NEW YORK; ALL SALAMI?

Last day in New York and I went about like a resident, running my final errands. I walked up to 103rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue to join Hostels International. $18 for seniors! The hostel there has 697 beds, most $68 a night. Not surprising it was full! 

Next was reconfiguring my bags. I had decided to use a soft duffel instead of my decades old Travel-Pro rigid, rolling, carry-on. After navigating several subway lines, to get to East 61st and Lexington to the first luggage store, I then went back down to 45th and Park to East Side Luggage. There I found a big, tough duffel from a very helpful salesman. 

Walked back to 87th and West End Avenue where my mother and I have been staying with an old family friend. She'll stay there until she returns to California in two weeks. I packed up the old carry-on, filled with 15 pounds of things I had determined were excess, in a perfect cardboard carton I had picked up on the street the night before. With a borrowed wire shopping basket I took the package to UPS and sent it home. Repacking more than a dozen times over the last 10 days, asking about every item, "... and if I didn't have this ...." A weight reduction of nearly 30%!

Afterward I meandered, pushing the shopping basket up Amsterdam Avenue, over to Columbus, and then into an Ace Hardware Store. And bought a combination lock for hostel stays. Walking the streets of New York is a sensual delight. The cadence and tones of so many different languages. The intensity of commerce. So many restaurants. The men and women, dressed so smartly and attractively. Eye candy.

I broke down and bought a "slice" in one of those hole in the wall pizza joints. Disappointing. Then crossing back over to Broadway, I started thinking about food for the plane trip. Zabar's, a famous delicatessen, was on the way. I'd never been inside. I wandered around with my basket, marveling at the choices. The picture below shows the back of the prepared foods case. Only prepared meats on those shelves. Salami. Ham. Prosciutto. Pastrami. Etc. I bought a piece of hard salami, some cheese, nuts and dried apples. Then a stop at H&H bagel. And home.

  

The Cured at Zabars

These old subway mosaics are wonderful. I love the letterforms.  

Tomorrow, 5:40 PM, Finnair, Flight 6 to Helsinki. 

PULLING AWAY FROM THE GATE

Spent Labor Day weekend with an old friend in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. Couldn't have had a nicer time. William Penn, a Quaker, named the city (from philos, "love" or "friendship", and adelphos, "brother") because he wanted his colony to be a place where anyone could worship freely despite their religion. This extreme tolerance led to significantly healthier relationships with the local Native tribes. (from Wikipedia.)

There, even the buildings have their heads in the clouds.

In New York, everyone seemed to be going somewhere. 

In  a hurry.

But none of the departures were for my destinations.

I came up from Penn Station and asked a cop where I could find a Post Office. "The biggest Post Office in the world is right around the corner!" And there it was, spanning an entire City block. 

There were over 49 service windows in the lobby! Most un-staffed.

In the lobby I found an acceptable 'specification' for a minimal bicycle to buy in Amsterdam. Standard issue in 1940. And since, "neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds," this ought to get me (at least halfway) to Warsaw, no matter what the weather throws at me. (The quote is Herodotus, about couriers in the Persian Empire!) Need a courier heading East? Never mind ... I'm still repacking and reducing!

The lowest common denominator! 

What's with the seat? Did the leather shrink? A giant laundry clip?  Primitive Kryptonite lock? 

With a cut-out handle for lifting bike.