New York State of Mind

Manhattan is a magic box. 

Small but containing far more than what it looks as if it should.

I left Heathrow feeling that part of me wasn't coming, landing at JFK felt surreal and my NY state of mind kept my head in the clouds. The distortion of time and space began upon landing - I was expecting another massive terminal building but went through customs and the luggage pick up into a small provincial style space. The prepaid and approved ESTA got us into the country safely.

We left JFK from T2 - Willow and I had a fabulous avocado mash toast for breakfast once through customs.
I bought the 28.9.15 - The NewYorker from the newsagent as a souvenir.  Quote form a The Mail - "Trump's candidacy may be an outrage, but the tensions it reveals cannot be wished away."

M had booked a SUV to take us and all our worldly goods into Manhattan to the Eastside apartments we'd booked for four nights. (Be aware that quoted tariffs for US accommodation never include the 15% tax.) The first myth of NY to be debunked was efficiency. We stood and watched for over an hour as many phone calls tried to sort out the SUV booking. Then when we were loaded into the truck the driver got lost and tried to put a positive spin on the extra miles as an introductory tour to the city. We sat back and enjoyed the weaving through one way streets knowing we'd paid a flat rate.

Things were starting to feel very expensive with the change from pounds to dollars: US$90 for the car from the airport to the apartment, $16 extra for tolls and $75 on a few basic groceries. The closest supermarket was only a block away and beautiful. The Whole Foods chain had a great variety of prepared foods and normal groceries. They sold Pizza and Mac cheese by the 1/2lb - 2 slices cost $11.69 - a bit of a shock after being used to a whole one of the same quality in Tescos for £2. Petal got the craziest cereal she could find - Rainbow Morning Os; when we opened the bag it smelt like a candy store. We supposed that a top end supermarket in prime real estate did not give us a realistic idea of costs that the average US family face at their local store.

The closest supermarket with everything you could ever need and lots that you never will. A couple of pumpkin pie sodas were left in the fridge for the next guests!    The image top right is from a candy store close to Central Park.

We had decided to split the famous island into three sections and try to see as much as we could in each of the three days we had to explore. We bought 7 day unlimited Metro cards which cost the same as 12 single trips which we knew we'd use. Some of the subway stations had once been beautiful but most were just steel posts, trash and graffiti. After the art nouveau of the Parisian Metro, the themed artwork in the London Tube, the mosaics and sculptures in the Naples network and the cleverly exposed and celebrated archaeology in Athens' underground stations, I was really surprised by the lack of maintenance and design in the NY subway. Perhaps the street artists should be paid to provide some relief from the dirt, dust and chipped paint on the girders. The trains rattled along regularly, even on the weekends and made it easy to get around.

Get a METRO card if you intend on taking 12 or more rides. Really convenient (as long as you don't loose it) - no having to buy tickets every time - just run through the barriers and jump on. We gave three of ours away to fellow travelers because they were valid for longer than what we needed them for.

We headed for Central park. Climbing out of the station it felt as if the city had emptied - although it was a Friday the city seemed to have sighed with the relief of the end of the summer break and the streets were empty - until we turned into Central Park South. We were dismayed to discover that Central Park was blocked off to the public because the Pope was in town and going to speak at an outdoor gathering in the park that evening, . I have never seen so many cops - the movies do not exaggerate! There must have been an officer for every meter of the park's boundary. People with tickets were having their bags searched as they entered the grounds.

People of the Central Park district getting ready for Halloween

The plan had been to wander through the park - checking out the Strawberry Fields memorial to John Lennon, Yoko Ono gave the city $1mil to have a teardrop shaped area re-landscaped in his honour. We then had planned to go left at the top of the park to the Natural History Museum and then zigzag across the other side past the zoo to visit the Metropolitan Art Museum.  Everywhere you go in NY you get a feeling that you've stepped into a movie set. We managed the visits and saw lots of lovely treed avenues, an interesting pet store full of dress ups for your cat or dog, big dump trucks full of soil to stop ram entries into the park and hundreds of police cars and motorbikes lining the surrounding streets. M and the girls enjoyed their museum and I could have stayed in mine for very much longer.

Lincoln visiting the NHM,  Closest the girls will get to the famous Bison of the Midwest plains. Just like in the movies.

Top Left: A beautiful taxidermied deer that has been ' pixcelled' (glass spheres like pixals) by Kohei Nawa. PixCell-Deer#24
Top Right: one of L.C. Tiffany's Grapevine panels 1902-32 Leaded Favrile glass.
Me on the steps up to this amazing institution. Hoards of Treasure.

We met on the stairs of the Met and ate street food for lunch - I had a Philly steak sandwich - cubed, charred steak in a bread roll with a cream cheese sauce and salad - very satisfying.

Top corner of Central park getting food from the carts to eat on the stairs of the Met.

Top: Rockefeller, Murdoch, Arden, Johnson are a few of the
fortunate residents in 834 5th  Ave.
Bottom: This building was the Union of American Hebrew
congregations but is being remodelled as apartments. Will the
Bible references all over the building remain?

Then we headed down to check out the iconic Apple store - a big glass cube above ground with a large concrete courtyard surrounding it. The iphone 6 had been released the previous day so the whole outdoor space was filled with queuing people.  We decided that the 2hr wait to get into the underground store really wasn't worth it. Petal and Willow had watched many episodes of Friends with their couzies so we headed up East 59th St to Bloomingdale's. We were greeted by a very enthusiastic 'shop walker' who asked us many questions about Australia. He helped us find the Ladies lounge. After this relief we thought we'd have a wander through the store but every two steps we were approached by store staff asking if we needed any assistance - I wondered if they get paid on commission. One poor young fellow was marched down a corridor, loudly berated by a manager for 'not jacking up the joneser' - I figured that jacking up meant getting them to spend more but had to look up what a joneser was - someone who really, really wants something - apparently from a well known ally where addicts could get their hits in the 80s. After hanging out in English stores for a few years where you have to fight for someone to serve you in a department store - this experience was overwhelming so we moved to escape out the back!

We came across a little store called the Magnolia Bakery in the atrium of Bloomingdale's 3rd Ave exit. The original store in Greenwich Village had started the cupcake trend in the 90s by pouring leftover cake batter into muffin tins, frosting them liberally and selling them for $1.25 each. The Hummingbird Bakery we loved in London was inspired by this store so we stopped in to purchase! M got a banana pudding which the shop walker had recommended - biscuits, packet banana pudding, whipped cream and fresh banana slices layered to tightly fill a little tub - $5 but delicious. Petal chose a red velvet cupcake with the lightest and brightest frosting I've ever seen - $3.50, Willow got a choc chunk cookie and I got a lemon slice that was the same as a Louise cake but with lemon curd instead of raspberry jam. We still had a lot of walking to do and overweight suitcases so I bought their recipe book on line when we got back to Aus.

Plenty in Bloomingdales to draw the eye but the Magnolia Bakery scored the only purchases.

Across the road Petal spotted a 3 level candy store - as if we had't had enough sugar for the day. Dylan's Candy bar was a kaleidoscope of it. Upstairs was a bar where you could order candy drink concoctions. M and Petal had a blue lemonade with a gummy shark and popping candy, I preferred Willow's Pink cloud lemonade with candyfloss, hibiscus syrup and nerds. There is a door to stop under 21yr olds going into the bar by themselves because mocktails are not the only drinks on the menu.

Holy sites? 

We wound our way around Midtown until we came to Tiffany's on 5th Avenue then crossed over to the Rockefeller center. The glossy window displays in every store were a stark contrast to the crumbling gutters and cracking sidewalks. It was easy not to notice these though because there is so much up high to attract the eye. The solution of course to Manhattan's small area was to build up. It was surreal seeing the shapes up against the sky that seemed so familiar. Towering concrete towers as far as I could see. We tried not to go into any shops but the girls fell for the 'Free People' store and had to have a look. So many lovely things - please expand to Australasia!

Walking through to Time Square we saw another Magnolia Bakery store - full of people having their afternoon coffee. Time Square looks a lot smaller in real life - I think it feels that way because the buildings all around it soar up so high. The giant advertising screens on every surface make the New Year time ball(First dropped at the end of 1907) seem insignificant. A giant Toys R Us store with a full sized Ferris wheel for all ages to ride inside, had bathroom facilities so we made use of them. Public toilets were quite hard to find. Not as pretty as Hamleys in London but they had the Sylvanian Families collection rebranded as Calico Kittens. We were very pleased to be able to sit on some scaffolding seating that was set up in the skinny end of the 'square' and watched the world go by for a while, giving our feet a rest.

Rockefeller Centre - we didn't go inside in case too much time was wasted in the giant Lego store.

We decided to have a quick turn around Broadway before heading back to 1st St E. As we were walking towards the Matilda theatre M said "Isn't that Tim Minchin?" I answered 'Duh - yes he wrote Matilda'  - we'd loved it at the Cambridge Theatre in London. Then I noticed that he had stopped and was talking to someone - it was Tim Minchin in the flesh - one of Australia's bright lights. He was very polite and happy after he had stopped us goofily staring at him by saying ' So do you want my publicist to take a photo of us or what?' He said he was in town for the 1000th show of Matilda in NY and to go to his friend's opening night musical about one of the fathers of NY. (Hamilton by Lin-manuel Miranda (He also scored the movie Moana) “BRILLIANT. HAMILTON is one of the most exhilarating experiences I’ve had in a theater. Bold, rousing, sexy, tear-jerking and historically respectful — the sort of production that asks you to think afresh about your country and your life.”- David Brooks, The New York Times) around the corner. This was the only spotting of a famous person we had in our whole US trip but it was a really good one.

On our second day we decided to flicker through the middle section of Manhattan. We subbed up to Bryant Park on 42nd St and stopped first at the New York public library - mainly to see the beautiful lions that guard the main doors. They were named Fortitude and Patience by the NY mayor in the great depression as the qualities New Yorkers needed to get through it. The Library was full of marble and a variety of reading rooms, the map room was very impressive and had a copy of the first ever fold out pocket map of the city. Bryant Park sits on top of a huge subterranean storage facility for the Library's collection.

As we continued down 42nd St to see Central Station we were impeded by large crews of workers in day-glow vests putting out pedestrian barricades. It turned out that in the afternoon President Obama was going to be driving down this road to go and address the United Nations whose headquarters are down on the waterfront of East river. It made me wonder if all the President ever sees of his country from the car are those ugly plastic barriers.

We stared up at the Chrysler Building, one of the prettiest in NY I think, but decided to go back to Madison Ave and walk down to the Empire State building.
We had left plenty of time because we thought we would have to queue for a long time however we were able to walk through all the velvet roped paths, past rooms of 'interesting information'  and straight up to the ticket desk. I love travelling outside school holidays. Two lifts, with plenty of velvet roped walkways that we ducked around, took us up the 443 meters to the top of the city.
The top of the tower is used to broadcast most of the TV and FM stations to all of New York. The outdoor 102nd floor observatory deck was originally planned to be an airship docking point. The Empire State building was the tallest building in the world from its completion in 1930 until the World Trade north building beat it in 1972.
The photos surrounding the queuing zones showed workers up bolting beams with no harnesses - perched on corners hundreds of meters above the ground. Now days I'm not even allowed to clamber up on top of a desk to fix a poster to my classroom wall.

Looking south towards where the East and Hudson rivers meet the Statue of Liberty.
The very tall building on the horizon is the replacement for the twin towers.
The flat iron building in the center has been called New York's most beautiful building.

In a Greens pharmacy on the way down, the girls discovered the delights of what a large population can do to the supply and variety of lip gloss. At the bottom of the Tower we stopped for lunch and tried a dozen American dishes at the Heartland Brewery and Rotisserie. Buffolo wings, southern chicken with spinach sweet corn and mash, NY steak strip burger, all with Idaho hand cut fries. Bad coffee but good root bear and a reasonable price considering the location.

Next we hit the Macey's sales - the jewelry was cut by 50-70% and then the girls found that their accent gave them another 10% off as a visitor from out of the country. M was very bored but very patient! We headed out of the store via the perfume avenue and made it to outdoor fresh air coughing and gasping from the continuous spraying by sales people spaced every couple of meters. Petal was delighted!

M was more delighted to leave the shops behind as we headed off for the Intrepid museum. I think it is named this because there is no public transport across to the wharves so it is a big walk but like any wanderings in a new place there are always interesting things to stumble upon. The textile district requires more room in suitcases than we had.

We had planned to catch a cab over to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on a wharf on the Hudson River but we decided to walk off our huge lunch and have a look at all the fabulous fabric and fashion industry stores of the garment district that runs between Penn station and Times Square.

For Shakespeare fans - there is a Syracuse in the US not just in the Comedy of Errors.
The British concord nestled down on the wharf.
The flight deck of the aircraft carrier Intrepid is enormous.  A lego model of it on a lower deck.
It was launched in 1943 to fight in World War II. It survived five kamikaze attacks and one torpedo strike. The ship later served in the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Intrepid also served as a NASA recovery vessel in the 1960s.  The Museum is on Pier 86 on 46th St Manhattan.

A just reward for the patient M after all the NY shops - what a happy finish to the day.
Petal isn't so bored sh'e asleep - just trying the navy hammocks for size - Willow and I  found ways of entertaining ourselves.
Top right: most captains would be a bit concerned to see Manhattan so close through the bridge windows.
Centre right: 'Danger Zone' from Top Gun bouncing through my mind.

Petal spacing out while M reenacts scenes from M.A.S.H.

We stayed at the museum until closing then wandered back to the closest subway station right back at Bryant Park where we began the day's adventures. The walk took us through Hell's Kitchen which is an area full of restaurants, I think there is a Mexican one called Hell's Kitchen but it seems the whole area is referred to by that name. Parking is tricky in Manhattan and we saw several empty lots that enterprising people had turned into valet parking.  One site even had the cars piled up on top of each other in pallets with a series of ramps to be able to quadruple the capacity.
I desperately wanted to go to a good deli to get a NY brisket sandwich and thought there might be one around - but I was out of luck and we really weren't hungry.  It was dark by the time we got back to Bryant park and found a huge community square dance in mid swing. M and Petal went and got their free straw hats and hit the grass for a doe-si-doe or two, a hesitant Willow was soon dragged into the fun. The park was strewn with fairy lights and packed with people of all ages and types enthusiastically trying to follow the dance master's calls. Even as the moon rose, the fading sunset glow seemed not to want to leave the show.

A community square dance with a full moon arising.  That green lit building reminds me of Batman for some reason.

The next day was lower Manhattan, following the advice in a tourist guide to the area, I had booked and paid for timed tickets to the 9/11 Memorial  Museum online then we headed for the Stanton Island Ferry.  We didn't have time to get around to the Statue of Liberty herself but knew that a trip to NY was not done until this French symbol of welcome that made the USA great had been seen. The ferry to Stanton Island is free and shuttles back and forth so that you can board - take photos from the starboard side of Ellis Island and the Lady then disembark - walk around to the ferry boarding ramp (past many, many Statue of Liberty souvenir shops) back on and take more photos from the Port side.

New York and her Lady taken from the Stanton Island Ferry

Jostling for position

Watching the Ferry go the other way - a quick turn around for time, cash or energy poor tourists to see the sights.

Once off the ferry we wandered through Battery Park to Wall St. I've never seen so many squirrels in one place - Charlie and Chester would have loved it.  M and Willow got hot dogs from a street food cart, Petal a custard filled churro and I tried a cheese pretzel that was so stodgy that the squirrels agreed with me and wouldn't eat more than one mouthful.  The pigeons didn't seem to mind.

Street food and the furry scavenger

The bronze charging bull close to Wall Street was surrounded by tourists trying to get good financial luck by rubbing its testicles.  I had to take a photo of a miniature copy on a souvenir stall to get a record of what it looked like! Petal managed to wriggle her way in and get a pat on its back.  Anything charging in the financial district would most likely be lawyers or banks. Glad to see the optimistic attitude in having a bull rather than a bear. The NY stock exchange is now out of bounds to the public. The only way you can see in this holy of holies is to be in the business.

The NY Stock Exchange is heavily guarded - no entry without a pass - no tourists ever!

At the end of Wall street stands Trinity Church, in this holy ground Alexander Hamilton lies buried. He founded the NY Bank the NY Post(newspaper) and his guidebook for the coastguard was still in use during the Cuban missile crisis. He died as a result of a famous political duel but is remembered in portrait on the $10 dollar bill. A political opponent had felt insulted by what Hamilton's newspaper had printed about him so challenged him to a duel. Hamilton shot above the head of Burr. Hamilton died the following day because Burr's bullet had gone through Hamilton's liver and got lodged in his spine. Burr was hounded from his office as Vice president on charges of murder. No wonder a musical was made out of Hamilton's life.

We caught the subway up to Prince St with the intent of wandering down through Soho to The 9/11 Memorial. (Soho in NY is short for south of Houston St and Noho is north of Houston St. Soho in London may have been named after a hunting cry as the area was mostly fields between villages in the 1600s) We passed lots of interesting boutiques and found a little store that put a smile on M's face. Rice to Riches, on Spring St, is a store that is full of different rice puddings, beautifully designed containers and spoons and rather cheeky sayings - they call their flavoursome toppings 'Jesus Droppings'.

The furniture concept stores through Soho were just beautiful - they were mostly closed because it was Sunday but window shopping suited us. The Harley Davidson Store was open which M and Petal really enjoyed. We came across a MacDonalds around 3pm and decided we'd better have the US icon once in the trip. We really didn't enjoy it - even the fries tasted sweet. I guess the huge queue for the ladies toilets winding around us didn't make it very atmospheric either. Although there were certainly much larger options available, the regular meal was the same size as other franchises around the world.

Not just in the movies!

Left: The water tanks on buildings over 6 levels are to give the residents and fire fighters water when needed. Between them they hold about a day's worth of water and have a ball cock system that lets them fill as they empty.
Centre: An interesting design that caught my eye.  Right: Those who serve are NY heroes.

Some side walks may never see the light of day.

We finally made it through all the road works to the Ground Zero Memorial Museum that honours the 2,983 people killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. The entry guards demanded printed copies of the tickets I'd purchased on line - unable to access the e-version bar codes on my phone - they had printers available to get what they needed?! The museum is all underground with parts of the twisted metal girders in the space. In one room they were playing some of the calls between passengers and their loved ones when they knew they were going to crash.  The ones from the people on the flight that overpowered the hijackers and ditched the plane so it couldn't be used as a weapon after hearing about what had happened at the Twin Towers, had everyone in tears. Truly heroic people when faced with such an impossible situation. The footage of the planes colliding with the Towers were played on small screens - cinema sized images would have been quite shocking. The images of the jumpers 'falling' down the walls were very confronting, the individual's bios were printed around the display. To see a loved one's last moments replayed like that would be a nightmare you couldn't wake up from. Everyone was very quiet and there were lots of sniffles. I was very pleased to be able to get back up into the light.

Left: The One World Trade center has replaced the Twin Towers on the edge of the 16 acre block left by their collapse.
Right: Inside the ground floor entry to the museum. The recovered girders from the fallen buildings echo the photo them.

The water feature memorial covers the footprints of the two destroyed buildings. It is a very tranquil area surrounded by oak tress. The water falling pointlessly into a drain at the bottom may represent the tears for such unforgivable violence. The names of the people who lost their lives in the attack are recorded in bronze around the perimeter of the 2 water features. We stayed until dusk and saw the lights come on - a beautiful sight. It also made me think of the thousands of people losing their lives every day in the Middle East from civil acts of terror for the same bigoted and intolerant reasons. The poor folk in Syria and Iraq often have no chance to bury their loved ones let alone construct a memorial to their memory. The water is surely wasting away in those parts of the world - surely this memorial is also about how powerless we are against mad and power hungry extremists.

Every name is engraved in the panels around the water falls and reflecting pools that are set within the footprints of the Towers.  Each is about an acre in size.  The Memorial was dedicated on the 10th anniversary of  9/11 on September 12  2011.
(The terrorist attack was September 11 2001) 

A terribly damaged but alive Callery pear tree was found in the wreckage of the buildings, rescued, taken to a farm in Washington State somewhere and rejuvenated. It has been dubbed the survivor tree and has become an emblem of Resistance, recovery and hope. I discovered this story once it was dark so this montage of images come from a variety of memorial sites.
 I would like to know who had the forethought to see the power of this image on those dark and dusty days when it was discovered.

"About 400 swamp white oak and sweetgum trees will stretch out above the 9/11 Memorial's plaza, (formerly known as ground zero) creating a rustling canopy of leaves. The trees were harvested within a 500-mile radius of the WTC site, including Pennsylvania and near Washington D.C., areas that were targeted on 9/11." 

Michael Frazier, Sr. Communication Manager for the 9/11 Memorial

We decided to head back to the subway line that took us to the closest station to our apartment with hearts and feet aching. The works in the area though got us completely disoriented in the dark and we ended up in Greenwich Village. A great good fortune came from this though because as we muddled around looking for the 4th St subway station, we came across the Waverly Diner - genuine New York.  A huge menu offered 24/7 anything. I was expecting less than average food because how can you possibly offer so much and have it available fresh all the time? It was a great surprise to have delicious fresh food in massive servings served up quickly on homely heavy ceramic plates. The wait staff were friendly but not pushy and going by the conversations we overheard in the bar close friends or family. So much food for under $16 each.

A proper New York diner with something for everyone. Of course enormous servings 24/7.

Back at the apartments we booked a van to take us back to JFK early the next morning - stressing how to find the oddly numbered building and repacked as much as we could before morning showers. I nervously woke at 4am wondering if this vehicle booking would be as inefficient as our first experience. I didn't need to worry - he arrived right on time and took us on a quick, direct route back to the airport.

The two bedrooms were the only rooms that had windows - the constant sirens and roadworks noise would have kept us awake if we hadn't been exhausted from our daily NY adventures. Too much to see to ever stay indoors.

Domestic carriers are really strict about luggage weight and I was nervous that we were going to be stung a lot for our overweight bags. We had carried our bags in ourselves and then had noticed an older guy with a trolley looking a bit disappointed - he was apparently meant to bring in passengers and take them to the automatic kiosk but we'd slipped in without him noticing. Michael asked him a question (that he didn't need to) then gave him a healthy tip. The beaming grin was well worth it but another surprise was that the lady at the check in desk had seen and, after checking that her boss was busy somewhere else, told us to repack our bags to redistribute the weight. every bag was still over but she didn't charge us. She said that an extra bag is only $35 and suggested that getting another one for our next domestic trip would be cheaper than the $25 per overweight bag. Advice taken!

New York City is far bigger than Manhattan Island but we didn't even see a third of the sights that we wanted too on the island in our three days. Now that I've read Edward Rutherford's 'New York', I really need to go back. "New York 2140' by Kim Stanley Robinson is a look at NY in the future with the premise that Global warming will submerge Manhattan. The city was first settled by the Dutch and called New Amsterdam - I wonder if it will have to be renamed New Venice by 2140?