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Published: August 28th 2006
Wrong?
Sven, I guess you were right. I almost took the wrong way :-D
(Picture from when we were out driving, but I didn't get it from Klas' camera until now.)The New York trip - finally
So, we left Detroit with an Amtrak bus to get us to Toledo. The train should arrive at about 10 p.m.
In the end, we had slept the entire night on the couches at Toledo (at least they actually had couches and not only chairs or a stone floor), because the train arrived at about 6 a.m. instead. Of course, it got more delayed on the way, and arriving in NYC at 2.10 a.m., we were 10 hour late. So much for the Gary Numan concert we had planned to go to, just lucky we didn't buy any tickets to it in advance!
In New York, we had decided for a cheap YMCA hostel in Brooklyn, which turned out to be so-so. When we arrived, it was totally hot, the only fan in the room didn't make any difference really, but luckily the weather turned cooler after the second day, so we stayed. What was funny was the location: we were in Little Poland! Almost every shop had their signs in both English and Polish, some even only in Polish, and when a shop window had a note saying "Help wanted"
Nothing at all!
I just love this.
(Taken in Chicago, but what the heck...) it also said "must speak English and Polish" :-)
The hostel wasn't really cheap, but breakfast at a diner close by was included, which made it a reasonable price, even though the security at the hostel seemed scary: I'm sure even I could have kicked in our door if I had wanted to.
But this morning diner was an interesting experience, it certainly felt like a proper American place, with all kinds of people (except the business people, I guess they eat at Wall Str. and 5th Av.?) and the waitresses running around like crazy. At least they also had oatmeal, so we didn't have to eat greasy eggs and potatoes each day :-)
Talking of which, the food in the States is really as bad as you might think. Sure, if you have some money and a car to get to the shops you like, there is plenty of good food to be bought or served, both in shops and in restaurants. But the average cheap food is really far worse than most (all?) other countries. There's sugar in everything, and when some cheese snacks (similar to the Swedish ostbågar) claims to have 0 %
Da MET
Metropolitan museum of Art don't pay too much :-) fat, but you still get greasy from them, you might start to wonder... At this morning diner, we could choose from five different breakfast meals plus the oatmeal, and if you wanted cereal breakfast, there were also five different cereals to choose from. We tried the one that sounded more healthy: Raisin bran flakes. The last day the waitress gave us the unopened package, so we could study the ingredients. Wow. Only 30 % sugar. That is worse than most cereals you can buy in Sweden. Even the Sugar Monster (Klas) had too much, which is saying a lot, since he for example loves to be in the Middle East with cakes dripping of honey and coffee filled with sugar.
So, now back home, I'm most definitely on a diet to return myself to better standards :-)
Our schedule in New York was rather empty when we arrived, Klas planned for MoMA and the Met, I had only plans to get good blueberry pancakes (if they exist, we had tried three times before and only gotten disappointed) and maybe to see a good film somewhere.
But we found a very nice guidebook that made our
Belvedere
We kept waiting for Cinderella to show herself, but she never did :-( week very interesting! It's called "Radical Walking Tours of New York City" and included details from gay, leftist, black and other radical movements around the city. For a change, Klas got to be the tour leader and I only followed and got to hear him reading the texts.
Still, we started with the Metropolitan museum of Arts , the Met. The prices here are only "recommended", so we asked for a lower price, which was no problem. And we were happy that we did, because I must say that the Art institute in Chicago is better, for example! Since we couldn't get in to the Art museum in Detroit, I can't tell you about that, but that is also known for its quality. The Met was OK, but not more. So don't pay the full price!! You can get in for a dollar at the Met, so pay what you feel you can afford.
Since this is located close to Central Park, this garden was next to discover. Whatever you do in NYC, whenever you go there (unless, perhaps, on a really rainy day) and no matter how short of time you are, go there! It's
Belvedere tower
OK, the boring true story of Cinderella's castle... large, and hence gives you a lot of different places. From the large reservoir pond in the north to the Cinderella castle of Belvedere and the parts that are more or less forests (but tiny forests). And of course there are base ball groups, theatres and even a gondola in one of the lakes, including a gondolier, singing "Santa Lucia" (which of course makes Swedes feel totally confused, since we celebrate Lucia on the darkest pat of the year, in December). But only lying down on your back to relax among the trees makes a visit to Central Park worth every penny you might spend on a Metrocard.
After a while of searching, we also found the memorial for John Lennon, created after he was shot to death in his home close by 72 street.
We were very tired after our night on the train, so we collapsed back at the hostel this night, rather early.
The following days, we mostly combined our list of interesting shops with the "Radical walks" book and went for the Lower east side and East village. We got to see as interesting things as the Joey Ramone place (close to
Central park forest
Hard to believe you're in central Manhattan here ... we almost didn't hear any traffic, either! CBGB's rock club), Emma Goldman's massage parlor (!), the Jewish Daily Forward building (a radical newspaper in its day) and several other places. Now, afterwards, I think I liked these areas the most in NYC. Parts of the harbour and the area around South street also have a good atmosphere.
In Detroit, we had met Greg Pason and he's got his office at Lafayette street, so we went there to visit him as well. It turned out that he had met some Danish youngsters just the days before, and he really wanted to get together with all of us and some people from NYC and New Jersey. So this is what we did on Thursday evening. Mike, Klas' new found friend from the course in Michigan, also turned up, bringing his friend Nnena, since he lives in NYC. Greg's wife Andrea also turned up, and a few others. It's always interesting to have the time to talk to people in the country you visit, and this was such an evening. We could contribute with answering things about Sweden and Scandinavia, and the Danes did their best to answer questions on Denmark.
Since it started to rain not
Gondola
Try to sing "Santa Lucia" (those of you who know it) when seeing this :-) only cats and dogs, but also elephants and whales, we avoided getting out of Greg's office for as long as possible, but eventually we had to get dinner, and our host took us to Dojo restaurant at St Mark's place (equivalent to East 8 street), which was a very good place. Since we were in the vicinity, we felt that after dinner, we just had to visit CBGB's. They are closing down for good this September, rumour says that the owner is opening something in Las Vegas instead, so we had to profit from the opportunity. The Danes went with us, even though they didn't know what it was. At least we told them that if they met people back home, over 30 years of age and interested in punk rock history (well, actually even Madonna started her carrière there, or so I'm told), they could brag about having been to CBGB's. Well. There were six bands playing this night, and we only got to see two of them, and they weren’t very good either, I'm afraid. The first sounded like some U2-wannabees and the last band was something similar. And the club was really empty, almost no-one seemed to
Fight against capitalists 1
Klas does his best to fight the bulls at Wall street... care anymore. I guess the air is leaving the balloon, to use a Swedish saying. But at least we've been there. Others go to Empire state building and brag about that, we can brag about having been to CBGB's before it closed down. (And of course we got almost a lecture from Andrea about how nice and crowded it had been during her punk days in the 1980's...).
On Friday, we headed for Ellis Island. I thought that my grandfather, who emigrated from Sweden to Chicago in 1929, would have passed by there, but it turned out that the offices at Ellis Island stopped in 1924, so I would have to visit the archives in NY to get more information, and we didn't really have time for this, or, we didn't take the time. Still, Ellis Island was an interesting experience, they have turned the whole former entry to the States in to a museum, and it was interesting to learn more about it. It's fascinating that a country with a history like that now treats immigrants very rude, I know they consider the US to be "full", but that's no reason to treat people bad. Anyways,
Fight against capitalists 2
... and I help him from behind. the trip out to the island also went past the statue of Liberty, so I managed to get a few good photo's including her back (I just couldn't resist it). What I can recommend the readers of this to do, is to get there EARLY. If you really want to go up the statue of Liberty as well, you have to be there at 9, I guess, in summer. We didn't want to go there, but I read a sign saying that tickets for the statue already were sold out for the day and this was at 11 in the morning...
The queues are incredible, but they went relatively fast, even though we had to go through a security check almost as bad as at the airport (I didn't have to remove my shoes here, though). And it's a good idea to bring a picnic, since the ferry ride takes a while and then you want to check out the whole place, maybe including both the free film (rather useless) and the free walking tour (we didn't try that), so you'll need some food. There is of course a restaurant there, but their prices are a bit high.
CBGB's & Omfug
The whole name of the place is nowadays CBGB's and Omfug, and this is what it looks like... Since the only Native American museum in NYC is close to Battery Park, where the ferry comes in from Ellis Island, we went in there when we returned. It was most disappointing, and luckily it's for free (belongs to the Smithsonian institution). It's only art and artifacts, all modern, and no history. Maybe interesting if you're heavily into art and want some inspiration, but useless for the history if the Native Americans (otherwise known as American Indians), except maybe the museum shop. So this was bad, me having been totally interested in Native Americans when I was a kid, I now went to the country where they lived, and the only thing I got was a book. Afterwards, I heard that in Washington DC, there is a really good museum, but I didn't know that when I spent 2-3 hours there waiting for Klas.
And it's fascinating how they are totally left out of the historic parts, only at Ellis Island did I find anything at all mentioning the Americans living in the land before the Europeans entered. The African Americans have got several museums, walking tours etc., but the natives have got almost nothing. I guess the
CBGB's part 2
... and here Klas is with the Danes. I guess someone put something good in Mathias' beer and something bad in Klas'. white Americans are too ashamed of their history in this aspect.
This evening, we finally managed to find a club with a dance floor, so we finally got to dress up and dance. I even got in for free, that's probably the first time I managed that at a place with a cover charge! (Well, I got in for free to a football/soccer match in Varberg, Sweden once, all girls did that afternoon, but that's all.)
Unfortunately, the dance style that Klas had witnessed in Ann Arbor hadn't spread to NYC, so I didn't get to see what he had talked so much about (hands on your back, high knees... sounded fascinating!). But what the heck, we got to dance for a while at least.
On Saturday, we went for New Jersey. Greg and Andrea had invited us to begin the day with supporting some immigrant workers that had attracted some "patriot" groups. We went there and stood on one side of a street, this side belonging to one city, and watched the small group of about 5 "patriots" on the other side with American flags. Thing was, that the immigrants got to gather on this
The massage parlor
In this house it is said that Emma Goldman had her massage parlor. No signs of it anymore, though :-( spot in one city to be picked up for work (day by day, so they were also called day laborers) and then these "patriots" not wanting these new elements did a small demonstration against them on the other side of the street, in the next city. So our friends had started a counter-demonstration to show the day laborers that they did have friends in the US, that not all were like the obese, flag-waiving bozos in the other side of the street. It was rather funny, since we weren’t allowed to stand still, because we were too many, we had to walk around in an oval on the sidewalk :-)
Unfortunately, a group from some church ( I didn't get which) came around, stopping a bit away from the street and offering sandwiches to the workers, also telling them that they should actually be grateful for being in the states at all and that they didn't really have any rights, only the right to be grateful. And of course, they shouldn't join our demonstration (which several of them had done). So much for being Christian and caring about your fellow persons.
Afterwards, I finally got to eat my first good
Queues to Liberty/Ellis islands
Look at those queues... they start somewhere far away and end at the tent, after the security control. American blueberry pancake. We had tried it a few times, but were soooo disappointed. But in the tiny town of Whippany we found some good ones, with both blueberries and strawberries. They even had "Swedish thin pancakes with lingonberries"!! But we thought we could have that at home, so we got our first good pancakes. Rumour has it that there are a few good ones in Brooklyn as well, but we never got the time to try them.
Sunday, I followed Klas to MoMA. That's Museum of Modern Art to you :-)
At least it was more interesting than the Met, maybe because I didn't have any expectations, but Klas didn't have huge expectations on the Met either (or so he claims), so I guess the Met just isn't for us.
MoMA at least had one (1) photograph by Cindy Sherman, but not a very good one :-(
There were a few funny other works of art there as well, and we finally realised that Georgia O'Keeffe wasn't a bad artist. We saw a painting of hers in Chicago first, a rather dull one with clouds, but after having seen several other paintings she had done, we
Ellis island
This is what the immigrants in the last part of the 19th century and up until 1924 saw when they entered the US of A. agreed that she wasn't so bad after all.
And then Klas had to be kind and follow me to the Apple store on 5th Avenue :-) There we (anyone) could use the internet connected computers as much as we liked, and for free! The whole place is really unusual for a shop. But I got the feeling that there weren't as many "mac-nerds" as there usually is in smaller countries, but since I didn't ask anyone about anything in particular, it's only a guess. I'm impressed I didn't get anything for myself in there.
After these two excursions, we had to do the Final Excursion: Coney Island :-D
I looked down under the Board walk, but I only saw sand :-(
We mostly went there to get the atmosphere of the place, and it was good! We got up in the Wonder wheel, and a recommendation to most of you: get into one of the steady ones, not the moving ones. Geeez, they were moving, we almost got sick just by looking at them, but we got into a steady one and could see the sun set over Brooklyn.
That was definitely worth the rather long
Manhattan view
Some skyline, taken from the boat out to the Liberty/Ellis islands. trip on the subway, just get a book to read on the way there. It's free until you want to go for a ride or have something to eat or drink, and I think it was allowed to bring your own to the Board walk.
We tried our first Strawberry shortcake (no, not the ice cream one, we had that the first day!), and that was not bad at all.
And then we woke up to our final day in NYC. What did we do?
Well, of course we took the final chapters in our guide book and followed the walking tours of Greenwich Village and Chelsea!
These are parts that are well known and I guess that some decades ago, they were the "cool" places to be in NYC. Now, it felt more like "nice neighbourhoods" to me. They were rather polished and neat, basically. But still, a lot of history has been written there, so the tours were interesting.
This was also our final shopping day, but I didn’t really find anything, whereas Klas found two pair of trousers! Amazing. On the whole, I don't know if we just didn't find the proper
Liberty?
Well, I just had to take the picture... places to shop or what the problem was, but I thought I'd get home with a backpack filled with clothes and instead it was mostly filled with cd's and a few books.
But maybe our problem was also that we preferred to get clothes that were US made, or at least made on one of the American continents, since that's what's expensive at home, but so much stuff is made in Asia these days, that it's hard to find.
In the evening, we got together with Mike again, and we ate at Dojo's on St Mark's place, which is a good place for vegetarians and people who like Asian kind of food without paying any huge amounts. They have happy hours between 3 and 8 pm, so the second beer is half the price :-)
We finished off at Peculier pub on 145 Bleecker Street, which is good, but sometimes the music is a bit loud.
On the final day, we packed (Klas basically did both bags, since he was thinking that he might need my big backpack as well) and went for breakfast. Our final diner breakfast, I just had to have scrambled eggs and
And her back!
How many times have you seen THIS picture? fried potatoes. This diner, 3 something on Manhattan Av., between Meserole and Norman, did very good fried potatoes, and since I was to carry my big backpack after all, I might need the calories :-)
Since we'd read the news on the found (but not detonated) bombs in London and all the fuzz that that created at airports, we wanted to get to the airports asap, just in case there'd be long queues. So we parted (Klas left from JFK and I from Newark) and went to our different locations. I totally forgot that the PATH trains of course went from P(ort) A(uthority) and not from Penn station, so my cheap trip suddenly became slightly more expensive, but at least I'd learned the trick to ask for one ticket Penn station, NY to Penn station, Newark and then another from Penn (Newark) to Newark airport. Saved me 3.50.
The only fuzz (except that we couldn't carry liquids including make up and tooth paste in the carry on luggage, which we knew and hence had packed in the bigger bags), the only thing was that we had to remove our shoes so they could x-ray them as well.
Changes over 30 years
Historically interesting sign telling you about the changes that were made during the time that people arrived at Ellis. I had to be educational to a little girl who was after me and whose mother had a slight case of claustrophobia, and hadn't read the rules on what to bring and not until she arrived at the airport... but they came through OK.
So after a bit delay, the flight landed in Copenhagen about an hour late, but within Scandinavia, there are always flights, so I still got to Arlanda first and was met by Klas' parents and the incredible rain that seems to not have stopped for the two weeks that have passed since I began writing.
Sorry about the delay in this, but now I know that next time I have to bring a computer if I want to do a travel blog in the US.
Take care!
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