When New York beckons - US Bound 2

It's a year since I traipsed the cleaner streets of the US.

I've been thinking of that trip awhile. Of how I have no record of it other than my photos - much of it in danger of being lost because:

1) I'm technologically challenged and, hence, bad at storage, and have lost my digital photographs over and over.

2) I have no filing system. I'm still experimenting with ideas.

3) In the end, you only have those memories and you will forget a lot. This I know for sure. I visited Jaipur or Jodhpur, in Rajasthan, India, with a friend eight years ago, and thought the trip was seared forever into my psyche. Now when I look at the pictures and see the black-and-white checked tile floors and the turbaned singer sitting in a corner, I can't remember what the hell the palace was called. Jaswantada, I discovered from another friend's pictures.

Last time I wrote about Washington DC. My busy doctor friend Reena put her practice on hold and we tramped all around Washington DC. That's the best way to see a place - with someone who loves to roam a city, loves its history and who'll tell you about its cracks and cranks.

In New York it was Moncy, and Rose - an ex colleague and now friend. In San Francisco, it was Samina, another childhood friend. I didn't do much in Philadelphia, but my cousin Soy and friend Ramya kept things interesting and sane. 

#Ellis Island #NewYork #StatueofLiberty #NewYorkSubway #PennStation #

                                      ******

Clockwise from top left. A silhouette of the Empire State Building. I'm not sure if it was only on the day we went, but the lift wasn't working and we had to walk up six floors from the 80th floor to the 86th floor observatory. After three flights, I had to take a break. It was embarrassing. No one seemed to be out of breath or affected by the climb. Worse, most seemed older and everyone stared at the gasper on the side.
But it was worth it. I had to shove the heavy door of the open observatory outwards, almost wrestling with it, and met some icy cold winds head on for an extraordinary aerial view of New York. There's more on the 102nd floor, but we didn't go there.
My friend Rose, second from right, with l-r, Judy, Dawn and Beryl at my first-ever Writer's Workshop at Rose's home in Manhattan. Rose has a workshop one Saturday every month and adjusted her schedule to accommodate me. I read out a poem. Tried the bagel, my first and only time in the US, with an assortment of chutneys and toppings, at Rose's home. I liked it. I wish I'd eaten it more.
That sandstone coloured building is the Fashion Institute of Technology. If I looked to the right, I could see the Empire State Building.
In the US, I realised how technologically challenged I was/am. Reena had connected me to hotspot - I only figured out I could use the internet with it when I was almost due to go home. I put it down to learning a lesson - one of many.
I learnt some very important lessons in New York, stuff I should have understood years ago - you shouldn't believe everything people say and there's a message in the way people treat you. Trust your first instincts.
In many ways, the trip was a first for me. I used the train and subway on my own in another country. I walked about on my own, etc, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.
But during my entire stay I missed visiting a post office (mostly the philately bureau) and going for a musical. #EmpireStateBuilding #FashionInstituteNewYork #Bagel #WritersWorkshop (Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise from top left. On the 82nd floor of Empire State Building. Right, the view from the observatory on the 86th floor. You can see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty in the distance. New York is sprawling, so this is just one view of it. Bottom right, some information about the building's construction. Bottom left, a street scene outside the ESB. (Photos: A. Peter)

The Rockerfeller Centre.  The depressed area (bottom right) becomes a skating rink in winter. #RockerfellerCentre #Skatingrink (Photos: A. Peter)

Anticlockwise from top left: at Rockerfeller Centre. The art installation. A building nearby. Some of the buildings here have interesting frontages.
Picture at right is from the Rockerfeller Centre Lego shop. It seems you never outgrow the  child in you at Legoland. It's like El Dorado for kids... and adults. I saw pieces strewn all over the ground and was not sure who needed to be kept in check - kids or parents. Every now and then staff would sweep the pieces away. #RockerfellerCentre #Legoland (Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise from top left. More street scenes in NY. A building frontage - would this be an art deco building?
A vendor selling interesting signs - so colourful.
A grate at the base of a tree, perhaps meant to let rainwater seep in but keep the dirt off the pavement. Other grates were not as pretty.
St Patrick's Cathedral. I went in and stood awhile to catch part of the service.
NBC also has an observatory where you get an aerial view of the city. Much of the interesting bits of information were because of Moncy and Rose. You can tell they love New York and will never tire of it. #Manhattan #StPatrick'sCathedral #NBCObservatory (Photos by A. Peter)

In Manhattan. Street scenes and billboards. #RadioCityNewYork (Photos: A. Peter)

Times Square, New York. Second photo at left is the Hershey's store near Times Square. Sadly I did not catch a musical in New York. However, I did catch a Malayalam movie in Edgewater. Mohanlal, starring Manju Warrier and Siddharth. #TimesSquareNewYork #Hersheys (Photos: A. Peter)

In New York, walking toward the Village. Anticlockwise from bottom left. Washington Square, scene from the Long Island train on my way back, Chelsea. After I returned home, Google Maps kindly informed me that I had been walking through Chelsea. Here I thought I was walking about Greenwich Village with Rose. The Village is her old haunt. She lived there many years, then moved to the suburbs, and then by an incredible stroke of luck got an apartment nearly next door to Penn Station. The streets confused me. West/East/Upper 3rd etc. I blanked out every time someone said I had to go to this number street or that. I just asked my way around. #WashingtonSquare #Manhattan #Chelsea (Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise from top: George Washington at Washington Square. Caught the fag end of the cherry blossom season. New York University is here. #GeorgeWashingtonSquare #NewYorkUniversity #CentralPark #CherryBlossomTree (Photos: A Peter)

Caffe Reggio, an Italian restaurant. That was Rose's meal. The waitress suggested I have the Sicilian Canolli - bottom right. Not too sweet, very nice. All the waiters are on minimum wage - across America. Please give them good tips.
I met Rose that day at the entrance of Penn Station, ostensibly to do the rounds of the museums and the Natural History Museum. You see, I forgot to carry my presents for Rose the first day I was at her place. Moncy took me there and showed me how to return home. It felt like travelling in Mumbai, minus the extreme crush.
Rose dropped me, via subway, to the Natural History Museum. It has a subway entrance right next to it. It was an effort swiping my subway card and I had to swipe it several times, until, of course, I figured how to do it right. Big smile.
Had a felafel called a gyro and found out the food truck vendors were from Egypt. They first used the Arab word Masr, which I understood. But I found it terribly uncomfortable to eat out on the roadside on my own. So I packed the gyro and took it home. By the way, I don't recommend a soggy gyro - eat it fresh. #Caffe Reggio #SicilianCanolli #NaturalHistoryMuseum (Photos: A Peter)

Around Greenwich Village. Saw Mick Jagger's old home. I won't know where it is if ever I go back to visit. But Rose knows. (Photos: A. Peter)

Scenes in New York - Manhattan, Chelsea and Greenwich Village. Lower right, a tiny police car. A postman on his rounds. (Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise from top right. At Times Square. Through the Museum of Modern Art's (MOMA) windows.
William Jackson, an African artist. I liked him and I can't afford to buy him.
A fruit vendor in Manhattan.
Picasso at MOMA. You could see how Picasso's art evolved at all the museums.
View from a MOMA window.
At almost the end of the NY leg of the trip, I realised the Met Museum and MOMA were two different museums and dashed off to visit the Guggenheim and the Metroplitan museums. You need a whole day at the Met. It is massive and your day would be well spent. Both museums are on a road called the Museum Mile.
Central Park is very near here. Had to take frequent breaks at the museums, sitting every now and then. My feet hurt like crazy through the trip because of all the walking - and it seemed the best time to try free WiFi. (Photos: A. Peter)

One day I walked all about Manhattan. The more I walked the fewer restaurants there seemed to be. Finally, after consulting with a native 'Noo Yokker' - who assured me there were very few restaurants in the direction I was heading - I walked into Burger Heaven. In the late afternoon I opted for the breakfast of bacon and eggs because the burgers I saw were enormous. Burger Heaven is known for its burgers. My bad. The breakfast was enormous too. The only burger I ate during my trip was the one Soy made for me, a beef burger. It was excellent. Don't make my mistake. Go out into Noo Yokk and stuff your faces with burgers!
I spent time at Central Park, eavesdropping on two old ladies politely bitching about others. Watched some Italian tourists trying to cycle around the Park. I discovered a small children's zoo.  (Photos: A. Peter)

Grand Central Station, from outside and inside. I met a Gujarati who lived in Malad, Mumbai, as a child. He was very keen to know where I was from. I was buying nuts from his shop with the intention of asking for detailed directions to the Grand Central Station. I had got into the wrong entrance. (Photos: A. Peter)

The Guggenheim,  top left. Dog walker and mates in front of the Guggenheim. It would be called an architect's delight. Now I can recognise it in the movies. Flowers outside the G. The Metropolitan Museum on the Museum Mile. A sweet European woman smiled at me when I asked for directions. She pointed it out to me - several blocks ahead. And followed me, to make sure I reached the place. What a darling.
I had another such experience the next day or so, looking for the subway. The subway proved elusive, even with directions. Finally a city worker, took me to a corner and pointed it out to me. My experience as a tourist has been good. For sure, everyone and no one is a true blue New Yorker! (Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise from top left. John Ericsson Memorial. This road leads to Battery Park, where the queues are unimaginably long and you have airport-style security checks to get to the ferries that take you to perhaps the most famous of America's monuments.
We are on our way to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. Finally we get onto a ferry and admire the Manhattan skyline we leave behind us in a tail of froth and sea water. It is recommended one also visits Ellis Island, where most immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s landed and entered the country. I met an Indian scientist in the train, a friend of Moncy's, who recommended visiting it. Coincidentally, we lived in the same housing society in Thane many years ago, but I was meeting her for the first time. (Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise fom top left. The Statue of Liberty. You do feel a sense of awe the whole time you approach the island and can see her and when you actually meet her.
The American flag.
The pier or jetty leading to our boats. All along the sides you find coins. People throw them into the water. Many coins don't make it to the sea and lie in the sides or grooves of the pier. (Photos: A. Peter)

There's a small museum where the Statue of Liberty's feet are. The ranger who ferried us up in the lift said that there was a four-month waiting period to go up to the crown. These are original moulds and drawings used to build the Statue. (Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise from top right. The memorabilia, art work and pieces collected and displayed are interesting. Have a good look. Some of it is funny. Some not.
Second photo from top right - the ferries are at Ellis Island.
The Giovanni De Verrazzano statue at Battery Park, near our disembarkation point.
Bottom left. A coast guard boat followed us for a while. Then it moved on to something else.
(Photos: A. Peter)

Clockwise from top left. Inside the Ground Zero Museum. Impressive interior. There's a subway connected to the museum too. Apparently there was one before the attacks on the Twin Towers (9/11), and the station was rebuilt.
Bottom right, the memorial outside. A white rose tucked into one of the names.
Some of the damaged structures and a burnt fire engine at the museum. Very sombre viewing. Very sad to see it all.
(Photos: A. Peter)