Broadway Cares Christmas

New York without luggage, reservations or fresh socks

New York is an impossible place – an oversized island with a nasty climate, horrendous and the traffic. . . Magic. What's not to love? Our day trip to Manhattan was typical John and Laura – the last minute. It was after Christmas and very cold after a storm snow. The sky was blue and the wind was sharp as was the bus stop in New Jersey, the birthplace of John – Kearny. I, weak and pathetic after years temperate climate of Los Angeles, huddled in a nearby store, while John, the Indian stood in the cold without gloves or a scarf. He deigned to use a hat at least. I had $ 40 in my pocket, an American Express credit card and lipstick. Oh, yes, and a camera fitted. Little I knew that would not be back in Kearny for nearly two days.

We take great DeCamp Bus Lines bus again, warm and comfortable. I looked passed gritty landscape, crumbling and cracked winter crossings, a lot of graffiti, salt-like cars. This is not a romantic way to reach New York, but one hot. My Scottish immigrant father actually arrived via ocean liner and its first glimpse of America was the Statue of Liberty. Even passed by immigration at Ellis Island. That's an arrival in New York. We got off at the Port Authority grungy like the wind in the winter even John had to admit needed a scarf. He bought a post Christmas trading for $ 6. One thing you can do and want to do in New York is to walk and were soon hot enough as it came in the morning and went to the Metropolitan Museum. The place was packed with families outside of school and work, a lot of art students and staff well-organized. Finally it was hot and very reluctant to enter long line of wardrobe and delivery of my security blanket, but the line moved quickly and soon we our labels coat and dove into the crowd. John knows his modern art and visited many of their favorite after an aperitif in the elegant cafe. American Card Express won his first of many applications there. At the time of placement of trade exhibits each other. I examined the collection of baseball cards Vintage for him and he joined me for the exhibition of costumes, focusing on the Duke and Duchess of clothing made of Windsor. God the two could really dress – but then again maybe that was all I really had to do. . .

A couple of hours in a museum was enough for us to go on air we left. It was warmer in the past. I had not been to New York for years a solo trip many high school before, so I had to do some of what I had seen before only to compare notes with myself. Central Park was easy, because it limits the Met. Yes, it remains a beautiful large park. In Winter children were sliding down the hills and dogs frolicked modest – and they were dogs whose owners lived in the park so maybe strutting. The Hotel Plaza was also on the list of places to visit. The lobby was so lavish and remember, but is small. Do all things to reduce year after year? Or are so large in this memory can never match the past?

Before dinner was Grand – decided to walk and look for a likely place. John had no problem to ask local people looking who like to eat and were happy to help. What's this rumor about New Yorkers bitter? Of course it was presented as the visitor from Los Angeles for what had every reason to be sure you have more than sprouts, tofu and sunflower seeds. We stopped in raw oysters and champagne in a small but crowded restaurant. He arrived around 9 and we realized we had a chance to get into Balthazar without reservation. Indeed, only we had to wait about 45 minutes in the bar, the pace ourselves on the drinking by this point, I think. The dinner was wonderful, but let me talk of a local fish – cod – and spoke in Chilean sea bass, which is inevitable in restaurants in Los Angeles The waiter had obviously spent his childhood pushing his plate of cod in and pretend that everything was over. Juan ravioli was great and took him to keep improving its pasta and ravioli from scratch.

We rolled on the Grand no check-in bags – I did not even have a bag. No purses lug around as they are a burden to carry and a magnet for muggers. We stopped at a bodega to buy a toothbrush, toothpaste and contact lens solution for me – $ 9, not a business, but who cared? Then, hit the hotel and observed jumping scene in the bar – and went right is past. We fell into bed and slept happily – although in light of the morning we discovered that the room was small. Did not this used to be an old SRO hotel? Of course not increase the room size when it became a profit center. John said the hearing from our window and what was missing – the World Trade Center. Solemn moment.

We have a late check out and discussed what to do. Well, eating was going to happen, but first some great walks and a truly wonderful cup of coffee in a place that you got into. Do not ask me the name. New York is full of picturesque streets of small cafes, shops, galleries and what not. Veselka ended up at around 2 pm This is a classic Eastern European restaurant in 10th and 2nd Avenue. I have stuffed cabbage, and soup beet and even went for dessert. We read the The New York Times in our window table and watched the world go by. But the break was over. One of the persons who must meet finally returned a phone call. Okay, I admit, we turned the phone for hours to be unattainable. I mean, um, conserve battery power. We are ready to meet him at the center and walked to the end (40 blocks or so, but John assured me they were the native short blocks, no blocks Crosstown). The walk took us through the strange diagonal becomes Broadway and started to have an idea of the geography of the city, something that is hard to do a taxi, bus or car. We met my friend for drinks at another bar "kids" with a multitude sacrificed after working on Wall Street. John had a White Russian who appeared to be made with maple syrup. Over a beer and whiskey instead I guess.

Then came the moment of an infernal race to the Port Authority, both the need to find a bathroom and desperate to catch the bus in time to return to Jersey and ready a long night with the family in the Scottish-American social club. Back in New Jersey, Manhattan was a vision through the water again. John, the brother-in-law Joey kept the wine and beer as it is their night to attend the bar, but after the night before kept the light. I convinced my hosts to go back to Manhattan the next day, this time to hit the Natural History Museum. We went over to Pop John at the wheel of his car, good enough to drive to a city he hates. I used to have a booth on the sidewalk of the town, where John sold his original paintings as well. He remembered those days, and the very old days, when he met the mother of John in a dance Catholic in 1949 and 18 married.

We tried for about 25 minutes to find parking near the museum and really happened. Pop and I went in search of a place while John nap, sleep still recovering after last night back on the lumpy mattress. He woke up just in time to find a place for us, saying I needed their experience. Okay, but that walk ten blocks to find a street without finding? Now I was feeling real New York. Scrub the parking place or pay the astounding rate of $ 24 for 2 hours. Satisfied with varied, walking to the museum where a line meant I could not get what to do?

How about a trip to Hoboken? But first I felt I had to see Ground Zero. It was a crisp Saturday in December and edged through the traffic typically hell to the tip of Manhattan. Everyone had warned me that was just a big hole in the ground surrounded by a chain link fence. We could not park or get much closer, but in circles a bit. I could see the fence was decorated – and perhaps even – with tattered memories of the dead. Photos, films, poems, posters. An image vanished from a youth stays in my mind. She is smiling in a rigid pose, it might be a kind of studio shot. I could see street vendors selling T-shirts, banners and buttons – the post Christmas holiday crowd had a sense of party but not close enough to feel the vibe others knew they were there. The sad. And courage.

Therefore, it was back through the Lincoln Tunnel to Jersey. We toured Hoboken, where both parents of John was born. We drove cradle Sinatra recent, very well marked and easy to find within two square miles to Hoboken. Then prepared to double or even triple the park by tradition, outside of Biggie Clams. It was a social club in 1940 / illegal gambling joint that served food so good that it had become mainly a restaurant by the '50 's. I had raw clams in the shell and was very happy. Seafood East Coast is seafood cold water, otherwise crisp and Brini Fish and seafood that the Gulf where I grew up. Perhaps there is an argument for cold climates, after all.

We were soon back in Pop, greeted by his cat Duke, distant as ever. The boys had managed to find a New York Times for me after three attempts at the local kiosks Kearny. They saw football and read the newspaper. We drank hot tea and ate cake and it was hard to imagine that the high rises of New York were so close to this comfortable middle-class street. There were more to eat that night. Italian food, of course. Large portions of his environment "gavone" – Italian for what had become on the journey, someone who eats everything sight. But New York in the winter is to eat … when in Rome.

Laura Glendinning is a travel writer, and Vice LinkParis.com .

About the Author

Laura Glendinning is the Vice President of Sales for LinkParis.com

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