related; it happens that we share a love for Harry Potter and Harry Potter-related things.  So, she is going to come into the city to share the PUFFS experience with me.  Score!  She's also an art person.  I happened to mention that I planned to visit MoMA because I screwed up the times when I was there before.  It turns out that she can get free passes for us (saves me $25), so we can enjoy all that glorious art without paying anything.  Yes, I will stand in front of van Gogh's Starry Night.  Double score.



When I was in NYC before, I was with two friends, so we all shared a hotel room in order to cut our costs.  This time, as I'm traveling alone, I knew that a hotel would not be my first choice; Manhattan is very expensive for lodging.  I did some research on HOSTELWORLD to find some feasible choices for private rooms in a hostel.  I have to admit that I've never even considered doing a dorm room in a hostel simply because I don't sleep well.  Most noises will wake me up easily and then it's very hard to go back to sleep.  It's hard enough to deal with that at home; when I'm traveling, I really don't want to deal with 7 other people all in one room.  I did find a location that I think will work well; it's actually not that far from the hotel I used last time, so I know the basics of the area already.  Catching the subway will be easy, and that's probably the most important factor for me on this trip.

Since all of that is figured out, my next step is making the decision on whether or not to bring my DSLR camera...

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