Another day in New York

After the Empire State building yesterday I went to see "From Hell" with a bunch of Elisabeth's friends. Or more precisely, we were on our way to the movie and went up the Empire State on a whim. The funny thing is that it turned out that I knew a couple of people at the cinema from C6. That was amusing.

Yesterday I went into the city by myself for the first time. I messed up a bit getting the bus out of New Jersey, but once I got into the city I was pleased with myself for navigating unaided to where I was meeting my guide for the day. I'm also amused that I rode the "A" train.

My guide for the day was Suzanne. I hadn't seen her in person for nine years so that in itself put a surreal spin on the whole day. But given the copious amount of history we have together and the fact that we have been in touch the conversation was easy and it felt comfortable. It was great to actually see her again.

Hanging out with Suzanne put a different spin on my New York experience. Suzanne, as I put it to her while we were having beers in an Irish bar later in the day, comes from and lives in a whole different world of money than I have ever been in. I feel more than a bit guilty for letting her pay for as much as I did.

We met at the subway station near Washington Square, near her place and then meandered through SoHo. She took me for lunch at a place on Little W. 12th St. - the kind of place where the serving staff pours more of your sparkling water from the bottle for you when your glass runs low. I'm more used to the sort of place that gives you tap water only if you ask for it.

From there we took a subway to Central Park. That was pretty amazing. I've seen so much of the park so many times in films and on television that it was wholly familiar despite having never been there before... sort of a post-modern deja vu experience. We people-watched in the park and laughed over how many people were having wedding photos taken. Practically everywhere we looked there was someone in a wedding dress!

Then we had to get back to her neighbourhood to pick up some film she had dropped off and she wasn't inclinded to walk or pile onto the subway again so we cabbed it. The cab went right by Grand Central Station, which was impressive. If I have time in the next couple of days maybe I'll go stick my nose in to have a look.

Next stop was an Irish bar near where she picked up her film. There we sat and discussed the woes of the world and the decline of the American Emprire over beer and cigarettes (OK, she didn't have a smoke and I only had one, but it sounds better pluralized).

Suzanne then led me across town to a favourite restaurant of her's in the Lower East Side. They knew her by name there. That made for a nice experience.

And then it was back to the Port Authority bus terminal and back to New Jersey. So goeth another day in New York.

The pictures of the day are here.

Oringinal post: http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/131583.html