East Village and Harlem

Our second day in New York started in East Village, a part of Manhattan we didn't really get to visit on our last trip. East Village used to be a less-than-glamorous part of New York, a real melting pot where immigrants from East Europe, Italy and other parts of the worlds all migrated and mingled. Later on, it was the playground of hippies and the Beat generation. These days, it's gentrifying again, as one can expect, but still retains some of that alternative culture atmosphere, apparently... We were keen to find out!

We started out by visiting the Tenament Museum, a place that brings that immigrant past to life, apparently. We took a tour that told a tale of a typical Irish immigrant family that lived in the area. Very interesting & sort of interactive kind of experience, which tells a personal tale while setting it in an interesting historical context. Well worth the 20 bucks entrance fee!

After a nice lunch in a decently-priced burger joint, we headed for the legendary Saint-Mark's Place, which is kind of the main street of East Village, at least from a spiritual and historical point of view. There are plenty of historic buildings here, bringing back memories of the area's more distant and upscale past (Alexander Hamilton's house is located here, for example). More recently, the place became the favourite part of town for the hippies - a few quirky shops in the area serve as a reminder of those crazy days. A pretty cool street to wander down, all three blocks of it!

Saint-Mark's Place ends in Tomkin Square Park, a nice piece of Greenery, still a focal point for students, artists and other cool people. The sun was out and it was getting a bit hot, so we decided to head for an ice cream. After a quick consultation of Tripadvisor, we ended up having our sugar rush at The Big Gay Ice Cream Shop (c'mon, how could we pass up on a place with a name like that?). It was all very gay (I mean, one of the ice creams was called Salty Pimp, LOL), but hey, what's most important, the ice cream was excellent!

We ended our visit in East Village by checking out Saint-Mark's church (for which Saint-Mark's Place is named, unsurprisingly). Dating back to 1660, it's the 2nd oldest church in New York. The place was shut for visitors, but a janitor kindly let me in and even let me take pictures.

And then, it was time to head down to Times Square for what I'd been looking forward to for quite some time - a proper Broadway Show (Mathilde got me tickets for a stand-up comedy show by none other than Jeff Garlin, of Curb your Enthusiasm fame). After a walk around the theatre district, we made our way to the show. So how was Jeff, then ? In a word, brilliant. The warmup acts were OK, but Jeff really gave me a sore belly after all the laughing. What was brilliant was the guy's ability to improvise and interact with the audience - true comic genius!

We finished our perfect New York day with a nice dinner in a South African restaurant.

The next day, the plan was to visit Harlem properly. We started off by heading to Morning Side park. Amazing, how things can change in a couple of decades. Today, it's a lovely oasis of Greenery - yet 20 years ago this was one of the dodgiest places in New York, full of drug dealers and other dodgy characters...

After quickly checking out the massively impressive Gothic Revival style Cathedral of Saint-John the Divine (it's the 3rd largest church in the world), we headed for breakfast (must get ones priorities right, after all!) near Columbia University.

We then headed off to stroll around the campus of said educational institution. This venerable university is the oldest one in the state of New York, the 5th oldest in the United States, and naturally one of the country's Ivy League Universities. To quote wikipedia, Notable alumni and former students of the university and its predecessor, King's College, include five Founding Fathers of the United States; nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court; 43 Nobel Prize laureates; 20 living billionaires; 29 Academy Award winners; and 29 heads of state, including three United States Presidents. 'Nough said. The campus was just as one would imagine of an Ivy League University, with a nice Alma Mater statue watching over it all.

After visiting the impressive Riverside Church (built by none other than one John D. Rockefeller), we headed off to check out General Grant National Memorial. Completed in 1892, it pays homage to the Civil War hero (and later president of the United States) Ulysses Grant. There's an interesting museum recounting the "heroic exploits" of Mr. Grant (well, heroic, even if most people tend to be of the opinion that his victory of General Lee had more to do with the industrial might and superior numbers of the Northern states, than the military genius of Mr. Grant). Well, be that as it may, an interesting place to visit.

We then headed back to explore Harlem. And what an interesting neighbourhood Harlem is. It still has a very afro-american feel to it, with folks chilling out in the streets - the place really has a neighbourhood feel to it. I really hope the place retains that unique spirit it has kin spite of the inevitable pressure of real estate prices going up and all that. The gentrification can definitely be felt in many parts of Harlem, with the old Victorian-Era brownstone houses being restored and sold at no doubt lucrative prices...

We checked the main sights in Harlem, starting with the interesting Shomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture, a public New York City research library, possibly the largest archives on black history and culture in the USA. Quite an interesting place to visit, a pity we didn't have time to stay for very long.

By now it was time to have a bite to eat after all that walking around in the heat. Our cool Airbnb host Daniel had recommend a place called Dinosaur Barbeque for lunch, and, well, we (or maybe rather, I) just couldn't pass up on the opportunity to have lunch in a place called that. The name is pretty descriptive, big portions and family fun all around. Just the way I like American food.

Our appetites sated, we continued exploring Harlem. We checked out Striver's Row, a collection of late 19th century houses, which was where the succesfull Harlem residents lived after world war I, when African-Americans started moving into Harlem.

The next stop was Apollo Theatre, a real New York and Harlem landmark (such names as Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie from the Swing Era, or more recently, Bill Crosby and Richard Pryor, made their names here). Still going strong, apparently.

But we just really enjoyed walking around Harlem and taking in the very special atmosphere of the place. Unfortunately, we had a flight to catch though. So after saying by to our host Danny (who is so far the coolest Airbnb host we've had the pleasure of dealing with), it was time to head off to the airport.

So how to best sum up our 2nd visit together in the Big Apple ? Well, saying it's one of the great cities in the world is kind of stating the obvious, but well, there you go. It's one of maybe 10 cities that you could easily visit 10 or 20 times during your life time and barely scratch the surface of the place... And just to hammer in the point, Harlem was a real revelation - a place unjustly neglected by tourists (lucky for us, though!). I believe we shall be back one day!