Geek Travel – USA (New York)

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Geek Travel – USA (New York)

Skyscrapers, cold weather, and New York Pizza

My first trip to the States was in 2017. After that visit, I caught the USA bug and wanted to go back. Last year I managed to squeeze NYC on the travel list.

New York City was colder than I would have wanted it to be. With -5 degrees Celsius (Have no idea how cold that is in Fahrenheit) I was freezing my booty off. Because of the cold weather Victor (the BF) and I could not check off everything off of our to see list. However, we did get to visit a couple of sweet geek spots.

I planned my visit around Thanksgiving. Which in my opinion is a perfect time to visit the City. I had Thanksgiving Dinner and after, I went on a shopping spree. I have to admit, the shopping deals weren’t as great as they like you to believe in the TV shows and movies. Perhaps, I was looking in the wrong places.

And now … bring on the Geek Spots!

My first stop was the Hayden Planetarium. I am a huge geek for astrophysics and this planetarium happens to be the home office of one my idols Neil Degrasse Tyson. It’s not just his home office he’s actually the director! I was hoping I would run into him. It was somewhat of a let down when that didn’t happen. Mr Degrasse Tyson was on a well-deserved vacay. Big Boohoo for me *sad face*. Naturally, that didn’t stop Victor and I having an amazing day there. That place is HUGE! It had things on stars, black holes, planets solar systems, the evolution of man and .. DINOSAURS!! The first thing you see when you walk in is a dinosaur skeleton.

Hayden Planetarium organizes something that has to be on of the most amazing nights a year. Each year they organize ‘A Night at the Museum’. You guessed it … during this event you spend the night at … the … MUSEUM!! Unlike in the movie with the same name, things don’t come to life but that definitely doesn’t make it less magical. In the past, this event was mainly focused on kids. That changed during the 2017 edition when it was organized for adults. Sweet, ’cause why should kids have all the fun?

hayden planetarium dinosaurs science

Back in Brooklyn, we went to visit a Barcade called, Barcade haha. The vibe was great and they have a nice variety of arcade cabinets. A little side note; Ready Player One is one of my favourite books of all time, and in that book the arcade game Joust plays a big role. Barcade just happened to have a Joust game. Too bad I sucked at it. I had no idea what to do. Barcade only has arcade cabinets from the early days, you won’t find Time Crisis 4 here. The cabinets are very well taken care of, nice little bonus, their arcade tokens are cool. I bought a couple just to take home as a souvenir.

I came across the Think Geek shop where I bought a Plumbus, because of reasons…

Think Geek and Game Stop kind of share the same space. Upstairs you could buy a lot of video games, consoles or peripherals and downstairs you could buy everything geek related. clothing, Plumbusses, home decorations and what not.

Moving on, we had to buy some cool comics. I have made it into a habit to buy comics in every country I visit. Midtown Comics Times Square has two floors of comics, merchandise, Gunpla, clothing and whatever your geek heart desires. We bought Gundam Wing Zero, Sin City comic collections, Shuri from Black Panther comics and Batman Hush.

barcade new york brooklyn arcade cabinets retro During a cold Friday night, we went to visit China Town and came across an arcade hall called; Chinatown Fair, a small arcade with newer game arcade cabinets. You can find DDR, Bumblebee Transformers Human Alliance, Time Crisis 4. You go in play games and leave. There is no eating food, hanging out with friends and sit, which is too bad.

Verdict

I love the States and I love how many geek places they have. Unfortunately, I could only visit a couple. It feels like I actually need 2 more weeks to check out every geek spot in New York. The city is amazing and big, people are interesting and the food is great.

Some USA Geek Spots

These are the spots I’ve visited while in New York

Hayden Planetarium ( Planetarium)
Barcade ( Barcade, arcade hall)
Think Geek ( merchandise shop)
Game Stop ( video game shop)
Midtown Comics Time Square ( comic book shop)
Chinatown Fair ( Arcade hall)

There were other geek spots that I wanted to visit, but alas I didn’t have enough time. Like, The Void, SPYSCAPE and Amalgam Comics Coffeehouse in Philadelphia.