At home I’m a tourist
Well, Dahnuh has gone home to the Left Coast but we had a splendid time while she was here and I got to do all the touristy things that I never do. Except when houseguests are here, which I admit is fairly often. But it’s fun to be a visitor in your own town! Did you know we have museums here? Also, shopping, parks, and restaurants. I may come here more often.
One thing we did that I have done before but I still always like, no matter how touristy it is, is to do the Circle Line boat ride around Manhattan. You can do the whole island but we only did the lower half, which is fine, since you may have noticed I live on the upper half. And because I wasn’t an aloof local that day, I took lots of pictures! I pretended I was visiting from Omaha. Wow, Manhattan is sure different from… stuff they have in Omaha. Actually, we seemed to be the only Americans on the boat. I think there’s a holiday going on in the Old Country.
They sure have a lot of tall buildings in Manhattan.
Look at all those people standing in line! Suckers.
Here’s the East Side. I didn’t even know Manhattan had an East Side! It got really windy so I took this from inside. Enjoy the glassiness.
Manhattan is an island and has a lot of bridges. I learned this from our fascinating and informative tour guide. Also, what TV shows his girlfriend likes.
So that was it. Then we walked back to Times Square where we shopped for quality souvenirs amongst the populi. We also saw two cops chatting with the entrepreneur peddling copies of “How to Roll A Blunt For Dummies” from a sidewalk table. They mysteriously moved on when I sought to take a picture.
But we had a fine few days, eating BBQ, bagels with lox and cream cheese, Persian food, and Jacques Torres chocolate; I even cooked for Dah one day. Really. I mean, I baked for her too but JBall readers will know that that’s just a given. Now she’s gone but she left me with a two pound box of See’s candies so I have that going for me. Also, two bottles of wine and a beer. But I think the See’s will go faster.
Dah, who is of Japanese descent, thought that Godzilla would have liked NY better than Tokyo. The ultimate compliment! I am really going to miss this place.
Title comes from:
This is a good idea in theory. But I was kind of hoping for events of a more global and social significance. Or at least more interesting information about Cheerios.
I think this is just the apotheosis of widgets. Come on, it’s a hotel! And it’s random! A random hotel! Every day!
Remember those packs of stray dogs that made Athens so much fun for me? Here’s a bunch, in Syntagma Square, on the steps leading up to Parliament. If I were a dog, I’m sure I’d hang out around politicians too.
Here’s something to go along with my famous “Barzini’s butter display” photo. It’s world o’feta!
But that’s not what I came to Athens to see! No, it was this, the Acropolis. On the first day, I took one look at it and decided to climb it… some other day.
The next day, I set out early, got lost (I mean, you can see it from everywhere, but how do you get there?), decided to just get on the subway, and finally found it. I believe that’s how Thucydides always got there too.
But then I reached the Parthenon and it was all worth it. This was the highlight of my trip, I have to say. It totally blew me away, not literally, luckily, because we were pretty high up. I thought I’d be all “yeah, yeah, looks just like the coffee cup” but it wasn’t like that at all. It’s overwhelming in its beauty, scale, magnitude, and classicism. I could really have stayed there all day, except for that whole lack of sunscreen thing not to mention the “plane to Israel” thing.
