Last Bite

Last weekend was spent in upstate New York, in the charming town of Walton close to the Catskill mountains. The purpose was mainly for Marge to go and say hi to her horse so I just hung around the barn and generally chilled out. Yesterday and today were my last days in New York City so we decided to do some of the sights. We took the ferry to Ellis Island, and passed by the Statue of Liberty on the way, and I must say it was very cool to see it in the (iron?) flesh, as its such a familiar and well known icon. We visited the Immigration museum on Ellis Island and it was so interesting to see all sorts of records and incredible photos of the people who passed through the island which was effectively the gateway to the New World. It was sad to think of all those families and many children who were separated from their parents, who had to leave their homes and go to a far away and strange country. Its sadder to see that things haven’t got much better for so many immigrants today, and especially depressing how they are treated in Ireland when were a bloody nation of diaspora ourselves! Selective memory…! Anyway, after that, we headed into Manhattan and fulfilled what every tourist must do: queue for 2hours to get up to the top of the Empire State Building to experience THE best (360 degree) view of the city. It was definitely worth the wait! We finished off the day with a Cosmopolitan (which I toasted to Delphine, as promised!) in the coolest little place called Beauty Bar, which is basically done up like a 50s hair salon and has all sorts of authentic salon stuff like those hairdrying helmets, and barbers chairs etc. It was really very charming and with the aid of a desk lamp to help her through the warm fuzzy golden glow of the bar, there was even a manicurist on duty! $10 for a mani and a drink… What a steal! (PS, the ‘glow’ has been totally obliterated by the flash in the pic, im not lying, honest!) Today I came into town on my own for my final adieux to the Big Apple. I began in the Upper East Side, taking a bus from Penn station that went all the way up Madison Avenue and had the, um, pleasure of listening to an entire conversation between these two 50 something Jewish women, thick New York accents and all, who were seriously straight out of a Woody Allen film. The conversation ranged from: their husbands’ prostates; bitching about daughters in law; thinning hair; estranged brothers; moaning about modern technology, ‘whata I need a cell phone for? Whatam I gonna do with onea those? Tell me!’; and so on and so forth. This was the soundtrack to my 40 block bus journey… I finally got off and headed to the Guggenheim museum, which a meandered through for about an hour. Then I wandered down a fair portion of Madison avenue (a whole 25 mins walk..quite impressive for anyone who knows me and my relationship with walking). After lunch in the Pain Quotidien (Big Up Stockel!) I headed for the subway, in which I crossed over the Brooklyn bridge all the way to.. dun dun dun…….(scary music)….Brooklyn!! Yes, I dared to leave the island! It was actually great, I walked all down 5th Avenue (not to be mistaken with 5th Avenue on the Upper East side, thank you very much) which has a nice authentic NY feel to it. Its full of different shops and ‘ethnic’ (I really hate that term used in that sense, but you get what I mean) food shops, trendy vintage stores (Brooklyn is the new black, by the way..), and Korean beauty salons every second door. All in all, twas a great day and a nice way to say ‘see you again soon’ to the City!