The Tasty Planet
Despite having the worst travel connections know to man our trip to Newark was pretty uneventful. We hardly slept the night before and we had to get to the Monterey Airport for a 7:30AM flight to LAX.
I was shocked that the TSA screeners in Monterey were polite and friendly so early in the morning. We didn’t have our act together and were carrying liquids in a carry-on that weren’t in the mandatory plastic bag.
No worries the screener smiled and handed us a bag so that we could do it properly. Nobody was cranky or snarling. A nice departure from some airports that I’ve wriggled through.
Getting from Newark to Hoboken (where we were staying) was inexpensive since we took the train. It’s easy to do if you know how to do it. There were minor glitches with transportation, arriving at the Newark Airport and getting to Hoboken was an issue, because there are no maps, signs or guides posted ANYWHERE on the tracks.
You have to be local to know where to go. To counter that when we needed help employees of the NJ Transit system were courteous and quick to aim us in the correct direction. One young guy even used his keycard to swipe us through the turnstiles, because a conductor on a train had given us incorrect information. We had tickets, they just weren’t for what we were trying to do. So he let us through anyway.
I spent the week in New York and New Jersey trying to replicate the life that locals lead. You wouldn’t think that one of the craziest cities in the world is a place to unwind, but it was. No radio broadcasts for a week. My first time off since last May. It was heavenly to unplug from the news and the right-wing nuts that dominate the airwaves.
There are plenty of ways to refresh your spirit as well as your mind including culture, food and fun. We went to the Museum of Sex (it’s a long story) had tickets to a Letterman taping practically stuffed in our pockets and ate and walked and took pictures like tourists.
We also shopped (another long story) along with hordes of Europeans celebrating the wimpy dollar. They were taking carts full of expensive shoes and handbags home to grandma. It was something to see.
We discovered Amy’s Bread, the Chelsea Market and Yakatori’s sushi restaurant. We didn’t have time to go back up to the Upper West Side to visit where we used to live when I was at Columbia University but the city has definitely changed since then.
Riding public transportation is a breeze and if you buy weekly passes or use your head you can get around fairly inexpensively. We used a cab to get to the Newark airport ($38), and once in Hoboken (flat rate of $5 with tip), the rest of the time we walked, rode the bus or took the train. We actually had people ask us if we were lost and point us in the right direction. When I come out of a subway exit I’m always confused and will always turn in the wrong direction.
It was restaurant week there, but we only went out once and it was fabulous.
Believe it or not, there is a Trader Joe’s on Union Square. What a zoo! Same size as the new one in Monterey, but with a thousand times more people. They have 22 cash registers and they organize chaos by having an employee with a large stick and a sign that says “This line for the express 12 items or fewer,” or “This line for regular check-out.” The lines snaked all the way back to the dairy section. It was hard to move, but we had a chance to avoid the high cost of a normal NYC supermarket.
More to come and recipes when I get the time along with some wine recommendations.
Union Square in New York City celebrates the city’s participation in the United States Civil War. There are multiple monuments to the people that won that war.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
New York City in the winter
