The unexpected holes in the ground

I am afraid of manholes. As a result, I have a profound dislike of any and all orifices in the pavement, bigger than a hairline crack, let alone those put there, on purpose, to allow full-grown men passage to the murky world below. I don't care if I look like tourist, but I simply refuse to walk on manhole covers, subway vents, storefront basement doors and any other metal covered opening on the pedestrian thoroughfare.

My aversion has nothing to do with any psychological condition or irrational fear. My fear is very real. I have fallen into a manhole. Twice. There is something profoundly jarring about being out for a walk and suddenly feeling a drastic change in perspective when you are not expecting it. From my experience, the act of falling happens so fast, it takes the brain some time to catch up and process the data of what just happened. First comes the mental inventory about what just happened, and whether all appendages are still intact. Second comes the preoccupation over accessories, such as footwear and your purse, wallet and stuff like that. Third comes the question on how you'll get yourself out.

Having had somewhat more extensive experience than most in the subject matter, I have discovered that, based on the sampling of my two falls, it's unlikely that a person faced with the same predicament would fall all the way in. I don't care how out of shape you are. Reflexes kick in and you will catch yourself, resulting in having your body, up to you chest, dangling below street level. It's not something I could call a pleasantly surprising experience.

I read somewhere that New York City has something like 750,000 manholes, and, since I plan on walking the entire city, I'm bound to pass by most of them. So I'm not taking chances. I may cause some brief traffic flow problems on the sidewalk, but trust me, it's far less scandalous than if I fall in. If you don't believe me that the sidewalk is a dangerous place, just check out the picture.

Pictures, People!

OK, I'm a bit dense when it comes to technology, but in a brief moment of clarity, I clicked the help button and now there are pictures on the blog. I'm not done posting all the photos yet, but there are some to go with the Christmas in Chinatown. More to come soon!

It was the day before the night before Christmas

It was the day before the night before Christmas and throughout the tri-state area it was a balmy 50-some degrees. No creatures should stay inside; so neither did Scott and me. We headed out for a free-form walk through the city.

We began in one of the shopping epicenters of New York: 34th and Seventh Ave, in the crosshairs of Macy's, H&M and a bunch more stores. Heading downtown on 7th we left the shopping mob behind within a few blocks and encountered blissfully empty sidewalks. We turned left on 29th and headed to Lexington, continuing downtown and later to Third Ave. After a quick stop for some pretty bad pizza, we decided to change our plans - well, this was a free-form hike, so there really were no plans - and head to Central Park.

First going north of Lexington, than taking 42nd street to cross over to Madison, we saw the leftovers of the transit strike in the form of police barricades and signs directing the people where to go at Grand Central Station. Farther north at 51st street, we saw a video crew setting up outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, so naturally we had to go check it out. Turns out they were prepping for midnight mass. Not much to see, so we kept going. In the upper fifties and Fifth Ave, we encountered another wave of shoppers.

If you are not familiar with the retail offerings of Fifth Avenue in the vicinity of Central Park, that is where you'll find gifts with designer tags such as Ferragamo, Louis Vuitton, Cartier and so on. Not your average stocking stuffer, at lest not for most of us. However, I saw some interesting things on our hurried walk through, including a man in sweatpants and a leather fanny pack coming out of Cartier.

While I'm no fashionista, the subject of what people were wearing should be enough material for a new posting, because believe me, there was a lot to see, including a woman in a full length fur coat and blue sweat pants. But on we trudged to the park, where, once passed the zoo, a calm permeated the air. Kids in their Bugaboo strollers, weary shoppers looking for a place to sit down and all the kids trying to see the seals at Central Park Zoo, but being blocked by a rather large man wanting to have his picture taken, who took up most of the seal viewing area. All were left behind as we took a leisure stroll across the park towards the West Side.

It didn't seem to be the biggest shopping day of the year at the park. The people there didn't seem concerned with last minute sales or with "Dora's Kitchen" and the "X-Box 360," supposedly the hottest toys of the season. For me, half way through the park, the biggest concern was to find a bathroom, something that seems to be a constant in my walks... Common sense would dictate that a bathroom at a park is a no-no. However, to my surprise, I found a very clean one by the Theater and Shakespeare Garden. I highly recommend it.

We eventually came out of the park at 72nd. Street. And on we went, all the way to 11th avenue and back downtown to 7th and 34th where we started.

The day gave way to night, as it seems to do around here at about 5 p.m. We sat outside a Starbucks on 34th street sipping coffee and watching the people go. Children were removed from their strollers which were now filled with freshly purchased items, including even a Christmas tree. Sometimes the tourists were indistinguishable from the locals in their drive to shop. It seemed as it was every man, woman and occasional child fending for themselves, lugging bags and thinking, "now who did I forget?"

Miles walked: roughly 8.5.

No Go

As you are probably aware by now, the New York Transit workers are on strike. That means no subway or busses, which is causing mass chaos in getting around the city. Because of that, I'm staying in and avoiding the confusion. However, I do have a walk planned for Saturday. The weather people on TV say it's going to be 48 degrees. Strike or no strike, I can't possibly stay away in such "warm" weather. So check back on Sunday for more posts (and hopefully some pictures, too)

The Blue Cup

There are many New York landmarks and pop culture icons, but to me by far the most prized New York souvenir is the blue coffee cup. You've seen in a million times in movies and TV series, they pop up in Law and Order all the time. I'm talking about the blue disposable coffee cups with the Greek inspired design on them. I decided that I had to find one and experience coffee from within is blue paper goodness.

The cup was first used in 1963, and has been synonymous with New York coffee ever since. The catch is that you can't just pop into Starbucks and hope to get one. It's far more complicated that that. If you are a tourist or a coffee purist, you will have to venture out of your comfort zone and out of franchise-land. OK, so maybe finding the cup on TV is far easier than actually finding it in person. These cups are so popular that the City Store, operated by the City of New York, sells ceramic versions of it. Not only that, but apparently they frequently run out of stock. So you'd think that finding the real thing would be a snap. But no, it will take some work, and while you're at it, a great walk through the city.

Today's walk was to be fairly simple, with a humble goal: to find the blue cup. It took me 2 hours and 36 minutes to finally find one. Starbucks has taken over, and Starbucks cups are everywhere. They are overflowing from city trash bins and, if left unchecked, like on last year's New Year's Day, they formed a curious urban sculpture of cone-like Christmas tree growing out of the garbage. But never mind. The blue cup can't be extinct, at least not yet.

I saw a woman sipping from it in the vicinity of Canal and Lafayette. I tried to ask her where she got it, but there were so many people on the sidewalk that I couldn't come near her in a timely manner and she disappeared into a store. I could have followed, but it would be more than I'm generally willing to do for a cup of coffee. Instead, I walked a two-block radius in the area and came up empty handed.

I was told the key to buying a coffee in the blue cup is to go to a deli, which is what I did next. I took the no. 6 subway (I know this is cheating, I should be walking, but it was cold and I had to pee) to Union Square and walked up Broadway. I figured with the several non-franchise eating establishments there, and the less crowded sidewalks, I could make some progress towards the goal.

I walked to the outskirts of Times Square, not wanting to get into the tourist mayhem of pre-holiday NY. Nothing. I looked into every deli, every pizza joint. Some had brown cups, some had those ugly green and purple ones but mostly, they had plain white paper cups.

My feet were aching, tired from the stop and go walking of Chinatown right before Christmas. I had to pee. I longed for a Starbucks where I could get a cup of coffee, the key to the lady's room and a place to rest my feet. But no. Now I couldn't find even a Starbucks either. They are everywhere when you are not interested, but try and find one in a pinch and they seem to disappear. I double backed towards Penn Station, figuring I'd just call it a day. I came upon Pronto Pizza, where, low and behold, I finally got my blue cup of coffee. I sat on a stool, looking out the window towards the eerie glow of Times Square. It was de best damn cup of coffee I've had in a while.

An Italian Christmas Thru Chinatown

Chinatown is mayhem. It's a sea of humanity, an exercise in patience. For the urban hiker, it's like a challenging trail, or hiking with wet boots: at times painful, but you'll get through it and the payoff will be great. The colors, the smells, the contrast, are simply amazing.

Located towards the southern part of Manhattan, it sprawls between Tribeca, Soho and the Civic Center, although sprawling may not be the right word to illustrate what Chinatown is like. Crammed should give you the right mental image. Little Italy is squished within Chinatown in a sometimes surreal juxtaposition of east and west which makes this part of New York so interesting to me.

Take what I saw today: on Mulberry street, in the Chinese section south of Canal (cross Canal and you'll be in Little Italy), a small parade, sponsored by the Little Italy Merchants Association was assembling. It consisted of two Sorrento Cheese floats, a brass band, parade Grand Marshall Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior ffrom The Sopranos), and a baby Jesus being pushed on some sort of double-decker push cart. There was even a priest.

The first problem occurred when the parade got going and had to cross Canal. In case you are not familiar with Canal Street, it's a major thoroughfare with multiple lanes of traffic and lots and lots of cars, trucks, buses and SUVs. That is where things got interesting and I witnessed an altercation of brass band leader versus SUV driver. A traffic cop intervened, shouting ensued and eventually all the traffic blocking the intersection was cleared and the parade traversed Canal into Little Italy.
Once in Little Italy territory, the sidewalks were crowded with onlookers, some comfortable in lawn chairs, but most not knowing exactly what to make of it. Some giggled, some gawked and others tried to pay attention, but were distracted by the offerings of shiny merchandise by the local stores with displays spilling out into the sidewalk. The people riding in the two floats seemed just as confused. Chianese, riding in some contraption made to look sorta like the Christmas version of the North Pole (but not really) schmoozed the crowd who responded cheering once they realized who he was. Women boarded the float for pictures. In the back of the float, Santa ho-hoed the kids in the crowd in the best Santaly way he could conjure up. Beneath the sleeves of his costume, golden chains peeked out and that, to me, added to the mystique and pseudo absurdity of it all.

Eventually the winner of what I presume to be the Italian-American version of American Idol was introduced and began to sing, Pavarotti style. A woman in the crowd dragged her husband away from the door of an eating establishment he seemed quite intent on entering by saying "Honey, let's go see, they are playing opera music." For whatever reason, that stuck me as funny.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the parade with its small-town-with New-York-attitude ambience, it was time to move on and continue my planned walk through Chinatown. So it was like that, with no fanfare, that I turned the corner and headed back to Canal Street. The brass band and the tenor faded into the distance, gradually replaced by the cacophony of "Rolex watch? Tiffany, Chanel!"

Urban Hiking

Urban Hiking: the walking within a cityscape for purposes other than shopping, commuting or any other task, really. Who said you need a patch of woods to get out there? Walking in the city affords the walker just as many interesting things to look at, albeit in a very different environment. If you are a purist as far as silence, clean air and wildlife, urban hiking may not be for you. But if you have an open mind, a sense of adventure and you never cease to be fascinated by people, this is definitely something you should try.

I'm embarking on an expedition-size urban hiking project: to walk all the streets of New York City, all its five boroughs. I haven't yet figured out how many miles I'm going to be looking at, but I'm sure it's probably more than a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. This project will take me a few years, not doubt, especially since I can't walk everyday and, to be honest, I'm a fair weather walker... if it's too cold, or too wet I'm probably staying in.

I will write here about the people I meet, things I learn and general musings that are often the result of having too much time to think, all of which I hope you'll find at least a bit entertaining. So join me, from the comfort of your cluttered computer desk, from pretending to work while not actually working, or form the corner coffee shop and lets see what we can find.