Walking.
I think I've never walked as much as yesterday. I woke up really early, probably due to the jet lag. I ate the complimentary breakfast at the hostel I'm staying at (a cup of coffee and a bagel), and then I started walking. Starting at 106th st Central Park West, ending up at 26th st Broadway close to Madison Square Park. That's an 80 block walk! In NYC based TV-series you hear people complaining about a four block walk. I guess New Yorkers would think I was Stupid if I told them. Better keep this to my self.
On my way back to the hostel to rest I ended up taking the wrong metro. I was going to take the "A" train on local track (which I figured out only goes at night time), but took "A" train on express track. This means that there are no stops between 59th st and 125th st Lexington ave. That's in the middle of Harlem. I've heard that Harlem is quite safe now a days, but still I was a bit nervous. This being my first day. I don't know the codes here, I don't know how to behave. Both Lexington ave and 125th st is famous and historic. 125th st (also called Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard) is considered the main street of Harlem. Bill Clinton has an office here and is the location where Lou Reed buys heroin on the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man". Apollo theater is also here. There's an old man standing on 125th with a stick, which I luckily didn't meet, who is looking for white victims. When he sees them he starts pointing at old black and white photographies with his stick. The images is of the lynching of Afro-American men. He tries to get the the white man to admit that he's a racist.
I met a desperate looking man, apparently from Toronto. He looked like an older and more worn out version of Gary Oldmans Gordon character in the new Batman movie. He approached me, asking if I was a tourist (is it that obvious?). He started to tell me a long story about how he had planed to move to New York to be with his daughter (a 51 years old art student!), but now he had been robbed and wanted 20 dollar for his ticket home. I told him that I was in no position to help him. To be honest, I believe it was a cock and bull story! And that he was up to no good.
I decided to take the metro closer to home. On my way down to the metro platform a man suddenly put a ticket in my hand. I was confused. He told me that it was a 10 dollar card he didn't need anymore. I did understand at once that this was not the truth. But due to my confusion and a series of unfortunate events I ended up giving the man a 5 dollar bill. I didn't feel that I was in any position to argue with this 50cent look a like. I´m clearly a tourist here!
In the afternoon I went to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to look at a room I might want to rent. Williamsburg is something quite different from Lower Manhattan. It's quiet and cozy (at least the parts I saw) I think I could really enjoy to live there. The room was located only to stops on the L train from lower Manhattan. Anyway, I decided to walk back to Manhattan, crossing the Williamsburg bridge, to get another look at The New York skyline. The new york skyline is familiar. It's something you've seen so many times that you get some kind of relationship to it. It's like the Eiffel tower in Paris. When you see it you feel that you've been there before. This goes for a lot of places here in New York.
I ended the night at a little vine bar (somewhere close to little Italy). It was a nice place, a long bar. Almost everyone including me had brought their laptop, lined up like Chinese factory workers, surfing the internet and chatting away.
Eat! I forgot to eat Yesterday. I only had the breakfast bagel.
I think I've never walked as much as yesterday. I woke up really early, probably due to the jet lag. I ate the complimentary breakfast at the hostel I'm staying at (a cup of coffee and a bagel), and then I started walking. Starting at 106th st Central Park West, ending up at 26th st Broadway close to Madison Square Park. That's an 80 block walk! In NYC based TV-series you hear people complaining about a four block walk. I guess New Yorkers would think I was Stupid if I told them. Better keep this to my self.
On my way back to the hostel to rest I ended up taking the wrong metro. I was going to take the "A" train on local track (which I figured out only goes at night time), but took "A" train on express track. This means that there are no stops between 59th st and 125th st Lexington ave. That's in the middle of Harlem. I've heard that Harlem is quite safe now a days, but still I was a bit nervous. This being my first day. I don't know the codes here, I don't know how to behave. Both Lexington ave and 125th st is famous and historic. 125th st (also called Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard) is considered the main street of Harlem. Bill Clinton has an office here and is the location where Lou Reed buys heroin on the Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man". Apollo theater is also here. There's an old man standing on 125th with a stick, which I luckily didn't meet, who is looking for white victims. When he sees them he starts pointing at old black and white photographies with his stick. The images is of the lynching of Afro-American men. He tries to get the the white man to admit that he's a racist.
I met a desperate looking man, apparently from Toronto. He looked like an older and more worn out version of Gary Oldmans Gordon character in the new Batman movie. He approached me, asking if I was a tourist (is it that obvious?). He started to tell me a long story about how he had planed to move to New York to be with his daughter (a 51 years old art student!), but now he had been robbed and wanted 20 dollar for his ticket home. I told him that I was in no position to help him. To be honest, I believe it was a cock and bull story! And that he was up to no good.
I decided to take the metro closer to home. On my way down to the metro platform a man suddenly put a ticket in my hand. I was confused. He told me that it was a 10 dollar card he didn't need anymore. I did understand at once that this was not the truth. But due to my confusion and a series of unfortunate events I ended up giving the man a 5 dollar bill. I didn't feel that I was in any position to argue with this 50cent look a like. I´m clearly a tourist here!
In the afternoon I went to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to look at a room I might want to rent. Williamsburg is something quite different from Lower Manhattan. It's quiet and cozy (at least the parts I saw) I think I could really enjoy to live there. The room was located only to stops on the L train from lower Manhattan. Anyway, I decided to walk back to Manhattan, crossing the Williamsburg bridge, to get another look at The New York skyline. The new york skyline is familiar. It's something you've seen so many times that you get some kind of relationship to it. It's like the Eiffel tower in Paris. When you see it you feel that you've been there before. This goes for a lot of places here in New York.
I ended the night at a little vine bar (somewhere close to little Italy). It was a nice place, a long bar. Almost everyone including me had brought their laptop, lined up like Chinese factory workers, surfing the internet and chatting away.
Eat! I forgot to eat Yesterday. I only had the breakfast bagel.
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