New York New Yorking: Part 2

It may have occurred to you, dear reader, whilst perusing Part 1 of my New Yorking extravaganza, that my writing may come across as very (almost a little too) food-oriented...

Yes.

So, moving on to my second post, I realise I should probably mention, just brush over, literally every other aspect of my trip. And whilst the food and drink was a definite highlight, my tastebuds were not the only sense that was indulged and treated on this trip.

Let's start with sight. When you mention you're going to New York - or pretty much anywhere, in fact - one of the first things people ask you is "Oh, you going to see the sights?" And you're like "Yes, yes." Without actually thinking much about the kind of sights that you're going to see.

In the run up to my trip, my fabulous hostess Phil had sent me several warning messages regarding the snowstorm that enveloped the city. I was fully braced for the strong possibility that my flight out would be cancelled due to the adverse weather.

But, by the grace of the universe, the weather cleared right up literally two days before I arrived, leaving the strange combination of fallen snow, minus temperatures... and dazzling sunlight with clear blue skies.

Flying into Newark airport, strapped in by my seatbelt, I craned and squinted at the view. Slowly, as the plane slid and turned in the sky, diving through fluffy clouds, the Manhattan skyline emerged. My mouth fell open.

To see something so iconic - the city sleeping, muffled by a thick, fuzzy blanket of snow - took my breath away. Excitement for the week to come was almost overwhelming, and without my seatbelt holding me fast I feel I would have sprung from my seat and leapt from the plane.

The first thing we did, after lugging my suitcase through the front door of their cosy house in Hoboken, was take the dog for a walk.

Millie, my host family's rescue pitbull, was still relatively new, and despite my vast and varied experiences with puppies (and yes - ALL DOGS ARE PUPPIES. Husky? Puppy. Great Dane? Puppy. Fully grown wolf alpha? Puppy.) she would take a while to get used to the idea that I was a (temporary) part of the pack.

So we went for a walk. We walked the short way down to the riverfront, and I would say that the view was stunning, but a photo speaks like a whole bunch of words so:

Pier A Park, Hoboken, NJ

It was stunning. I couldn't have dreamt up a better kickstart to my week of New Yorking, than to see the city waiting for me, spread out on the horizon, cutting razor sharp through the blue. Buildings I had seen time and time again in films - and Friends' immortal montages - were finally right in front of my naked eyes. They were real.

Which brings me to SKINT NEW YORKING TIP #1: Stay with friends (or acquaintances.) And if not, stay in Hoboken! I loved Hoboken so much. Only 20-odd minutes on the PATH train to Manhattan, it has as many beautiful spots, as much lush architecture and unspeakably good places to eat, in my opinion, as any part of New York. And the abundance of drugstores means you can get not-in-Manhattan prices on things like Gatorade, Tums and aspirin, if you need them.

Also, staying with a family friend was the best decision I could've made. By the end of my trip, I almost felt like part of the family, and I was so sad to leave them, I was desperately making plans to go back in a year (we'll see if it happens - fingers crossed!)

My New York Family!!!

As it was St Paddy's day (fortuitous) we went to a traditional Irish pub called Louise and Jerry's.

Louise and Jerry's, Hoboken

I would recommend this pub over the other Irish pubs in the area for one reason: they love puppies! We even encountered a drunk lady who, we think, believed Millie to be her long-lost soulmate (note the terrified expression of Ms. Millie's face:)

Millie's Biggest Fan!

Dazed and a little drunk, I was happy to head back to my home-for-the-week and curl up on a worryingly comfy sofa (getting up from it was an issue; and I needed to get up in order to GO PLACES and SEE THINGS! Getting up would kind of be a necessity...)

Now, one of the things on my MUST DO list was to see a Broadway show. Now, I love the West End so, so much; I work in the West End. But there's a kind of fervour surrounding Broadway, a glitzy feel that I've always wanted to experience.

My hostess, Phil, is just fabulous. In every way. But she is also one of the most straightforward, matter-of-fact, practical people I've ever met. I, on the other hand, am a notorious faffer. So "I want to see a Broadway show while I'm here" almost-explicitly contained the whiny subtext "but I'm happy on the sofa. I'm cool here. No worries..."

Luckily, Phil sprang into action; Not only did she manage to wangle us tickets to a Broadway show. She managed to wangle us tickets to the last night of The Present - which starred one of my favourite actors of all time (see: Carol) Cate Blanchett!

Now, I don't know if you've seen her face, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that's probably one of the only things that could've peeled me off the sofa on that morning of jetlagged sofa-squatting!

So off we went. Back out into the biting cold. The streets were peaceful, sleepy almost, with impressive piles of snow driven onto the pavements. Now, in 21st century climate-change London, snow doesn't settle. We have sleety-rain and rainy-sleet. Sometimes, we have slush.

The Beautiful Snowy Streets of Hoboken

We took the PATH train - which stands for Port Authority Trans-Hudson, an acronym I'm 90% sure they bullshitted up just so the initials spelled an easily-memorable word - into Manhattan, and alighted at the World Trade Centre.

Experiencing the Subway for the First Time

It felt a lot like the London Underground, except there was a lot more chrome. The lack of bold colours, the forceful air-con, the clinical lighting - all these aspects made the whole experience feel a bit too functional.

I've ridden a lot of underground subway systems: I ride the tube to work everyday. I've ridden in Paris and Prague. And the thing I like about them is that they mostly have a relaxed feel - you want to spend time on them. I guess my only quoible with the subway was that you felt a bit eager to get to B.

But, I don't know - there are definitely New Yorkers that feel as passionately about the subway as I feel about the underground; If I'd have witnessed some busking, or one of the many beautiful, inevitable acts of kindness you often see on trains, maybe I'd feel differently!

By the time we got to the World Trade Centre, the weather was suitably solemn. The tower shot up to the sky - so tall that the clouds obscured it's spire.

The World Trade Centre

The tower itself was beautiful, but the thing that really took my breath away was the memorial: two fountains sunk into the Earth, where the towers once stood. A monument to the lives lost on a day that the fate of the human race changed forever.

The heavy clouds began to spit on us, then opened to a full baptism. Reading the names as we walked along the side of the vast pit, I found myself reflecting upon our particular epoch - the conflict and catastrophes that were born on this spot - and had a silent moment for the future.

May things come right, in the end.

The 9/11 Monument

I don't know how we thought this would lighten the mood, in present socio-historical contexts, but as it was a Saturday and so would be sans men in suits, we decided to walk south, towards Wall Street.

Phil outside The New York Stock Exchange

The rain stopped, and then started, and then dried up again - kind of like the instability and unreliability of modern finance (pathetic fallacy.) And we both took photos, both with the Charging Bull statue, and the brilliant Fearless Girl - a symbol of the feminine spirit of equality and fairness in the face of the bull's brute force.

Fearless Girls

Times Square was oddly smaller than I expected - maybe because I'm so used to Piccadilly and similar-sized public places in London. But the flashing lights and the sight of the famous ball that drops on NYE each year made it worth the crowds. Although my hostess, who used to work in the area, was not amused.

Somewhat Bedraggled in Times Square

Then came Lillie's - one of Phil's favourite bars, just off Times Square. You can read all about that in Part 1 of this post!!

So when the time came to head to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, we were already quite giddy with flamey cocktails, and I was full of anticipation to see one of my faves in a Chekhov adaptation. (Chekhov is another one of my faves - his insight into human relationships is matched by few.)

The Ethel Barrymore Theatre

Considering it was the last night, and we had got our tickets online, on the day, our seats could have been worse. We were in the upper circle, but not all the way in the gods.

I usually don't mind being in the gods - I think it gives you an elevated objectivity that you won't get if you're gazing up at them in the stalls, or looking straight across in the dress. It feels a bit like you're eavesdropping - looking in on something you're not meant to see. Looking through a stranger's window, into their lives.

The Auditorium

The performance, from where I was sitting, was gripping. Blanchett had charisma and presence - the auditorium's eyes were glued to her, and she knew it. However, not everyone was as rapt as I; I had to nudge my neighbour to keep her from snoring a few times! An edgy, contemporary reading of Platonov, The Present had the scale and energy I had so desperately wanted to see from a Broadway play. I was satisfied.

I knew it was the last night, so I was not surprised, when we got to the stage door, to see vast swathes of people, hungry glints in their eyes, clasping anything from programmes to printed photographs, waiting for Ms. Blanchett to grace us with her presence.

I was willing to go home and skip stage door, but Phil was so chill about waiting in the cold, I thought I'd seize this opportunity to meet one of my personal acting heroes.

The time ticked by. The staff left. Our feet turned numb in the gritted slush we were standing in. But the longer we waited, the more we felt the necessity to stay; We figured surely, it can't be long now?

But it was a full hour. An hour in the cold. We knew Ms. Blanchett was about to arrive when a glossy black SUV pulled so close to stage door it was almost on the pavement, sandwiching the huddled crowds even closer together. And when Ms. Blanchett did emerge - beautifully pale and classic against her chic black leather coat - she only stopped to sign about three autographs, took photos with a few people at the front, and then disappeared into the car, which slid glamourously into the New York night.

It's hard to be angry at Cate, after pulling off such a performance, but one would think that the theatre would have kept the security at stage door better informed as to what time she would be coming out. Especially in such a cold, dead night as the one in question.

I always get angry at my fellow actors who sneer at people who wait at stage door to meet the cast - if you work in the entertainment industry, and you are successful, you have been blessed with a job that is the dream of so many. It doesn't hurt you to spend some time with the fans - who are, after all, the reason you have that job.

But then again, I do feel for actors who, after pulling off a highly emotional, intense performance night after night, are forced to spend hours signing and having photos taken of them before they can go home. I think a balance has to be struck, and I think communication between the actors, the theatre and the paying public is the key. But more on that another time. My bed (the sofa of comfyness) was calling.

Cate Blanchett at Stage Door

Breakfast the next am was a classic New York bagel - courtesy of another Hoboken gem: The Bagel Smashery. With an interior quirkier than Zooey Descanel knitting whilst making her eyes real big.

The Bagel Smashery

I got an "Everything Bagel" with cream cheese and sundried tomato - smashed of course - and it was jetlag-hangover heaven. I felt like I had truly arrived in New York (even though I was technically in New Jersey at the time...)

My Smashery Experience

(I know I said I would stop talking about the food. But there was juST SO DAMN MUCH OF IT.)

I set off bright and early, after being majickally healed by my bagel, determined to make the most of my day. I got slightly lost on the very short walk down to the picturesque station, and got the PATH train straight in.

Getting lost soon became a running theme of the day, as I tried to head south again in order to find the Manhattan terminal of the Staten Island Ferry.

One of my principle missions for the week was to visit all five New York boroughs - Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. So I thought I'd start with Staten Island - the ferry was free, apparently with great views of the Statue of Liberty, and the weather was great. Perfect timing, I thought... unfortunately, so did everybody else! It took a while for the crowds of noisy families and tourists to file on, but eventually it was my turn.

SKINT NEW YORKING TIP #2: Staten Island Ferry. The other passengers were noisy. The sun streamed blearily through the grimy windows, so my photos could have turned out better. But I had two good eyes, and Simon and Garfunkel's classic 'America' playing on my ipod, and that's all I needed.

Pulling away in the Staten Island Ferry

I'd found an app - app-ly named (see what I did there?) "New York App"- and it was very cool to be able to follow where I was in the Hudson. Plus, many times, it was the only thing between me and total lost-ness.

See a screenshot on the right:

The Statue of Liberty

When we pulled into Staten Island, I was amazed at how different from Manhattan - the only borough I had been to thus far - it looked. It seemed very calm and town-like, almost suburban.

Pulling into Staten Island

I wasted no time, as the return ferry that I wanted to get left in half an hour. Following my app, I marched along the road, passing shops and bars and a sports centre, until I reached my destination.

When I reached my destination, something did a flip in my stomach. The 9/11 memorial, a pair of icy angel wings, with the One World Trade Centre dead centre as you approach, was completely deserted. With the snow still on the ground, the sense of peace was palpable. The only sound was the gentle whispering of the breeze.

9/11 Memorial, Staten Island

I caught my ferry back, smugly ticking off my second borough, and the return journey was just as scenic, with intriguing brown buildings and cranes stretching off to the distance. What are they building there? Then, before I knew it, I was back in Manhattan.

Alphabet City

First stop was Alphabet City. RENT is one of my favourite musicals of all time, and I was excited to visit the neighbourhood that inspired Jonathan Larson.

Sure enough, it did not disappoint, with the iconic apartment buildings stacked on top of bohemian cafes and bars.

I was on my way to Raclette - again, see Part 1 for a full review - when I was stopped in my tracks by a brightly coloured sign.

Now, as a fervent lover of street markets and car boot sales, I was instantly drawn in. Why not take a detour? Isn't that the point of this holiday - that my time is my own, and I am free to have adventures, and go where the universe takes me?

And I'm so glad I did. SKINT NEW YORKING TIP #3: Look out for Flea Markets! The locals were lovely people, and were selling all kinds of knick knacks and unconventional souvenirs! Everything I inquired about had it's own backstory, it seemed, and I could have listened to that New York accent all day. But my list was long, and the schedule I had given myself was tight. So I said farewell and moved on.

The Alphabet City Flea Market

After my luxurious Raclette lunch, I wandered the streets for a while longer, just enjoying the sensations of being lost in a strange city. Eventually, though, I could feel the biting cold start to cut through my clothing, and my teeth began to chatter. So I picked a random bar, one which caught my eye (is that a bicycle?!) and headed in, letting the warmth wash over me.

The Belfry

I chose well. The ambience of the place was very Shoreditch-esque, so I felt quite at home, and the bartenders were chatty and interesting. They saw me shivering and instantly recommended a "Hot Buttered Rum" Needless to say, this soon did the trick, and my chattering teeth calmed down.

Three of the Best Words in the English Language: Hot. Buttered. Rum.

Warmed through and refuelled, I headed home to my hosts, for pasta bake and cuddles with the puppy. After a little while, she learned to stop growling every time I got up to go to the toilet! I can't describe how utterly loving and protective she was, once she got used to me. Can't imagine what she went through before she was found by her loving family. Seriously: Adopt don't shop, people!!

Me and my New Best Buddy

Alas, dear reader, it is 2am. And I have double show day at the theatre where I work tomorrow. So stay tuned - the saga will continue very, very soon with New Yorking: Part 3!!!

Char

xxx