I’m off to the ‘big apple’ today, hurrah, although I was sad to leave Boston, I think I could live there, it’s lively, friendly, fun, vibrant, hopeful, dynamic and packed with some great restaurants and bars. Perhaps I’ll visit again in the summer and see it without it’s winter coat on.
I’m taking the Greyhound bus, I hope it’s going to be ok. When I told one of the plumbers I met at the Beehive the other day, he said . ‘Oh good luck with that’.
He’s got a point, the bus has seen better days, but it’s comfortable enough and it’s only 4 hours to New York. As we pulled away, someone shouted out ‘Driver it’s too hot’, so the driver turned the heating down. Unfortunately she turned it down too much, so that after a while my feet were cold and I had to put my coat back on. I could hear other people muttering about the cold as well. So in the end it was me who got up and asked the driver to turn up the heating again. Where is a brash and forthright American when you need one?
I’m in New York, wow it’s manic, we’ve been driving through the outskirts, the Bronx, Harlem etc on our way to downtown Manhattan, as I gaze out of the window at the sheer variety and pace of life.
Now I’m riding the New York subway, 
how cool is that, destination west 87th street. My hotel is ok, not nearly as nice as yesterday, but perfectly serviceable. It’s well placed, just a stones throw from Central Park.
Unfortunately the view from my room is of a brick wall, so no herds of wildebeest and definitely no Central Park.
I couldn’t be bothered to go to far tonight, but Amsterdam Avenue is just around the corner and there are dozens of restaurants lining the street on both sides. Help, too much choice I can’t decide..
While looking for a place to eat I came across a Cuban/Chinese fusion restaurant. It looked like it was permanently closed though. I’m not that surprised as it doesn’t sound like a marriage made in heaven to me and reminds me of a similar suspicious fusion in Lille that I made the mistake of being persuaded to eat in once. It was called the Flandre Liban. A mix of Flemish and Lebanese cuisine!
One ‘good’ thing in New York, at least for me, is that you need a vaccine pass to be able to eat or drink inside and my EU digital pass is accepted without question. This means I can easily get a table inside as there is a roaring trade going in heated outdoor tents, crazy really. On that note, there are Covid test stations on many street corners doing a brisk trade, but something I like in particular are the signs saying ‘project hope’ as opposed to the doom and gloom ‘project fear’ suffered by everyone in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.
A word about how the streets work in New York. Basically the streets run east to west and the higher the number the further north you are or uptown, as we locals say 😉 Downtown is the south of Manhattan. My hotel is on west 87th street. The west bit means that it is west of Central Park. East 87th street is the other side. The avenue’s run perpendicular to the streets in general and are numbered from the east going west. Broadway just does what it wants and meanders all over the place. Paying attention ? Good because there may be a test.
I settled for Spaghetti Tavern as it looked cosy and was busy. I had some spaghetti calabrese, which was really good. It was served in a sort of paper bag that opened out which was a bit strange.
A big day exploring tomorrow so that’s it for today.
Got it. Thanks for explaining that 😆