50 Hours in New York City Part 1 2 3

Part 1

It was more like 53 hours or so, but who's really counting. It felt like more time than that and it felt like a few hours too. New York can do that to you. Time becomes a surreal concept. So much to do, so much to see, so much to taste. And the vibe! 

Central Park

New York is unique in the world. As a destination, it's probably the only one in the world that gets so much repeat business. I could not find hard data regarding the number of repeat visitors to NYC, but it must be a decent percentage of the 52.9 million visitors to Gotham in 2013. According to NYC & Company, the NYC tourism board, the city is doing gangbusters. Growth since 2006 has been in the double digits, and shows no signs of slowing down. NYC & Company has done a great job of leveraging what is one of the most, I would say the number 1, city brand in the world. Media in Europe have reported that Paris is the most visited city in the world but the numbers don't add up. According to the Guardian, Paris had 33 million visitors in 2012, whereas New York saw an influx of 52 million! 52 million! 

Times Square

I have been visiting New York City since 1975. It was the first foreign city I ever visited and I was anCrime was high, infrastructure was crumbling, Donald Trump made his first deal with the city buying what is now the Grand Hyatt building for $1, 42nd St. was a cesspool. And yet, I was so impressed, that for 5 years I dreamed of going back. And back I did go, many times. 

impressionable 15 year old at the time. My Mother had lived with a relative in NYC for a couple of years in the 60's and we went back to visit our great aunt that year. We stayed in Queens for 2 months and I loved it. Those who are as old as I am, might remember that NYC was broke in the mid-seventies.

The Guggenheim

What is it about NYC? They say Paris has its je ne sais quoi, but New York's energy is unparalleled in the world. It's the Met, the Guggenheim, the MoMA, Time Square. It's the delis, the pizza, Central Park, the sheer size of the skyscrapers. But it's also the brand that's seeped into our psyches from popular culture, whether it was Woody Allen movies like Annie Hall or songs like New York, New York and New York State of Mind. And it's the people of New York, the fiercely proud and resilient New Yorkers. Multi-cultural, loud, intellectual, artistic, tough New Yorkers. It's the din of the city, its culture and of course Broadway. And off-Broadway. And off-off-Broadway. And it's what we in social media called social proof. You know when you are looking for a place to eat in a place you don't know and you walk by many restaurants? You will tend to want to eat at the restaurant that looks the busiest. If it's busy compared to the other restaurants, it must be good. I would say that visitors' satisfaction surveys must rank NYC very high. The old NYC positioning I ♥ NY becomes true for many of us and thus we spread the word when we get a chance. 

My latest 50 hours in

Part 2

Central Park

I don't know for sure, but I think I have been to New York City about 15 to 20 times in my life. My most recent visit took place about a month ago. I went to meet my sister who invited me to join her for a couple of days before she went on to a training retreat somewhere in New York State. Of course, I jumped at the chance. I even joked that maybe we should make it a tradition every couple of years. Last time we did this was in 2012. I think the first she and I were in NYC together was back in 1979.

I arrived to JFK around 7:30 AM on a Delta flight from Toronto. My sister arrived around 7:45 on a Cathay Pacific flight from Vancouver. We were at different terminals, so I took the tram to meet her and then we caught a cab to Manhattan. Staying at the Holiday Inn Express Times Square (near the bus terminal on 8th avenue), we were lucky that they had our room ready that early. So we left our bags and proceeded to find a place to eat some breakfast, which was more like brunch. We had breakfast at Ben's Kosher Delicatessen. It was good, but not as good as the breakfasts I used to have at the now defunct Stage Door Deli. 

Ladurée Macarons

After breakfast we went to Central Park. It was April 28 and probably the first really beautiful day of Spring. We lucked out with the weather. My sister and I love our very, very long walks in Central Park talking about the family, the memories, the trips past and future, our challenges and good fortune as well. 

After a few hours, it was getting time for a nap. We had walked from 39th St all the way to the Upper East Side at 71st where we stopped at Ladurée on Madison Ave. to get some macarons to take back home. The Upper East side, by the way, is a very nice neighborhood for window and people shopping. 

We walked back to our hotel and took a long nap. Then we went to SOHO to find a place to eat. After walking some more looking for a place, we ended in the trendy NoLiTa area. We both knew about Café

Sandwich Cubano at Café Habana in NoLiTa, NYC

Habana from our social media research and found it at the corner of Elizabeth and Prince. Ironically, we thought it was a Cuban food café. It turns out it's a Mexican/Cuban/Dominican little restaurant based on the old Café Habana in Mexico City. Again, ironically, we had never heard of it, even though we grew up in Mexico City. I guess it was way before our time ("legend has it Che and Fidel plotted the Cuban Revolution"). 

No matter. I had probably the best Cuban Sandwich, I have ever had (and I've had them in Miami). It was perfect. Café Habana is now one of our favorite spots in New York. 

After dinner, we walked back to the Subway and returned to the hotel for a good night's sleep. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but we needed our rest. 

Part 3

 

The Guggenheim, New York

Our second day in New York was dedicated to culture.  We had a leisurely breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express (one of the things we like about this hotel brand is the included breakfasts) and then we walked

d to the subway station on 42nd St. The day was not as nice as the day before. It was cloudy and rain was in the forecast. It turned out great since this day we were going to be mostly indoors. We got on the subway and went to 86th St and Lexington. From there it was just a few blocks to the Guggenheim Museum. We didn't know what was showing at the time, but in all the times I've been to New York, I had never visited the famous building. There was an interesting exhibit about the Italian Futurism (20th Cent.). We saw the entire exhibit and also another one, this one about a great photographer that my sister really liked, Carrie Mae Weems.

By the time we left the Guggenheim it was close to dinner time. One of our goals for the trip was to go to one of the most famous pizza joints in the city, but we also had tickets to see Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, Marisa Tomei and Toni Collette in The Realistic Joneses at the Lyceum Theatre. I consulted my trusted Google Maps and figured that we did have enough time to go downtown from 86th Street. I wanted to take my sister to Joe's Pizza on Carmine St., where I had been once before, but Google changed the Google Maps app and it was a pain to try and see all the spots I saved on my places map ofBleecker St. Pizza. Very good, but not as good as Joe's as I remember. Nevertheless, I did have 3 slices. New York pizza is New York pizza.

Pizza from Bleecker St. Pizza, NYC

NYC. We ended up at another very good pizzeria called

After the pizza we barely had enough time to get back to the hotel, freshen up a little and head over to the Lyceum theatre for what we thought would be a highlight of the trip. We are both fans of Michael C Hall and Marisa Tomei, and read that the Realistic Joneses was a good play. It turned out to be very good, albeit weird. A kind of commentary on how we tend to communicate or not communicate in society - throwing words at each other so to speak. The play seems like a simple comedy on the surface (somewhat dark comedy), but it's more than that. We did enjoy it, mostly because we like the actors very much and the dialogue was very witty. I suppose it wasn't all that we expected.

But then, there's always a next trip to New York City.

PS. One thing I should mention, is that after all the trips I've taken to NYC, I only realized on this last one that it's very easy to get to Manhattan from JFK Airport and vice versa via the Subway system.