We had reservations through a condominium suite that Mike had found through Expedia. Long story short; the owners of the condo placed a $200 hold on his credit card (not a charge, just a 'hold') and then never answered the phone when he tried contacting them that night so that we could check in. Super fishy, and Expedia was ZERO help for us, even though it had gotten to almost 8pm and we still had no place to stay, so keep that in mind if you're ever thinking about using them for vacation or travel plans..
We managed to find a hotel (Hyatt Regency on the Hudson) and it wound up being awesome so in thge long run, it worked out ok.
It was on to the bars! We didn't venture too far Friday night, but did make some serious rounds on Saturday. What a fun and very friendly city, I was truly impressed. Sunday, we took the train over to NYC/Times Square and checked out some sights and many more bars. Personally, I found NYC to somewhat friendlier than I'd expected but no where near as fun as Jersey City was.
Anyway, the long and short of it was we had a great time and had a ton of laughs. The ride home yesterday seemed about twice as long as the ride down had been but I'm sure that's because it was the end of the mini-vaca.
Anyway - on to the pics!
This bathroom had a stall door which slid on rollers like an old barn door. I thought it was pretty cool and was fortunate in that there wasn't anyone using the stall as I stood there rolling the door back and forth.
Sunset on NYC, across the Hudson...
This looks like a mistake, but apparently it was designed that way on purpose. Oh those crazy architects...
Night view from the hotel room, once we finally got checked in.
The cool thing here is that these lamps all cast white light, to the naked eye. But after taking several photos with my camera, they all came out looking green.
Looking across at NYC...
Another pic of the wacky building, this time; in the daylight...
This is the Katyn Memorial, in memory of the thousands of Polish who, while fighting the Germans in WWII, were attacked from behind by Russia.
This plaque was added to the base of the memorial, after 9/11.
This was the Iron Monkey bar, and it has a metal statue of a monkey, apparently getting his buzz on.
How do I know it's a "him"? If you click on the pic and zoom in, you'll see it's anatomically correct...
Ginormous clock on the shores of the Hudson. This thing faces NYC, and I guess is for anyone on that side of the river that doesn't have a watch...or a cell phone to tell the time...
A 9-11 memorial on the bank of the Hudson, utilizing steel beams from one of the towers.
This is also part of the memorial. This entire thing is made out of steel. Even the parts that look like paper (letters), duct tape (holding the paper), flowers, etc. It's all formed and shaped steel. Very impressive...
I liked this building - it was in a section of Jersey City where the roads are blocked off (semi-permanently) and shops and bars have outdoor seating, tables, etc.
This building was very narrow, coming to almost a point, and had a small patio on the second floor. I picture this being the place to party on warm summer nights!
Outside a massive church was a miniature sculpture of the church itself, in amazing detail. On the top of the church, someone had placed a keychain style skeleton. I think this was more of a "ward against evil" than anything malignant.
Along the streets were a ton of metal brackets for folks to chain their bicycles to. This one instance, though, it appears the city had said "F you" to the lock (it's just a lock and a frame - everything else is gone.
Some of the local street art in the area where the road was closed off and the shops had tables and such outside.
Yep; that wacky building again...
Whoops - it's upside down, but this was the beer list at my favorite place; HopsScotch (two "s's" in that name). It was about 70% stouts and porters. My kind of place!
Back outside in the open air marketplace area...
Never heard of this before but apparently there's a chain of them. All the old 80's and 90's arcade games, and drinks!
The bathrooms are apparently welcome spots for graffiti tagging. it was on the ceiling, the floor, the mirror, the door...almost any surface. (It seems the toilet itself is hallowed ground, as it was untouched.)
Back outside. The area was much busier than it appears to be in this pic.
Back at HopsScotch; jenga tower. We had it so high, we were doubling up chairs to stand on, and it almost hit the ceiling. (We had bartenders and patrons cheering us on to see how high we could go - and man, when it went over, it was loud!!!)
A daytime shot between some buildings, looking across at the Freedom Tower.
It almost looks CGI, but this is a real pic.
Lomg set of marble stairs heading back to street level at one of the bars.
A condom for Lynner!
How could we refuse to patronize a place with this name?
Flight sample inside the Bier Garten!
1 liter of your dark, please (placed against the sample, for size comparison).
Sitting outside one bar, and planning our next foray across the street...
I guess this is in case the three stooges all go to the bathroom at the same time...
Monday morning came all too soon. A couple of last shots across the Hudson
Int eh distant background; the Brooklyn Bridge...
And there you have it; Jersey City.
Next up...well...I'm not sure what's up next, but with the weather looking like it's getting better and warmer, I might actually be able to get a motorcycle post up here soon...
Ciao for now...
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