Harlem is a bit of a different part of Manhattan, used to be really bad maybe 15 years ago, now gentrification is in full force and it is hard find find an affordable place...
Broadway at 135th Street is where the Subway sees a bit of daylight!!!
Back at 145th Street, looking west towards the Hudson River, on the other side is New Jersey...
Follow the double yellow line and at the end of it is the river, the square blocks after that, behind the buss, are NJ!!!
I have another cup of lousy hot brown water with a couple of doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts to kill time and to warm up too. Here I am just wearing a T-shirt, while the rest of New York is wrapped in heavy coats and shawls. I get to overhear a couple conversation, in a "real" heavy Harlem accent, and when they leave the place the guy comes to me and axt me: " Is it really my fault that I did this 12 years ago..." or some like that, because they were arguing about something that went wrong that time.
I find a wine-store, unfortunately not Trader Joe's, but what the hell, so I spend a few more bucks for wine, and get a bottle of Merlot and another of Pinot Grigio for our dinner tonight. Finally Howard calls and I get the green light to go over to their house.
Howard and Sharon scored when they bought that place a few years back. Through a lottery, then the builder changed his mind and lawsuits followed years later the court made the guy sell the apartments for the price of the original contract, and interest rate too, Lucky them now.
A nicely remodeled 6 story building, each floor is an apartment, Howard and Sharon live on the 5th floor. A well lit place, master-bed-room with it's own bathroom, a large living/dining room, verily small kitchen, another bathroom out in the hallway and then anther bed-room, so much more space than in the previous apartment on I think 103 street. That's where Elaine and I went to have dinner on our East Coast Tour in 2004. Last year and the previous year I spend a night at their new place, I like it a lot.
So, Howard tells me how he got the dinner tonight, he ordered it at the same place where he ordered it at the time with Elaine, tons of good italian food we could not finish, he went there still with his Postal Uniform and placed a order to go, went back to his office and changed and on his way home picked up the food. The guy at the cash-register didn't want his credit-card, he says that it is a Manager's Order, and so he gets it all for free... only in New York!!!
Once Sharon get home dinner is served, spaghetti, meat-balls, eggplant parmesan, a fresh salad and wine...
The food was delicious, way too much, and then some, we had great conversations and drank almost all the wine, it's time to hit the road for this guy here, I'm beat, another day in Manhattan that I walked miles and miles of it's streets. The last stretch back to the Metro North Train Station is another 22 blocks, here is the route>
Walking route back to the train station and then waiting for the train at Harlem 125th Street Station...
The 10:42 Train drops me off in Tuckahoe at 11:07, a short walk there and I'm in bed!!!
I had a hard time waking up in the morning, sore legs and tired body, this is a hard trip, I'm supposed to be on vacation here, or what??? I eat some breakfast, drink some tea and take my vitamin C to continue work on the blog here, more pictures to edit more stories to write.
Then back to the train-station here in Tuckahoe, I'm back there waiting for the 11:58 train back to Grand Central, the train is running 10 minutes late. After getting out of Grand Central I had to pick-up the speed to get to 33rd between Lexington and 3rd Ave, that's 11 blocks, still find some to take a picture of.
Waiting for the train in Tuckahoe and next a good view of the Chrysler Building...
I'm just a few minutes late, Harold and I planed to meet at quarter to one here at the Second Avenue Deli, an institution of a Jewish Deli, even though it used to be on Second Ave, the last time I had lunch with Harold, also the trip I did with Elaine in 2004, at that time Harold's wife Mira and Sharon, from Howard and Sharon, joined us, the place is classic.
Lunch with Harold at the Second Avenue Deli, this time on 33rd Street...
I was kind of shocked when I looked at the prices of the menu, sandwiches ranged from 15 to almost 25 bucks, and I know there will be tons of meat on it, but nothing else, just bread and meat, you can put your own mustard on it. The waitress brings us a plate with 3 different pickles and an other plate with coleslaw and is ready to take our orders. I order something I not even know what it is, or could be, it just said something something grilled with a side of something, for 15 bucks the half-order is 10, so I take the half order of something something with a side of baked beans, and what I get made me almost laugh... it was a fat/short wiener-sausage, cut in half the long way and grilled, server with nothing more than a sharp knife to cut that wiener proper.
Alright so there a bit pricey, but they sure know how to present food in the deli-case...
Fun with food... I guess they didn't listen to mom when she said not to do that!!!
Harold is another men I met though the Great Mother Conference , him and his wife Mira are originally from Chattanooga Tennessee, Mira insisted on living in Manhattan, and Howard listened, and in the meantime Mira published her own book on how to become a poet in Manhattan!
To complete the lunch I ordered an apple-strudel with a cup of hot brown water, once again I'm stuffed like a turkey for the thanksgiving-dinner.
Lunch is over and Harold treaded me to it, thank you so much...
I walk with him for a bunch of blocks until he gets into a bus, then I drag my fat belly to the Union Square Park, trying to find another cup of hot brown water. The only one I can find at that moment was Starbucks, ohh well then, lets have another piece of cake with that too, thank you...
3 o'clock in Union Square Park, a nap after the coffee will do me good...
A busy place on a sunny day!!!
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