New York City, Day 1 (Thurs/Jan 19)

After waking up with my head in a fog for the second day in a row, I decided that it was time to start drinking coffee again. And man, was it delicious. Margaret, David and I took the New Jersey Transit from Hamilton station to New York Penn Station in Manhattan. The train ride is a little over an hour and takes you through some interesting towns in New Jersey. Something that I’ve noticed about New Jersey that has sort of perplexed me are these abandoned old stately brick buildings. They are out in a field or in the middle of a town and have these beautiful windows that are busted out and the exterior is covered in graffiti tags. They are little bits of history, slipping out of recognition.

I didn’t really know what to expect from New York City. I have heard so many different accounts, seen so many television shows based there and looked at picture after picture, but you can’t understand a city until you’ve been there.

We got off the train at Penn Station and wound our way up to the sidewalk (Side note for my dad: Penn Station is underneath Madison Square Garden, Go Knicks!) to see moderate traffic and what seemed at the time a heavy flow of pedestrian traffic (I changed that perspective later in Times Square). My #1 New York City goal of this trip was to see The High Line (will explain later) so we set off West to 28^th. Once we left 34th the city seemed almost empty, a couple of people passed us on the street but even the street traffic was minimal (mind you, it WAS 30 degrees w/a wind chill). We stopped at a deli to get Margaret a bagel and headed up the stairs onto The High Line.

The High Line is an old elevated railway that has been converted into a city park. The railway was built in the 1930’s to keep trains separate from street traffic; the last train ran on The High Line in 1980. In 1999, when the city was prepared to demolish the line, two men created a group called Friends of the High Line and moved to convert the old tracks (which now had wildflowers sprouting between slats) into a park. The city got on board in 2002 and in 2009 the first section of the park opened, the remainder opened in 2011. The High Line is a getaway from urban life for people all over the city, during the summer the park is especially crowded, but when we were there it was relatively empty. I first heard about The High Line from the April, 2011 issue of National Geographic. It was then that I made up my mind to go to the High Line. A week before I left for this trip I went to see a film called Urbanized at Northwest Film Forum in Seattle with my friends Laura and Sara from Seattle U. Urbanized is a documentary about modern cities, and the future of cities but has a special segment on The High Line, which rejuvenated my resolve to get there. If you are in New York City I recommend that you go to the High Line, the wooden reclining chairs are exceptionally comfortable and the view of the city and the Hudson is remarkable.

We left the High Line and walked down into Greenwich Village. The sun made the winter bite not nearly as gruesome and we traversed quite a bit of cobblestones before finding a corner Starbucks to get some warmth. There are more Starbucks in NYC than I expected, but compared to Seattle I guess it’s pretty tame. From there we walked to Washington Square Park and admired Washington’s arch and the large volume of plump squirrels roaming around before I went to take a tour of NYU: LAW. NYU is comprised of these unique and beautiful buildings clumped together loosely bordering WSP. The law school itself is made up of two buildings and an underground library. The first building I went into was very old, but in a worn down and loved sort of way. It was when I walked down into the law library that I realized how much I like NYU. The library has varying levels with study nooks everywhere, as I was walking across several students smiled at me and I got to look into the center for International Economic Justice (SO MANY INTERESTING BOOKS). The second building was much more modern and I got to see a breakdown of the 2L and 3L elective classes (lots of IP and Business law, just what I like to see). Overall, I felt very comfortable at NYU and could see myself studying like a crazy person there.

I met back up with David and Margaret in SOHO at a deli called Gourmet Goods; it was then that I got to eat my first New York bagel, which was delicious. SOHO, and New York in general is filled with very fashionable people. I had to resist some serious shopping urges as we passed by Kate Spade and Rag & Bone, but I am holding out for shopping in Cape Town. It was well below freezing at that point so I did go on a short mission to find a down coat. We ended up at the two month old REI: SOHO, which we all thought was a comic place for an REI, and I found an Outdoor Research jacket on sale that was light enough to wear on cold days in CPT but warm enough to layer in the Atlantic frost.

We took the subway uptown to 42^nd Street (Times Square) and I almost started crying when I saw The New York Times headquarters (I was a little bit tired at that point). Times Square, I’ve decided, is not my cup of tea. There are lights flashing everywhere, billboard after billboard trying to sell you things, and SO MANY PEOPLE. I much prefer the quieter SOHO, WSP and Chelsea.

Our last mission for the day was to go into the flagship Macy’s to see the old wooden escalators. Altogether, the store has 9 floors, from 5 to 9 the escalators are wooden and very beautiful.

My first day in NYC was very full and very interesting. Overall, the city is so beautiful and intriguing that I completely understand why Frank Sinatra, Ryan Adams, Jay-Z, and countless others have dedicated songs to it.