Travel Girl’s First Bite of “The Big Apple”
Hi DayTrippers!
To whet your appetite for our upcoming trips to See New York with a New Yorker, I thought I’d share some of the thrill of my first (but not last) trip there!
It’s the first week of May, when I get the chance to visit New York City for the first time. The city of dreams, of raw, incessant, pulsing desire, of irrepressible creativity and ingenuity, of interminable ambition and resilience. The city that could have inspired Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life”. And, of course, it is the “City” in “Sex and the City”, the iconic show that gave many a single girl the vicarious thrill of walking in way-too-high stilettos, impeccably chic street gear, and managing, in any weather, not to break her neck!
Long after Ellis Island’s terminus, Manhattan remains a port of dreams. And so, you could say I had a few preconceived ideas, as the days slowly ticked away to our 11-day dream trip there. It was business first – a three-day publisher’s trade show – and then eight delicious days of seeing and being seen in the haute vie of Manhattan! We took a private car, a nicer version of our taxis, from JFK airport into Hell’s Kitchen, where a friend’s flat awaited, and as we drove past the storied brownstones – ornamented by wrought iron planters, draping living bouquets from windowsills, and matching miniature wrought-iron grills, enclosing lush trees opposite their trademark steps – I knew we were not in California anymore.
Where should we go first? Central Park? Harlem? A walk over the Brooklyn Bridge? On a food safari – yes! We were, after all, in Hell’s Kitchen, known for its’ delis and dives. We were blessed with great weather, on our first day in town. We walked for hours, stopping for bar-b-que and burgers close to home, admiring the ubiquitous community gardens, magnificently dense and well-kept, despite oftentimes being no larger than a typical suburban backyard. These were the city oases – not that the stately homes, with their Parisian awnings, were oppressive – offsetting the heft of brick and mortar boutiques with their defiantly verdant presence.
It is impossible to do the city justice in a few days; nonetheless, we intrepidly dared to hope to come close.
Day one: Go native. Bum around the neighborhood, grab a Cuban pulled-pork sandwich at the truly greasy spoon, take in the fin de siècle majesty of the overpasses, linger in an out-of-the-way curiosity shop (and, in the process, find some extremely rare copies of Weird Tales magazines, and, among other things, rings made from the silverware of a circa 1920’s hotel that recently closed), and be perpetually awed by the assiduously, individualistic fashion sense (and the incomparable variety of hairstyles) of the rank-and-file New Yorker. Try not to gawk.
Day two: Central Park. Wind our way to the petting zoo, lounge like lizards on Paleolithic slabs and boulders, stick our feet in a waterfall nestled under a bridge, get lost in the maze of trails, find our way out, stumble upon the first act of the renowned Shakespeare in the Park’s first show of “Romeo and Juliet” of the season, stay for the show, reluctantly wind our way out of the park, under a starry sky, to the subway.
Day three: Take the train to Harlem, give ourselves the grand tour. Visit the Apollo Theater (sadly, just as a tour was ending – lesson 1: get the tour schedule first!), take a picture next to the surprisingly diminutive Cotton Club, grab a bag of sugared nuts from a street vendor – these are nuggets from heaven – have dinner at the world renowned Sylvia’s, the “best soul food in NYC”, where Ms. Sylvia, “The Queen of Soul Food”, still cooks and oversees the kitchen, and will gladly stop and share a few stories with you.
Day four: The antique and boutique tour. Take a trip through time, in the unparalleled antiquarian boutiques and along the cobblestone streets, complete with working gas lamps, which abound in Soho. At last, get a slice of real New York Pizza (a divine concoction never attempted outside the city, I’m sure) just outside Greenwich Village. Take the ferry to Staten Island, and return just as the sun goes down. Stop in at the legendary Blue Note club, a must-do for Jazz and Blues aficionados. Find, to your great delight, that several boutiques in the Village, are still open and doing a brisk business … at 2am! We are in NYC, baby!
Days five – eleven: fall in love, in love, in love – with it all! We did our utmost to do Manhattan justice, and to do the rest of our stay there justice, will take another post. But, until then, suffice to say, I went to take a bite out of the Big Apple and was bitten! Fuggedabout the so-called “City of Brotherly Love” being Philadelphia. Everywhere we went, we met people who went out of their way to show us their city and to do their city proud. Cold, hard, driven are words I’ve often heard used to describe New Yorkers, but I’ve got a whole other vocabulary for them: kind, gracious, generous, and warm, for starters. And speaking of that, you can expect all that and much more when you book your trip to see New York with a New Yorker!
If New York is to America, what Paris is to Europe, I wonder: can a non-native ever really penetrate its’ deepest mysteries? With our guide, a flesh-and-blood New Yorker, with a heart as Big as The Big Apple, maybe, just maybe we can…
So, have you booked your trip? If not, what are you waiting for?
See you in NYC!
Travel Girl
Travel Girl, is the trademark and nom de plume of Tracy Watson, writer, occasional globetrotter, foodie, and all around bon vivant! She has written and published three books, writes a column for single women for examiner.com, and loves other people’s dogs.
