NYC | Places
New York is filled with eateries, shops, historical places, and art. I doubt it could all be seen and felt even if you had a life time to do so. While four days is barely enough time to see New York, I think we did a pretty good job at gobbling up as much of the city as we could.
Our red-eye flight put us on the curb of our hotel in Time Square at 6 am on Sunday morning. My greeting to the city that never sleeps was a street with blinding billboards and quiet, no people walking quickly or taxis honking. It was eerily empty. So, we rallied, went down to Manhattan, and got breakfast before knocking out a number of tourist locations. Zucker's Bagels was a tiny shop with subway tiled walls and bagel sandwiches. A man in spandex shorts and a t-shirt came in from the 35-degree weather and asked us if we wanted some suggestions of what to do. He made us a walking path from bagels to the 9/11 memorial, Trinity Church, and Wall Street.
John’s Pizzeria of Time Square was darling. Housed in an old church in the middle of the theater district, the high-ceilinged room was buzzing with people. Pizzas came out of big ovens in opposite corners of the room. Wreaths were hung from the balcony, and brick walls framed a huge wall mural of NYC. Part of the joy of this New York trip was it being the week before Christmas, so decorations and Christmas cheer were in full swing. Everywhere there was red décor, wreaths, and bows. Even the carriages in Central Park were decked out.
We did a few tours, one of which was the UN. The street lined with flags dancing in the windy late afternoon of all member countries was like a tapestry of diversity. Ironically, the Uganda House is next to the US Permanent Mission office and I was equally surprised and thrilled to see that red, yellow, and black flag welcoming us as we passed the guard outside of State and crossed the street to international territory. The UN lobby in itself is a treasure-trove. I found the Nelson Mandela prize presented every five years for outstanding service to humanity, there was a photography exhibit of girls around the world (#empowerment), and other tokens of history.
A tour of Carnegie Hall and another of Rockefeller center provided history of New York as a city, as a place of art and music, and culture. I highly recommend the Rockefeller tour. As someone studying international relations and communications, the stories of how these few buildings and few blocks shaped journalism and broadcasting was fascinating. Not to mention Mr. Rockefeller’s wife was quite the individualist and had some great art commissioned all around Rockefeller center despite her husband’s hesitations. My favorite was a mosaic depicting poverty and fear swallowed up by the pursuit of knowledge and thought. The view of St. Patrick’s cathedral next to Atlas holding the world was almost too much dazzling art for my eyes to take in.
We ate street food from the Halal Guys and watched taxis honk at each other for no apparent reason. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, to Washington Square Park, and all throughout Greenwich Village. There was a cheese shop, a little bookstore, and a cash-only restaurant with five tables jammed in so close, but one of my favorite meals. After mapping out places we wanted to see, many fun stops were simply found walking between the ones we had pinpointed. I love cities you can actually survive in completely by walking
I think traveling to New York can be very intimidating. Will you be tourist or hipster and chart your own random path? I could spend a whole trip going through art galleries and museums, another trip to coffee shops, and another just sitting and sketching buildings. The best way to travel New York is whatever way you want to. You will never reach all the restaurants, bakeries, and shops you want or people tell you to go to. Walk to places, stop at the things that catch your eye, and don’t try and eat healthy, there are too many good cookies.
Other noteworthy places:
Bryant Park Christmas market
Cookie Do
Cha Cha
Central Park
Maison Kayser for the white chocolate macadamian nut cookies
