Transportation: Chapter Nine

We landed on the JFK Airport after eight and a half hours that passed almost unnoticed, like a breezy summer day, on the most amazing flight we’ve ever experienced – on board of a Norwegian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner where we enjoyed all kinds of movies on screens attached to the back of every chair and that beautiful sight of the sky melting into the Atlantic Ocean up to the point where you couldn’t tell where one begun and the other one ended.

From the airport to the city, we were advised to take the Jamaica Line AirTrain (for only 5$pp to be paid after the ride), which is very symilar to London’s DLR in the way that it doesn’t require a conductor as it drives itself through the stations until it reaches the last one, Jamaica Station, in Queens. From there, we took a commuter train called the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to the heart of Manhattan via Penn Station.

My first contact with the New York Subway was unforgettable. There is a certain rawness and lack of care about it which makes it intriguing. The small spaces between the metal dints of the moving stairways are filled with dirt, looking as if no one has done any cleaning for years. It is exactly what you would expect it to be, no high hopes and no surprises there except for the smell which can’t be ignored. A mix of urine, years of hardened dirt and something else…a warm, sweet, fuggy smell. To most tourists, it’s like a slap in the face. True New Yorkers are immune to it. Instead of complaining about it, I took it as an important part of the city’s charm and thought to myself that, of the many fascinating things about The Big Apple, the smell of the subway is what I will miss the most. (And…so it was.)

Of course, first we had to take care of the material aspect of our daily commute, so we took the best deal there was – a one week Metrocard of unlimited rides (which meant the more rides, the cheaper each ride got). Otherwise, the price for each ride would have been $2.75.

 

 

And boy,did that $32 Metrocard pay off! We found ourselves taking the subway to almost every corner of the Big City, from 42nd Street to Hoyt Schermerhorn Station (where Michael Jackson shot the video for “Bad” back in 1987), from Brooklyn Bridge City Hall to Queensboro Plaza (where we got this amazing view of the Manhattan skyline), from Canal Street to Smith 9 Street (where we discovered yet another amazing view of the city), from Grand Central 42 Street to 81 St – Museum of Natural History, from 42 St Bryan Park, to Flushing Queens (where we went to the real Chinatown, so different from the tourist trap that is the one in Manhattan). We changed trains like there was no tomorrow: the 7 to the N, the D to the G, the L to the A, the 2 to the J to the Z (Sean Carter probably did the same and this is how he ended up with his stage name).

And yes, I wanted to take the “A” train and that was because of Duke Ellington’s song. I wanted to see if there was anything special about it, like maybe it would open a portal that would lead me back to the glamour of the 40’s New York and I would never have to come back to the one I was stuck in. Of course, nothing of this sort happened.

 

Then we went back to Grand Central Terminal, home to countless love stories and an impressive number of departures and arrivals, the third busiest train station in North America after Penn Station and Toronto Union Station and the world’s tenth most visited tourist attraction (excluding passengers). It covers 48 acres and 44 platforms. It was here where I discovered that “Poughkeepsie” is more than a funny word that George from “Ally McBeal” would always blabber – it is an actual city in the State of New York.

The “Main Concourse” is the place you want to be if you’re just visiting – you will immediately remember you’ve seen this beautful, large room before, most likely featured in movies such as Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” and “Spellbound”, Coppola’s “The Cotton Club”, Ulu Grosbard’s “Falling in love”, Bob Fosse’s “Sweet Charity” and one my favourites, Arthur Hiller’s “The out-of-towners”.

 

The ceiling is a Beaux-Arts style decorated mural of constellations dating from 1912 and although it contains several astronomical inaccuracies, it is simply astonishing to look at. The chandeliers are another Beaux-Arts style wonder, each weighing 800 pounds and containing 110 bulbs.

In the center of the concorde reigns the 18-sided information booth where approximately one thousand questions are answered per hour and the famous four-faced brass clock that always tells the time right, Grand Central’s most recognizable icon designed by Henry Edward Bedford, built by the Seth Thomas Clock Company and valued by Sotheby’s between $10 and $20 million dollars.

 

 

We thought that the only thing that could top such a romantic and fast paced venue would be a ferry ride. And we weren’t wrong. We already knew that the ride was supposed to be free, so we headed towards the South Ferry Station near Battery Park to embark on a free, half-hour journey to Staten Island…and back. Apart from the foggy weather, the rain and the disappearance and appearance of skyscraper tips we also came pretty close to the Liberty Statue which reigns over an island of her own (and that came as a shock to me, as I always thought her location was right in the middle of Manhattan, perhaps somewhere, in the Financial District, next to the raging bull and the little girl facing him.

 

I don’t know what else I was thinking that day, but one thing is certain: New York is always a hell of a ride.

Green Eyed Kisses,