Pretty soon I’m going to head out of Boston and up to New York for a few days; going to see an Iron and Wine concert with my girlfriend, and then go see Sleep No More. I heard about Sleep No More, an audience walk-through experiential reimagining of Macbeth, when it was running in Boston, but couldn’t afford it then. I booked tickets on my first trip to NYC, in August, but Hurricane Irene caused the show to be canceled. So, third opportunity’s a charm, right?

If you’re a Bostonian thinking about visiting New York, I’ve got a service to recommend to you: AirBnB. I was shocked at how expensive lodgings are in New York. Hostels are not cheap. Hotels are not cheap. Manhattan, especially, is not cheap. So I took a look through AirBnB, a site that lets people list their apartment, a spare room, or couch space for rent. If I just needed to go up for a couple of days and stay one night myself, I’d be down for some cheap couch space. Since Rachel and I are going for a bit of a vacation, it’s awesome to be able to rent an entire studio apartment in Manhattan to ourselves, cheaper than a hotel in the area (or a private room in a hostel).

New York itself is great, and much more different from Boston than I’d have expected. Manhattan really seems like it’s block after block of businesses (restaurants, shops, galleries, publishing companies), with all the residential space just stacked on top. Looking forward to another few days there.

Update (10/19): Had a great time in New York, except for the ride back! BoltBus failed me hard.