Day Nine - New York

Today was going to be the day when we were definitely going to make it to Greenwich Village. You may remember from earlier in this blog though that plans do not always follow their intended course and this one didn't either but there's an interesting story here nonetheless. How could there not be when it's set in New York?!

We started the day with the full of intention of seeing a bit of Greenwich Village which has, according to the Berrlitz travel guide we were depending on, maintained a village like charm due to the artists and others who live and mingle there. It's lack of imposing skyscrapers is also probably another factor in this as I found that the skyscrapers, especially newer ones were almost frightening in their stance. You look up at them like you would a school bully but you'd gasp in amazement at how they stood rather than at how winded you were from that punch to the stomach. All the same they do make you feel quite insignificant and annoymous whereas in Greenwich Village the buildings were much more like tall houses with speciality shops and restuarants dotted throughout serving those artists and students from nearby New York University. Come to think of it now it is students that often bring quite an amount of diversity ot a city and in this section of area they certainly add to the mix. This is being written with experience from another day when we actually did get to Greenwich Village but on this particular day we do not go there. You see looking at a subway map in New York is not difficult to do but rather it opens up whole new possibilities to you and I knew that at some stage dueing the week 8in New York I wanted to see the Flatiron building, arguably the world's first modern made skyscraper using the same basic construction that much taller and more famous builsings have since used. This then was a pioneer and as such it is fitting that it is a point, pointing horizontally to the Empire State Building which is way up town.

Even getting this far was an achievement though for we had walked quite a few blocks which is a square of land as the Americans divide up a lot of their cities into grids so you don't get Pana-like curved streets. Maybe they have some silly rule about this, it wouldn't suprise me! A block on a map looks small but when you actually down to the whole walking busines it turns out to be something a lot more altogether. We did it though and after some walking through the Lower West Side we reached the Flatiron District, named after that iconic building dating from, I think, 1909. With some pictures taken we ended up going into the park directly in front of the building and let me tell you something, New York would be a place where people come to die if it were not for these parks which are beautiful and scattered around the city in agreeable places. Honestly, the city is massive, everything there is bigger and as you shuffle by in shorts and sandals, dying with the heat, the bottle of water in your right hand already warm even though you only drank two sups from it, all of the buildings begin to look the same. Sure there are taller ones and smallers ones but you begin to not care, finding shade and a place to sit become your only goal while wishing at the same time for a fan to magically pop out of the ground to cool you down.
Of course when you need shade, it isn't around and as you stumble about helplessly, hyperbole is always good for a story, New Yorkers walk into you, inform you that you should get help by using lots of words beginning with the letter "f".
Parks then are places were you can go and lose yourself from the beeping of traffic, the steam that rises from the subway vents on the streets, the buzz that seems to will you to push on and go quicker so that you can look just like every other frantic New Yorker.
We entered the park and sat down, looking upon the grass and trees before Donal took an amble around which allowed me some time to take some pictures and to simply contemplate things alone. On a trip like this it is probably one thing that many overlook and yet contemplating the progress made, the progress yet to be made and just how much you like or dislike a place, is important as it makes your trip all the more rewarding somehow. Doing this alone allows your own thoughts to play about inevitably reaching inconclusive answers on everything but answers nonetheless. See how inconclusive that was? There you go.
Donal came back around the circle path around through the park, which it must be said was very well maintained, and off I went then to look about this little oasis before remembering that nearby was the New York Life Building and the Metropolitan Life Tower. Both are old, maybe neo-classical style buidlings which really are very grand and detailed. The New York Life building was open for the public to walk through and I'd say that at the time I was the only person dressed in shorts and a tshirt inside the massive lobby but I didn't mind and with my camera I began to take some pictures as I walked through. As with most places such as this in New York there was barriers that prevented you from going upsatirs without the right ID card to scan you through and to ensure no one hopped the barrier elegantly uniformed security men stood by. I even had an engagement with one. I pointed the camera at the area where the lifts and stairs were and I think I actually go a picture of it with all of its marble and polished brass but as I looked I saw, from the corner of my eye, that someone was gesticulating at me. A guard was telling me that pictures weren't allowed and to be honest he was nice enough about it but again to me it seemed like utter paranoia. I exited the building and went back to Donal who had, by this time, been waiting quite while for me and as the evening was drawing in we were no closer to Greenwich Village.

We were hungry though and had a restaurant in mind thanks to the guide but we couldn't locate it. Being two Irish lads rain came upon us (although I would also like to put the blame amongst those J1ers who come over to look for work in the summer, they're Irish too). This was no ordinary Irish rain though but proper darts of rain plummeting from the sky ready to make the colour of your shirt a whole lot darker. We stood doorways agast and hungry as thunder roleld in the distance observing natives running to cars, to doorways, cluthcing papers and even one guy who stripped off his top and ran down the footpath to what I think was his van to collect something. The rain slowed after a while to a level that to us Irish lads read "Irish summertime" on our weatherometer so the sight of people still holding umbrellas was comical at least to me. We hit upon Union Square which unfortunately we couldn't explore due to the rain becoming slightly heavier but again it's another park distinct from Madison Square Park where we had been earlier. It was coming up on six o clock by now and we needed to have some food having not had any in a few hours. We passed the Virgin Megastore, having not known there were two in Manhattan and saw a diner across the road on Broadway (remember that Broadway runs the length of Manhattan, it really is very long) but we also saw a place called Strand Bookstore which was closing soon. Having heard the name before as a place to pick up rare books at cheap prices, we decided to head inside before going to the diner a few doors down. The place was a mess but then it did say that it had the equivalent of 18 miles of books and I'd believe it, there were 3 floors full of books and by full I don't mean a full Waterstone's shop. Full in this place meant it barely passed fire regulations for people to exit, or so I would hazard a guess at. I found a book on 1950s America which I thought would be interesting, paid for it and then saw, upon reaching the door that once again it was lashing outside. So I stood in the doorway, the exit door behind me and the proper exit door in front (this was like a porch I suppose) and asked a girl who was also standing there was this the weather for the rest of the night. She turned out to be French and didn't know where Ireland was - must have been my pronounciation but I'd say it hit her afterwards and my God does she feel stupid now.

The rain wasn't stopping so Donal and I made a belt for the diner a few doors down the street where I was tempted by the salads but ended up with a Greek Gyro Chicken with the salad too. I was nice and healhty by American standards it must be said. By the time we had left though the night was after approcahing, it didn't look terribly inviting and we hopped on the subway from Union Square to Harlem to get back to the hostel. The day had been a long one, miles had been walked and the rain was after telling us that we really ought to get an earlyish night. And so it was.