Road Trip Diaries

It looks as if we've fended off jetlag. By rights we should have woken up five hours early and struggled to sleep til a reasonable time, but instead we slept in until past ten.

The weather channel is talking about heavy snow tomorrow. Sincewe're in central Manhattan, we're not really worrying too much about being snowed in; but maybe we should?

After some consideration, we decided to do the touristy thing, and get brunch at the Carnegie Deli. It was only a few blocks walk. To our surprise, it wasn't thatcold. I was comfortable with my coat zip undone.

Unfortunately we were a couple of minutes too late for the breakfast menu. Instead, Debbie had meatloaf, and I had a bologna and egg sandwich. The Rough Guide is right about the Carnegie Deli: it's main selling point appears to be its gigantic portions. I just about managed mine. Debbie was defeated. I saw quite a few people react to their enormous piles of meat with trepidation rather than delight. For some reason we also shared some cheesecake. What appeared to be a pound of cheesecake…

With breakfast and lunch seen to in one fell swoop, Debbie wanted to do the shops, while I wanted nothing to do with it. We bought Metrocards to cover our subway use for the rest of the week, and got on the F train South. Debbie got off near Macy's, while I stayed on a couple more stops for 14th street, where a camera shop was awaiting my attention.

I had promised myself a new camera, Debbie had set me a price limit. I made a beeline for Adorama on 17th St., which some Web research had suggested was a good choice.

On the way out of the subway, I was given the great pleasure of seeing a man rising from a squat in an alcove near the exit, leaving behind a steaming fresh turd. How delightful.

Adorama is staffed primarily by "proper" Jews. I say "proper",rather vaguely,  because I'm scared that if I use a word like"Hassidic" I'll turn out to be wrong. What I mean is that you could tell they were Jewish by their scull caps and beards, which counts as local New York colour to me because you don't see that very much at home. The shop was very busy, and I was impressed at how the staff could be helpful while multitasking. The man who served me was always helpful and responsive to my questions, but while I was comparing cameras, he was checking returns from another customer.

I came away with a Canon S80 and sundry accessories, itching to play with it but unable to because the battery wasn't charged. I only spent about 5% over Debbie's limit…

I had several hours to kill before meeting up with Debbie, so I set off on a walk. I headed South down 6th Avenue, switching East when the fancy took me, not really aiming for any sights in particular. Other than general New York ambience, the first real landmark I came across was Washington Square, with its impressive arch, tourists taking photographs (me included), buskers and people just hanging out.

This marked the edge of NYU campus.

From there, I passed through The East Village, Little Italy and Chinatown, and saw the looming old Police Department (now apartments, apparently). In Columbus Square, Chinese men played Chinese Checkers at park tables, surrounded by a huddle of spectators. This park had public toilets, which the man in the subway could have used if he'd only walked a few blocks.

Dehydrated from all this walking, I stopped at "The Hip Cup" coffeeshop for a coffee and some water. I took a seat at the window, got the guidebook out, and worked out where I was. Debbie had sent me a text:"Hello sweetie. How's it going? Done two floors of Macys and bought some pyjamas. Do you think I should buy a red coat? have fun. Love you."

I replied saying that since I'd overspent on the camera, that no, she'd better skip the red coat. Not really. I said that since I'd overspent on the camera she deserved any coat she wanted.

According to the map in the guidebook, I was close to the Brooklyn Bridge, so I decided to cross it. The route to the end of the pedestrian walkway took me past the police precinct, which was handy because I asked about three policemen for directions. In this area there are streets such as "Avenue of the Finest".

The walk across Brooklyn Bridge is best summarised in photographs.

It took about 20 minutes to cross the river, whereupon I took a left turn to end up Down Under Manhattan Bridge Underpass: Dumbo.

The best things about Dumbo were the remnants of age: cobbled streets, tram lines and vaulted warehouse walls. Brooklyn Bridge Park had great views of both Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge.

There was also some interesting graffiti in the area.

With tired legs, I was pleased to have planned ahead: I got on the subway at York St., which took me all the way back to the hotel.

I had been walking for five hours. Debbie was still shopping. I charged my new camera and had a play with it. Debbie turned up two hours later, exhausted, with a red coat among other purchases, having spent her entire seven hours of shopping exhaustively exploring Macy's!

After comparing purchases, we went out for a drink and some food. After some traipsing, we finally chose Shelly's, the steak and seafood restaurant opposite the hotel. We both had steak, which was big, juicy and gorgeous.

Back in the hotel, I fell asleep while Debbie read a chapter of her book.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 10th, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under NYC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.