New York

Finally I find some time to write about my trip to New York in March. The week that my friend Julie and I spent there, was absolutely great. That has, off course, to do with the fact, that we got to go without husbands and children; we were able to do what and when we wanted to without any consideration for others. With that in mind, Tacoma would have probably been pretty cool, too, but on top of being single and independent, we were in New York.

Now I will not bore you with a daily account of the sights we saw, and I am not posting all my 206 pictures; I will just talk about the things I liked best. In preparing for the trip I read through several travel guides, and it became clear to me, that you can not do anything wrong in New York, as long as you leave your hotel room. There is something for every weather, season, mood, and taste. It was great for me, that my friend Julie used to live in New York for several years, so I had my personal guide, which made navigation so much easier. As one of the first things we got a subway pass, so we could go anywhere in the easiest way. A city with efficient public transportation is great. Now, here is my list:

The food was great. You could have anything in any price range. The highlights were lunch at Katz's, probably the most famous Jewish deli in New York. Just look at that sandwich. And pickles everywhere. One day we had reservations at Peter Luger's. Now there is something to be said about New York steaks! As well we ate at a very good Turkish restaurant in the Theater district. I know Turkish food, and that was among the best I have had. Off course there were more deli's, egg and cheeses, hot noodle soups etc. We usually consulted the Zagat guide before we went to an area, so we had an idea, which ones were the "good" restaurants.

My favorite part of town was surprisingly the Lower East Side. I loved the mix of real people housing, ethnic neighborhoods and history. We did a great (self guided) walking tour through the area, during which we visited the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We saw one tenement building that was given to the museum in the 80s, which had not changed since 1936 when the last inhabitants had been evicted (NY City instituted a new fire code, instead of complying, the owner evicted all tenants and just rented out the shops on the street level). We saw one apartment that was restored to 1936, one from 1876 ( when the building was built) and one that was in the original state as the house was in the 80s. We learnt a lot about the people, who lived here, the different waves of immigrants, and the slum conditions for which the Lower East Side was known for.

We walked as well through Chinatown and Little Italy. We had chinese sweet rolls and Espresso with Cannoli just 5 minutes from each other. We revisited "Katz's", "Russ and daughters" and "Yonah Schimmels Knishery". We walked through the Essex market and visited one of many fabric stores. If you can not buy it in New York, it does not exist.

I was fascinated by the people. It is truly like in the movies. There are people of any ethnic background. There are people of all professions. I have never seen that many stereotypes walk amongst each other. The fabric merchant and his apprentices spoke Italian and looked straight out of a Godfather movie. We ate at a Jewish deli called the "Essex" in downtown/financial district. We were the only thing not kosher in that place. There were many very traditional conservative Jewish men and women, clearly working in finances. Then there were the (Irish) policemen, which we encountered quite a bit close to our hotel, which was only a few blocks of Timesquare. If you would show these people in a TV show, everyone would say, you need to be more diverse.

Social rules and strata of society are still very visible in New York. The darkest skin person sweeps the street or cleans the tables. The waiters are a little lighter and the maitre'd or host is the lightest. I was fascinated by all the doormen in their various uniforms, especially along Park Avenue. And I could not believe the amount of fur that was worn by women and men. I thought, we are over that useless killing of animals and it is only the old timers to do so, but no, all the young women were decked out in anything fur, not just the coat.

And then off course there is architecture. I was probably most fascinated by the 1930s industrial art deco, that you find amongst many others at Rockefeller Center, Empire State, Crysler Building, and Grand Central Station. It is great, how every single detail like ticket windows, news stands, even the bathrooms follow the same design scheme. Maybe I just don't see this in the modern buildings, but the old ones are beautifully restored with consistency in mind. Even the Starbucks in Rockefeller Center looks art deco. Then there are these Tenement buildings all over the city that all look somewhat the same. In West coast cities you just don't find those (yes, I know, the fires, that burnt every city at one point in time). Another thing that struck me as unusual in my little world, were the huge synagogues. For one, I think I saw more synagogues than churches, but as well the grandeur of them. We are not short of temples here in Wedgewood, but, off course, in New York, you find one at every corner. Maybe that gave me the feeling of such cosmopolitan outlook. In New York you feel that you are one of many little wheels in the great world network.

I loved the Art and Museums. In my little snobbish European world I never expected New York to have more, bigger, better Museums, than London, Paris, or Berlin. But I have to say the "everything is bigger in America" theme really rings true here. Now, this is not easy to admit, but I think they bought us out. In addition to the museums (which would probably take moths if not years to properly visit), there are great traveling exhibits. It must have been a Spanish theme all over town. The Guggenheim had "From Goya to Picasso", while the Met did "Barcelona and Modernity, Gaudi to Dali", somewhere else I saw a Miro retrospective. I wish I would have had more time to explore the museum world, but we only did the Guggenheim and I scratched the surface of the Met (you got to see "Washington crossing the Delaware"). I actually wanted to see the costume collection, but that part was temporarily closed, so I focused on European Armor in the 15th and 16th century. I think I learnt a lot. Before the Met opened I got to walk through Central Park on a beautiful, cold but sunny, morning.

Now, what was a disappointment? I guess, I expected more and different things of Greenwich Village; maybe I lived too long on Capitol Hill. Timesquare was not that impressive either. You see all these pictures in the news, but it is really just huge lit up billboards and hordes of tourists. Somehow I thought Broadway might be more glamorous.

We decided not to see a show (well, the lines and the cost), but we had tickets for tapings of the "Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report". That was great. Both days we had to be at the studio early to wait in line, but since the people waiting are all kind of one mind, it was fun to talk to many different people while waiting. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and we spent one afternoon in Williamsburg (part of Brooklyn, not the other), where Julie used to live. We visited friends of hers and I loved talking to real people, who live here.

Okay, I think, this is enough; I could go on forever, most of you have probably stopped reading long ago. I want to got back and I can imagine living there for a while, not forever though. It is a fast paced, harsh and hard city after all.