day 13: new york I
linda offered to treat us to breakfast at her diner, the mini-star café just a block away. the small corner diner was solidly packed, but the waitresses hustled to turn the tables, and we were soon seated. we were amazed at the low prices of breakfast combos but quickly realized that they cut costs by serving the 'choice of juice' in two-swallow shot glasses. still, the food was good and we left full. linda walked us to the subway station then rode with us to the first transfer point to make sure we were headed in the right direction.

m had wanted to visit a gallery with a significant catalog of work by one of her favorite artists, louise bourgeois, but we made it all the way there to find that nothing of hers was on display at the moment. undaunted, we set out to encounter the city. we soon found ourselves on broadway in the midst of a huge retail district. m spied a cute pair of sandals on a girl in the subway, and we picked up a pair in one of the shops. we wandered around Greenwich village for a while before popping into an organic japanese café for tea and steamed dumplings. recharged, we decided to head out again.

we headed up the avenue of the americas in the intermittent rain. we looped around through midtown and ended up in grand central station. the grandeur of the building was inspiring. it took us a while to weave through the marketplace, where we bought cheese sticks and drooled over the breads, meats and cheeses that were offered deli-style. we finally found ourselves in the main concourse where the commuters had to swim through the ogling tourists who snapped pictures of the detailed ceiling while meandering around.

we had done some shopping – come on, it's fashionable new york and we needed some new duds – so we called linda and decided to head back to Astoria to drop off our stuff and grab some dinner. r requested pizza, and while the thin crust offering was very tasty, the slices were neither big nor greasy enough to satisfy him, as he had a distinct idea of new york style pies in mind.

deciding to find out first hand if this truly was the city that never sleeps, we rode the subway back into manhattan, getting into the city well past ten. we surfaced in times square, the attraction that simply attracts people. although not from small towns, we had never seen such throngs of people lining the sidewalks, spilling into the streets. we walked up and down a few sidewalks, but weren’t quite sure what to do. we escaped off the main avenue and started wandering, walking past such icons as rockefeller center and radio city music hall – all by complete chance. m had seen that bleecker street in greenwich was a popular night spot, so we boarded the nearest subway and head back into the area. although not quite what we had envisioned (the whole bob dylan and the beat scene) there were no poets singing on the corners. no poets preaching drunk on a barstool. the place was definitely where the young adults congregated, but these ones weren’t into poetry. after being turned off by the music or atmospheres of so many joints, we settled for an inviting bar and found a table that bordered the sidewalk. our waiter, who incidentally was enthralled with r’s mustache, sang along to most of the classic rock tunes. we hung there till last call, which we thought was a bit early at a quarter to one.

r asked m to trudge along and visit the Brooklyn bridge before heading back to astoria for the night. we traversed the island over to the lower east side, where the classic structure straddles the east river. it was only past one as we walked through the city, and we felt as if it did not live up to its moniker, as the streets were almost deserted. the view from the manhattan shore is awesome, even in the rain at almost two in the morning. we lingered for a bit, feeling alone in this giant city, if only for a brief moment.

we turned and headed back to the civic center subway station. wet and a bit weary, we boarded the train and headed back to queens waking linda to let us in just past three.