And we're walking

[mandragora]

I managed to sleep in until a reasonable hour. Well, I thought 6am was a reasonable hour bearing in mind that my body clock was telling me it was 11am! So, I got up and attacked starmei's computer for a few hours until she got up. She had to work that day, so I was left to amuse myself.

I wandered to the nearest subway station, which was ridiculously close, glancing across at the enviously close Central Park as I did so and bought a week's travelpass for $21, which gives unlimited travel on the whole of the subway and buses. Compared to the cost of a week-long travelcard in London it was very definitely a bargain.

The subway system was much as I remember it. But cleaner. Much cleaner. And it no longer exudes that faint air of menace. I felt quite comfortable waiting for a train, even in the subterranean gloom of the station. NYC does not score well on bright and well-decorated subway stations but it gets top marks for air-conditioned subway cars. New Yorkers I met looked at me in horror when I explained that the tube in London doesn't have air-conditioning. At all. When it's hot we're simply advised not to ride the tube if we feel unwell and to carry a bottle of water with us at all times. Well, water is useful to rehydrate you when you're in a sauna...

Because I've done all the obvious tourist sights in NYC in the past this time I opted not to plan out my day too much, but decided to go where the impulse took me. However, I had decided to go to the World Trade Center site first, in order to pay my respects. I had been in two minds whether to go there or not. Was I being unduly ghoulish, one of those awful people who go to the scene of a tragedy to gawp? And yet, it is a human impulse to remember, and mourn. A good impulse, I think. We need to remember the dead in order to honour them.

So, I set off downtown, got as close as I could and walked quickly to the site. I stood there for a while, accompanied by the crash and whine of the building work that was proceeding apace. I felt no impulse to take a photograph of the still-deep hole in the ground. Even now, even after having stood there I still cannot quite believe the the towers are not there anymore. This is by no means the first place I have been to that was devastated by terrorism. I vividly remember the look of Bishopsgate in the City (of London) when it was blown up by the IRA. But that was not like this. Nothing in my lifetime has been like this.

It was a very sobering moment but I was heartened by the constant sound of the contruction. We shall rebuild.

From there, I decided to cut across a bit to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I am ashamed to admit that I was fueled by a quest for Really Good Chocolate (which is in general sadly lacking in the US). My Lonely Planet guidebook said that there was a truly superb chocolate shop, called Jacques Torres Chocolate in that part of Brooklyn that rejoices in the acronym of Dumbo. Yes, really. (Oh, okay, it stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). One reason for walking across the bridge was that it was pretty hot and sticky weatherwise that day and I figured it'd be cooler on the bridge. Guess what, it was! Plus, I wanted another chance to marvel at the beauty that is the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a lot more crowded than the last time I crossed it, but I enjoyed the walk nonetheless.

Dumbo is a charming conglomerate of artistic shops and boutiques. It also rejoices in fabulous views back to Manhattan, especially from Empire Fulton Ferry State Park. I spent a happy half hour or so wandering around taking some photos and munching on the really rather good (if horrendously expensive) chocolate I had purchased. I was a bit perturbed at the number of Philipino nannies pushing along clearly privileged Anglo-Saxon children, though.

But eventually I decided it was time to go back to Manhattan and up over the Bridge. I had a vague idea of going to Chinatown, because I didn't think I'd been there before. But before I got there I really needed to find a loo. NYC is not, it must be said, overly blessed by public conveniences. But I happened to be walking past the New York County Courthouse and, well, they were bound to have some toilets there. They did.

The County Courthouse was reminiscent of the Old Bailey in London, right down to the painted ceiling. I couldn't help grinning at the resemblance. I decided to go and check-out one of the courtrooms, as I was there but didn't want to disturb counsel who was in full flow, so went to an empty adjacent courtroom. Well, empty except for the clerk...

Once we'd established that I was a British lawyer we got on like a house on fire. He's an Anglophile you see. *g* He took me into the judge's robing room, to show me the etchings of The Temple (one of the Inns of Court in London) that hung on the wall there and then to the jury room. I figured it was probably the only chance I'd get to be in a jury room (I'm 'disqualified' from jury service in Britain, you see) so was curious. It was not what you'd call glamorous... But interesting to me. The clerk lamented that I'd just missed the judge as apparently she enjoyed chatting with foreign lawyers and would have liked to have met me. I did end up chatting to an attorney who needed to make some sort of urgent application to the clerk, though, about the difference between British and US property rights. What? It was interesting to me, honest!

Then it was off again to Chinatown. As soon as I got there and witnessed street after street of incredibly tacky jewellery shops I realised that of course I'd been there before. I'd just blocked it from my memory... I cut through Little Italy, as well, but it is so engulfed by Chinatown it's a case of blink and you miss it.

By this time it was early evening, but I still had plenty of time before I needed to be back at starmei's place to go out to dinner. So, I decided to go to Forbidden Planet, on Broadway. Now, I had intended to get the subway but there wasn't really a convenient stop nearby, so I shrugged and carried on walking. And walking. I don't know how far I walked that day but it was a fair few miles, I think. It's just as well I'm used to walking. A lot.

By the time I finally got to Forbidden Planet I was salivating with excitement. I mean, it had to be at least as good as the vast London shop, right? Wrong. The NYC Forbidden Planet was my only disappointing moment in the whole trip. To put it bluntly, it's crap. Very small and it had far fewer SF books than your average Borders or Barnes & Noble in NYC. My advice to anyone who visits NYC is don't bother going to Forbidden Planet. It's really not worth the trip.

After that (minor) disappointment, although I had walked a rather long way to get there, which was a bit disappointing, it was really time to go back to the apartment. Unfortunately, there wasn't a nearby subway station, so I had to walk quite far across town to pick up one of the correct subway lines. London is rather short of crosstown tubelines, but it does have the Central Line, which takes you across central London. At this point I really wished that midtown Manhattan had something similar. Eventually, I came to a convenient station, braved the rush hour and staggered from the subway to starmei's where I gratefully kicked off my shoes. I'd been on my feet for most of the day. The only times I'd sat down had been when riding the subway. Oh, and sitting in the park eating choccies. *g* I hadn't stopped for lunch as I hadn't been hungry.

After a shortish rest we were off again for dinner. Starmei is fortunate enough to live in a neighbourhood that is blessed with many a good restaurant. We decided to go Peruvian, to an excellent restaurant called Sipan. The food was superb, and the service was pretty good, too. Not to mention the cocktails... And the lovely waiter. I also discovered that starmei speaks fluent Spanish putting my typically British self (what, you mean there's another language than English?) to shame.

Then we went back to the apartment and talked. And talked. Come to think of it, we did an awful lot of talking. *g*

It was a Very Good Day.

Comments

[akaspeedo.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)