New York – New York

Typing the words my memory spins out Frank Sinatra’s melody. There is something about this city – that draws you – big, busy, brassy, confident and sexy. And my visit has lived up to the image. My Amtrak trip from Buffalo was uneventful and on time. I rode in the coach – there is heaps of room and it is very comfortable, another time I will try coach on overnight – heaps cheaper, and I think it will be just as easy to sleep – certainly easier than a plane.

It was my birthday while in New York, so walking past a small shop offering massage, I gave myself a birthday present of a lovely chinese back massage – no english, but touch is a universal language and it was wonderful.

I had arranged to meet with a friend – Dee Farrell of Rainbow Tourism and talk Women Travel as well as have a night on the town. We started at a lesbian watering hole – the Cubby Hole, a small bar on the corner of W12th Stand W4th.- it was very noisy and crowded, obviously a great local bar – it was fun and good for people watching. Just across the road was a scandanavian restaurant where we had a delicious meal.

Quintessential New York – sitting at on the sidewalk on a cobblestone street, at a small corner restaurant, under an awning and enjoying the warm evening. A fabulous birthday. We were going to try another women’s bar, but we were not sure where it was, and I am not a night owl, and Dee had a way to travel, so home seemed a better choice.

A trip to the Guggenheim Museum was one of the musts of this trip – especially after visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s works in Chicago. Both the building and the fabulous exhibition of works by Louise Bourgeois – spanning her life. She is in her 90s and a retrospective at MOMA in her 70s simply inspired her to do more.

I found her scuptures particuarly engaging she plays with domestic life marriage and its traps and freedoms, the individual and the group – and fabulous sculptures of breast and penises.

I had noticed that I was in New York for a Sunday, so thought I would go to a service uptown at the Cathedral of St John the Divine. So ext dayn I sorted out a route, arrived early for the 11am service, so on the corner of Central Park, had a lovely coffee and relaxed read of the paper. I arrived in plenty of time (so I thought) only to find that in fact it was Monday, not Sunday, and the small service had just finished.

I panicked then when I thought that perhaps that I also had the date wrong for flying out. Luckily I was OK – but I was going for a while there.

Some New York highlights

• sitting on a park bench in Union Square watching the world go buy and eating a plump peach I had just bought at the farmers market there.
• The dog parks where there is a special fenced off area in parks for dogs and owners – so the dogs can mingle and play off lead
• visiting Ground Zero
• There seemed to be very few fat New Yorkers – I figure this is because they walk a lot and cliimb up lots of stairs.
• The subway and bus system is great once you get the hang of it – metro card and map in hand you can go anywhere. Forget the tourist buses, this is heaps cheaper.

For next time

• catch the free Staten Island Ferry at Sunset

• hire a bike and ride around the green edges of Manhattan and Central Park.