Birthday Weekend/Pre-St. Patrick's Day New York Jaunt

While I was stuck in Mass, unable to venture far on account of the snow, it seemed like New York City was a thousand miles away.  A little over two hours of driving plus just under an hour on the train is much more reasonable--and also dangerous to know; with that in mind, I'll have a harder time staying away.

From the time I arrived at Grand Central on Saturday morning I had a hard time not smiling at everything.  You're not supposed to smile in New York, you know as well as I do, but I was just so pleased to be there, and excited to be seeing friends, that I couldn't help it.  As I waited for said friends to arrive from just over on Long Island, I joined the other tourists on the west balcony taking pictures of the terminal (and mostly of each other; I saw several selfie sticks).  When my friends showed up we started out by walking a few blocks to the library, where we viewed an exhibit on photography and then went upstairs to see the Gutenberg Bible. 

From the library we headed to the subway and went to SoHo.  Our first stop in the neighborhood was Old St. Patrick's on Mulberry Street.  The cathedral, dating from the early 19th century, was the second Catholic church in Manhattan and the third in the state.  At the moment it's undergoing renovations; a false wall has been installed inside the sanctuary, halving its length.  I'll have to keep an eye out for news on when the restoration is finished, because I'm interested in seeing the cathedral without obstructions.

This panorama of Prince Street outside the cathedral is a little wonky, but I like it.

Our next stop was Katz's Deli.  It was as crowded and delicious as you're probably imagining it to be.  When you enter each person is given a ticket, which you must return upon exiting; this ticket is your bill.  Along one wall is a long counter, with about six workers hard at work making sandwiches behind it.  The guy slices you a few pieces of whatever meat you order and slides it to you on a little plate.  The pastrami was tender and flavorful, and I would have happily shoved a lot of it into my mouth.  I was able to wait until I had my sandwich and side of pickles (dills and half-sours), though.  Once you have your sandwich, the counterman marks your ticket with what you ordered, and on the way out you present it to the cashier and pay.  The deli was busy, though not unreasonably so, and we enjoyed our meal without feeling rushed or jostled.  I noticed the man at the table opposite me when he started to talk, because, as he explained to someone else, he was from Norwich in England.

As we left the Little Cupcake Bakeshop after our sweet course we heard bagpipes and headed toward them.  A pair of pipers were playing at the threshold of Old St. Patrick's, though they finished just as we arrived.  I wish we'd gotten there in time to hear some kind of explanation as to why they were playing; as it is I assumed that it was somehow related to St. Patrick's Day.  Then, since we were in the area, we headed a little further south and east to see my favorite bridge.  We only walked as far as the first tower; on the way back down I saw the people from Norwich again. 

I hadn't been to the World Trade Center site since the memorials or the new buildings were completed, and found it strange to see things built at the complex.  Of course, not everything there is finished, and the fencing that was part of the area for so many years was still there; but One World Trade Center was done, rising into the clouds above and surrounded by heavy-duty anti-car security.  The footprint pools, and the way water pours unceasingly into the earth, help to preserve some of the feeling that something is missing there.  Apparently the thing that looks like a stegosaurus skeleton will be part of the PATH train station.  As it stands now, the design of it strikes me as jarring and very out-of-place in that particular site.

A 4 train took us to Grand Central, and then a 6 to 51st Street, where we visited the newer St. Patrick's.  It smelled of paint and was full of scaffolding, to the extent that even most of the side chapels had some kind of scaffolding and boards and plastic sheeting in them.

I'd forgotten how beautiful some of the chapels were--the only one I could really remember was St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's, which has a patina-bronze backdrop and which was obscured by a sign about the renovations.  Most of the others feature white marble and intricate Gothic-style ornaments that echo the cathedral's architecture.  I was amused to see that the votives to the cathedral's patron saint were in green glass holders, though whether that's a regular feature or special for the holiday I can't recall.  And in the back of the sanctuary there were vending machines, like the one I got my Pope coin from in Krakow, and when I remarked on them my friend bought me a St. Patrick medallion that features the cathedral on the opposite side.

We'd wanted to check out the Campbell Apartment at Grand Central before we parted ways, but it was busy and we were perhaps a mite underdressed and I wasn't keen on paying for that much ambiance, so instead we walked back down 43rd Street to one of the two pubs we'd passed earlier.  One was named Annie Moore's and the other was Patrick Conway's; by that time it was clear we had a theme, so we went into the latter for a bit.  After a round we went our separate ways, and I sat on the New Haven Line train with feet aching but otherwise feeling content.  It was great to see my friends, and ride on trains, and eat and drink good things, and visit churches, and be back in New York again.