New York - Day 1

November 4, 2009 New York City - pop 8 million - almost as many as all of Sweden!

This Super8 motel in North Bergen, New Jersey, had a bus service that stopped every 15 minutes in front of the motel and drove us into the Port Authority which is very close to Times Square. Returning was a little different. The bus stopped a few blocks above where you could not see the motel. One evening when I was returning alone, the bus driver decided to take a different turn, which I noticed. I walked up to the driver and asked her where my stop was for Super8. "Oh, I drive this way. You can get off here", she said and stopped the bus!

On our first day, the traffic was thick and the bus moved slowly through the Lincoln Tunnel. First we walked to Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, which is New York's tourist mecca. The New York Times newspaper celebrated its new building on the traffic triangle between 42nd and 43rd streets with a public fireworks display. That triangular square was then renamed Times Square. With the annual New Year's Eve ball drop in 1907 and installation of the zipper news bulletin board in 1928, Times Square became America's gathering place during significant events of the 20th century. Times Square is the only place in the city where businesses are required to advertise in bright lights.

Jalil had lived in New York for two summers (1958 and 1959) so he knew his way around. There were people everywhere! So many musicals were advertised. There were some red steps at the end of Times Square that people were sitting on. There were a staty of Father Duffy, chaplain in many wars, at the bottom. There were skinny red chairs and tables on the sidewalk where you could sit for a while. There was a statue of Golda Meir where pigeons wanted to sit.

Second, we walked to Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue - New York's #1 Tourist Attraction and a historical landmark. It was finished in 1931 - one year and 45 days after they started building it! It is 381 m/1,250 ft high and it was the world's tallest sky scraper. It has 86 floors plus the tower mast. The lobby design is in Art Deco style with slabs of marble. The rear wall shows an image of the Empire State Building. On the 86th floor, there is an observatory and you can walk around the building in the surrounding open-air promenade. Depending on the weather, you can see all of Manhattan. We had sunshine and that made it difficult to see southward as everything was backlit. The Statue of Liberty was barely visible. We took the Audio Tour so we could learn about the different buildings. It was very informative.

Our third goal was the United Nations Headquarters and we walked there, too. We did get our exercise in NY. And we did not see many fat people there. Everybody was walking and running up and down to the subway. It was now getting dark already. We got on to the last tour. We were allowed to take pictures everywhere except in the General Assembly, because they were in session. We just walked through but there was no time to listen to what was going on. The Security Counsel consists of 15 members, five of which are permanent - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US - who have veto power. That seems to me to be a problem as so much does not get done due to the veto. The UN does not have its own military force; it depends on contributions from member states. To date 100 countries have contributed military and police personnel to UN peace keeping. There were many wise sayings on the walls like Twenty percent of the world's population consume ninety percent of the world's resources. There was a malaria tent display to explain UN's work to prevent malaria. Another one regarding land mines and pictures of people who lost limbs from land mine explosions.

There was a statue of Folke Bernadotte - a Swedish count who was a UN mediator in the Arab Jewish conflict in Palestine in 1948. He was assassinated by the Stern Group, a Jewish terrorist organization. He spoke six languages!

From the UN we walked to Grand Central TERMINAL not Station which I have always said.
A dramatic restoration project in the 1990's returned the terminal to its former glory, particularly the 120 foot high ceiling in the main concourse, a painted sky scape with star constellations. Well, I did not remember this information and we walked around and took pictures but did not realize that we never saw the main area. We were impressed with what we saw.

Now we were walking on 42nd Street towards the Port Authority to catch our bus home. At one point there were many, many police cars stopped at the curb. I started to take pictures of this when a nice, young man stopped to talk. He said he was just wishing he had his camera to photograph the street scene. Then he started telling me what else I could photograph, fall colors in Central Park, the ceiling in the Grand Central Terminal, etc. Then I realized that I had missed the ceiling when we were just there!

We had to walk by Times Square again and it looked different in the dark - more exiting with all the lights. It was not really dark. Jalil now remembered where he used to buy hot dogs for 15 cents or two for 25 cents. Mo had reminded him to eat one. Jalil found the spot but it was now a Patisserie. So he had to buy a pastry.
Around the corner on 42nd Street, Jalil recognized the theaters where he used to go to see two movies for 35cents at 10 AM, or 45 cents at ll AM, increasing a dime every hour. You could stay in the cool air conditioning all day, if you wanted to. Some of these theaters were still movie theaters (multi-screen), and one was a big McDonald!

When we got off the bus, we could not see our Super8 motel. A woman who got off at the same time showed us where it was. She was from Johannesburg, South Africa. She "always" stays there. Used to stay in Manhattan but it cost her $400 last time a night so she moved to this motel. She comes every two months to shop!!! It is the best deal and better than the previous place except for the breakfast which she does not bother with.

Jalil was pleased with his first day in NY and he called Mo to reminisce of the old days 50 years ago.