Day 19/20 – I Got the NEW ARK
Blur – (suggested music – ‘Time of Your Life’ by Green Day)
Ok – let’s get this straight.
Just like the fuzzy speakers at airports. You don’t see people eating much
in TV and movies. Usually, right?
And remember I was going to not
eat as a way to save money. So rather than bother with it later, this is
what I ate in 8 days in NYC:
1) 2 breakfasts – both at a really
good place in East Village which I can’t remember name of…
1 lunch – had to have the tuna
at….- really good place – fantastic food, staff is amazing, and the models
looking at their portfolios wasn’t bad either - Grey Dog’s, 33 Carmine,
between Blecker and Bedford.
2) 1 dinner – at John’s Pizza
– for 3 reasons:
a) in the guide books
b) I like the name!
c) Woody and people got their
pizza there
IT SUCKED
3) 1 bag beer nuts waiting in
line at Late Show with David Letterman
4) THAT’S IT! Plus mucho bottled
water – oh I forgot Sunday Brunch at the Russian Tea Room but that comes
later…almost 5 out a possible 32 meals!
Walking into the Bowery Whitehouse
inspired feelings I’d never had since staying at a hotel in Tetouan, Morocco…
enough said – nah, you gotta hear the story of Tetouan. It’s just as you
cross from Spain, very scary place, worse than Tangiers (you want nice
in Morocco you take the Marakech Express). So it’s midnight off the ferry,
got a lift into town in a hippie van, who gave us a chunk of hash and dropped
us at a cheap looking place. It was cheap – there was a sink in the room
but it was all smashed up. So we sit back and get very stoned. Knock
on door – police are at desk asking for our passports. The police man is
even scarier because he just has on one of those big jalolabads that cover
his face, making him look very ghost like. Turned out to be a nice guy
and there were no problems. But the feelings then were the feelings that
night getting a single room at the Bowery (with one thin Bowery blanket).
Next day, I wake up and realize
that the big advantage of a tiny room is that you want to get out fast
and do touristy things. Here’s a pic of the room and hall.
So I meet this very nice Swedish
traveler and decide to go to the one place I put on my ‘don’t go’ list
– the twin towers… But I wanted to get used to walking around New York
and the subway. The same person who at European summer school tour at 16
years old was the only one allowed to tour Paris and London by myself.
The twin towers – you really
have had to be there to imagine the scope of the terror. I have a friend
who says that the attack never took place. I think the theory that there
was some conspiracy is way stronger. I saw the 20 acres. They seemed to
be building something. What a shame. Leave it as a park in memory of the
innocent who died.
I’m back at the Whitehouse again,
drinking my Cointreau and trying to find something remotely like a microbrewery
beer. Good luck.
The next day, I decide to subway
to Central Park and walk the about 80 blocks back. I could remember going
to Central Park as a kid and having a picnic, and I walk by the restaurant
I suddenly remember my dad at.
At Strawberry Fields – the John
Lennon Memorial inspired by Yoko. And here’s me, picture taken by the ‘Mayor
of Strawberry Fields’. I forgot the peace sign!
