Manhattan, part deux
Day 2 begins. We decided to go ahead and sleep in and enjoy the hotel room while we had it -- for a reason. This was where the adventure really started. Since our flight home left at 6:00am Sunday morning, we had decided to check out of the hotel on Saturday, carry our backpacks with us while we explored downtown Manhattan, and just stay out until it was time to take a cab to the airport. Brave? Yes. Exhausting? Yes, x10. Worth it? Absolutely.Dressed, hair done, packed and ready to go, we decided to be courageous (and cheap!) and try the bus/subway into Manhattan instead of taking another cab. It was not as confusing as it first sounded. The bus stop was about a block from the hotel. We waited about 15 minutes for the bus. The bus ride to the subway station lasted about 15 minutes, during which we got to see more of Queens and how people live there. The neighborhoods are quaint, some kept up better than others. Neighborhood delis, markets and boutiques dot the streets. We got to the subway and got on the train. In Queens, the train runs above ground. We rode past Asian and Latino neighborhoods and saw lots of colorful graffiti.
We rode to Times Square station, then changed trains to the #1 (red) to head downtown to the Staten Island Ferry. We rode and rode, then stopped and they announced it was the last stop and the train was headed back to Queens. A nice lady advised that we should get off now and switch to a different train -- EVEN THOUGH THE MAP DIDN'T SAY SO. Thank God for helpful New Yorkers (they are NOT rude -- that is a stereotype! They are just impatient and in a hurry! haha) We rode the #2 train further down, then got off and rode a shuttle to the ferry. (Apparently, they do maintenance to the subways on the weekends so the train schedules can be completely different from what you expect by reading the map).
Waiting for the ferry, we ate a hot dog from a street cart. It was.... a hot dog. Nothing special. $1.50 gets you a weenie on a bun, with your choice of onions in a weird sweet red sauce or sauerkraut (or both, if you swing that way). Kathy also bought a pretzel -- I was not impressed. It's just a big piece of bread with salt on it.
The ferry ride was a highlight, for sure. We rode just in front of the Statue of Liberty -- beautiful. The day was clear and sunny and warm. On the other side of the ferry, we could see the Manhattan skyline from the water --
amazing, just like in the pictures you've all seen. We saw the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. From the back of the boat, we could see the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. It was a great way to start off our site seeing on Day 2.
As we got back and prepared to disembark, a man caught my attention. He was standing next to the exit, preaching loudly. He was just talking and talking. "Do you believe in God? Jesus is the reason the boat floats. Jesus floats the boat. Jesus floats MY boat. Does Jesus float your boat?" Speaking quickly in rhymes and riddles about God and Jesus. It was very cool. Lots of people were giving him the "yeah whatever" look but I was giving him the "Preach on brutha!" look. We wondered later if he felt it was his "calling" to ride the boat and preach, or was he just a little touched in the head? Either way, the word of the Lord is being broadcast and some will hear it.
From the ferry, we took off walking uptown. We walked thru the Financial District, seeing many impressive old buildings (the Customs House is beautiful!). We made our way to the "Wall Street Bull" sculpture and the Trinity Church. We saw the World Trade Center site and across from it, the beautiful, historic St. Paul's chapel. From there, we walked to City Hall park and saw the Brooklyn Bridge, but it wasn't a great view because there were trees in the way. Our feet needed a bit of a rest from here, so we took the subway to Chinatown/Little Italy.
We were hungry at this point, so we got out our guide book and chose a restaurant in Little Italy
to start walking toward. It wasn't that far from the subway station. We sat at a table outside on the sidewalk for maximum people watching while we ate. We started with garlic bread and stuffed mushrooms (divine!). I ordered the "prixe meal" -- you got a pasta course and a main course for $19. I had the rigatoni in vodka sauce and the veal marsala. The rigatoni was good -- the sauce was mellow and you could taste the cream and parmesan cheese. Then came the veal. Oh. My. Lord. They must serve this dish in Heaven because it is truly worthy of it, let me tell ya. I think I had an out of body experience at the first bite. So rich...... the veal was cooked to perfection, the sauce bold with great body, buttery and robust with garlic and meaty slices of mushroom. It came served with sliced, roasted red potatoes and sauteed spinach with garlic. We each ate until we were ready to burst. I left a few bites on my plate, sadly. I may have shed a tear or two as we 
walked away.We were not quite ready to walk around again just yet, so we went across
the street to the Cafe Roma, an Italian pastry shop. This particular place was written up in our guide book so we figured it had to be worth it. Well? Think again. While it was not BAD, it just wasn't good. But then again -- not much could be deemed "good" compared to the manna from heaven I had just experienced. I ordered a hazelnut hot chocolate and a piece of tiramisu. The chocolate was great.... the tiramisu was average. It was a bit dry on top, better on the bottom where you could taste the liqueur. The WORST thing about this particular place was......... the bathroom. There was one tiny bathroom for all guests and, apparently, someone either (A) puked their guts out or (B) shit their guts out or (C) opened a can of chili and threw it all over the toilet and the back wall. And it didn't smell like chili........It was entertaining to watch people enter the bathroom, then come out a few minutes later with a look of wonder and disgust on their face.
I had not seen the bathroom yet, nor had Heather. Kathy had been inside and dutifully reported the situation to us as she came back to the table. We were discussing what we wanted to do next -- which was walk back toward Chinatown and check out souvenier shopping -- when the subject of our safety came up again. Heather said to me, "Remember, we don't have to run fast. We just have to run faster than Kathy." This made Kathy snort and spew her hot chocolate ALL OVER the table, which made us laugh hilariously, tears and all, while the wait staff gave us wary glances. At this point, I could hold it no longer so I went into the bathroom of disgust, wiped off the toilet seat with a huge wad of toilet paper and gingerly perched on the edge and did my business. When I came out, one of the wait staff was standing by the door and he said, "We are going to clean that up." I replied, "You might want to get a hose."
We then headed down the street toward Chinatown. Little Italy is a neat area, but I wondered, how do all of these restaurants stay in business? They are all one after another, right up next to each other. They all serve the same food, basically. There are so many of them! I guess there are enough customers to go around. That is amazing to me. The hosts stand outside and "hawk" to try and get you to come to their eatery. We kept saying, "We just ate!" One grabbed my backpack as I walked by. I made Heather stop and look inside it to make sure my cell phone was still in there (I was carrying my money and credit cards in my front pocket -- if anyone was going to pick THAT off me, they'd have to feel me up first) The guy saw us stop and saw Heather checking my backpack and he gave me a dirty look. I shot him one back. Weirdo.
Chinatown. Crazy. People everywhere -- a lot of tourists. This is the place to buy your souveniers and stuff like that. Everything is CHEAP and they expect you to haggle them down from there. We bought t-shirts and looked at some great costume jewelry (I didn't buy, but seriously considered it). We found a place selling purses and wallets and I bought a cute pink bag for $20. This place had Dooney & Burke and Brighton knock-offs. We looked around in there for a while. Then we bought refrigerator magnets of the Statue of Liberty from a guy on the sidewalk. He was giving us the hard sell. "Three dollah each! I sell you four for ten dollah! Good bargahn!"
We got down to an area teeming with tourists and checked out a sidewalk produce market (everything looked fantastic). We saw a place with Peking duck and a weird looking squid hanging in the window. We went inside a bakery, to see what the Chinese do. They had lovely, delicate pastries, beautifully decorated with fresh fruits. We saw a seafood shop where the 
workers were closing up and taking all the fish off the ice and throwing it into big tubs. Everywhere you walk there are Asians hawking stuff at you. "DVD? DVD?" as they hold out pirated copies of the latest movies (Flight 93 was one I noticed) "You want Rolex watch?" The one that got Heather was the girl who said, "Coach purse? You want?"
Heather said she would like to see the Coach purses. The girl motioned for us to follow her. We marched behind her, back up the street the way we had come. At the corner, a bunch of other young girls caught us, saying "Coach? Coach purse you want?" and our girl turned around and said something to them in Chinese. They understood then that we were following her, and they all gave each other knowing glances and giggled. Kathy and I looked at each other with the one-eyebrow raise, both of us thinking back to the Seinfeld episode involving Elaine and the Korean nail salon.
We kept following the girl, only by now we had turned a corner and were heading up a darker, less busy street. She was talking in Chinese to someone on her cell phone. No doubt calling ahead to say, "I have white women and I am bringing them to you!" She arrived at a metal door in the side of a building, opened the door to a darkened, narrow flight of stairs and motioned for us to go up. Kathy and I said, "Heather you are on your own." because we were going nowhere near those stairs and Heather looked up them and said to the girl, "On second thought..... no thank you." And we started walking away, back in the direction we had come. Well, this made the Chinese chick mad and she started cursing at us (in Chinese -- no I don't speak it but you know when you are being cursed at) and from out of nowhere some dude appeared and caught up with Heather, trying to convince her that it was safe to go upstairs and see the "purses".....
All we wanted to do then was get away. Visions of going upstairs to buy a purse and being told to take off all our clothes and hand over our money were dancing in our heads. Maybe that's being dramatic, but...... you just don't know. Later I thought it over and I wondered: Maybe that girl had been smuggled into the country illegally and she had to sell fake Coach bags to work off her debt? Maybe she got all excited when she thought she had hooked us in -- then was mad when we cut the deal because she was going to get beat up by the boss man..... ??? All those people -- obviously poor, hawking everything from t-shirts to fake Rolex watches.... they are all just trying to make a living in a big, cold, daunting city.
Still -- we had to be safe and weren't none of us heading up them stairs!
Next, we saw a man doing this neat artwork on the sidewalk. He was doing people's names, painting the letters colorfully as dragons or butterflies or flowers. We stopped and Heather bought one each for her kids.
Then we went back to the subway and rode to the Empire State Building. I had the tickets this time! It was dark by now --- we walked up the street and suddenly we saw the building looming above us. It is impressive and beautiful! Since we had pre-paid tickets, we skipped thru the longest of the lines and got to go straight to the elevators. We were packed into the elevator like a can of sardines. Literally, you can't move your arms. That's how many people they pack in there at one time. I said to the man in front of me, "Dude, I am not trying to feel your butt......... however it is quite nice and firm." Everyone laughed. We got to the 86th floor and went out to the observatory. The first thing that hits you is the COLD WIND. It was bitter cold up there! The second thing that hits you is.... the city lights are just breathtaking. You forget the cold for a moment while you run to all sides of the building to look out and see what you can identify from such an altitude. Heather brought up the point that, if someone were to drop a penny from the top (the area is fenced but you could easily drop things thru the grate) it would kill someone on the street if it hit them. I wonder if anything like that has ever happened?
The cold got to us so we decided to head back down. In the "down" elevator, we were packed in reverse, so the man I said I butt grabbed was now behind me. As we entered the elevator, he said, "Hey its MY turn now!" and we all giggled. I love it when people have a sense o'humor.
It was about 10:00pm and we had about 5 hours to kill before we wanted to taxi out to the airport. Kathy suggested we find a club or somewhere to hang out -- she looked in our trusty guide book and found the Gotham Comedy Club, which turned out to be a taxi ride to the address to find they had moved and a short walk back up to the new location. We went in and were told the show didn't start until 11:30pm, but we could sit in the lounge and wait, which we gladly did. We got called up at 11:30 to our reserved table, were we each ordered a drink and got ready to laugh our guts out. We saw Jim Medrinos, Jessica Kirson and Orny Adams ( www.gothamcomedyclub.com) and it was wonderful. Sometimes smart, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes outright silly -- it was all good and we laughed 'til our ribs were sore.
After the show, we exited the club, went to the corner and headed for what should have been Times Square. Only, it wasn't lit up like before when we found the club. I said the first thing I thought, "Oh no, they turned it off! It's closed!" hahahahaaa we were facing the wrong direction! We turned around and went the other way, toward Times Square. We found a little pizza place and ate a slice, drank a Coke and just chilled for a while. They say NYC is "the city that never sleeps" but that is not really true. At about 3:00am, walking through Times Square, there is hardly anyone out except cops. Out of things to do and see, feeling like zombies from lack of sleep and dead on our feet, we hailed a cab and headed for the airport.
Our flight left at 6:00am and we slept nearly all the way home. Home sweet home!!!
Ladies, it was a pleasure. You both make wonderful travel companions -- this trip was priceless. I am looking forward to the Gull's Mexican Cruise 2007!!! :o)
posted by Tamfish @ 1:36 PM
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