New York was a lot to digest and I felt like I needed some distance from it before I could write about it. I think I'm ready to tackle it.
Day 2 in New York my friend kept asking me to make a list of what I wanted to do, which made me think I was supposed to want to do specific things, which I guess I did want but hadn't really thought too much about. We went on a free tour of Grand Central Terminal that digressed into a sales pitch for New York cheesecake and crowd interaction. We stayed a bit too long with the tour, resulting in feelings of lost time, and we eagerly caught the subway to Washington Square to feel more productive. The Shake Shack was something I definitely wanted to experience and, despite hurting my tummy eventually, the burgers and shakes were well worth the 30 minute wait. It surprises me that New Yorkers are so willing to wait for foodstuffs; I always assumed everyone was impatient and hey-I'm-walkin'-here-ish. We walked around the outer path of the Square looking at buildings, though the overcast sky meant I couldn't get a clear view of the Empire State. We headed uptown to the Met and paid $1 each to get in (the only really useful part of the tour was the guy saying that New Yorkers pay for the Met and that the $20 entrance fee is a suggestion, and that the admissions people won't even bat an eye if you give next to no money, which was completely true) and headed to the Jeff Koons sculptures on the top floor. It was unfortunate that the weather was so overcast because the view is potentially grand. We mainly took pictures of our reflections in the balloon dog's ass and did a quick tour through some of the exhibits, and the highlight was "Origin of the World" in the Gustave Courbet exhibit, a piece I enjoyed when I was at Musee d'Orsay. By the time we got out I was well prepared to head homeward.
Day 3: The trying day. We planned the route for the day, from place to place that I picked, and got a somewhat late start considering what "needed" to be done. After a diner breakfast up the street at Mike's Diner, we went to the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, a now-Smithsonian institution of decorative arts, though I wanted to go there specifically because it was Andrew Carnegie's house and I wanted to get some feel for the man that changed how society looks at libraries. It was a little disappointing, as he was not even mentioned, but we did see some nice works. Onward to SoHo for an attempt at Uniqlo. When I lived in Japan, my friends and I would go to Uniqlo every couple of weeks because it was cheap, somewhat cute, and was large enough that foreigners could fit the clothes. On this day it overwhelmed me and made me cry, so I was well prepared to get the hell away from there as quickly as possible. We headed to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge and walked into Manhattan. This was a distracting walk because Justin and I had a bit of a falling out, yelling at each other and airing some of the concerns that had been building over the previous days. (I realise that I'm difficult to get along with if the other person is not aware of my moodiness and OCD tendencies.) Once the walk was done, so was the fight and we headed off to Brooklyn to visit a place recommended by my friend Randi, who had been in NYC two weeks prior. Unfortunately the place was closed and we drowned our sorrows in fish and chips from the Chip Shop, a somewhat authentic British chip shop (authentic because it seemed like the staff and half the clientèle were actually Brits). We then decided to head to the Brooklyn Museum for the Takeshi Murakami show, which wound up being a lot of fun since the first Saturday of the month is free (except for the major exhibit) and is open until 11pm and has music and booze. Despite seeing his work in Japan, the Murakami show was fantastic and we spent a lot of time wandering around and watching his array of videos. Eventually we both started nodding off and decided to get some bagels for the next day, so headed back into Manhattan to Katz's Delicatesan. Katz's is an experience, especially at night, and we happened upon a wedding party as we arrived. This is kind of funny if you've ever seen the place: it's eclectic and a little frantic and hands-off, which isn't normally associated with weddings. We got our bagels and knishes, and headed off to Astoria exhausted. The best quote of the day, while walking down Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn: "That's Helen Spiegal. She's a lesbian."
On Day 4 we slowed down a bit, which was kind of welcome by this point. We headed out to Brooklyn to try the place that was closed the previous day: the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. Nerd friends will be all over this place, as it really does sell superhero supplies, all neatly arranged row upon row, including superpowers, capes, tights, accouterments, and the like. We spent a lot of time there and collectively took a lot of pictures. A little research revealed this is the storefront for 862 New York, the tutorial program started by Dave Eggers to give kids access to writers who encourage them to improve literacy. All the money generated by the store goes to the program, so we were more than happy to drop some dough there. We then met up with Justin's friend Brian and headed to Di Fara Pizzaria for the best pizza in New York. We wound up waiting an hour for the pie, largely because a pizza party got there 5 minutes ahead of us. Di Fara's is one guy (now likely in his late 70s) making the pizza in an old-world oven and his son taking orders and reminding him of what he has to make. It's an art watching him drizzle olive oil over the dough, followed by chunky sauce, three kinds of cheeses and freshly cut basil. We took our pie down the street and inhaled the whole thing between the three of us. Justin and I continued on the N to Coney Island and walked around the boardwalk and through Astroland, the amusement park. It's a mix of old and new, with glimpses of what the place must have been like in the '50s and '60s. We took a lot of pictures and the weather managed to improve to t-shirt/squinty eye levels. I had to get back into Manhattan to meet a friend, so we headed to the Cyclone for a quick ride (wooden rollercoasters are both one of my greatest fears and one of my favourite rides), and headed out. We got to SoHo with little effort and I met my old uni chum Darren for dinner at the Lucky Strike. His iPhone navigated us (those things are fricking cool) and we had a nice catch-up over pasta and mojitos (which are now my favourite drink for this time of the year during daylight hours), and I'm so glad we got to hang out. A derailment meant I had to figure out an alternate route to Astoria, and got to talking with a woman from Hamilton who had to go in the same direction, so we tried the line I thought was the right one and successfully got where we needed to go, albeit an hour later than it would have taken otherwise (Manhattan was chaos from this derailment, so I was glad to get out of there at all).
The last morning in New York involved an egg & bacon sandwich and a "regular" iced coffee (which means milk & sugar added), and was a nice way to finish the trip. I navigated the subway to JFK and had an internal race with the others on the train to see who could get to the airtrain the fastest (I won, despite letting the others go ahead so I didn't clog the escalator). I was too efficient and arrived 2 hours too early, only to find the most boring terminal ever. They played muzak! I was a little sad to leave New York, but was anxious to get to Chicago. I took the birds flying around the inside waiting area as a sign. On the plane Sufjan Stevens was playing and I got a single seat, so the sign was a good one.
One thing I can't get used to with flights to/from/in the US is that you have to take off your shoes when going through security. I'm fantastically efficient at security now, pulling everything out and plopping it into a bin with a quickness never seen before, all in a fluid motion without stoppages save for the slow person ahead of me and the delayed conveyor because someone else isn't as efficient as me and didn't take the electronic device from their bags.
Soon, a real recap of Chicago.
No comments:
Post a Comment