Trip Report Day 5
I wake up on Monday to discover that it’s a combination of later than I thought or much earlier, depending on if I remember that time zones exist. Waking up at what feels like 5 but is really 8 is a pain, because by the time you’re actually alert enough to participate in life, it’s like late and stuff. This basically annoyed me my whole time in NYC, especially since my sleeping schedule was on crack from the time spent in AC.
I check out of the hotel and drop my bags off at the place I’ll be staying for the next few days. It’s an overly hip place called “The Moderne”. They have a design that’s either ass-dog ugly or cutting edge depending on how you feel. The hotel is also next to the real life Soup Nazi from Seinfeld, but he’s closed for the summer. Next to that is the Kenny Kramer Reality tour, which is run by the guy who was apparently Larry David’s real life inspiration for Kramer. Interesting if nothing else.
I can’t check in for another few hours, so I decide to take a walk down towards Times Square and see what I can see. My plan for the day was to visit Ground Zero and Ellis Island and then later I’m having dinner with some dudes I know from a message board (go nerdery!!). I’m walking south on Fashion Ave, and it’s umm… pretty spectacular. Later that night my friend Reggie will call it one of the top 5 spots to see beautiful women in the world. At this moment I swear of white women forever. There’s just so many amazing looking women of color around me, all dressed so hip and sexy. It’s pretty crazy.
At some point I realize that I’m pretty close to the Empire State Building. I’m also starving. I was under the (apparently misguided) belief that there were tons of great restaurants in New York (there are, but not north of like 23rd apparently) and I kept walking trying to find someplace that looked good. Eventually I settled on some chain looking place at the bottom of the ESB (do people in NY call it that?). It was ok, had some tasty things that were called “buffalo spring rolls” which were basically pieces of chicken wrapped in a egg roll wrapper and fried, you dipped them in buffalo sauce.
I then head to get in line to go up to the top of the ESB. This involves waiting in line for like an hour, going through a security screening, watching the young couple in front of me kiss frequently and annoy everybody around them, become annoyed by the non-english speaking white tourists, and eventually take a series of elevators up to a view that’s so surreal that I can hardly appreciate it. I do realize that the Statue of Liberty is a lot smaller than I realize and I decided that this is enough view of it. In the end it’s an hour of waiting for 10 minutes of being crowded and feeling fat and in the way and I bolt pretty quickly. I’ve been told this would be more interesting at night, but I’m not sure. You’re really not seeing much you don’t see on any TV show set in NY anyway. Boo this building.
Now beings my first adventure on the NY Subway system. I’m please to announce that in my attempts to visit ground zero I only went the wrong way once. In all, the Subway is really cool. Easy to use, fast, moves a ton of people all at once, great for people watching. I’m really impressed. I get off a few stops early and eventually wander down to Ground Zero. It’s very odd, just looks like a big construction site. It’s not at all obvious that some 3000 people died here if you didn’t know. I guess there is a memorial, but I missed it and it isn’t obvious. Still, it is amazing/mortifying/depressing to realize that a large city block was basically destroyed and now it’s just a large hole in the middle of the city.
I head back and check into my new hotel. The walls are eggshell blue, and there’s large picture of Marilyn Monroe in freaky pink on the walls. I nap and prepare to get ready to head down towards Union Square for dinner.
Union Square blows me away. Just another place with an amazingly diverse gathering of people. I also get painfully lost and after like three phone calls to Reggie finally find where we’re eating. Seafood place called “City Crap”. I have some dish with shrimp, scallops and crab and it’s good. Reggie suggests the clam chowder and it’s amazing. Also joining us is a cat called Sysmantics, he’s nice and knows a ton about hip-hop, they both make me feel like a new jack. After dinner we stroll towards St. Marks street to see what that’s about, and I apparently take in culture and stuff. Eventually Reggie and Sys split and I end up back at my hotel (after almost trapping myself in the Subway trying to leave through a closed exit). I crash wondering why Mets fans don’t care that Mike Cameron is in the hospital.
