NYC vol. 2

We'll start shooting ourselves in the foot. It's not easy to write a travel blog with a four-month-delay. Especially about a place like New York, which attacks all your senses and quickly makes you defenseless against its powers. Meanwhile as time goes by the impressions fade away, details get forgotten, everyday life overshadows dilemmas like: is it better to walk to Little Italy or is it better to take a subway... Are you discouraged from reading yet? No? So scroll down and see the length of the entry about those six days in NYC.

Downtown

With New York downtown there is a bit of definition problem. They say only people in Bronx don't have it, because when they go south, they go downtown and when they go back they go uptown. But we're not from Bronx but from Staten Island (quick affiliation as you can see). Officially downtown ends on 14th Street, although some say it goes all the way to 23rd. For us word downtown opens a drawer in our memory with Staten Island ferry terminal area, Wall Street and 9/11 Memorial.

9/11 Memorial

WTC victims memorial (from both 1993 and 2001) made a huge impression on us. Straight, regular, black, bottomless pools collapsing down into Earth are very moving. For us it was really strong, graphic symbol of history of this place and people who were here that day. Names of those who died on panels on the edgings of pools humanize that place. Without them it would be just empty void that pulls you in. Usually waterfalls are symbol of life, here water falling down the walls doesn't add life. Just the opposite, like gravity of black hole that sucks in the light, it does the same, sucks into the emptiness. 

9/11 Memorial

Contrast of tall towers that used to stand here and bottomless emptiness is very photogenic too. Maybe talking about the beauty of that place is not very appropriate, but it just is beautiful, even though it commemorates tragedy. Beauty is in those straight lines and symmetry. Simple towers are now reflected by just as simple structure. Dehumanization is not a defect here. For us this lack of human factor shows the best the emptiness caused by sudden death of almost 4 thousand people.

Entrance to memorial place is free. In the beginning of year 2 USD service fee was introduced for on-line reservation of free pass. Some victims' families were disgusted that someone wants to make money on their tragedy. Foundation that is in charge of 9/11 Memorial and museum refuted those allegations saying they need money for current activities. But entrance is still free. All you have to do is stand in line to get a pass. There is suggested donation (10 USD per person), but it's not obligatory. Entrance is usually a couple hours later, in a chosen time interval.

We stood in line for 10 minutes, although as we read on weekends and on high season it might be up to a few hours. Standing in line you can look at pictures, read some on-site personal accounts and see a cartoon based on memories of a father of two sons - fireman and policeman who both died on September 11. Ola, who went with Maciek to get the passes, in the beginning was trying to answer all his questions: "what are those buildings", "why is there a fire", and so on, but quickly decided to change the subject. After a few days we found out that Maciek remembered much more than we'd like him too anyway...

9/11 Memorial

We didn't like the new WTC buildings, for us the architecture was mediocre. Only one of smaller buildings drew our attention. Two of its walls descend at an acute angle and are made in a way that it looks as if it was flat. Knowing the history of the area looking at it (from different angles) is a bit unnerving. Well, good architecture is suppose to impact the surroundings, isn't it? Meanwhile the main building of the complex for us looked like nothing special for us. Another boring glass tower. It seems that we are not alone in this as in Banksy's opinion WTC One looks like "something they would build in Canada" (so even Brits now make fun of Canada?). Its height is symbolic - it's 1776 feet tall, to commemorate the year Declaration of Independence was signed, but still it doesn't help its looks.

WTC

Short walk from WTC is Wall Street. Doesn't look like a praise of capitalism. Police cars, concrete barriers and nice architecture covered by huge American flag. Few tourists here and there taking pictures, but overall it looks like old town in Beirut. Artificial and heavily protected. There we had a feeling that this old town guarded by police and army was an artificial town for tourists, here we felt that maybe, what alterglobalists say that in modern capitalism money got detached from people and it's capital that is in charge, is not entirely untrue. Destroyed WTC and New York Stock Exchange behind concrete barriers are the most unnerving snapshots of civilization in New York.

Wall Street

Ethnicity of Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan explodes with ethnic diversity, especially in Staten Island ferry terminal area. This part of Lower Manhattan is fascinating. Business people in hurry, eating hot-dogs or some halal stuff from street stands, regular people hurrying to the ferry and tourists slowly strolling around. Those who want more should head further north.

China Town

Going uptown through Little Italy we got to China Town. Little Italy is really Little. Our friend who's been to Italy lately wrote that it's probably "the country with the worst kitchen and yet with the best PR". And there is some truth in it. Little Italy is just a few streets with a main one full of restaurants. Lunch menu prices start at 10 USD (pizza or pasta mostly). We got pizza and pasta for 10 USD. It wasn't the best Italian meal we've ever had.

Little Italy

We didn't eat (this time) in China Town. We had some spring rolls and dumplings for a dollar on the way, and it they were really tasty. We ate in China Town in San Francisco, and it was really cheap but we didn't enjoy it too much. But we have to say Chinese districts in States are our favorite ethnic neighborhoods. Cheap food, lots of strange little shops, and most of all it's obvious there that it's not for tourists, they are just visitors and nothing is done especially for them. Unlike Little Italy which clearly became tourist attraction exposing only its gastronomy (what else there is...), China Town is a real town with real people and character.

Little Italy

In downtown we also walked through charming streets of Soho and Greenwich Village, we took a picture of building known from "Friends" (corner of Grove and Bedford), we strolled through Meatpacking District, which reminded us a bit of Warsaw districts of Powisle and Praga and we went for a walk on The High Line.

In San Antonio to get away from town we had to go down to find ourselves in a different world, by the river. New York for a change always looks up. That's why one of the best places to escape from noisy streets is The High Line. It's a mile-long park (there will be more) created on historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. This way for decades trains would bring supplies to town going straight into the buildings. Back in its days there was no Manhattan without it, but after second World War car transportation took over and in 1960s line started gradually being demolished. The last train went through in 1980.

The High Line

Almost 20 years later the idea came of creating a park on elevated tracks, it's first part was opened in 2009. Park changed the area, which makes some people happy, as it shows how public space can be recycled into something great, while other people are not that happy as the rents in the area went up.

Meatpacking District

High Line was a nice rest from street noise and it wasn't even spoiled by a cigarette butt that fell down from heaven on sleeping Kalina. Glass balustrades and amphitheaters showing long streets make the place even more surreal. You can sit down on the grass or on large, comfortable benches and look down at busy streets.  In such places futuristic ideas like covering up Bankowy square in Warsaw with garden are not so unreal any more. Another interesting fact is that maybe it's because narrow and long shape of park, or maybe due to general improvement of safety in NYC, The High Line is practically crime-free...

The High Line

We couldn't skip Flatiron building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Broadway. Completed in 1902 it was back than one of the tallest buildings in NYC. Now it's a symbol of city, but in the beginning it caused mixed feelings and was called weird. Probably the fact that guy who design it was from Chicago and was representing style from there didn't help either. Like a transplant it took time for Flatiron to get accepted.

Flatiron

Midtown

Further north, far enough that it wasn't walking distance any more and we had to go down to stroller unfriendly subway, is Times Square. We've seen it so many times as it's a constant part of American pop culture that surrounds us anywhere we go, but it was still a surprise, at least for Pawel who was here for the first time, that it's just as much of a square as Bankowy square in Warsaw. Maybe if you closed down the streets and let in people it would kinda look like square, but it's really just a place with wider streeets.

Times Square

It's a bit similar to Picadilly Circus in London, just as full of commercials of iconic brands, but in London commercials are hang on classical, historical buildings and in NYC they are stretched on ...reinforced frames. But still Times Square makes quite a big impression, especially after dark it looks amazing.

From Brooklyn through East River

We wanted to go to Brooklyn to see Jewish quarter and Dumbo, which is the part by the river, between two bridges. But as we were so busy walking here and there we didn't even check where are the Jews of Brooklyn. We jumped on subway at Manhattan, crossed the river, and we somehow thought we'd get out of subway, walk through Hasidic streets and then we'd go to Dumbo.

Dumbo

When we got there we realized that Dumbo and Jewish Borough (Boro) Park is some 5 miles apart, so pretty much as far as it is from Staten Island ferry terminal to Central Park. It would take us half a day to walk there with kids and we didn't really feel like going back down to subway. Besides we've seen many New York Jews in Jerusalem. So we went to Dumbo instead.

Dumbo

Dumbo is a typical example of deindustrialization of riverside area of town. Probably there are (or were) similar districts in London. Probably some dreamers in Warsaw think now of Powisle but in NYC you can see a grown up version of capitalism. Here, nobody leaves it to real estate developers so they destroy old buildings and put instead as much fences and concrete walls as they like.

Brooklyn

Dumbo attracted us with great parks, playgrounds, warehouses that were given second life and great skyline views. View indeed was amazing. Playground was cool too. We didn't get to park though as we got stuck at playground for over two hours. We didn't have time and energy for more.

Maciek in Dumbo

For some people Dumbo can be a bit disappointing.  It's not easy to get there from Brooklyn, as it's cut off by tangled overpasses and bridges exits.  One can tell that in the past pedestrian transport from Brooklyn wasn't a priority here. But we liked it, mostly because it's an example of natural deindustrialisation. In Poland another mall would be created in demolished and then recreated buliding with cheap pavements and "historical" elements and we would here it's the best we could get. Maybe even some really expensive apartments would be created in one or two old factories and then their rich owners would close pubs and clubs nearby as they produce "inbearable noise" (as it really happened in Warsaw).

Maciek in a hipster coffee place in Dumbo

Dumbo is coming back to life from down up. Some warehouses were taken over by young and ready-to-be-stars companies from different industries (25% of New York IT companies are there), there are coffee places with their own roasting rooms, where guests are welcomed but not really crucial. Dumbo is like an old but well maintained garden. Defenietly not like a historic place, where a landscape architect was invited and given a huge budget.

Brooklyn Bridge

We went back to Manhattan walking through Brooklyn Bridge. Over a mile long walk on one of the oldest suspension bridges in the world. For some probably just a walk, annoying one too as the path gets narrow, there are crowds of people, bikers, construction with large sheets covering the views. But we love American bridges and we didn't regret any minute out of almost an hour spent on this one. Amazing views, steel, tangle of wires and cables... it's a must-see!

Upper West Side and Central Park

We have to admit that north from 72nd street New York is still carte blanche for us. We planned to move further and further uptown, but we ended up somewhere in 1/4th of Central Park. We had to leave North Manhattan for later and now we get tempted pretty often to jump on the plane and finish its exploration, especially that we get lots of pretty good flight offers to NYC from Warsaw for 500-600 USD...

Central Park

We got lost in Central Park for hours. It's one of the most visited public park in the world. It's 778 acres of green, lakes, meadows, fields for different games, squares for dancing, icerinks, concert venues, and so on, and so on. It's absolutely amazing place and with all due respect to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, this one is a phenomenon hard to compare with anything else.

Of course those few hours we spent there, climbing rocks, watching turtles and walking around was way not enough. And after those few hours we had a huge problem getting Maciek out of there. He wanted to go everywhere, see everything and climb every rock on our way.

Central Park

And partly because of Central Park in our private contest for the best place to live in NYC the winner is (for now at least) Upper West Side. We went there for two reasons. First of all Ola wanted to go to a few vintage-second hand clothes shops, and second (more important) of all we wanted to go to Natural History Museum. Museum should have its own blog entry, but our visit there was a complete disaster.

Muzeum Historii Naturalnej

We started our day too late, we hoped we'd get there in an hour and hoped we'd have 4 hours inside. Meanwhile after even a later than usually start we got further delay on the subway - we didn't check that some trains that go along western border of Central Park and pass the museum are express lines. So we passed by the museum speeding towards Bronx.

When we finally got back, we realized we can't go from subway level to the museum (although you can leave the museum that way). To find the entrance (that would be stroller friendly too) took us a while. After all when we finally there it was already after 3 pm. It gave us an hour and a half inside... What can you see in such a short time? You can run by the animals, rush to the dinosaurs, passing by the guards who already start pushing people out see couple more things and...that's it. We'll be back for longer. Like for 2 weeks or so.

Museum of Natural History

Maciek was a bit disappointed. We made it up to ourselves with a walk through Upper West Side. It's a place with probably all advantages of NYC in a perfect scale. You can feel the dynamism of the city but it's not overwhelming like in Lower Manhattan, it's a short walk to the park and a museum, transportation-wise it's just as good as any other part of town. Pretty houses by avenues with trees are not crowded, there are good restaurants, lots of shops... Some day...

Old friends and farewell...

Some time half way through our stay in NYC we took a Sunday break and we went to Long Island to an old friend we haven't seen in years, since we graduated sociology on Warsaw University. Anita lives some 50 miles from Manhattan. Unfortunately it's not so easy to get there from Staten Island by public transportation, so we took a car. It costed us lots of nerves (Sunday traffic) and 15 USD toll for crossing the bridge. Bridge tolls in NYC were really shocking for us.

With Anita and Robert

Long Island is a great place to live though - beautiful beaches, different pace of life. Well, the pace is slower because it's really hard to get to New York. Even late at night streets were crowded and we got stuck in traffic. Additionally we felt like in Warsaw area - 2 or 3-lane express ways, road works, not very clear signs. Long Island looks more Polish than American when it comes to roads. At least that's the impression we got after this one trip. But even Helen, our host, said Long Island is a great place to live unless you have to commute to New York City.

Grove and Bedford

Anita and Robert don't have to, they work near their house and they don't go to Manhattan too often. We spent a very nice afternoon with them trying to ruin their plan to make us drunk with Polish beer so we'd stay overnight. Robert might have felt alienated a little when we started talking about old times like "...and remember when when we were here and there, doing some research...".

West Village

Saying goodbye to Anita and Robert was just as difficult as saying goodbye to New York City. It's a city we'll miss a lot. We thought, that after long weeks far from civilization we wouldn't get so attracted to any city, we wouldn't get used to noise, smell, rude people. But to our (nice) surprise New Yorkers change our fears that this industrial/financial East is rushing forward not caring about individual people. And nne time when we were walking in the rain and suddenly Pawel, who was carrying Maciek on his shoulders, realized that someone is carrying an umbrella over their heads... A simple nice gesture that made us smile for the rest of the day.

New York - city to fall in love with

In New York we spent six hot days at the end of June/beginning of July. Six days is not enough for that city. Maybe 66 or 666 days would do, although we're not so sure. It's a place that can be overwhelming and tiring in the beginning but afterwards it makes you fall in love with it and doesn't want to let you go.

We stayed those six days at Helen's at Staten Island. Helen loves New York and she enjoys living in Staten Island but still she became a snowbird. Like a few million of residents of "North" when it gets colder she packs her suitcases and heads to Florida. Tempting idea for when we get older. If we do that some day, maybe we'll buy Toyota Prius too, because as Michael - Helen's partner - told us, with this car you can drive all the way to Florida stopping just once at gas station and spending only for 65 USD. We are afraid to calculate how much we paid going with Eddie south from Chicago to Florida...

Our place at Staten Island

Another great thing about New York is that once we got there with our jeep, we could forget about it for few days. We finally started using public transportation. We didn't make it in San Francisco, we didn't in Seattle, we finally did in New York. Maybe Staten Island is not Manhattan or Brooklyn, it doesn't have its own subway, there is only a train along its east coast, but within walking distance from Helen's home, just passed the zoo (almost like at home) we had a bus to free ferry. 20 minutes by bus, 25 minutes by free ferry and we're in Manhattan.

At the ferry, on our way to Manhattan

Staten Island is not the best address in New York. Our friend from New York said we should take a free ferry to Staten Island as there is a great view to Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Manhattan skyline and said the only drawback is that ... it goes to Staten Island. Helen noticed that we'd be a curiosity on the bus, being probably the only "white faces". In fact we were, and even if sometimes there were some other ones they were usually of some immigrants from our part of the world.

View from the ferry

But we liked Staten Island. Of course, we'd love to live one day on Upper West Side or somewhere else in Manhattan but from Staten Island to the heart of New York the distance is pretty much the same as from Brodno, part of Warsaw we spent most of our lives at, to Warsaw downtown. Of course in American cities ethnic diversity usually means higher crime rate and lower standards, but Staten Island is far from suburbs of  Detroit or S Halsted and W 77th in Chicago. New York has been a safe place to live for years now. And we wouldn't mind living here, even on Staten Island.

Before we tell you what we've seen in New York, few words about some more practical aspects. Being in this huge city with kids you have to realize it's not always going to be easy. At Helen's kids let us sleep late (mostly because they were exhausted), so we had late starts. We'd get up around 9, breakfast, making bottles for Kalina and making sure we have enough diapers etc., preparing some snacks for Maciek, and by 11-12 we were ready to go. Our bus to the ferry usually was quite empty at this time of the day so we could sit on a bus and we didn't have to fold a stroller. 

Ferry leaves every 15 minutes during rush hours and every half an hour at other times. Usually there are not too many people. It gets crowded by the entrance but it's mostly because there are lots of tourists who want to get the best place to see Statue of Liberty. For a seat with no view you don't have to push your way through.

Central Park

One of the first times we took the ferry, Ola said she didn't feel secure with so many people around. To make the feeling worse/better there was a lot of police both at the terminal and on the ferry. But it wasn't Polish police - young, inexperienced, sometimes offensive guys, it was Italian police, nice, corpulent guys smiling to our kids and friendly responding to any question. They looked like straight from the movies,  like an ideal type of Italian policeman from New York. It was a pleasure to look at them.

Empire State Building

When we would finally get to lower Manhattan it was usually around 1 pm. As we wrote before we focused more on heartbeat of the city, rather than on must-see places, so we just walked and walked and walked. We tried not to forget about eating (we did it many times in past). But we won't write too much about our culinary adventures, as they weren't so good. Tom, our New Yorker friend recommended us a few places we should eat at but somehow we ended up not going to any of them.

At least we can share some of his suggestions with you. At Bleecker and 6th street is Joe's Pizza, one of the best slice in New York, therefore pretty close to the best in the world. Hot dogs? Greys Papaya, locations at 6th avenue between 8th and 9th Street and 72nd and Amsterdam.

Times Square

Usually after 6-7 hours of strolling around we would realize it's getting late and we have a long way to go. On the first day we made it to 8 pm ferry, second day it was 8.30, one day we made it as late as 9 or 9.30, which meant we had to wake up Helen just before 11 pm to let us in. After a week of New York walking we felt almost like zombies. Happy zombies but not fully satisfied.

We hadn't seen a few places we really wanted to see. And it's all hurricane Sandy's fault. We didn't go to Statue of Liberty as it was still being fixed, they opened it on 4th of July, just after we left. Ellis Island will probably be reopened next year. Enterprise shuttle was reopened on 10th of July, the day we left USA. We really wanted to visit some museums but we got only to one and only for a few hours - Museum of Natural History. We will come here some day for museums only, for like 2 weeks straight, maybe when kids will appreciate them more. 

Statua Wolności

To be honest in all our walking we just made it to upper sides. We've seen lower Manhattan, a bit of Brooklyn, Upper West Side, plus we went to Long Island, so we still have a lot to see. Besides trip to Long Isladn, where we took our jeep (spending 15 USD for bridge toll and getting stuck in Sunday traffic) we walked and used public transportation only. We bought a weekly pass (30 USD) which paid off. Single fare is 2,5 USD, and that includes one change, but we used subway a few times a day sometimes, just to go a station or two.

New York subway

One more thing about subway, for those who travel with a stroller. New York subway, as most of all old metro systems (like London for example) is not very stroller-friendly. Elevators are not popular and usually they don't go all the way to the street level, stairs are narrow and one person carrying stroller blocks those who go the opposite direction. When you enter a station you should tell the person in charge there that you're getting in with a child, swipe your card and then a person in charge unlocks the gate. Practically we decided to do it on our own quickly (after all how long can you wait for a group of Japanese tourists to buy their tickets, ask about route, etc) and one of us would go a regular way and the other would open a gate from the inside. This would set the alarm off but parents don't care.

Maybe it's a good way to scare off people with kids so they don't go by subway. We haven't seen too many people with kids (comparing to Warsaw) in public transportation. But after we got to Manhattan ad we could walk 2-3 stations or take a subway we'd usually take a walk. Carrying a stroller, getting through crowds, setting off the alarm, it was all not worth such a short trip.

On the bus on Staten Island we didn't have to fold a stroller. Only one time, when we were getting back, it was really late and pretty crowded, driver told us to fold the stroller which meant picking up half-asleep Kalina, holding half-crying Maciek, unpacking the stroller to fold it, making sure the things we unpacked don't get lost... That didn't make us happy after 10-hour-walk...

Did you watch "Friends"?

For culinary adventures we simply didn't have enough time, too bad, we hope we'll make it up some day. This time once we were getting rally hungry we'd stop just anywhere to eat. Once we stopped at a deli buffet which ended up being one of the most expensive meals we had in States. The cheapest option was food carts, we got tempted by some snacks for a dollar in China Town and they were pretty good. We also ate in not very good restaurant in Little Italy and in a place owned by Greek, where menu was as thick as "War and Peace" as we read in a review hanging on the wall, cut out from paper 20 years ago.  

Our most interesting culinary adventure was Shake Shack in Madison Park, just by Fifth Avenue with Flatiron view, which in our opinion is the most beautiful building in New York. It's a burger place with people lining for a hundred meters or more. There are two windows, the second one is for ordering beverages, so you can stand in burger line drinking beer.

Flatiron Building

Shake Shack is not cheap, burgers start at 5 USD (on the other hand it's just as much as we lately paid in Warsaw), beer unfortunately is much more expensive than in Warsaw. Shake Shack is in Madison Park since 2004 and it became one of the symbols of New York. On one of episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" Lily says she can't go to Italy as they just opened new Shake Shack around the corner. And we don't think it was product placement.

Line to Shake Shack

Ok, so this was a short introduction and in next post we'll finally write what we saw in New York.