NYC adventure Nº3 - 2013.05.03-05

It has been less than a year since my last [and first] NYC trip and I knew I had to go again. Soon. Of course I didn't want it to be in the winter but I didn't want it to be a hot one either. So we decided to do it at the beginning of May. My photography friend and I. To make long story short I ended up going by myself. This time I decided to make it more than just one day and go for a weekend and instead of taking the bus and being exhausted I decided to cut the travel short and fly by using my air miles [glad I collect those].

Booked a two night stay in a very cheap "hotel" in Chinatown. Wasn't planning on spending lots of time in the room so the quality of the place didn't matter to me. I also booked a very early flight so I could spend as much of Friday in NYC as possible. The sad part is the only return flight that was available on Sunday was also early in the morning.

Took a very early [5am] bus to the airport. Turns out my flight was delayed by almost two hours which I was not happy about especially since my mission was to get to B&H, the camera store where I wanted to buy films for my cameras, which was closing at 3pm. After landing at LaGuardia Airport I took the shuttle to Penn Station in Manhattan and then RAN to B&H and got there about half an hour before they closed. Bought quite a few rolls of film as well as some large dark room paper for my photos.

Walked all the way from 9th Ave/34th St to Chinatown, took me about 3-4 hours, with stops of course to take some photos. Stopped by Chelsea Hotel, if it wasn't so hot and I didn't have so many bags with me I would've spent more time there, which I now regret I didn't. Next time, hopefully. Stopped by Carrie's [Sex and the City] apartment building as well as Friend's building, took a couple of photos and moved on.

Washington Square park was one of the places I stopped at and hung out for a while longer. It had different groups of people there. All interesting to observe and capture on film. There was a group of chess players. Some theatrical entertainment as well as musical. Different people in different spots. Then walked through Little Italy and made it to Chinatown.

Of course with my luck the place I booked my room in was for men only [I am a female] so with rude attitude the man at the counter has sent me to another "hotel" down the street. I forgot to mention I had to walk up a tall, narrow stairway with all my luggage before I got sent away. The other place also had a tall, narrow staircase. At that moment all I could think of was if I was sent down that staircase all I would do is go back to the airport and stay there for two nights until my flight back home. Good thing I didn't have to but instead I got a room on 5th floor. Not sure if going back down and going to the airport would've been worse or better but I did make it up to the room.

The room was tiny, all it fit was a bed [twin] and a shelf beside it but at least I got a window. Because the rooms were not separated all the way up to the ceiling I could hear every little sound from almost all the rooms on that floor. At that time I didn't really care, I was too excited and too tired.

I didn't have anything to eat since the snacks at the airplane so I was getting hungry. I decided my first place to go eat was somewhere very close to the "hotel" in the Chinatown area. So I just went across the street to a Chinese restaurant where I ordered one of their soups. I felt like I was in a completely different country. English was not the language that was spoken there. Good thing the menu had numbers for the meals otherwise I would most likely get something I didn't order. I definitely didn't waste my time, ate pretty quick, paid my bill and left.

My first evening destination was the Brooklyn bridge where I took some sunset photos with black and white film as well as colour [Velvia 400]. With my luck of course when I changed the film in my Hasselblad from black and white to colour I forgot to take the yellow filter off [which I use when shooting b&w]. Ughhh!!!

The good part was the bridge wasn't anywhere as full as it was the last time I was there during the day time. I guess all the tourists go to see it during the day light to see it better. It took me way shorter than last time to get to the other side of the bridge. I found it very beautiful during the sun down hours.

By the time I was walking back it was completely dark outside, but still fun. Decided to stop somewhere close to my "hotel" for a bite and a beer and hopefully wi-fi so I could Skype with my sisters and my almost-10 year old daughter. I ended up finding what looked like a really small cafe but turned out to be this amazing restaurant with a gorgeous, private, open roof yard at the back. I fell in love with that place right away. It was a bit chilly outside but how could I say no to being able to sit outside at the beginning of May? I lasted about an hour or so before giving up from all the shivering and going inside where it was warm and cozy.

After a couple of beers and a delicious personal pizza I headed back to the "hotel". I was a bit tired from a very early morning. Definitely had no trouble falling asleep but staying asleep was the tougher part. Let me just say there were different types of noises which were waking me up throughout the night. At one point I had to take out my iPod to fall and stay asleep with music on.

Getting up in the morning was a bit tough. I did stay in bed a little longer than I planned to but it's better to have a shorter, enjoyable day than longer but miserable. Especially since my plan was to walk all the way up to about 90's streets and then cross Central Park and go back down to Chinatown but first I had to stop somewhere in Little Italy to have a protein rich breakfast to keep me full for as long as possible. I have found a nice corner restaurant with tables on the outside. Having an outside breakfast at the beginning of May was amazing, not something I'd be able to do in Toronto.

Oh everything looks so much smaller and way closer on the map than in reality. It's not that I was in a rush or speed walking but it definitely was taking way longer than I assumed. I don't even know how I started but I know I ended up on the east side before reaching 14th street where I decided to cross over to the west.

I ended up walking up Broadway and stopped for a bit once I reached 5th Avenue where I sat down and took some shots of Flat Iron building as well as the people chilling there. One family whom I found interesting was a young couple with a daughter around four years of age as well as a baby having a family photography session with a professional photographer. That was really sweet.

It started getting really hot so I took off my Burton light jacket but I didn't bring any light shoes to replace my hiking-sports shoes. Since I have already walked down 5th avenue I decided to continue up Broadway instead to see more new-to-me places.

One of the places I decided to stop by this time since I didn't the last two times was the Times Square. This is where all the tourists go so it wasn't really on top of my list but since I was in the area then it wasn't a bad idea. Went up on the stairs and sat at the very top. Took a few photos from above to capture the busy New York feeling. Sat a bit to cool off, which didn't really work, instead I got even more hot there.

I have decided to walk up along the west side of Central Park and then go down on the east side of it. Some areas were more interesting and some less. My mission on the west side was to see and photograph The Dakota building on 72nd where John Lennon has lived and was also shot by. It was beautiful. The architecture is what I really like there. There isn't that much of it in North America.

I continued up from there to 81st and that's where I crossed Central Park. I don't think for as many times as I will go there I will ever be twice in the same spot. It is humongous!!! Once I crossed the park to the east side the pain in my feet was kicking in. Sitting down on a bench every few hundred metres became mandatory. It became impossible to stand on my feet for extended periods of time. This is when I started debating whether to keep on walking (or at least trying to) or find a way to get back to Chinatown on public transportation. It was too confusing to figure out which bus to take and I wasn't sure about the fare or how it works so I just kept on going.

The one place that was on my have-to-see list on the east side of Central Park was the Guggenheim Museum. I had learned about it at school, seen it in movies, books, posters and many other places so there's no way I would miss this chance while being on the same street and not stop by it. Got a few interesting shots of that place, mostly with my lomography camera, Diana F+, on the X-Pro film which is colour. Sat down for a bit as well to rest my sore feet.

As I passed the Central Park and moved into the crazy-busy shopping area it was getting packed. All I wanted was just to fly through that area away from crazy shoppers. I was also getting very hungry. All I had earlier for late lunch was one of those healthy fruit smoothies which wasn't very filling.

I only had a few dollars left in cash so stopping by a bank was a good idea. Since I'm not an American, Citi Bank was the only one which would accept my bank card and there weren't any in Chinatown area. As I entered the branch, which was of course closed since it was Saturday evening, I stopped at the first bank machine available. I felt like I went back in time. The monitors had the same font and colour as the ones in the early 1990's. As I inserted the card and punched in my PIN the computer froze. I couldn't type anything, couldn't cancel transaction, I couldn't even get the card out. I didn't know what to do so I just dropped all my bags to the floor and was waiting.

After a few minutes of standing there in panic and hearing other people having problems with their international bank cards the computer was starting to reboot. Of course it took about five minutes, if not more. After it spat out my bank card I moved onto the next computer but was very nervous whether to risk it again. So I did. This time it worked. Got a few dollars and left the bank.

The area was so packed with shoppers that I started feeling claustrophobic. I was trying to get out of there as fast as possible. Even though my feet were killing me I was trying to run. As I got to the Rockefeller area I decided to stop and take some photos. Didn't stay long. After that it was a hotdog stop. Didn't really fill me up but it was better than nothing.

As I started walking away I suddenly felt a bit weird. Light. As if something was missing. That's when I realized one of my smaller bags, where I had all my films, was missing. This was about 15 blocks from the bank where I remember it being the last place I had it. I couldn't believe it. How could I have left one of my bags behind?!?! Of course I had to turn back and look for it. I was glancing everywhere. Stopped at all the places I made a stop at. Couldn't see it anywhere. Went back into the bank. Nothing. Couldn't do any magic tricks to get it back so I just turned around and headed back to Chinatown.

Walking was getting harder and harder, especially when depressed after losing all the films I had on me. Exposed and not exposed. Made it back to the Flat Iron building area and it was the nice golden hour so I used this opportunity to shoot some colour photos with whatever films I had left in the cameras. I wish I have stayed there a bit longer at that time and shot more colour photos but all I could think of was sitting and staying seated for the next few hours.

The rest of the walk I don't remember as clearly. Nothing dramatic happened then. I was just looking forward to finally getting somewhere where I could sit, eat and have a beer or two. The same Italian restaurant it was again. I enjoyed the pizza, beer and chat with my sisters. After a few hours I went to the "hotel". Got all washed up, although the bathrooms were in way worse shape than the night before, and went to bed with iPod on.

The next morning was also an early one, had a morning flight to catch. I had to order a local Chinatown driver, since they have no cabs there, to take me to Grand Central Station to catch the shuttle to LaGuardia Airport. I made sure to leave early enough to have some time to hang out at the station to shoot some photos.

It seemed like there was something going on in Manhattan that Sunday morning since a lot of the streets were closed off. Police officers were all over, nothing related to a crime scene, more like a special event. Thanks to that the driver kept on making circles making me all paranoid about catching my flight. We finally did make it out of that area.

Once I got to Grand Station I pulled out my cameras and started shooting. The good part was since it was Sunday morning it wasn't packed there so I could capture the look of the place.there was actually a few photographers with their cameras on tri pods shooting some long exposure shots.

The one mistake I did again was I forgot to take the yellow filter off after loading colour film. I guess I'm so used to looking through the view finder and seeing everything yellow that I don't even realize that's what it will turn out like.

After spending about half an hour at the station I headed out to catch the shuttle to the airport. This time I was a bit ahead of time, which is better. Had to wait quite a bit at the airport. But I guess it's better than being late and missing the plane.

Caught the flight, got home tired but safe and everything was good.... except me losing my bag with all the films from that day. The good part is I still had the films from the day before.

AFTER:

I ended up getting in touch with Citi Bank about the bag I lost. Nobody has found anything but I was told as soon as they find it they will contact me. A few days later on my way in to work I got a call on my cell with a weird number. When I see those kind of numbers I don't answer since it's usually telemarketers. This one has left a message so I thought it was one of those machines that called me but I decided to check the message to delete it otherwise it would take up space in my mailbox. As it turns out it was The Metropolitan Museum of Art calling me about a lost bag that was found. I couldn't believe it so I called them back right away. I had to answer some questions for them to be sure it was my belongings since all my information they got was from my bunch of business cards I had in the pocket. I was also told they never check inside for any contact info but somehow this lady decided to do so, which I am very thankful for. As it turns out one of the employees has found it somewhere outside on the street and decided to bring it in to the lost & found. I couldn't believe it. Right away I offered for them to ship it back to me on my expense since I wasn't sure when would be the next time I'd be back in New York City but I was told they couldn't do it. My first reaction was sadness, but right away I was told since it's in their property they are the ones responsible for it so they will ship it to me and the only thing they ask is for me to call as soon as I get it to confirm the delivery. I couldn't believe how giving and caring people can be, especially in a big city such as New York. A few days later I have received the package on a Friday and since Monday was a long weekend in Canada I called the museum on Tuesday morning. I have asked to speak to the lady who was in charge of the box being sent out but the man who has answered the phone didn't know who she was and said he will leave her the message. I know people south of the border don't know too much about their neighbour up north but I didn't think they wouldn't know anything at all. When I told the man I was calling from Toronto [in the middle of the summer] the first thing he said is he's never been to Canada and it must be really cold up here. As a joke I said we live in igloos and his response was: "Ohhhhhh, yeah". I have heard some people's stories about this but I never really believed them, that's until now. A couple of days later the same lady who has called me the first time about the found bag has called me again. It was to check if I have received the package. I told her that yes I have and that I have phoned in a couple of days ago to let them know and that I have left a message with someone. As it turns out she never received the message. Now that I think about it maybe she was an angel?

PREVIOUS STORIES:

NYC adventure Nº2 - 2012.10.05
NYC adventure Nº1 - 2012.09.22

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