I grew up in largely urban setting in a large metropolitan city and I didn't feel out of place with a very steady continuous stream of people walking by the lobby and an even steadier stream of cars, taxis, joggers and bikers shooting by in the streets. We got 7-day passes for the subway and you might think that would make for little walking. Oh, no - still plenty of walking to the tube stations. What we experienced was very different from the quiet streets of our neighborhood here.
We got to the World Trade building 9/11 memorial center, to Grand Central Station (where an entire landing has been rented by the Apple Computer Company) and, of course, trains are coming and going from all over the USA. We walked along some of the big name-big luxury stores on 5th Avenue such as Tiffany's (most people our age have seen and internalized the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" so it is a store with multiple associations for us). We saw a diamond on display of more than 230 carats. Personally, it was so large and rather clunky-looking I would hesitate to give it to my beloved.
We ate in restaurants that struck our fancy either from walking around the block and seeing all sorts of eateries or from reading the list of recommendations from our leader. The first night was in a little Indian place where we were the only customers. We ate dal while watching Indian dancers on YouTube. The next night, we ate in a small and rather informal French place with a name that translates "All is well". That little place, stuck down below street level, has been operating there for 65 years! We ate in a Cuban place with a mostly white interior and well-built, elegant men politely hovering over us. We ate in a Greek place, served by a young woman with delicious looking skin who spoke Greek and English both. Of course, you would look in vain for anything similar in our small Wisconsin city.
We saw moving, excellent plays on four nights and I will write about them tomorrow.
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