You would think it was just the stress I was feeling about getting ready to leave the country, but it wasn't. I was generally very excited about leaving. It was something deeper.
As a person from a small city located in inland America, my image of New York is shaped by the media. New York brings to mind the many books, films, and television programs that are set in the shadow of its mighty skyscrapers. The city ceases to be real for a person who has never visited. It becomes so fantastic that the people, places, and stories seem imaginary.
Just like Paris, I knew my preconceived notions about New York would be completely changed after arriving. There was just no reason for me to feel the way I did.
Our flight took most of the day. We had purchased tickets at a good rate, so the route was not direct. We first flew to Seattle, where we spent a couple hours waiting for our next flight. The flight to Newark was delayed several times over the next hours. We were already arriving very late in the evening, and with the delays we would be arriving even later.
For two weeks before our departure we contacted couch hosts in the city. Our endeavors were fruitless. Many people never wrote back, and those that did could not host. There was a couple hopeful replies, but in the end they did not work out.
Eventually we decided to use an old trick of ours. It is common for couchsurfing to be complicated in big cities like New York. These places are very popular to visit, and the couch hosts get dozens of requests each day. They are so flooded with people, it is not easy to get someone to reply. The best thing to do in situations like this is search in the towns outside the main city.
We sent some requests a little further away in New Jersey, and we got a hit! A man living in a suburb with his family gladly requested us, and we began a series of emails back and forth. We were relieved to find such a nice host - he even offered to pick us up at the airport despite our late arrival.
Ultimately, he was not able to pick us up with all the delays our flight had. We arrived in Newark at about one in the morning. We grabbed our stuff and began the search for transportation. Originally, we wanted to use Uber, but this did not work out. There was no internet in the airport, and we did not have any sim in the phone.
We found a taxi that was not unreasonably priced, and headed to our hosts house. He texted us to let us know he was waiting inside. When we arrived, we were very glad to have such a warm welcome despite us arriving later than expected. He showed us our room and bid us goodnight.
Arriving in Port Authority, our first goal was to get some sort of map. We already had a very good idea of what we wanted to do in the city. Many years ago, when Javier was in his twenties, he lived in New York so he could learn English. We had discussed several times what we wanted to see. We just needed to get our bearings.
Our first interaction in the city was with a security guard at Port Authority. We asked him if there was any information or tourist office. He responded by asking us why we wanted it, and when we told him we wanted a map, he frowned. "You won't get a map at any of the offices." Then he whipped a map out of his jacket pocket, and wished us a good time in the city.
Setting out from Port Authority, we began our adventure. Stepping out into the shaded streets was torture. The days we spent in New York were brutally cold, with a wind that would slice through to the bone. The unfortunate thing for us is that we really prefer to see a city by walking.
On our first day, we walked around Manhattan between 23rd Street and 75th Street. Starting in Times Square, we made our way down to the Flatiron Building by way of Bryant Park and then Broadway. We then went back north along 5th Avenue to the Empire State Building. We discussed briefly whether we wanted to pay the exorbitant amount charged to see the building, and decided that it was an opportunity well worth the price.
Because of Javier's disability, we had an expedited arrival to the 80th floor. We did not need to wait in any line to go through security, or get our tickets. They just bumped us up to the front, we paid, and got in the elevator to see the historical exhibit. Since the price was more than we like to pay for such touristic things, we decided to take our time in the exhibit and learn as much as we could.
If we had not taken our time and we had jumped at the opportunity to walk up the stairs to the 86th floor observatory, we would have actually made it there. After we finished with our audio tour, we got in line for the elevator, hoping there would soon be another opportunity to take the stairs. This was not the case.
After a while of waiting in a line that was going nowhere, a woman came down and announced that there would be no more elevators up to the 86th floor and the stairs were closed. There was obviously something wrong. They told us a pipe had burst, and flooding was preventing anyone from going to the observatory. Given the option to leave and come back the next days when the flooding was fixed, we decided our time was better spent on the street than hoping the elevators would be put into action.
As we left, we walked past the elevators and saw the problem. There was a steady stream of water pouring out through the cracks in the door. It was definitely better for us to leave; they were not going to have the problem fixed in a reasonable amount of time.
We got down to the street and went for some lunch. We got a pretty good cup of soup and a sandwich for quite cheap - our favorite kind of meal. We continued walking along 5th Avenue, then we changed over to Park Avenue. By the time we got up to 59th street, it was beginning to get late.
Walking into the park, the sun began to set. We made it all the way up to the Bethesda Fountain and the Loeb Boathouse before we turned back.
It got dark about the time we left the southern edge of the park. We needed to get back to our host's house for dinner, so we began to walk down 5th Avenue. Our pace was quick, but we managed to enjoy St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and the brilliant night Times Square.
It was not too late when we arrived back at the house. They had made a wonderful treat for us; they cooked a whole octopus and put it on the grill when we arrived. Absolutely delicious. We made a Tortilla de Patatas - as usual. A lovely meal.
Understandably, we were exhausted from all our walking and passed out rather quickly that night. It was good that we slept so soundly, because our second day was just as taxing.
Arriving at Port Authority again, we jumped on the subway and made our way out to Brooklyn Heights. This was a wonderful way to start the day. Walking along the promenade, the sun was shining and it was much warmer than the previous day. We took our time and enjoyed the much improved weather.
Getting up onto the bridge, we continued our walk. We met some German tourists and exchanged the favor of taking some photos. Being on the bridge was nice, because there was no buildings to obscure the sun. When we got into the financial district, it was much colder in the shade.
We walked down to Wall Street. Since there are no tours allowed of the Stock Exchange since the September 11th attacks, there really isn't much to do there. We continued our walk west towards the former site of the Twin Towers.
As always, I was starving and began to notice any and every opportunity to get food. We eventually walked past this little pizza shop. There were some great combinations, and we each got a slice. Walking and eating, we finally arrived at the Twin Towers memorial.
The Twin Towers memorial is two enormous fountains the size of the buildings' footprints. These are so deep, and constructed in such a way, that it is not possible to see the bottom. To me, they were an interesting depiction of the emotion evoked by the site. But, to many of the residents of New York, they are a wasteful use of water and electricity.
It is always interesting to see people in these places taking smiling portraits. As if visiting a place such as this is a happy occasion. You see this everywhere - even places like Auschwitz. Our host told us later that, even when the rubble of the buildings was still smoking, you could find people taking photos in front of the site. It is hard to understand the thought process - or lack of. It is a little sickening.
Continuing our walk north, we crossed through Tribeca and made our way up to Canal Street. There, we explored Chinatown and Little Italy before taking the subway back up to the Empire State Building.
Since we were unable to visit the observatory the day before, we thought it would be good to visit again in the evening. If we could get up before dark, then we could get photos in the light, at sunset, and after dark. Our arrival to the top was again expedited. It probably only took us 15 minutes total to get to the observatory. Since we already had a ticket, they just took us straight to the elevator up to the 80th floor. When we arrived there we did not need to spend any time in the exhibit, and we were lucky enough that they opened the stairs right as we arrived.
Our plan worked perfectly. We got photos of the city in both the light and at night. It is probably good there was a flood the day before, because the night photos were much more spectacular than any we could have taken during the day.
We stayed a couple hours at the observatory. Time went by fast as we watched the lights of the city. Eventually, we had to go so we could go back to the house for dinner. We walked across town to Port Authority and took a bus back to New Jersey.
Our last day in New York, we checked our bags at the Greyhound in Port Authority so we would not need to go back to New Jersey before heading to JFK. Our day was not the most productive. We needed to mail something and the post office we chose to enter was excessively slow. Once we were done there, we started heading towards the Metropolitan Museum.What little time we had left before we needed to go to the airport, we wanted to spend in the museum. We were very strategic in our tour; focusing on those sections we thought were most interesting. Our main interests were the Egyptian and Arab exhibits. I really wanted to see the costume exhibit, but they were between different shows.
We stayed in the Museum until the last possible minute. Our journey back to Port Authority to get our bags and get on the subway was intense. We walked briskly, taking the example of natives and j-walking when safe. The combination of our pace and a shortcut across the park got us back to the bus station in record time.
On the subway, we got a final taste of New York. First, an older man came up to Javier thinking he was someone else. Even after Javier corrected him, the man stayed to chat with us for a while. Turns out he had lived in Spain. He was very excited to chat with Javier. At the same time, two kids dressed in identical clothing got on the train. With a little Michael Jackson as accompaniment, the two boys performed a flawless choreography along the center aisle. It was a good way to depart.
From then on our ride to JFK was uneventful, but tiresome. Our bags were extremely heavy - we had so much packed for our trip to Africa - and we were tired from the past three days of walking. When we finally checked the biggest bag and got our tickets, we were relieved to be on our way back to Spain.
