Today is Monday, the first of August. Earlier today I said goodbye to my friends in Montauk, the easternmost town on Long Island, after spending the last few days with them and several days before that in New York. I am now headed to Toronto on an overnight Greyhound bus, which left New York’s Port Authority Bus Terminal at 8:45pm. With some time to kill it seemed like a good time to catch up on writing.
I have had an excellent trip to New York City filled with good food, sightseeing, fun times with friends and beautiful weather. My daytime ride to New York on the Megabus was fairly uneventful. The ride was fairly peaceful and generally unscenic. We arrived over an hour late into Manhattan due to some traffic at the Lincoln Tunnel and the extra time it took to get across the border near Buffalo. The 20 minutes estimated by the Megabus schedule was not enough. The delay at the boarder was not due to high volumes, but rather how long it took the passengers on our bus to get through questioning at customs. The length of questioning was generally correlated to the high proportion of non-english speaking travelers there were. Example of sample conversation:
Boarder guard: What is the value of goods you are declaring?
Traveler: No goods, I have no goods.
Boarder guard: Well, did you buy any souvenirs or anything while in Canada?
Traveler: Yes, of course.
Boarder guard: How much would you estimate you spent?
Traveler: Um, I don’t know.
Boarder guard: $100? Less than $50?
Traveler: Yes, less than $15.
And so the questions would go on and on with the boarder guards becoming increasingly more frustrated.
As soon as I arrived in Manhattan, I waited for my luggage to come off the bus, and then grabbed a nearby cab to take me over to an office building in Midtown. One of my friend’s from exchange during university to Copenhagen was currently working to start up a business and had a meeting afterwork with his partners. He showed me to a nearby Mexican restaurant where I could have a margarita and a snack until he finished. I found a spot on the patio and sat down. Within minutes a guy on my right asked if I was by myself and if I wanted to join him and his friends. I declined saying that my friend would be joining me soon, but we got to talking about New York. His friends were visiting from Washington and he was helping them to find an apartment in the city, a process made more difficult and costly due to the presence of brokers, acting as middlemen and charging a high fee. It seemed that even though they were finding the apartments on craigslist, they would encounter brokers when they went to contact the property owner or manager. His friends were also finding apartments more expensive than they anticipated. Ten or 15 minutes after I sat down, we said goodbye when angry rain clouds blew in overhead, encouraging their departure. Within seconds a heavy downpour commenced. Luckily my friend showed up just at the right time to assist me in getting my things inside. Unfortunately, we lost our bowl of nacho chips to the rain.
Over dinner we discussed what we each had been up to over the last two years (I had seen him briefly when I last came to the city). He talked about his business, relationships, trips and friends and I exchanged similar information and stories. After a couple hours we decided to head back to his apartment, a ground level 3 bedroom on the upper east side, where I met his roommate, a girl he’d been good friends with since college. We talked a bit more while he helped me get set up on the couch and then we said good night.
The next morning, my friend and I chatted about what I would do that day. He pointed out how close the Met and Guggenheim were to his place so I made a plan to go there. With a hand-drawn map in hand, I departed for the Guggenheim, an art exhibit and museum housed in an unusual round building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, a well-known and controversial American architect (who Ayn Rand based her main character off of in The Fountainhead, which I had read in the past year). I arrived in front of the museum at exactly 10am to find a hundred person line of people waiting outside. Apparently it was just opening for the day. Within minutes the doors opened and the line began to move. Once inside I approached the information desk to pick up my Citypass, a booklet I had pre-purchased online that includes entrance to various sights around the city, for $80.00. I redeemed the appropriate ticket, picked up my free audio headset and ascended the ramp that circles the museum and forms the main focal point of the building. Apparently the circular ramp is designed to show the evolution of art work by one artist, at present Lee Ufan, a Korean born Japanese minimalist painter and sculptor (according to Wikipedia). His paintings consisted of lines, brush strokes and repetitive stamps. His displays incorporated steel sheets, rocks, rods, cotton, glass and light. I can’t admit I totally got it. I’m not very artistic. I’m convinced that side of my brain is underdeveloped to the point that its size rivals that of a kidney bean. Although I must admit that I could’ve created a lot of the art work that I saw there, if someone told me what to create. In the side rooms, I saw Van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky and a few other note-worth artists, but the majority of the museum portrayed the art of Lee Ufan. After an hour I had reached the top of the ramp and had had enough. I took the elevator back to ground level and passed through the revolving doors into the sticky hot city air on the street outside.
I decided to go for a walk in Central Park, to kill some time before a 12:15 lunch with a friend. I entered the park via the 90th street entrance on the east side. I took a few photos in front of the Jackie Onassis Reservoir and then proceeded south to the bottom of the reservoir. It was such a nice day out and so many people were out walking, jogging, and biking. Even the police were out running their horses in the park. I continued walking through The Great Lawn and eventually ended up at the Shakespeare Garden, where hundreds of people had lined up to get free tickets to summer performances. I then happened to stumble across Belvedere Castle which afforded a beautiful view of the pond and park below. At this point, time had ticked along considerably and I had only 20 minutes to make my lunch appointment back near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I hoofed my way back up through the park and made it in time. We met at Le Pain Quotidien, which I had never happened to visit during its short existence in Toronto. The menu offered lots of healthy and vegetarian-friendly options, which I appreciated greatly. I had a lemonade, a six vegetable frittata with a mesclun salad, and we shared an apricot muffin thing for dessert. While eating we caught up on what we had each been up to over the past few months. After lunch he walked me over to the museum and we said goodbye.
Shot in front of the reservoir in Central Park
The Met; the interior made famous in The Thomas Crown Affair
Inside the museum, I instantly recognized the interior which had been featured in The Thomas Crown Affair (Pierce Brosnan version). I looked around but didn’t see any men in bowler hats, nor did I actually see that famous painting (Son of Man by Rene Magritte). I obtained my ticket and a map and concocted a plan of attack. I had been told not to attempt the entire museum, so I instead planned to focus on the famous stuff (mostly contemporary paintings by famous artists), sculptures on the rooftop deck (or patio as we say in Canada), the Alexander McQueen exhibit, and the photography exhibits. I saw various very famous paintings, though none that I recognized (does that make sense?). I enjoyed the views from the rooftop deck. I didn’t go to the McQueen exhibit because the wait time was about an hour and a half. I really enjoyed the photography, which included an exhibit of photography in the dark (or at night). By the time a few hours had passed, I was hungry, thirsty and beat. I decided to head to a place called Alice’s Tea Cup, a tea shop based on an Alice in Wonderland theme with amazing scones and teas. Once there I decided to order a hummus sandwich and an iced fruit tea. I wasn’t really in the mood for a scone though I’m sure they’re probably delicious.
By early evening I had showered and packed up, ready to trek down to the East Village to meet my other friends from exchange. A 45 minute journey of walking – subway – walking took me to my friend’s apartment in the village, a small 3 bedroom on the 4th floor of an old walk-up. Once inside I cleaned up and change clothes before departing on foot with my friend for dinner at a local pub spot, St. Dymphna’s. We were lured in by their happy hour pint special. I ordered a veggie burger and a Franziskaner beer (a beer I had loved and discovered in San Francisco and which is not sold in Canada) and nibbled on some yummy corn bread.
After we finished eating we headed over to the Museum of Modern Art (a.k.a. MoMA) to meet our other friends for a special event. The museum was hosting special exhibition of creative games, mostly video games but some weren’t. I was also astounded to find there was free beer! We walked around the museum observing the games on offer and eventually decided to wait in line to play the Button Game. The game began by instructing players to complete a task (such as dancing like a chicken, walking backwards until you bumped into something, or lying on the floor). Then it instructed players to do something with respect to the giant buttons on the floor (ie. First person to press their own button 15 times wins, or first person to have their button pressed 15 times loses). And thus the winner of round 1 was determined. Each group of people was allowed to play two rounds. It was a pretty physical and fun game that was completely wacky. Later on we saw in the event program guide that the game was designed by three guys in Copenhagen, what a coincidence! We also played another game where one person selected dots on a grid and the other player had to position their body in front of a video camera in order to touch all those spots on a screen (kind of like a vertical and virtual game of twister). After playing this game, it was close to closing time so we departed for the Village. We stopped in a local watering hole called the Coal Yard to catch up further and meet up with another friend from exchange.
With my friends at the MoMA event
Playing the Button Game at the MoMA event
The next morning, Thursday morning, I walked about 30 blocks to the Empire State Building. It took nearly 45 minutes to go from the main entrance to the elevator ride up 86 stories to the observation deck. Once at the top, I wasn’t too impressed. I think my expectations were too high. Two years earlier I had been to Top of the Rock, on top of Rockefeller Centre and was wowed by the breathtaking views of Manhattan and Central Park. I remembered the Empire State Building from movies like Sleepless in Seattle with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and An Affair to Remember with Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant. I expected the observation deck of ESB to be even more impressive because of how famous it was. I was disappointed. It was so crowded that I took only a short trip around the perimeter and then headed to the exit.
I love the Chrysler building
I walked another 12 blocks or so up to 47th and Park to meet an old work colleague for lunch. She had worked at my bank, but left about a year and a half ago to get married and move to New York City. Over lunch she filled me in on her life now and I told her what I had been up to and what I had planned for the future. It was fun exchanging stories, but after an hour and 15 minutes she had to return back to work. I wasn’t too far from the MoMA so I decided to walk over and view the museum.
Some people think that the MoMA is by far the best art museum in the world, due to its valuable collection. I definitely saw more famous pieces of art work there then I had ever seen in any other single museum so perhaps they were right. I saw pieces by Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali (The Persistence of Memory), Frida Kahlo, Vincent Van Gogh (Starry Night), Pablo Picasso, and Matisse (The Dance). Afterwards I subwayed down to the Highline, a park built atop an old raised railway along the westerly side of the Meat Packing District. I walked the Highline with my friend. I was impressed by how well it had been designed; how it incorporated the boardwalk, gardens and seating. Once we had walked to one end and back, we headed over to a Beer Garden by the Standard Hotel to meet with his friend, also from exchange, but from first semester (I was there second semester). The Beer Garden was a really happening spot for all types in New York, though by 6pm the business crowd (or blue shirts as I call em) flowed in by the truck load.
Favourite and famous pieces in the MoMA
In the evening we ate at a trendy noodle place called Momofuku. The food looked good but there were very limited options for vegetarians. We sat at the bar though and it was cool to watch as the food was cooked and prepared. Later we met up with some friends for drinks in the area.
The next day, Friday, I set out on foot for Pier 83 on the West Side of Manhattan on West 45th. My CityPass ticket included a boat ride with Circle Line Tours. I decided to take the 2 hour tour of the lower half of Manhattan, which included views of the Statue of Liberty and departed at 11:30am. There were no outdoor seats available so I had to sit indoors, where it was much too cold for my liking. I also sat on the wrong side of the boat and did not have a view of New York City until the way back (though I did have a good view of the Statue of Liberty). The selection of snack food was also pretty crappy. Half way through the tour I had gotten so hungry, I had to buy something. I decided on a bagel and cream cheese, since I figured it would sort of fill me up, wasn’t too terrible in the health department, and wasn’t overpriced (about $3). With respect to the tour in general, the boat gave good views of the city and the Statue of Liberty, but it was difficult to hear and understand the announcer so I found myself bored most of the tour.
Once the boat docked, I raced off the pier towards Times Square to meet my friend for lunch (the one I was staying with in the East Village). She worked at MTV in an advertising department and was able to take a late lunch. It was a Friday after all. We met at the bottom of her building, and walked nearby to a salad place where they chop up all the ingredients. You could either select a pre-planned salad or have a custom one made from scratch. The prices were pretty reasonable too compared to Toronto. After lunch I came up to her office to see the views, meet a few collegues and rest while she finished up a bit of work (I was happy to sit down, read my book and do little else). An hour later she had finished up for the week and was ready to head out.
Me and my friend in Times Square
We took the subway down to the East Village. I hadn’t yet had a frozen yogurt in the city, so she suggested we try 16 Handles, a sort of frozen yogurt salad bar where you make your own concoction from several different soft serve yogurt flavours (like red velvet, chocolate, banana, etc) and many different toppings (mini rolos, strawberries, mango, sprinkles, etc). The cost is based on weight. It’s a great concept, and very profitable as I’m sure as people always take way more than they intend or want to eat because they get carried away with all the choices. Mine came to $6.40. It was pretty delicious from a taste perspective, but not very healthy I don’t think. I still prefer my Yogen Fruz (I will be a strong patron of this franchise until I die).
That night we went out for dinner to Westville, a restaurant serving organic meats and vegetables. As a vegetarian trying to avoid fish, I wasn’t sure if I would have to eat a plate of vegetables for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised to find tofu and vegetarian chilli on the menu, as well as vegetable sides like bok choy, kale and swiss chard. And all at reasonable prices! It was great. After dinner we headed to one a friend of a friend’s apartments for drinks, then to Bua (a very King West type of bar) and after that to a karaoke bar called Arlene’s. It’s not really appropriate to call Arlene’s a karaoke bar since you have to sing along to the accompaniment of a real live band. Except for one or two singers, all those who signed up sang really well. One girl who sang was from Canada and when I asked her where she was from, she said Yonge and Summerhill, what a small world! The night ended with a trip to the pizzeria, another stop at Bua, and then finally home.
On Saturday morning we headed to Penn Station to catch a train on the Long Island Railway to Bridgehampton, one of the towns in the Hamptons. Another friend of ours from exchange is working there for the summer. He is as a producer for a company that produces specialty tv programming and a magazine in markets like Aspen, Miami, the Hamptons and Nantucket. We arrived in the early afternoon, after he finished producing the morning show. He needed a bit more time to finish up at the office, so we walked down the main street to get a snack. Outside his office I watched as Kelly Cutrone (made famous from The Hills and The City) walked passed me on the sidewalk. My first celeb sighting! I bought a sandwich and a drink at Starbucks and then we headed back to our friend’s office. We piled into the station’s production van (a long black Sprinter with the company’s insignia on the outside) and took off for the station’s rental house in nearby Sag Harbor. The house was a fairly large three bedroom home where a few of the summer employees and interns stay. We set ourselves up in our friend’s master suite and began getting ready for the evening.
In front of my friend's work place
Our friend had to work a charity event that night at Russell Simmon’s house. In case you don’t know, Russell Simmons started and owned Def Jam Records as well as the Phat Farm and Baby Phat Labels, but is also well known for his marriage to and subsequent divorce from Kimora Lee (a famous model and total diva). Our friend was able to get us on the list as crew members from his company. As we got ourselves ready for the event (we were supposed to dress up in the Hamptons style) I started to get nervous about how the evening would play out. I’m not good at lying or acting so I was worried that I would mess up and get kicked out of the event. On the way over to the press parking lot, we concocted the story that I was an assistant to the host of the show (who my friend would be working with as stars came down the red carpet), our other friend would be a photographer (using an SLR camera), and our other friend would be a blogger. When we signed in at the press shuttle desk, we hit our first snag. The aggressive, power-hungry, designer shoe wearing, cropped red head in charge became very adamant that only 3 names were on the list and she could not let us on the shuttle. I started to squirm on the inside. “She’s on to us”, I thought. “She knows we’re not really crew members”. I suddenly became subconscious of how un-press like I looked and acted. I didn’t even have a prop (which we rectified soon after by giving me a sketchbook and some markers). Fortunately our friend was able to pull up the confirmation email on his phone and the red head grudgingly penciled in our names.
On the press shuttle over to Simmons’ house, through fancy tree lined streets, I started to become very excited. When we pulled up to his house, I had a hard time suppressing looks of excitement that kept creeping onto my face. We signed into the press table and received our “Red Carpet Only” passes. We entered the roped off area and found a patch of grass to stand on, before be built up the courage to stand on the raised black platform, where the real media people (camera man and photographers) would stand. It was probably 45 minutes before we saw anyone remotely important. The first was some famous entertainment host who I didn’t know, and the second was a model named Jaslene Gonzalez who I’d seen on America’s Next Top Model (she won cycle 8). She was working the event as an interviewer with E channel (I think). She was very beautiful in person but altogether way too skinny. She was probably 5’10” and 100lbs.
Over the following couple hours I watched as guests arrived and entered the party via the normal guest line and the red carpet. It was like watching a fashion show. There were many models, some arriving with other models, and some with male companions. The dresses were quite fun as the suggested colours were red, yellow and orange. Over the course of that time I decided I would start taking photos on my crappy old school Sony Cybershot camera. I dropped the line ‘fashion blogger’ and ‘website’ a couple times so that my photo taking would seem somewhat legitimate to those around me. At one point I noticed an audio guy looking at me. He didn’t look too friendly so I figured he knew we were phonies. After I started taking photos he struck up a conversation with me about my camera, telling me how good the Sony Cybershots were and how he used his everywhere. He asked me what kind of work I was doing and I did a pretty good job passing off my story. He seemed to believe what I was saying and just genuinely wanted someone to chat with. He even offered to take a few photos for me of Edward Norton since he was taller and able to get a better shot than me. After talking for 20 minutes or so I pretended like I had to take some other photos a few steps away because I found myself spinning a web of lies that would eventually catch up with me. He was a really nice guy and I didn’t want to lie to him, but I also didn’t want to admit that my friend had snuck us into the red carpet under false pretences. I focused on snapping up shots of the stars on the carpet, but still exchanged a few bits of friendly conversation with him so he didn’t think I was blowing him off.
The total list of stars I saw on the carpet is the following: Edward Norton; Dr. Oz; Russell Simmons; Run DMC/Reverend Dan Simmons; Kimora Lee; her now husband, famous actor Djimon Hounsou; Lisa Rinna; various models including Jessica White, Michelle Rodriguez of Lost, Star Jones; and Jennifer Esposito. It was really fun.
Towards the end we were led on a walk-through of the party, but unfortunately most of the guests were already inside the tent. I did see Michelle Rodriguez, Kimora and her husband though and it was neat to see the grounds of the house and the decorations for the party. While in back yard area where the cocktail party had been, I could hear the opening words of the event, which started with a letter written by President Obama to all those present at the event. Wow. Back at the front of the house, my friend packed up the equipment and I said goodbye to the audio guy. He quipped, “maybe one day I’ll be working for you”. It was one of those lines that makes you chuckle. He was a nice guy. We shuttled back to the press lot and piled into the van, ready for dinner. We had stood in the sun and heat for many hours and were in desperate need of water and food.
We ended up at a serve-yourself barbecue restaurant called Townline BBQ. I was a bit sceptical, but once I had read the menu I could see there were many vegetarian options. I decided on the vegetarian platter in which you could pick 4 sides. I picked the bean salad, mac n’ cheese (it’s been years since I’ve had this), corn bread and vegetarian chilli. It was delicious. Once we had finished up our meal I noticed our friends gazing out, off the patio toward the front entrance. “What are you guys looking at?”, I asked. Jimmy Fallon was no more than 5 feet in front of us, getting ready to mount his bicycle. He was accompanied by two of his friends. I found it so funny because I had seen Jimmy Fallon on my last visit to NYC 2 years before in the airport. As he slowly pedaled away my friend yelled “Bye Jimmy”. Jimmy shouted back a ‘bye’, to which I added “drive safe” (although I meant to say RIDE safe), to which Jimmy responded “thanks”. What a funny day.
That night we hung out with friends of friends and headed out to one of the bars in town called Murphy’s. It was a small cottage of a bar with wooden beams and low ceilings with an intimate and excited atmosphere. It featured a game with a ring attached to fishing line, suspended from the roof that you had to swing and try to attach to a hook on one of the beams. I had to be the worst at this game, taking nearly 40 tries to get the hook on the ring, where some people needed only 5 tries. The music was good and we had a fun time.
The next morning, Sunday, we arose late in the morning and headed out to brunch around noon. We went to restaurant called Dockside, in front of the harbour and beside Billy Joel’s town home (he apparently owns a second home somewhere else). Only a few minutes after our friend had told us about this town home do we see Billy Joel dining on the patio of the restaurant. Another celeb sighting! Once our table was ready we found ourselves only two tables away from Billy. After a fairly standard eggs and toast breakfast accompanied by lemonade, we left for home to pack up for the beach. It was a beautiful clear day and we wanted to soak up the sun like I soaked up the yoke on my plate with toast at breakfast.
By 3pm we pulled up to a ‘private’ beach in our friend’s jeep (the kind that has no doors and no roof). The beach was fairly scarcely populated so there were lots of good spots to pitch our towels. The sand was fairly fine and white in colour and very clean. The ocean, while a nice deep blue colour, had hardly any waves which disappointed me immensely. After sunning for 10 minutes I was hot enough to test out the ocean’s frigid temperature (probably low 70’s?). The water deepened very quickly, which was at least nice for swimming and it seemed very clean. Over the next 4 hours, I alternated between sunning and swimming as we gabbed and joked through the afternoon.
That evening we went to dinner at World Pie in Bridgehampton, a place known for its pizza. Two of our friends ambitiously mowed through an Asian styled pzza and a taco pizza, while our other friend had a gigantic sized pasta. I had a roasted vegetable salad with mozzarella that was easily triple the size of a normal Canadian sized meal salad. Afterwards we said goodbye to our one friend who had to head back to the city that night for work on Monday.
The next day, my last in New York, we drove out to Montauk, stopping at a little breakfast spot called Estia’s on the way. Here I had a delicious Mexican inspired breakfast of black beans, egg and salsa on half a piece of soft tortilla flat bread, with fruit salad on the side. I also tried an iced coffee, which I did not like. The rest of the drive to Montauk, the easterly point of Long Island, was gorgeous. Many of the roads are hilly and wind through lush bits of forest or dry patches of beach and shoreline. We passed many mega mansions and a few similarly styled old town main streets.
Our first stop was the Montauk lighthouse. We parked the van and took a walk along the rocky shoreline, around the lighthouse, to the beach on the other side. The weather was again bright and sunny so it really was a perfect day for being outside. Afterwards we drove into town to have an ice cream and look around. My train was at 2:50pm so we didn’t have too much time to kill. My friends drove me to the station and helped me to the train with my bags. It felt like a scene in a 50’s era film where tear filled goodbyes always took place at the railway station. Our goodbye really wasn’t so sad. I was happy to have had the chance to spend time with my friends and knew that we would do it again in a year or two.
The ride back to Manhattan on the Long Island Rail Road was painfully slow. There had been a storm that had affected the switches so the train to Jamaica station (the switching point between the Hamptons and Penn station) took extra long. Once we got to Jamaica station, they announced that our 20 minute transfer into Penn Station would not be running. They didn’t really state an alternative but some people told me I could take the subway to Penn Station. In a way this worked out better because I really needed to go to the Port Authority Bus Terminal which was one station sooner on the subway line. It took longer than the LIRR though I’m sure. Finally at the port authority, I bought my greyhound ticket for the 8:45pm bus and sought about finding some dinner before boarding. I happened upon a deli that made custom salads. Once seated, I realized that I was surrounded by an overabundance of Mexican men. I looked around and realized there eyes were all glued to the television where an under 20 FIFA match between Mexico and Korea was being shown. I ended up spending the next hour there, watching the game and conversing with the men around me. I was inspired by the love they shared for their country. Just before I left I happened to see a backpacking couple enter the deli. As I passed by them on my way out, I noticed Canadian flags on their backpack. Seeing those flags reminded me that I too love my country and would cheer it on in any match. With that in mind, I headed down to gate 22 to board my nightbus back home to Canada.
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