More Walking; Old friends; Spontaneity vs Plans: NYC Trip

An Aussie friend of mine from high school, whom I hadn't seen since freshmen year of college while we were both visiting Sacramento nearly seventeen years ago, is living in the Lower East Side and enjoying the hell out of the energy and nightlife of the area. She just finished up a master's degree in something at NYU. We met up for dinner after the museum, or it was the next day...maybe it was the next day...no, it was after the museum...

In any case, we ate at a fancy little place called Pig and Khao, a Filipino-BBQ fusion place that was very tasty. I would recommend it. Afterwards we remanded ourselves to a watering hole for cocktails and reminiscing, and I didn't have the heart to remind her that I had never been to her house for parties, nor had I been to the river for parties, not that she would have believed me had I tried. I had been neatly pasted into her memories of those times back in school. We were close, sure, in class, and in the Wilderness Club with Imai, but I'm fairly certain I wasn't partying at her folk's big house with the rest of them. I may have had a few beers since then, and many memories of that time are fuzzy, but I know I didn't hit up any of those parties.

In any case, the evening was pleasant and nice, and we chatted into the wee hours of the night before peeling off to go back to the hotel, riding the train instead of walking. We were exhausted.

The next day we made it over to Wine:30, the wine restaurant operated by an old Turkish friend of mine named Vulcan. Vulcan and another friend Ben, opened the place together back in 2009, and I lent my hands, back, knife skills, and general expertise to the cause, and was on hand for the first few shaky weeks. It got a little dicey between Vulcan and Ben as well, and I was the mediator during the times when they weren't speaking.

But that was four years ago, and now the place is booming and Vulcan figured out a way to expand his space twice---which is nigh impossible in Manhattan. He's got a son and a pregnant wife and still carries himself with that harried look of someone who doesn't sleep enough. When he saw me he said, "Patrick! Life must be good--you've gained weight!" Vulcan's great.

Photo Dump Section

Here comes another barrage of pictures from walking around.

The first picture is from inside the scaffolding-clad St. Patrick's Cathedral: (The outside was hidden.)

This next picture is of the St. Bart's Byzantine Cathedral, the only one like it in the City, and the site of one of the fine cuisine restaurants I worked at while living in Brooklyn. I know the labyrinthine halls of that church better than I probably should:

This is a random angle shot of Grand Central Station:

The lion from the NY Public Library, as seen in many films and pictures (like Ghostbusters):

From inside the library, everything is marble:

From the Irish Hunger Memorial. Like the Highline, this is a must see hidden gem for visitors:

We had plans to do and see things, but we didn't want to be rigid about them. Also, we tried to resist the other desire: to sit in a bar and drink. We didn't go to shop, or see a whole lot of shows, but we did feel like tourists in our own town. Take away shopping and shows and you get our sights; walking; and drinking.

But one thing we did need to rigorously plan, and hold to the plan, was the WTC site. It's still a construction mess, and we only had time to go on our last day in the City proper, Friday, after which we would be collecting Dan and Lupita and heading north on a train.

Because of the construction, the Port Authority, which governs the site, requires a ticket and lets in large groups, but the snaking line goes for nearly a mile around the perimeter fence. The actual memorial, when everything is said and done and anyone will be able to visit and there won't be any need for fences and tickets, will be quite solemn and quietly spectacular. The footprint waterfalls show off how humongous the towers were, and the Freedom Tower, directly adjacent, is nearly beyond comprehension at that proximity.

Here's part of the snaking line:

Here's one of the waterfalls, Tower 1 I believe:

Here's the waterfall-footprint for Tower 2, lined up better that the previous picture:

Here's the Freedom Tower, still being worked on and not as striking as I had hoped, or imagined maybe, but it is staggeringly big, a sensation sadly lost in photographs:

I'm trying to rush through these last few posts because 1) I want to be done by the end of August; and 2) I got a new lappy and I need to start moving photographs over to our cloud device.

Not that anyone really cares about that...