Dyker Heights

Day 6 - Taking a break

Matt and I slept in today. At first, my plan was to go to New Jersey and walk around Hoboken. However, the weather was still miserable and I realised how exhausted I actually was after those days of constantly being on the move. I needed a short break, a chill day. I did laundry, went to the supermarket to buy some American candy to take back home with me and did a lot of organisation for Canada - checking out the places I wanted to visit in Toronto, checking in to my flight, sending Quin some documents I would need to re-enter the States to get them printed for me, figuring out how to get from Matt's place to LaGuardia and from Pearson to my hotel and so on and so forth. As it turns out, there's a lot of bureaucracy needed to move between the US and Canada as well during COVID times, at least as a citizen of neither country, and it took me quite some time to check in and provide all the information needed to the airline and in the ArriveCAN app. I also spent quite a lot of time writing postcards to friends and family back home and packing my suitcase. We finally managed to watch that movie we wanted to go for on the second night, A Man From Earth. Luckily, my foot was already feeling better so Matt and I could go on our long expected and dearly awaited pizza tour around New York for dinner. We left his apartment around 6pm and decided to go to Joe's Pizza as a first stop. Unfortunately, Lukass couldn't make it and Matt's friends ditched on us (fuck 'em). Less people also meant that we probably wouldn't get to try as many places as we first agreed on. We decided to simply go to two places and check out the other ones once I came back to NYC from my trip to Canada. I also realised that this meant I wouldn't get to say goodbye to Lukass since I was flying out the next morning and he would already be back in Europe by the time I'd make it back to New York. This made me a bit sad since I would have loved a proper goodbye. On the other hand, I hate goodbyes. They always make me a little melancholic. So maybe it's for the best that Lukass and I would never have to go through one together. At this point, I also realised that I wasn't looking forward to having to say goodbye to Matt the next morning. I was planning on coming back, but there was the small chance of me catching COVID - if I hadn't cought it already *knocks on wood 3 times* - and getting stuck in Canada. So there was the potential of it being a goodbye for good, at least until he would come to visit me in Austria as we agreed he would. Anyway, we started at Joe's Pizza with a slice of Margherita (an actual one, not a 'plain cheese' pizza) and continued to Emmy Squared and shared a Detroit style classic red, which basically means a squared pizza with a fluffy thick bottom, cheese on the crust, tomato sauce and shittons of melted cheese - so basically, perfection on a plate. Afterwards, we went to a nearby bar that Matt suggested. We started talking to a group of three strangers again and had a lovely evening with some pretty strong drinks. Being there, I was reminded again about how happy I was that I got to experience New York with a local guide who knows all of the good spots instead of having to randomly find stuff by myself. Without Matt, this entire trip would not have been possible since I simply couldn't afford it. I can't thank him enough for that, since this would have to be one of the most amazing trips I've done in my life so far. Maybe the spontaneous aspect of such a huge change in circumstances for 2 weeks contributed a lot to that feeling. After our drinks, we ended up eating another hot dog and headed back to his apartment. Since I'd have an early morning the next day, we hung out on Discord for a bit before I went to bed.Read more