After my stay in the hostel I went for a long hike in the Catskills - where a porcupine ate my candles during a night in a lean-to - after which I returned there to pick up a friend from JFK with whom I proceeded to hike around and over Mt. Washington - where a squirrel found the bag of food which I hung in a tree to keep it from the bears, it ripped my sleeping bag stuffing bag to shreds - to return to NYC. From the long night conversations with an 19yo Israeli girl who I managed to talk out of hitch-hiking solo through the US through staying in a rather rickety apartment in the Bronx (large cockroaches in the sink in the morning, etc) with a Brazilian, an Irishman, an American woman and (another) Dutchman, it was an interesting trip. I've staid there on other trips as well, it being (at least back then) an affordable and relatively central location. Never missed the AC, maybe 'cause I'm not used to it being present?