The Big Apple

The door slammed and locked behind me as I walked out of the Hays Valley Inn, downtown San Francisco, at 5.30 am on the 25th of September. It was pitched black outside and I’d been surprised to see luggage in the little foyer, but no people. It was a pretty respectable part of town, decent accomodation, nothing flash but far from shabby. Street cleaners had been through and everything was wet – the area was devoid of cars and it was very quiet. Silent that is, except for the loudest snoring that I’ve ever heard in my life. In the recess of the entry to the building next door, a homeless man was sound asleep, surrounded (and covered) by all his worldly possessions. As I peered into the shadows cast by the few street lamps on the other side of the road, I could see dozens of men and women, young and old, asleep, sitting up or perched on steps or the gutter. They were all waiting for sun to come up so they could start their daily grind of trying to generate enough money, generally with a cup or plate and a message outlining their plight, to buy whatever they needed to keep them going until the next night on the streets. The poverty in some of the cities, especially the big ones, has been a confronting element of my trip. While far from a revelation, it’s a sorry reminder that there, but for the grace of God, go I. We are very lucky to have what we do and should be more thankful for the opportunity and privilege that life has given us.

My Uber pulled up and others came out of the Inn to join me. They’d been waiting inside as a security measure. I’m pretty well travelled and have been in less than savoury parts of the world. Also, I’m far from naive. But, I’d still just walked out of the building at that time of morning without really considering the circumstances or consequences. As soon as the door had shut, I realised that I was potentially putting myself at risk, but in looking around, I felt comfortable enough. I could have buzzed myself back in, but didn’t feel the need. Again, this reinforces just how lucky we are in Australia, although there are dangerous and seedy elements in many of our towns too of course.

The shared Uber’s are great. I use them a lot and they are fast, efficient and very reasonably priced. Short shared rides are often less than $2.00. The tecki part of me loves how the app works – I hear that they’ve been legalised in Queensland while I’ve been away. We had an entertaining ride out to the airport, albeit a lot of the streets were blocked in preparation for the equivalent of Sydney’s Mardi Gras. Imagine that in San Francisco – honestly, It was going to go off. As one of the other passengers said, it was going to be a feast of extraversion and public nudity. And there I was flying over to the other side of the country.

As I’ve said several times in past blogs, by happy coincidence, Sophie and her boyfriend Tom were going to be in New York at the same time I was in the US. I’d purchased a return ticket with American Airlines for $500 and was heading over there for 4 nights. It was close to 6 weeks since I’d left home, so seeing some family was going to be wonderful. As the time had drawn closer, I was looking forward to seeing Soph more and more. We are very close and it was going to be such a treat to share part of the adventure with her.

We were herded onto the plane like cattle into a B double. Security was astoundingly high, everything onto trays, including shoes, for X-rays, then pat downs and full body scans. The security staff were very blunt and matter of fact – I was quite happy that they took things as seriously as they did. The flight was pleasant and uneventful – a nice rest. It was a 5 hours and I’d bought food onboard with me and settled into a few movies. It was interesting that the plane was about 35% first class, 35% business and only 30% economy. Much different to how people travel at home, it seems that people like more comfort and are prepared to spend the significant dollars required to do so in the US.

I arrived in NY at about 5.00 pm their time and I decided to save the $90 AUD that a taxi would cost and take public transport into Manhattan. My Air B n B host had given me pretty detailed instructions that included a shuttle and half a dozen over-ground trains and subway rides. I never had more than a few minutes between stops and it all worked seamlessly – the cost was less then $10.00. It makes you wonder how everything could work so well when you take in to account the size, complexity and the number of people being moved. But, it did. The only surprise was the filth – the subway in particular was hot and absolutely squalid. I was astounded. Another reason for travelling in this way was to get an idea of how the public transport system worked. I’d heard that NY was so congested and busy that this was the best and quickest way to get around.

I was met very enthusiastically by Eduardo, my ‘flamboyant’ Venezuelan Air B n B host, who showed me into a  large and neat room on the 6th floor of his apartment. Sophie and Tom were staying only a few blocks away and we’d been messaging each other as I got closer. I dumped my bags and went back downstairs (trailed by Eduardo) to spot them walking up the street. Wow, it was so good to see them – I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Big hugs all around (Eduardo joined in as well – he really got into the swing of it) amongst the traffic and pedestrians in Chelsea, New York City. It was quite surreal and a bit hard to believe actually. Eduardo then led us off to a cute little Italian restaurant before reluctantly leaving us to our reunion. I felt whole again having my little girl by my side – it was awesome!

We had a lovely dinner and it was great to hear what they’d been up to. It had been a busy time and they were a bit frazzled by everything –  I think a little culture shock had possibly set in as well. New York’s a big, busy, scary place for a couple of young Aussies, despite their both being pretty well travelled. They’d done really well though and filled me in on how to get around and the way the city worked. We walked back to their Air B n B where I met their other house mates before heading back out for a bit of a look around to end the night. We kind of just got towed along by the crowds and ended up in Times Square.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a mass of humanity in one place. Very intense, the light, noise, colour, tourists and crush was an eye opener in its own right. There were was food, souvenirs, hawkers, scalpers, super heroes,  political representatives and every other type of nut case, weirdo and freak imaginable. It was great.

However, the fullness of day was starting to kick in for me (and the kids were pretty out of it too) so we said our farewells, organised a meet up for breakfast and headed of to our respective NYC lofts!

The next 3 days were spent exploring and taking in all that New York had to offer. We only scratched the surface, but we did see some iconic, exciting and thought provoking things. One of the most confronting was the 9/11 memorial. It was a small building located at Ground Zero and, based on this, we assumed that it might take half an hour or so to wander through it. Little did we know that it went down 4 or 5 stories and spread below the whole area taking in the original foundations of the 2 World Trade Centre buildings that had collapsed. We spent about 4 hours wandering through the exhibits, but really only got a cursory look at everything. The whole exhibition was extraordinarily detailed and so well presented and preserved. Despite the absolute tragedy, it was a profound tribute to the victims, survivors and everyone that was involved in the aftermath, plus a reminder to the world at large of the troubled times we live in.

We walked a lot, but also spent quite a bit of time on pushbikes. I now know what they are trying (unsuccessfully) to do with these in Brisbane. They had stations everywhere and for $12 you could rent a bike for 24 hours. Sophie and Tom had worked it all out pretty quickly because, if you didn’t dock them and wait 2 minutes every half hour, your credit card would be charged $5 per 15 minutes until you did. Riding around was lots of fun – you’d drop the bike off when you got where you wanted to (or your time was close to being up), and then pick up another to continue. Plus it was fast. The traffic was pretty solid, but there were bikeways everywhere and no hills. Road rules were vaguely adhered to by the cyclists and the motorists were pretty laid back. Horns are very constant (more of a warning than the driver being aggressive) and vehicles end up ‘blocking the box’ regularly. But, there’s nil road rage – a bit different to home!

The High Line was also really cool. It was an old elevated rail line (the last use was the delivery of 3 wagons of turkeys 20 years ago), that had been decommissioned and left to go back to nature. Seeds from bird droppings had sprouted and the 4 or 5 miles of this that wound through the city was arty, green and a great way for people to walk and avoid traffic.

We had to have a look at Wall St of course. As a financial planner, it’s been a huge influence on my life for well over 10 years. I was keen to actually see the place that had been instrumental in the GFC but, equally, one which has been part of the global financial environment that had been so good to my clients over time. There was lots of security there and plenty of tourists. The Charging Bull (which represents positive financial returns – a Bull Market) was also fun. People hung off and climbed all over him, also lining up to be photographed doing unmentionable things associated with his …… under carriage.

We ate a great deal. It was probably one of the best things about the city as we stumbled across every imaginable style and type of food imaginable. The busy touristy areas have to be avoided unless you intend to eat in the really, really good restaurants where a meal could cost thousands. We weren’t, of course, so the best places were found in East Village, Little Italy, Chinatown and Hells Kitchen – the list of suburbs goes on and on. New York pizza is awesome the first time, it’s great the second and good the third. But, by the fourth, fifth or sixth time, it starts to wear a bit thin. It’s very cheap though. The kids were experiencing death by pizza and, I suspect, were starting to get malnourished. Introducing a bit more variety to their diet (largely by paying for it) is exactly what Papa’s are for!

We did have one lash out, going to a broadway Musical and seeing Matilda. It’s a film I’ve seen several times – a lovely children’s story about good and bad, the innocence of children and the joy of love and relationships. It was very true to the original, bright and inventive. It touched a chord and was so nice to see with my daughter.

The last of the big ticket items I’ll mention was the evening we went to went to the ’Top of the Rock. This is the Rockefeller Building and the viewing platform was 67 stories up. Talking our Tom and Jerry ice creams up with us, the night view over Manhattan was spectacular – lights as far as the eye could see. We had considered going up King Kong’s Empire State Building, but thought being able to see it would be better. It was a lot slower getting down – big queues with the ushers continually chanting ‘two by two, side by side’ to move us along (did I get that right Sophie?). It took a whole lot longer to get down than up.

It was bitter-sweet seeing Sophie and Tom off at the bus station where they were booked to go to Washington. They’d had a full week in NY and were ready for a bit of a change. I waved them off with a lump in my throat before heading back to Eduardo’s to get a little organised for my last couple of nights there. The kids had a bit of an accomodation mix up and as a result spent the previous night with me (they got the bed and I was on the floor – we knew this was going to happen and I’d bought my sleeping bag and mattress as a result). The shine had come off the visit with Eduardo unfortunately – he had a lot of personal problems that he was insisting on sharing with me and it was all getting a little weird. Amongst other things, the place smelt very ‘weedy’ at times which probably accounted for his erratic behaviour.

I spent the next days cruising around town – Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, street food and some time in Central Park. Like the Americans think Australia is full of poisonous snakes, spiders and sharks ready to maul or strike you dead at the drop of a hat, I was under the impression that Central Park would be rife with muggers, drug addicts and crazed killers. It was actually full of tourists, joggers and cyclists, with the most confronting experience being constantly bombarded with offers for horse drawn buggy rides and other attractions by scalpers at the entrances.

I did do day 19 of my push up challenge in the park. I’d been sticking to the program, but not recording it very often. It’s been good and the 22 days will be up the day before I get to Los Angeles. Thanks for nominating me Steve and sorry about the poor quality of the video.

on my last afternoon, I grabbed a share Uber out to the airport for about $25, arriving in good time for my flight. New York had been a fantastic part of my journey and a trip I was so pleased I had made. It was such fun doing it with Sophie and Tom – we’d all been lucky to have had such an opportunity. I was a bit weary by the end of it though (the logistics of the last week had been pretty complicated and tight), so I was looking forward to sitting back in the plane and enjoying a cruisy flight back to San Francisco.

Or would I?