Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Central Park, Metropolitan Museum, MoMA and much more

The day before yesterday in the morning I took the Long Island Rail to Penn station. There I took the subway to Harlem. Not that I wanted to get there, but it just skipped on most stations, so I had to take another train back to 72nd street West side. There I saw the building in which John Lennon lived, and where he was murdered. Just opposite the house in Central Park I was the "Strawberry fields" and all other John Lennon related things and good atmosphere with guitars and singers. From there I walked up inside Central Park to the Belvedere Castle, from where I could see the most beutyful view of the whole park. Later on I visited the Metropolitan Museum, which was much bigger than I estimated. I think it requires a month or so to explore it, so I scanned some exhibitions in 2 hours. Then I met Tomi and Alexandra and we ate some cakes in Demo - a Wiener cafe. There was the huge Apple store just opposite the cafe, so there was no choice, I went there to see with about another 300 people in the same time. Then the Sony shop at 54th was the dessert.

Yesterday I visited the Intrepid, the huge aircraft carrier which parks on the Hudson river at 46th street. That was a great experience. I went all around the huge ship, up to the captain's deck, and down to the hangars. On the deck I saw many aircraft of which the carrier could take one hundred. Interesting film is shown in the theater about the history of the ship which served in the Second World War, and Vietnam as well. In the afternoon I went around Broadway, walked from 86th street all the way down to the Village. Bea came to meet me at 7, and we went to Caroline's comedy. The guy on the stage began with good jokes about Jews, and other people in New York, and then went over to some more sensitive stuff. After talking about the sensitive stuff 5-10 minutes he suddenly asked a girl sitting in the audience about her age. Guess what the answer was? 16! So he became very embarrassed, confused and switched to different topics. But this thing actually has ruined his show. But altogether it was funny.

Today I visited the Museum of Modern Art on the 54th street. That was a little too complex to me to understand this kind of modern art. But I enjoyed very much the exhibition on interior design as well as the museum shop at the end.

I also succeeded to buy pants, a pair of shoes and one t-shirt. Great success.
Tomorrow is my last whole day in the city. I hope to visit Guggenheim Museum and/or Fritz Collection and/or Natural History. I'll see how much I can do in one day.
I enjoy New York very very much. Pictures will be uploaded sometime. Please don't ask about this, please. Good?

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Baltimore, DC, New York

Finally posting. Yesterday Mark, Alina, Yonatan and myself visited the Baltimore Aquarium. This is one of the biggest aquariums of the World. Excellent dolphin show, big sharks, and many other funny creatures. The exhibition of the jelly fishes was the most interesting. We walked all around the inner harbor of Baltimore, ate sushi creating some ecological imbalance in the sea.
Today Alina helped me in some shopping, I bought two shirts, and I finally know what is my size! I am however still completely unable to buy jeans or dockers, I am a complete misfit. Alina dropped me at a bus station in Reston. The bus took me to Falls Church where I took the metro to DC. In DC dropped my backpack in a locker, and went for a walk next to the Capitol Hill. Then I saw the Postal Museum, which was the closest museum to Union station. This was very interesting. Another non-boring museum, you know, one of those few. It introduced the history of the US Post and mail services. A very special point of view on the American history.
At 4 I took the Amtrak to New York Penn Station, where Gabor picked me up, and we went to the 42nd Street tower bar, up on the 48th floor. This is a restaurant which turns around in 360 degrees in one hour. So we saw Manhattan at night all around. On the napkins there was the map of the important buildings on the view illustrated, so we could identify most of them. Too late now for pictures. But they'll come.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Washington DC and Reston

On Friday morning I checked out really early from the hostel on 11th street in New York. I walked in the chilly morning to 4th West subway station with my backpack and trolley. It was still dark, late night pub visitors were spread out making their way home. I took the A train to Penn Station 34th street and took a train at 7:17 to Washington DC. The ride took three and a half hours, well, this is the disadvantage of the cheapest ticket. We run over Philadelphia and Baltimore before arriving to DC. DC's Union station is one of the most wonderful stations I have seen.



As you can see I began taking shots. I met Mark and Alina who picked me up at the station. We went to a walk in DC parks. We saw the monument of the second world war, and climbed up to George Washington Memorial.




Today we have visited the Air and Space museum. There are actually two of these. One in DC itself and the other is next to Washington Dulles airport. We went to the second one where the Enterprise space shuttle is exhibited. I sat in a simulator which simulates the Enterprise liftoff and landing. That was amazing. Now heavy rain outside, and the evening is yet to come!



Friday, September 25, 2009

Washington square

It's the second evening when when I put the final chord on my day with some guitar music. All kind of spontaneous players sitting all around the square with the big marble arch on the side and an illuminated fountain in the middle. People just start playing something and then others come to join them for singing, drumming or playing another guitar. Others just walk by, and stay for one song or two. While playing and singing it's really hard to think about that the square once served for public executions. [for clarity: I didn't play. I just sat there and enjoyed how others played.]
Today I explored Queens with a friend of mine who lives there. He took me to Kew Gardens, Jamaica Hills and many other neighborhoods of Queens where the Jews rule. In some places there is a majority of Jewish shops, restaurants and residents. Then came back, ate a huge lobster on 6th avenue, and hung out in the village in some bars with live music. This is to compensate the kosher part of the day ;-)
Tomorrow I'll be off to Mark and Alina in Reston, VA for the weekend. Keep tuned!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ray's pizza and others.

I must inform the reader with great disappointment that the famous Ray's Pizza 6th avenue corner 11th street doesn't rock at all. It's a big big slice of pizza with tons of oil on it. I really don't understand why is that so famous.
Anyway. To the point.
Yesterday evening I was hanging out quite a bit. I began in a Cuban Restaurant in the east Village where I wanted to order:
- Excuse me, Sir, what is a paella del choriros?
- It's just like paella de vormachinez but a little more spicy.
- Which is?
- Oh. sorry. vormachinez is with crullos and fartios, you know sir, fish!
(Oh, fish I know that!)
- Ok, that will be fine.

That was a fantastic paella. Rice with kinds of fish. Tons of primiadilez and kelisavertos in it ;-) or something similar. Next place was a live music bar, in a basement of a building. Good music, much fun. Then the Fat Cat also with live music.
Today I went to "track and trails", a sports shop in the downtown. I finally bought a couple of things: a small backpack, a raincoat, and fast-dry pants.
I ate lunch at Balthazar on Spring street, quite close to Broadway corner. That was a fantastic place. If you don't like gourmet food, turn to the next paragraph. Entree: Oysters: 6 fresh oysters samples: 3 from the West- and 3 from the East-coast. All of different types. Then I ate a huge beef steak fillet made medium-rare which tasted awesome. That was really delicious. Dessert I choose Pavlova with warm berries. That was the best Pavlova ever in my life, including all New Zealand and Australia. Fantastic.
After having eaten all these I went to Wall Street's museum of American Finance. All about stock-, bond- and commodities exchange, their history. The dollar, notes and interesting facts about them. This is one of the few non-boring museums which I rarely see.
Later on I walked all the way up to Chinatown and Little Italy. Chinatown is just like Hong Kong, Chinese occasionally tempered by a little bit of English. Amazing markets selling unknown fruits, and all Chinese stuff. Just one street ahead I crossed to the other side and found myself in Little Italy, where the best Italian restaurants are located.

Hanging out

Yesterday I took the subway all the way down to the financial district. The first thing I saw was Century 21. I went in, which turned out to be a mistake. So cheap. On the other hand they don't even have fitting rooms. Strange. I left the zone of Century 21 quickly. I saw the are of the ground zero, and the memorial. I walked all around Wall street and other small streets of the neighborhood. Then I took the Staten Island Ferry from the terminal. Not that I had something to do on Staten Island, but it goes quite close to the statue of Liberty. So I saw it twice. I saw New York from a very special view from the sea. In the afternoon and evening I walked all over the streets of the village and Chelsea.
Today first thing in the morning I went up to Empire State Building. I was there at opening. So I didn't wait in any queue. Now I saw how big and tall actually New York is. The building itself is amazing as well.
Later on I walked around the east side of the Midtown. In the after noon I took a bus to the Jersey Gardens Outlet. This was quite a disappointment. It's a huge area of bullshit with a few good stuff inside. The thing is that in order to reach the good things you have to jump into all that other stuff. The reader can replace some words with others. I don't want to violate bolg regulations. So I ended up with 3 pairs of socks. That's the whole deal. In general I can say the the sellers in NY don't know even their own stuff. The mix real shit with valuable goods, and sometimes it seems that even they cannot differ between them. Then I returned to the hotel to search the Internet for some sports stuff. It pointed out some stores here in Manhattan which are supposed to sell those things. When I called them to ask if they have it they just said "Eh? What? Huh?". So it works. I hunted some strawberries from the deli, which I'm going to eat soon. Then I'll be heading out for dinner.
One more strange thing. New Yorkers don't wait for the green light when crossing a street. They just walk. Even when cars are coming they cross if there are enough cheeky people who cooperate for red light crossing. Sometimes a policeman stands in the middle, but it seems to me that he defenses the cars from the walkers more than the walkers from themselves.

Monday, September 21, 2009

a less formal day

Yesterday I didn't post, but here it goes now.
In the morning I walked around Whashington Square, when came the phonecall from Szilvia, a very good childhood friend, who invited me to come to visit them. So I took the subway to Grand Central and then the train to Croton Harmon. They live in a very nice house with a garden. We went to soo the Pow-Wow not far from their place. Native americans (Indians) were dressed and were dancing their traditional folk dances. All kind of native handicrafts were sold, I liked the fox-faces, but no, I didn't buy one. The fox was inside.
Then a bried BBQ in the garden and I hopped on the train back to Grand Central. That was a very nice day. In the evening I went to the Commedy Cellar where all kind of commedists showed up on the stage making a really good time for the audiance. It was really funny, not that I can citate any of their jokes.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Stand clear of the closing doors, please!

This was my first whole day in New York. It's easy to get around, I don't even need the map. I toured over the village, drunk a terrible lemonade for which I even payed 3 dollars. Went up to the Times Square, then walked back to Union Square. Great sunny weather, a simple t-shirt did it. I had lunch in an Italian restaurant serving gorgonzola cheese with portebello style mushrooms and excellent salads. At the nearby table an old man was eating colorful candies for dessert which he pulled out from his jacket's pocket. :-)
I saved my eating capabilities to the evening. It was worth it all.
At 6 I went over to Tomi's and Josephine's home on east 70th street. They are very kind people. The jacket was on place, good that I bought it with me. I was glad to see that not everybody was wearing a tie. There were 17 guests which were served by 2 housekeeper ladies who were hired for this purpose.
The evening began in the hall of the kitchen where we drunk some wine, ate some cheese and other stuff. Then we went over to the piano room where Sarah - one of the guests from Boston - played Chopin in remembrance of the 200th birthday of the composer. Then we went up to the dining room where the table was already organized. The guests were from the Goldman Sachs (Josephine's work), from the UN, and other respectful employers. Tomi and Josephine sat on the opposite sides of the long table (actually of the room). On the walls of the dining room remarkable paintings were hanging. I thought it was a nice two stories house, until Tomi decided to show me around.
Ok, dear reader, just sit back. This house has six floors. Each floor serves different purposes. A floor where Tomi works, 2 floors for sleeping and bathrooms, one for the living- and dining room, one for the kitchen and the piano, and one... I forget, but there were six. The floors are connected with a wooden two staircases and an elevator, which was the original elevator of the building dating back to its construction in 1910. By the way the house is located just opposite of Woody Allan's house.
Some words about the menu: Soup with traditional kneidelach, then meat with meet: roasted lamb, duck breast, chicken items, salads, potatoes, etc...
The dessert was made of 5 courses: pears with cinnamon, Pavlova, honey cake, and another 2 kind of cakes.
We killed'm all :-)
Then we were sitting in the living room where the impressive china collection is located with Herendi chinas all around, and paintings on the walls.
I have never been in such party in such castle in my life. That was an real experience for me.
Shana Tova!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I was walking around without my camera, which turns out to be a great fun. For photos of New York use Google. They are far better than the ones I make. So I decided to get rid of the camera for the first days.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

I made it!

Successfully arrived to JFK with Air France via Charles De Gaulle. I even slept a little bit on the plane. From JFK I took the Air Train to Howard Station where I bought a train ticket together with a one-week subway ticket. During the ride I figured out where to get off. I came up at West 4th street where I asked two girls for directions. Where is north, east, etc. They told two totally different things and they started to discuss with each other that if north is there then the opposite direction cannot be west, it must be south. Anyway, I figured out the directions alone. Found the hotel on 11th street between 5th and 6th avenues. Nice place. I went out to grab some food. I found a place named something like "7-day open food restaurant", ate some fish and now I am back to the hotel.
In the restaurant I heard an excellent joke, which was told at the table next to mine.
- Wh*&^*$#)%&*@)( the parrots and $(&#*(&$#@ so then the man came and said (*&$(*#&%*@&*(#$&
- hahahaaaa!
Good one, ain't it?
Now crashing to bed.

Friday, September 18, 2009

zero sleeps

two so to say irregular things in my backpack:
- a sport jacket
- a made-in-china colorful big farm tractor

New York, here I come!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

12 more sleeps

to New York city!...
Come on, come on... augh it's still 12... faster please!