Monday – non tourist day.

Yesterday I was very tired. I think I may have been a bit apprehensive about the walk. Also working out where to go when and how to get there in a new place is more tiring than I give it credit for.  Normally I have an idea the day before of the next day’s activities. It was all too hard yesterday afternoon so I said  to myself ‘it’s ok to stay in all day’.

As an aside, I did discover yesterday another café in my block. It is only open Fri, sat and Sun. I ate there  last night – tomato soup and a delicious fancy cheese sandwich.

Last night I was falling asleep reading and put the light out at 9.10. Next thing I knew it was 6.20. I lay in bed thinking  “Where will I go today?”  Amazing what a good night can do.  Just about all the museums on my list are closed on Mondays and my list of alternative things all require walking, which I thought yesterday I wanted to avoid.

I went to a terrific place.  As background, in NYC there is a non profit  organisation called Housingworks.  It was started in 1990 to fight the 2 related problems of  AIDS and homelessness. It now provides all sorts of other health services to a variety of people.  It has about 7 thrift shops ( the one I went into in the upper east side a few days ago was more like an ordinary shop, not a junk shop of leftovers) and 1 bookstore / café.

Another piece of background, a year ago I was lent a small book called ‘Peaceful places in new york’ or something similar, thank you Jenny.  I went to several of the places in it, returned the book, decided to come back to New York, bought my own more up-to-date copy. Mostly it has parks – some big, some vest-pocket ( the term used for the small between- 2- skyscraper spaces), some commercial places, many free. There are only a few eating places, and this coffee/bookshop is one.

You walk off the street into an old building ( 1 ½ levels in height)  in SoHo and think you are in a nice bookshop – dark wood shelves,  spiral staircase up to the balcony, tables nicely stacked ,  really old copies of books behind glass and you remember that everything is second hand. You walk further into the shop and the back half , still with books lining the walls, but no balcony, is a café. Still with high ceilings and not chockerful of tables.  Very pleasant young people staffing the café.  Nice coffee – probably the best I have found yet and delicious muffin. There was not really a view to the outside, but the space was big enough for that not to matter. I could have spent much longer. I sat for about an hour watching people come and go. There were quite  few volunteers. One lady sat at a large table covering books in contact plastic, but it was not as instantly contacting as the stuff I remember covering my kids books with.  I spent some time reading my novel, but was really quite content to sit. There was a variety of people. Mostly between 20 and 30, but some older (not quite as old as me) . Some fairly unkempt looking. I watched one lady in a very tight short skirt as she carefully descended the spiral staircase on what looked like 10” heels .I was a very relaxing space. Why are cafes associated with bookstores comfortable places?  

One of the places I want to go to is the Tenement Museum. This is a building in the Lower East Side which was one of the main areas that poor immigrants lived in. To quote from the brochure ‘97 Orchard St was home to an estimated 7000 people from over 20 nations between 1863 and 1935.’.  Various apartments have been restored as they would have been for a particular group of residents.  Today I went to the main office where you buy tickets.  The only way you can see the apartments is on a tour and you cannot do every tour everday. So it is pot luck or planning. I have the time to plan, so I got a ticket to one of the tenements that had an Italian family living in it for Wednesday afternoon.

On my way from Housingworks Cafe to the Tenement Museum I passed a cafe that I went to last year when I was wandering around this neighbourhood. Afterwards I could not remember its name nor where it was. I wanted to so I could return because I enjoyed it. So this time I wrote it down so I could go back. It is the cafe attached  to  McNally Jackson bookshop! They have books suspended from the ceiling. 

Back here for lunch at Bistro Citron ( cross 1 road) . French menu, staff all speak Spanish amongst themselves, boss is Chinese. This is NewYork.

Note to self: Do not ask to look at desert menu if you have had a glass of wine. . You always weaken and  ignore your  resolve to have no desert. This has happened many times in the past.

After pottering in my apartment for a while I caught a train to the northern end of Central Park and wandered through some lovely parts – Harlem Meer, the Conservatory Gardens,   very formal with lots of bulbs and huge magnolia trees in bloom, and Northwoods . Apart from the formed paths and occasional glimpses of skyscrapers, you could have been anywhere.  More bridges – big and small.

I have found out about another wholefood organic shop 7 blocks away that I stopped at on the way home from Central Park. She put my goods into 2 bags . I  was surprised at how vulnerable I felt having no hand free. I put both bags into 1 hand.

Yesterday when I was walking past the place I had a big, ordinary breakfast at about midday, I counted 45 people waiting in line .  I was tempted to go ‘Baaa’. Maybe I’m missing something.