Attending Genome Informatics Meeting at Cold spring harbour

[Between 29th October - 30th October Ensembl workshop; 30-2nd November GI meeting]

It was a last minute decision for me to come here and I am glad I did. The talks are simply exhilarating plus there is so much information. Everybody is a pioneer in their field. So no complaints there although I was hugely inconvenienced because of the schedule, travel time and my unfamiliarity with the place and railway systems in NY. Now if anyone is coming to New York on work or business I can advise. If you wish to book a place to stay for relatively longer, it is better to choose Airbnb site , since the houses are relatively cheaper and also you can cook if you want. We did this before also and that is why I chose it again. If you are going to Long island, then don’t stay in Bronx, rather stay somewhere close to Hicksville or Syosset. These are like small towns and you may get cheaper motels and rent a car if needed. But if you are coming for sight seeing then Bronx may be good for you depending on the locality. Bronx is uptown of manhatten, so most of the uptown trains go there. Carefully look at the MTA map and locate your train station and see which train goes there. In our case, it was train no 2, called as 2 train, that moves back and forth between the place I stayed to Penn station from where I can catch LIRR trains. For Bronx, there are other trains as well e.g; 1, 3,5,6 etc. But each of them go to different destinations. But there are stations where they all intersect (That is where they announce transfer is available). Choose the proper direction of the train. Usually the last stop of the train is announced as the destination, so accordingly go to the platform. Buy a weekly MTA pass that costs about 30 USD and is good enough to take you around the city.

For travelling to Long Island, the best way is to take the Long Island Rail Roads (LIRR). It is a separate line that connects Penn station to Long island. The main station in this line is Jamaica where you can get air train to JFK airport. The train starts from Penn station (34^th street- Manhattan) to Huntington or several other location. Huntington train is like a slow train stops at each stop, but another way to go to Syosset is to get down at Hicksville (By taking Ronkonkoma) and take Port Jefferson or Huntington train. Once you reach there cross the bridge and there the shuttle services to Cold spring harbor will be there.If not, just walk back and you may see Syosset taxi services that takes about 10 dollars to the Grace auditorium. Today I am venturing into going to JFK using public transportation system, I will write if there are any problem or issues.