Will Around the World

This was my last day in D.C. I got up early to leave the house with Naomi, who had a 45-minute commute to work in Baltimore ahead of her. Before we left, though, I had the chance to meet Naomi's roommate, Melissa. She had just returned to the States after a summer study term in Germany.

I booked a place on the 9:30 Chinatown bus to New York. I got to Chinatown an hour early, though, so I killed time at a Starbucks on the corner. My barista was a rail-thin blonde. She was being watched over by another employee; I guessed it was her first or second day on the job. From her appearance and accent I knew she was Russian. I paid her for my chai latte and after she gave me my change, I said, "Spasibo". She replied with a "Thank you". Who knows if she heard me, but she did give me a smile, perhaps one of recognition.

I reached the bus stop at 9:10. It was full. I noticed a pair of backpackers: university-aged English girls. When the bus arrived it overshot the stop by one block. The crowd stampeded. I threw my bag in the luggage compartment and elbowed my way onto the bus. The bus was already half full — the schedule didn't say there was another stop. I was one of the first to board and found a seat. One by one the crowd got on the bus — they all managed to sit down...so far. The last two were the English backpackers. They walked down the aisle once. Then they walked up the aisle and, with scowls on their faces, out the door. The driver had to open the luggage compartment and hand them their bags. As the bus pulled away from the curb a few minutes later, I saw those girls giving the ticket agent a piece of their minds. The next bus wasn't due for noon — I hoped their schedule in New York was flexible.

Got into Midtown New York at 1:15. I took the subway to my brother's office. We got lunch at a take-out Cuban joint a couple of blocks away — oxtail, rice, beans and fried plaintains.

I was on my own for the afternoon. I went to the Neue Galerie on 86th St. and 5th Ave. There was a blockbuster exhibit on view: five Klimts including the most expensive painting ever auctioned, a $135 million portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Monday afternoon was a good time to see this. I can't imagine a weekend crowd.

After strolling through the small gallery, I took a short walk to Central Park and the reservoir on 86th St. I finally finished the 500-page book I started at the beginning of my trip. I also saw the "mayor" of Central Park Reservoir, an elderly man who was the first one to jog around the scenic body of water. (Boy, was he on to something. So many runners whizzed by me that I had to move to a quieter spot to concentrate on my reading.)

Alberto Reyes, mayor of Central Park Reservoir

I took the subway to Brooklyn and met Kevin at his apartment. We had dinner at Joya, a thriving new Thai place on Court St. At 7:30 on Monday it was packed. The food is very inexpensive and the taste is decent, but the service is awfully slow. We had mussels as a delicious appetizer. The beef curry was terribly overcooked — I guess the cook lost track of it among a dozen other dishes he was preparing. I would not recommend sitting next to the open kitchen if you want to talk to your companions.

After dinner we went to the Regal Cinema across the street from Kevin's apartment. We planned a demi-double feature: catch the last hour of The Descent — a summer horror flick — and then Will Ferrell's Talladega Nights. It was 8:45. We bought a ticket for Talladega at 9:50 but the ticket taker wouldn't let us in until 9:20. So we traded those tickets in for Snakes on a Plane (or as the cinephile ahead of us called it, Snakes on a Train) which meant we could enter the cineplex at 9.

Now we had fifteen minutes to kill. We walked around the block looking for a place to take a quick drink. We settled on Dragon Bar. A sidewalk sign advertised $5 mojitos and a "gay patio". Although we weren't sure what that "special" meant, we still walked in. It didn't take long to figure out, though, when the bartender greeted us, "You boys look thirsty!" We sat down at one end of the bar, away from a group of five men older than us who were talking with each other. We ordered melon mojitos. The bartender took three minutes to prepare each drink, topping them off with a thorough shaking of the ingredients (which coincidentally flaunted his exposed biceps). We heard the group on the other end say, "Look, those guys got the same drinks we have!" We emptied our glasses in 90 seconds and left.

The last fifteen minutes of Descent and the first hour of Talladega were entertaining.

# posted by billklee @ 20:28