Woke up, blogged, and hit the road for some bagels. I used yelp and happily discovered that one of the top-rated bagel places, Ess-a-Bagel, is only about 20 streets north of my hotel. Hurray! A quick walk later and I was in bagel heaven. Id estimate 90% of the staff was Jewish and at least 50% of the customers. You wait in line to get to two bagel-making stations, where a 60-year old Jew labors over your bagels. He takes his time, wraps up the product, and illegibly scrawls the price on the top. You take your bagels over to the cashier, who can't read what the bagel-maker wrote, and asks you to repeat your order. Definitely a laid-back place. Best conversation overheard was the guy two spots ahead of me in line.
Customer, after waiting 40 seconds: Can you hurry it up, I have a table waiting.
Bagel-maker: Oy! So she's sitting over there and I have to deal with you and your ugly face.
Customer: That's right.
Bagel-maker: See if I care! I'll just pretend it's halloween.
Customer: Hey it's no picnic for me either, I have to look in the mirror every morning.
The bagel maker laughs, and they move on to smoother chit-chat. Two minutes later they wish eachother happy chanukkah and the guy takes his bagels and leaves. 100% real dialogue.
Awesome.
I got an onion bagel with regular creamcheese and a sesame bagel with apple cinnamon creamcheese. Here's a picture of the former. http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0714.jpg Definitely good, fluffy bagels you aren't going to find from dunkin donuts or whatever, but not insanely crazy good. Sometime if I'm up early enough I can maybe come in early and get one of the first batch of the day, still warm. That, I'm sure, is ridiculous. The second bagel with the apple cinnamon creamcheese I saved for later in the day, and it was very, very good.
Well, I was all the way on the east side of Manhattan, pretty much at it's widest width, so I took the subway alll the way over to the other side for my boat ride around manhattan. Even in december the boat had 300 people, easy. It was a fun tour for about the first 90 minutes, but tapered off a lot, after that. The northern coastline of the island? Not that interesting. I should have elected for a shorter tour. Still, I learned a lot and it's definitely a cool thing to do. I have some pretty rocksolid Manhattan knowledge, at this point. I gave subway advice to an english woman today and gave directions to time square to someone from the south. Pretty crazy. I took numerous shockingly amateurish photos on the boat, here are a few of the standouts:
Statue of liberty: http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0737.jpg
Ellis Island: http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0732.jpg
Downtown: http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0730.jpg
Empire State Building & Chrysler building: http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0726.jpg
It's definitely a city that makes you proud to be an American when you see it. The statue of liberty is extremely awe-inspiring, as was the pride of our tour-guide when discussing the city. In particular our tour guide made many reverent references to the now missing twin towers. We all remember that day, but I think the the loss of life and of steel from Sept 11 is a wound that many new yorkers feel even more acutely. I didn't really have enough time to do a museum visit justice anyway, so I took the E-train all the way downtown to see Ground Zero.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0774.jpg
Most people walk right on past, completely used to the giant hole in the sky, but often enough you hear where-were-you-when conversations. The small museum was very striking. They made excellent use of video and voice-over interviews to convey the emotion of the situation. It felt very personal. I'm glad I went, I feel more connected, now.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0775.jpg
Afterwards I had dinner at Carnegie Deli. The sheer volume of food that comes out of this place is either amazing or sickening. Mostly, sickening. I misunderstood the menu and got the below "Reuben." If you don't have a steady stomache, don't click on this link: http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0776.jpg
Yeah, you regret clicking it, don't you? I know I do. It tastes almost as bad as it looks. They used about half an onion and it's just terrible. I ate a very small part of it, asked for the rest to be boxed, and then threw out the box a block away. I still feel yucky because of it. They have a huge menu, so should they be judged on one dish? When the dish is this bad, absolutely. No customer should have to pay for this. It was so horrible you almost wonder if it was malicious. The amusing elderly jewish waitress did not make up for it!
On my way back to the hotel I got a fallafel sandwich that was much, much better. I guess Zagat reviews are no substitute for taste! http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f291/abrottman/NYC%2009/IMG_0780.jpg
Tomorrow: Greenwich Village Walking tour, Museum of Natural History, Bar Boulud.
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