Winding down in DC

We're in Washington now, taking it easy. Most of the time we hang out at Kramer Books, which is a very nice bookstore that also has a cafe/restaurant AND a BAR! The bar is right at the end of the bookstore! So you can browse through books and then sit in the bar and read or get hammered. Which we did.

A couple of days ago, when we arrived here, we were real tired and ended op in the bar of Kramers. Its called Afterwords and they have a most plentyful collection of beer, Wine and booze. The bartenders of that evening were Casey and Seth. They were great and very amusing guys and they got us quite thouroughly drunk on wine beer and booze, most of which we seemed not to pay for.


We chatted away happily with the other people at the bar and apparently became highly amusing as the night went on. We certainly had a lot of fun and liked people very much. I had girly chats with Lauren about boys and Ivan scared her senseless with various obscenities. Which was of course greatly amusing for everyone. Even Lauren. In a frigthened way. Lauren was really sweet and for, some reason, overwhelmingly happy to meet us.



I amused myself with Kylos, who's traveled a good deal in Europe and is currently a VJ and making graphic stuff for films. He gave us a lot of hints and tips as to what to see and where to go in DC, New Orleans and Austin.

He mentioned a bar, but sadly I no longer remember where, that sounded quite wonderful. The barman, Kylos told me, when asked when the bar closed, would say in a deep raspy voice: "I havent closed in 7 years".

....*



It was a very special feeling getting drunk in the middle of a bookstore. And since we were only 6 people or so and all had a great time together, including the barkeeps, it felt more like a private party than a night on the town. About one o'clock the Barkeeps tossed all of us out, which was probably for the best, since it was getting hard detaining Lauren from getting more cuts from the glass that she'd broken. We spend a good while on the street afterwards, talking to Quaniese and Shanteé or some such names. They were great fun though :)

Masses in the Urban Canyon

Yesterday we decided to go uptown. We went from Empire State building to the old New York Library, on to Central Park and Time Square. Now these are highclass parts of Manhattan, but mainly it was crowded beyond belief! I quickly tire of slowly on-lumbering masses and so it was a hudge relief when we found the Library and the small restive park area in front. Here people were reading and relaxing and sitting there watching the pigeons was very soothing.

The Library itself was extremely beautiful and had a lot of interesting exibitions. One of the halls had to montres in the middle. One with a original 1455 Gutenberg Bible and one with ... the original Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore and the Kangaroo. The original teddys that inspired AA Milne. The actual Eeyore. It had a little pin holding its tail on and it had obviously been sown back on a few times as well. Just writing this bring tears to my eyes. I know so many of my friends will be insanely jealous.

Although very crowded, these immensely fashionabel parts of New York are something to see! These glittering urban Canyons of buildings are quite impressive.



In the afternoon we were pretty tired from walking so we got into a horse carriage and took a turn around central park. Our driver was Steven, a very native New Yorker who knew every little thing about the Park and the area around it. Everything. The trip was very relaxing and nice. After that we went to the movies to watch the new Batman movie which is of course awesome.

We concluded our evening with a walk around Times Square. This was even more crowded if that is possible than any place we had been. And the amount of light and omnipresent commercials were just insane. Times Square is the most disturbed place I've ever been. And I've been in Beijing.

The New York Fire Department

At the Ulysses were I ate the Ribs of Bliss we also drank a fair amount of beer and booze. We were very happy about this and ended up writing a lovely haiku for the waitress.



After this we continued on our walk in high spirits. We went down to the waterfront and promptly fell into a long a animated chat with the splendid guys of the FDNY. These firemen are called the Manhattan Bulls or some such and always tries to beat their arch-nemesis, the Brooklyn fire department to the fires.



My first real meeting with Firefighters. Gordon and John, we will never forget you :)

Wall Street in midday gloom

Yesterday we went for a long walk around southern Manhattan. I bought some art at a market at union sq. and then we got into the underground and went to Wall Street. While we walked around the bussiness district an apocalyptic thunderstorm broke loose. It went alarmingly dark and peals of thunder like Ive never heard went rumbling between the enormous buildings along with police sirens and rain that drummed down on everything. It gave the whole scene a very dark and menacing feel and naturally we were completely thrilled by it.




Eventually, after running around in the gloom for a while, we sought refruge at a pub, where I had the best spareribs of my entire life.

Joe Juniors fabulous diner

After checking into to our 1½ star hotel, which is supricingly nice considering, we went in search of food.

As is the case all over NY there is a multitude of food joints around. As always we tend to go for the authentic and sligthly quirky. And after perrusing the choices we where caught by the rustic and distinctly local feel of Joe Jr's Diner.

The interior that greeted us reaked of Hillstreet Blues and similar eigthies shows, a long bar with stools and a selection of homemade pies in a cooler catches my eyes as I find a table by the window in the small and worn dining area.

The menu contained classic NY stables such as philly cheese steaks, bagels galore and a healthy selection of seafood.

I went for the philly and Mia chose a selection of broiled seafoods.

As with most diners, the food was accompanied by a choice of soup or salad, Mia had the salad and I had the chicken noodle soup. The salad was crips and fresh and the chicken noodle soup brougth images of grandmothers homecooked bliss to mind.

The service was top notch, curtious, present and personal. As can be expeted when your inncome is based directly on your service performance.

We had a chance to chat a little with Abel in the pre-diner rush wait. Joe Juniors opened its doors to the public in 1973, at that times run by a greek family. Today the owner is the same, however retired, and the crew is now a group of mexican desendants.

The drug store and the local guys

After eating dinner last night we walked around our neighborhood, which is currently the part of Manhatten called Gramercy. We went to our local drugstore, because my feet hurt like Doom and had a nice time looking at meds. We then talked to the pharmacist, a very nice Polish lady who sold us the aquired drugs. When we went to the counter to pay, we wanted to pay for our stuff seperately and here we ran into what is probably going to be something of an issue. They always asume we are a couple and so, they expect Ivan to pay! The woman behind the counter didnt even dignifie our request for a split bill with an answer, she just threw Ivan a disgusted look and silently refused to do it! And I got a look that clearly said, "grow a spine blondie". In the end we just paid for the stuff together and got out of there... we need "Brother and sister" badges!

Walking down the street towards our hotel afterwards, we saw a couple of old locals across the street, one of them launging in a big red chair on the sidewalk. We went to talk to them, because they looked special.



Their names are Danny and Bob and we talked to them for about an hour. They've lived in New York all their lives and are both retired. Danny was a social worker and Bob worked on the nightshift of the postal service for 25 years. They told us a lot about the area and gave us many tips as to what to do and see. Bob, the one with the big beard, has ancesters from Århus. Which was weird. Danny had had a world famous cat. Which was also weird.

The big red chair they told us, was left on the street by someone who had moved away. It was a nice chair but no one would take it, because New York apparently has a problem with BED BUGS! So you never know what lives in a used piece of furniture. Lying in our beds later we both nervously anticipated a crawly bity scratchy feeling, but thankfully is seems our hotel is not infested!

A tough flight

We met at the airport, stressed around for a while and checked in. Before boarding we ate lunch, which was a little drier than anticipated, since security stole my olives. And frisked me twice I might add. I rather enjoyed that (naughty me). After eating lunch we boarded and sat through 7 hours of flight tedium and Great Stiffness of the Neck. There was one great experience during the flight though. In the selection of movies, there was a cartoon called Horton hears a hoo or some such thing. It was very very very funny and at one point Ivan laughed so loudly and hysterically that it made all the other passengers nervous and edgy.



We arrived in New York very tired and jetlagged, and went straight to our hotel, which is very nice! After unloading we went in search of FOOD! Just around the corner from us we found a diner which seemed to have a nice atmosphere. It turned out to be a Greek diner from the early seventies, currently run by a bunch of friendly Mexicans. The manager Abel told us he had worked there for 12 years and he seemed like a really nice guy! The food was reasonably priced and greatly satisfying.

soooo tired now.... will have to tell more about our evening tomorrow!

Graaaargh....* Sleep!