NYC Bleg
by tgirschMarch 11th, 2008
So suppose you had 24 hours in New York. Suppose those 24 hours run from 5:30 PM on Sunday to 5:30 PM on Monday. Suppose further that you wanted to get at least five or six hours of sleep in there. And suppose it’s mid-June when you’re there.
What do you do with that time?
Categories: Blegging |
Drive past Gov. Spitzer’s 5th Avenue pad?
Shall we assume you’ve never been to NYC before?
Go to Times Square. Walk around down town. Go to Little Italy and Chinatown. Go to the Empire State Building. Go gawk at the former WTC. Find one of those pay per binoculars things and look at the Statue of Liberty.
I spent an evening in NYC once (drove there from Philadelphia, went to the ESB, drove back, all in about a five or six hour span).
My wife’s never been to the ESB, so that’s definitely on the list. But she’s spent more time in NYC than I have. She’s been to the Met, and has seen a couple of shows on Broadway, etc.
We’ll be going to a Yankees game on Sunday afternoon, and a Mets game on Monday night, so the time in between is wide open.
There’s enough to do in New York that you could do just about anything to fill that time. I can tell you what I’d do, but it wouldn’t necessarily be fun for you.
What kinds of stuff do you like to do, generally speaking?
There’s enough to do in New York that you could do just about anything to fill that time.
This is precisely the problem!
We like history, sightseeing, museums, and local dining.
We can shop pretty much anywhere, so that’s not on the list.
We don’t really “get” art, so art museums are out.
We won’t have a car, so it’s subway, cab, or other public transit wherever we wind up going.
Would really like to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but not sure if it’s worth the amount of time it would take to do so.
But in any case, we’re really open to suggestion. What are the “must do” sights in NYC, and how would you prune that list if you were severely limited in time?
I’m not really a must-do-sights kind of guy. I just spent a week in London and Paris, and all I saw was the Eiffel Tower (from a distance) and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.
On the museum front, the American Museum of Natural History is wonderful, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s got more actual dinosaur fossils on display than anywhere else in the world, by a large margin, and the exhibits are almost all beautiful and intelligently set up. My own personal favorite galleries are the various halls of mammals, with dioramas that date back almost a hundred years, and the newly renovated Hall of Ocean Life, which has a life-size model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling.
One place I keep meaning to go to, but keep not getting around to, is the Transit Museum. If you’re a history geek it might be right up your alley.
More thoughts as I have them…
Well, I’d ditch the “5 hours sleep” thing, first - and the Mets game!
However . . .
As Brooklynite says, it really does depend on what you like to do. It also depends on where you’re staying, since moving between boroughs eats up time if you’re on a schedule.
In Manhattan, you could hit the Museum of Natural History (Central Park, on the West side at 79th St.: dinosaur skeletons! dioramas! hanging blue whale! butterfly garden!), or, on the other side of the park, the Cooper Hewitt Museum (5th Ave & 91st St.: design & fabricated objects - cool & not too artsy). The Museum of Sex (5th Ave at 27th: just what it says) is worth a visit, but overpriced. The Frick Gallery (5th Ave. at 70th St.) is a 19th-Century mansion filled with art & furniture - artsy but not too “museumy”. And finally I have to recommend the Guggenheim Museum (5th Ave. at 88th St.) - an art museum, yes, but the shows are usually more splashy than the more traditional museums, and the building itself is worth a trip. If you’re in the neighborhood of Museum Mile (5th Ave. bordering Central Park), a walk through Central Park is definitely in order; get a map of the park and check out a few of the charming, hidden treats tucked away within it (daylight only).
You can see both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - but not get off - from the Staten Island Ferry. Take the subway all the way south to Battery Park, take the ferry across New York Harbor - it’s free both ways - get off in Staten Island and take the next ferry back. The round trip will take about 45 minutes, and you’ll get a great view of the statue, the reception hall at Ellis Island, and the lower Manhattan skyline on both trips. You can tour both the statue and Ellis Island by taking the appropriate ferry to each one, but it costs and takes a very long time - better just to wave as you go by.
As long as you’re in lower Manhattan, walk up Broadway (it ends at the Ferry Terminal) and pause to have your picture taken rubbing the balls of the huge brass bull in the middle of the street near Wall Street. (If you’re a Japanese tourist, you apparently can’t get back into your home country without such a photo.)
About a mile up Broadway, to the left, is the World Trade Center site. There are viewing platforms, if you have the heart for it (I never have). Another half-mile or so North on Broadway, on the right, is City Hall Park and the Old City Hall. Cross the park and follow the signs and you can walk across the famous Brooklyn Bridge - magnificent views along the East River from the middle of the bridge - all the way into Brooklyn. Just downstream is the Manhattan Bridge - the Brooklyn Bridge’s little brother. If you get to the Brooklyn foot of the bridge (you don’t have to go all the way across, if you’d rather stay in Manhattan), the area between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges is called “DUMBO” (”Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridge Overpasses”) - a former warehouse district that has been super-yuppified into a warren of small commercial art galleries, coffee shops, and avant-garde theaters and nightclubs. Always something going on down there - check the theater listings if you want (but don’t wander around at night without being sure you know where you’re going).
If you have the dogs for it, wander through DUMBO southward until you hit the Manhattan Bridge, and walk back across the river to Canal Street, or just take a subway or cab to the neighborhood. Walk along Canal St. between the river and Broadway - you’ll pass through more or less the heart of Chinatown; at Mulberry you can turn North and walk through what’s left of the Italian quarter, while South of Canal is the real, less touristy, less English-speaking, Chinatown. Stop at any restaurant or pastry bar in Chinatown and order at random - you’ll do fine. The Italian restaurants along Mulberry St. have long since become tourist-only places, which is not to say the food is bad.
Leaving Canal, head North until you hit Delancey St. - you’re in the heart of the Bowery, where the events of the films “Gangs of New York” and “Crossing Delancey” (sort of) took place. You can take a look at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum (Orchard St. at Delancey St.) - an old-fashioned 5-floor tenement house refurbished so each floor represents a typical living situation for an immigrant family from each successive decade around the turn of the 20th Century (the upper floors have no interior ventilation; the middle floors have no electricity, etc.) - really fascinating.
Continue North a few blocks and you’re in SoHo (”SOuth of HOuston St.”) - tons of chi-chi art galleries and coffee shops and hugely overpriced apartments. If you’re interested, you can also see a good cross-section of 19th-Century New York architecture in those blocks: cast-iron factory fronts, brownstones, tiny row houses, etc. Wander anywhere, but don’t buy anything. Keep going North on Orchard to Houston (pr. “HOW-stun” - don’t sound like a tourist by pronouncing it like it’s a city in Texas!); Katz’s Deli is one block to your right - stop in for the most classic (and best) old-time New York nosh anywhere (sit under the sign and do the “fake orgasm” scene, at the very same table, from “When Harry Met Sally”).
Head back West to Broadway and cross Houston to the North; you’re back in workaday Manhattan - look!: it’s the editor of a magazine with a circulation of 112! - look!: it’s an “art director”! - look!: it’s a production intern with a trust fund, an Ivy League degree, and a two-digit IQ!
Heading West on Houston will get you to Greenwich Village - now more yuppie than bohemian, but still fun to wander around in. Washington Square Park (4th-6th Sts., a few blocks West of Broadway) is the nominal (if not geographic) heart of the Village; it’s been gentrified, but you can still score some weed there. One of the buildings bordering the Park to the West is the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, site of the infamous fire in which the company owners escaped and left the workers locked inside to die. From the Park, you’re within walking distance of both the Blue Note (3rd St. at 6th Ave.) and Village Vanguard (4th St. and 7th Ave., but you’ll need a good map to find this one - trust me) - the two most renowned jazz clubs in the city. The covers are steep, but usually worth it.
Several of the best sex-toys shops in the city are along 7th Ave. South and 8th St., or thereabouts. Tell ‘em Kevin sent you. (”Kevin who?”)
Other affordable places to eat: the 2nd Avenue Deli - another classic old-time Kosher New York deli, and my favorite (they really were on 2nd Avenue for generations - they got priced out of their lease, and just this year moved to 33rd St. and 3rd Ave. ["toity-toid 'n toid!" if you want to sound like a tourist who wants to sound like a New Yorker] - but kept the old name and family governance; here’s hoping they make it). Juniors, off the F subway line in Brooklyn, is the renowned spot for cheesecake - worth a trip if you’re that set on cheesecake, but not otherwise. Good cheesecake can also be had at the Roxy Deli in Times Square - insane prices and portion sizes, but something of an experience in itself. (For that matter, good cheesecake can be had almost anywhere, though you’re best off finding a place that makes its own. And further on that point: do not eat at any place called “Lindy’s”, no matter how many times you’ve seen “Guys and Dolls”; it’s a chain, and not original.) Get down to 1st Ave. near 6th St. and pick any Indian restaurant - the quality is directly proportional to the number of Christmas lights they have strung from the ceiling - you’ll be glad you did. For Ukrainian (and yes, it’s worth it), you want Veselka’s at 2nd Ave and 9th St., or the Ukrainian National Home a few doors further south (Veselka’s preferably - order the borscht). For French bistro-style, Brasserie Les Halles is all you can ask for (Park Ave. South at 29th St, or the original on John St. off of Broadway in Lower Manhattan - good food, with the added kick that it’s now infamous as the home of “bad-boy” chef Anthony Bourdain [say . . . I'll be in the neighborhood . . . I'm thinking it's a steak frites kind of night!]). For fish . . . there’s great fish all over New York, but I don’t know any places . . . (sorry!!). Ditto Italian (!!). Oh, yeah - OK - fish: The Oyster Bar, inside Grand Central Station; excellent fish, and outstanding raw bar. I mean,*go there*. It was all I could do to drag Kevin in there one time, but I know you’ll do the right thing! Finally, if you’re in midtown and just dragging around, walk down 46th St. West of Times Square to 9th Avenue - “Restaurant Row” - and then down 9th Ave - you’ll pass every possible kind of restaurant, most of them pretty good, all catering to the theater crowd. Just stop in anywhere that looks good. (The Brazil Grill, at 8th Ave. & 48th St., and Churrascaria, 49th. St. off of 8th Ave., are both good Brazilian-style steak houses.) Go after 8:30 and you’ll have a leisurely, pleasant time. If my ex-girlfriend is performing again at “Don’t Tell Mama’s”, just walk the fuck on by. If you find yourself a block West of Carnegie Hall (57th St. and practice, practice, practice), the “Brooklyn Diner” is a local chain that’s nothing like a real diner but actually has pretty good food; they have another outlet on 43rd or 44th at the bottom of Times Square. Oh, for god’s sake, how many meals can you eat in a day?! That ought to hold you.
Or just call me up and we’ll figure something out!
UPDATE: Seems like Brooklynite and I have the same thoughts about the Natural History Museum!
Actually, catching some live jazz is pretty high on the list, so I’ll consider those recommendations.
I actually drove by the giant bull statue the night I missed you last May.
If it helps, I’m staying someplace called “Chelsea,” which I’ve heard of, but have no idea where it is.
Can’t skip the Mets game, adding Shea Stadium to my collection (before they tear it down) is 1/3 of the whole point of the trip (with Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park being the other 2/3).
It was all I could do to drag Kevin in there one time
Dude, Kevin eats french fries, plain rice, plain hamburgers (no cheese!), fried chicken strips with only ketchup as a dipping sauce, and plain turkey sandwiches (lettuce is acceptable if he’s feeling adventurous). If he’ll eat anything at all that isn’t on that list, I’ve certainly never seen any evidence to support that hypothetical. And you took him to a raw bar?!
Saying that Kevin is not a foodie is kind of like saying Kate Moss isn’t fat.
I’ve been to the statue of liberty, I’d say it’s not worth it unless you love lines and walking up tons of steps to look out a tiny window. The statue is better appreciated from the outside. Ellis Island might be cool, but I’ve never been there.
Matt:
You must have been to the Statue of Liberty a while ago; they won’t even let you up in the crown any more.
Yeah it was a while ago, like close to 20 years ago, crap I’m getting old.
Well it’s not a huge loss, it wasn’t that great an experience to begin with…
tgirsch wrote: “Actually, catching some live jazz is pretty high on the list, so I’ll consider those recommendations.”
I’ve seen some very good stuff at the Blue Note…just keep in mind, it is *very* claustrophobic. New Yorkers’ frame of reference, particularly in regards to space, is very different from the rest of the world’s (by necessity).
Kevin wrote: “One of the buildings bordering the Park to the West is the former Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, site of the infamous fire in which the company owners escaped and left the workers locked inside to die.”
As often as I’m in the area, I’ve never seen it. But keep your eyes open as you walk around. I keep stumbling upon Emma Goldman’s house, and Charlie Parker’s house in the East Village, both identified by plaques, neither worth going out of your way for, but the observant will see stuff like this all the time. It’s the little epiphanies like these that make living here so interesting…
I survived Mexico City; I don’t think the close quarters in NYC should bug me TOO much.
Actually New Yorkers idea of personal space is probably more in line with the rest of the world, not including the rest of the US. Have you ever been to Europe?
No, I’ve never crossed the pond.
Hang on, isn’t that the plot of On The Town?
June’s a lovely time to be in the city. Mondays, though… less to do than weekends, and usually an off day for the baseball teams. Depends on what you’re into. Museum Mile is always a good idea for the kultcha’ed.
In an interesting quirk, the Mets play on Monday. This is why I’m taking the trip when I’m taking it. I wanted to see both the Yankees and the Mets, and when they make the schedules, they’re very careful not to have both teams playing in New York on the same day unless they’re playing against each other. That weekend was the only one that really worked, because the Yankees finish up a homestand on Sunday, and the Mets start one on Monday.
Still, I’m wondering if maybe the waits for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island won’t be quite so bad on a Monday…