Today was our only free day and after a bit of a delayed start (sometimes it’s hard being friends with an in-demand journalist working on a deadline) we hit the streets. We didn’t really have any sort of itinerary, but decided the top of Central Park was a good place to start. But to get all those 70 blocks away, we had to take the subway…
Maybe I’m jaded from the trains of Korea and Hong Kong, which are comprehensive, clean and predictable, but seriously…what is wrong with the subways of New York?!? First of all, an unlimited 7 day pass is $29—which seems like a joke given that the trains are filthy, confusing and every other subway system in the world is generally dirt cheap. The subways probably haven’t been cleaned or re-done since before Seinfeld was popular (which, if you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend The Subway episode of Seinfeld so you understand what I mean). For the most part, it has been my experience that if you know your ABC’s, 123’s, colors and where you want to go, you can ride a subway (well, not always…). But in New York it’s a little more complex than that. Another thing I don’t get is that maybe less than half of the trains even have a lit-up map on them so people know which way the train is going and which stops are coming up when. Some trains have nothing at all, so you have to look out the window to see if it’s your stop or not. Other trains have an announcement from the conductor, but unless you’re fluent in mumbled overcome English (which I can’t even understand), you have no idea what’s going on. How foreigners can navigate the subway is an impressive feat on their behalf.
After a sticky ride on the subway, we finally made it to the top of Central Park. Being in somewhat of a repulsed mood from the subway, we still found ourselves dissatisfied with the “beauty of the park”. I think most people say Central Park is beautiful because it is such a stark “natural” contrast to the towering, lively city of New York, but when you’re walking around with a Kiwi girl and a West Coast girl, a couple of trees and some shaggy grass just isn’t going to cut it. But I will admit that it gets better as you walk farther into the park, and with Spring at the tips of all the trees, it isn’t in full beautiful bloom yet.
Once we had walked about 20-30 blocks we realized that the Met was just a block over. Unfortunately we didn’t know that it’s closed on Mondays. This left us on 5th Avenue without a clue of where to go, so naturally we just started walking forward until we stopped at a deli. And it was all Italy in there (ok, and an Egyptian guy, too). The gregarious clerk was delighted to make us some fresh juice from carrots, ginger, celery, apples and beets and give us directions to the East Village where he thought we’d enjoy ourselves. I can’t say I remember the name of the deli, but I will remember the nice little Italians that owned it.
Then it was off to the subway again to see what we would find in the East Village. As we walked out from the subway, we were immediately greeted by yet even more restaurants and stores and stores filled with colorful wayfarers, bongs and animal hats. My eye was caught by the sparkly jewelry inside of a store called “Hottie”. The first thing I saw when I entered were Soju earrings—earrings that I had bought for 1000 won in Korea ($1). When I excitedly exclaimed, “Soju!” the owner of the store asked me how I knew what Soju was, and I explained that I had been in Korea the month before. I couldn’t help but wonder how much these Soju earrings would cost in this store. $11.99. YIKES. I think the owner saw the shock on my face and might have heard me mutter “pee-sigh-yo”, which means “expensive” in Korean.
Discouraged by price, we continued on to another store with Tibetan/India clothing and other wares. The owner was actually from Tibet, but grew up in India (thus explaining the store’s interesting combo of goods) because his family fled the area to raise him and his siblings. I was dazzled by the shoes in the back, which are the classic Indian style, beaded with sequins, jewels and exotic colors…for only $10! And if you remember my previous weakness for ten dollar shoes (and my fondness for all things India), you won’t be surprised to know that I bought 2 pairs.
Although the East Village was filled with lots of interesting things, we weren’t really sure that we’d gotten to the heart of all the eclectic shops, but we wanted to move on. So we decided to head to the prolific Wall Street.
It was interesting walking down the narrow streets knowing that within the walls of these buildings, a serious meltdown took place a short 3 years ago that we’re still recovering from. Yet it still stands as the most recognized symbol of world finance with thousands vying to see it.
Also in the general Wall Street area is Ground Zero. Having never seen the Twin Towers before they fell, I can’t really imagine the vast attention they commanded in the skyline, but the vast emptiness they left behind suggests something of their former symbolism. As to their current symbolism…it’s complex. Seeing posters with the photos of those who perished in the incident, and those who gave their lives by doing their job valiantly made it more real. It divorced it from the warring ideologies of Fundamental Islam and the Western World and made it something tangible, something emotional. Yet, at the same time, I could understand how it would only make those warring ideologies more apparent and polarizing. For me I felt sorrow for those lost and anger for those who committed the act itself, but frustrated that nothing has really been resolved since the incident and the buildings are barely yet to be reconstructed. Everything has changed since 2001…yet nothing has changed at all. Except this emptiness, this emptiness has remained.
After the poignant walk through Ground Zero, we decided we were going to go to the tip of the island to at least get a peek of the Statue of Liberty. A trudge through the charismatic Battery Park took us to the end of Manhattan with a hazy view of Lady Liberty. Also, she was incredibly far away. Even the zoom on my camera couldn’t do the sight any justice, but still we snapped our photos then made our way back to Times Square.
Having some time before the scheduled alumni-sponsored dinner, we visited the M&M’s store, which was an absolute clusterfuck. Who knew that something so simple as a round chocolate candy would warrant a candy empire bringing millions of tourists so that they could pick their favorite color of candy to take home, despite the fact that they are $14.99 a pound and all have the same flavor? Nonetheless, seeing several solid rows of M&M’s was slightly artistic.
We also had time to see the Hershey’s store, which reeked of chocolate. I use “reeked” here because I maintain that Hershey’s makes some of the world’s worst chocolate and if you’ve ever stuck your nose in a bag full of Kisses, you know what I mean. I was surprised that Hershey’s was simply selling all of their regular candies in the forms in which you can buy them at any given store…save for the 2 pound Kiss (filled with more Kisses) and other huge novelty candy items. After making a rather expensive purchase of a very large Reese’s related item for my good friend (who loves all things Reese’s and peanut butter), we had to return for dinner.
Although New York is notorious for its sizeable Italian and Italo-American population, I was not impressed by the food at Tony’s DiNapoli. It was pretty generic Italian—but it’s not the small, family-owned type of Italian place where you’re going to get spaghetti made from a recipe that’s been handed down for generations. It’s a step up from Olive Garden. So, in addition to a perfect turkey sandwich, I’m also searching for some incredible authentic Italian food.
With dinner behind me, I had to work on biogeography homework. Traveling is not conducive to wanting to finish your homework…
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