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 WANDERING WITH MIKE |
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New Jersey / New York City, Part IJun-09-2009
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 From written journal: 2009-05-29 // 10:15p EST // Subway? [actually a PATH train; same diff] Ahhhh subway. Never rode one of these. It is bumpy and fun. I wonder how fast we're going. Got on at Grove St. in Jersey City I guess. Outside the windows is funhouse horror stuff. Saw the Statue of Liberty and the NYC skyline on my way in. Is it odd that I'm suddenly mad for the first time that somebody blew up the WTC? Is that a hooker over there? It's true! I had never ridden in a subway before I went to New York City. I got off the train out of Jersey City and walked up into New York City near Union Square, and BAM, already I was surrounded by people and concrete towers. Then, shortly after beginning to walk towards the place where I was meeting an acquaintance, I spotted a genuine behemoth NYC cockroach (I wasn't fast enough to get a picture though). Alright, so far as expected. But that's sort of where the "gritty, tough, shady New York City" expectation-meeting ended. I entered Union Square and felt surrounded by life. A thousand cultures and shades of people were everywhere, and almost everybody seemed to be having a good time. Performers on sidewalks and in the park played all flavors of music, surrounded by people dancing and singing along and just taking it in. Skateboarders were everywhere attempting to be Tony Hawk. I even saw a pretty respectable spray of fireworks on my way in. I met up with acquaintance Kendall and he took me to a favorite bar, and then another, and then another! Somehow I didn't expect a former frat boy to take me on this kind of tour but here I was. First was McSorley's Old Alehouse (est. 1854), where we had a few pints of their own dark ale and shared a table with a couple interesting individuals. The place was PACKED full of people and if you weren't drinking, you were kicked out. There's this anchor thing hanging over the bar that is positively furry with dust; the story is that soldiers who were leaving to go off to WWII would hang wishbones from it, with the intention of pulling them off when they returned. Well, some of those guys did not, in fact, return (fancy that), so those wishbones are still hanging there, and I guess they decided not to dust the thing after that, for whatever reason. So there's 80 or 90 years of dust on this hanging anchor thing. A local legend says that one time a guy tried to reach up and touch the thing. As acquaintance Kendall put it, "they say he didn't touch the ground until he hit the street outside". Pretty awesome!  After that we went to Kenke, a sort of sushi/sake bar nearby, where we met up with other acquaintance Cheston. Typical of a cultural food restaurant in America, the walls and outside were covered with far more Japanese stuff (symbols, posters, assorted hanging decorations) than any restaurant in Japan probably is. (Aside: sometimes I wonder if typically American food places in other countries like... let's say burger joints?... are totally covered with American flags, Hollywood references, guns, and pictures of the military invading.) We decided to try some of the food there (Kendall kept recommending the bull penis to us but he smirked every time he did, so I held off this time around). I ordered some grilled stingray fin and Cheston got some "aspara-bacon" (this is what it sounds like) and some BBQ intestines (animal unnamed). Analysis: grilled stingray fin is amazing; BBQ intestines are gross. I must eat more stingray fin in my life. Oh, and plain warm sake is... not my thing. At all. I had it once with some sort of fruity white tea and that was delicious. Anyway. They give you a little cup of sugar stuff when you leave so that you can make your own cotton candy on the way out. Sweet.From Twitter: 2009-05-30 // 12:28a EST I am way better with chopsticks than I remember. Maybe alcohol helps? After leaving THERE, we went to a third bar with board games right on the tables, a pool table, and a terrifying bathroom. Long story short, the three of us get deadly serious when playing tipsy Connect 4. Afterwards, Kendall was kind enough to offer couch and air mattress to us at his place in Jersey City.  The next day Kendall walked us to this nearby Indian/Pakistani place named Medina to eat some greasy breakfast. The place had these one dollar "samosas" which are basically just some kind of fried dough filled with ground meat? These were amazing, especially for a dollar. After this I got on the PATH train again to head into the city solo.Next: A more interesting entry about epic walking day around Manhattan Comments Pictures |
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