FRIDAY, DAY ONE
I, for reasons unknown to even myself, have never been to NYC. Which is strange, considering two of my top three college choices back in '98 were based in New York State (Eugene Lang New School in the city, and Bard College in Annedale-on-Hudson).
I've had friends living there forever, and big ideas about visiting for years that never seemed to quite come to fruition. But luckily, my friend Alex was planning on visiting there before ShmooCon, and I jumped at the chance to tag along, especially considering we would have some locally based guides of sorts in his brother, Skylar, and another friend, Scott, who came along, who is originally from New Jersey.
My friend Kate gifted me with a Moleskine City Notebook: New York that proved invaluable. I have an inherent dislike for not appearing "native" to any place I travel, and the City Notebook came not only with tiny city maps, but a tiny pull out subway map! So there was virtually no need to whip out the "Hi My Name is Tori and I am a big stinking Tourist" subway guide. Plus, all things in miniature get big bonus points.
Another brilliant travel aide was Hopstop.com, which is a text/mobile based city transit guide. You sign up (for free) with their site, providing your cell number, and from there you not only can text hopstop's short code (47867) for directions to and from anywhere in NYC, but you can customize it to provide you with any method of transit you prefer- subway + bus, subway only, walking only, etc. It looks like they also work with SF, Washington DC, Chicago, and Boston, which is great for my future adventuring. It will also give you the estimated amount of time it should take you, following their directions, so you can tell pretty quickly if you've taken a wrong turn somewhere. This was mainly useful for my solo wanderings around the city on Friday.
I arrived off a red eye from Seattle Friday morning, 4:30 am Pacific time, 7:30 am East Cost time. The subway proved less daunting than I originally expected: I only missed my stop by a bit- though sadly, it being an express A train, I ended up 30+ blocks from where I was supposed to be. But ya know what's lovely about the subway? You just cross to the other platform, wait all of 5 minutes, and bam- you're headed back the way you came, without ever having to go above ground. Mass transit, Seattle- learn about it!
The first stop was to the hostel to drop off my luggage. Alex found a place one block off of Times Square, The Big Apple Hostel.
Times Square was intense, especially considering I have an inborn uneasiness in large crowds of people (especially large crowds of touristy people who walk at a snails pace as they are unsure of which way they are headed, or are carrying too many godforsaken "Planet Hollywood" or "M&M Factory" shopping bags to walk with a regular human stride).
I learned quickly that, to be a native New Yorker, you a) never waited at the curb for the light to change before crossing the street and
b) never waited for the fucking light to change in the first place, but crossed whenever you damn well felt like it.
Which was great and surly and assured and big shouldered. I'm a fan, and it was actually harder to adjust back to my passive Pacific Coast street crossing habits than the jetlag when I came back to Seatown.
After stowing my bags, I wandered around Midtown- strolled Times Square, accidentally found myself walking through Bryant Park as they were finishing up some Fashion Week broohaha, and stopped and watched the ice skating at Rockefeller Plaza. Then it was a hot cup of soup and a bagel at some tiny diner, and I caught the A train uptown to Central Park.
Central Park was possibly my favorite thing about New York. I lucked out on Friday, and it was sunny and perfect wandering weather. Stepping out of the subway in West Central Park opened up onto a picture perfect New York city street- old townhomes with classic brick fronts, trees everywhere and a sweeping view of the park. I could spend days just exploring Central Park. At 11am it was still and subdued- mainly runners and nannies. I sat for an hour talking on the phone with my mom and my nieces, drinking coffee, chainsmoking, people watching, and it felt like home. It, in a very small way, reminded me of one of the things I love about Seattle: the city's ability to offer the isolating, comforting, calming feel of being immersed in nature, while knowing you are minutes away- or sitting in the very center of- a hustling metropolis filled with people and concrete streets and noise and, with all that, an entirely different breed of isolation.
.I sort of stumbled across the American Museum of Natural History- my only real destination of the day, so it worked out. The suggested donation price is $15 (another thing Seattle should take note of- the idea of drawing in more visitors with a "suggested donation" admissions policy), and it was more than worth it. It didn't get me into the Planetarium (which I somewhat regret missing, but if I had gone to that I don't even think I would have ever made it out of the museum), but with 6 floors of other exhibits, the price was well worth it. I spent almost three hours just walking around- there was so much to see, I hardly absorbed anything at all. I made sure to catch the Squid and the Whale (mentioned in this film), and the awesome full size, inset nature models, which I wish beyond anything I could have helped create. Or that they would let me move into one of them. Please?
**Note- the following is NOT a painting, but a huge model of the woods in fall**
After the museum, I sat outside in the park again and just watched the people pass, counted taxis, and felt the subway rumble below my feet as I texted my friend Una about apartment rental prices for NYC (she found some reasonable rates in Inwood, which is at the very tippy toppy-est top of the city, and is considered to not even be technically part of Manhattan by some residents). I had researched vegan eateries on Yelp.com prior to my trip, and decided to check out Gobo as I was in the Upper East Side. I texted hopstop and was told to cross the street and grab the bus, which actually appeared at the exact moment I stepped up to the corner. A quick ride through Central Park and I was on 83rd, headed towards Park Ave and Lexington Blvd. Seeing women in full fur coats on a city bus was a bit bewildering, (not to mention, well, icky).
Gobo was great- a bit ohlala, but I was able to get an organic smoothie with an energy boost and the food was awesome. It was quiet and slow, and a nice place to sit and read and restore my sleep dep'd self.
Alex and Scott were both due to arrive from SF at any time, so I started my way back towards Midtown to meet them- taking my sweet ass time strolling Riverside Drive and the somewhat fancy homes around that area. Listening to Devendra Banhart while walking along this park at sunset was the ideal way to end my day alone in NYC.
I met up with Alex, Scott, and Skylar in Midtown. The boys grabbed some pizza and then we headed to the Irish pub next to the hostel for a few drinks. Again, thanks to yelp, I had found a shot bar/dive bar near-ish our hostel, Barcelona Bar, home of not only 100+ shots (including something called the Harry Potter shot that involves setting the bar on fire, which I sadly did not order) but a ginormus picture of an ape made entirely out of legos!
From there, we made our way to McSorely's , a famous old ale house Ken C told us about. It was opened in 1854 by John McSorely, an Irish immigrant, and it didn't serve women until it was sued in 1970, forcing them to. They only serve "light" or "dark" beer, and one beer comes divided into two mugs. It was pretty neat, but jam packed with people I would never, ever want to be jam packed with (read: idiot frat types). The best part was talking shit about my "gaelic" tattoo with the old irish guy working the door. And then giving him a hug.
After that, I have foggy memories of a huge spinning cube, falling down, and another bar, but don't quote me on that. I also may or may not have thrown up, I may or may not have fallen asleep in the cab, and I may or may not have hit on some older guys while picking out Michael Jackson songs on the jukebox. Like I said, its all a blur.
We did manage to find ourselves back at the hostel around 3:30 am, with our Australian "roomamates" fast asleep and snoring. Thus ended my first evening in the great NYC.
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