Getting Lost in Queens

I love Queens. I can't really explain why, but I do. And fortunately, my Super Cousin got me the Not for Tourists Guide to Queens, so I've been waiting until the weather was nice to test that out.

So after a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and cheesy television, my sister and I sallied forth to the Great Borough to the North. Our plan was to go to Louis Armstrong's house (she plays the trumpet, I like famous people's houses) and then wander about Flushing-Chinatown, and the Flushing Meadows park (where the US Open takes place.) This was the plan.

We got off the 7 train at 111 St, looking for 107th St where Armstrong's house is. Now, one would think that 107th St would be between 108th and 104th Sts, but it is in fact not. Nor, after walking around and seeing (I'm not kidding) 10 unisex nail salons, did we see any sign of 107th St. Unperturbed, because it was sunny and glorious out, we headed over to the park, with many an adventure trying to circumvent the Grand Central Parkway en route. When we got to the park, we saw the science museum, and since we like science museums, we thought we would check THAT out. Alas. It closes at 2 pm in the winter; it was now 2:15. Liz took a picture of me making a sad face in front of it, and off we sallied, again. This time, we walked over by the Unisphere, which was awesome.
(thanks to wikimedia for the image)
It's just a giant steel globe, but we took some goofy pictures of us, Atlas-like, in front of it. Also, it's the site of the 1964 World's Fair, and the pivotal scene in the great film classic, Men in Black (I'm not kidding, I thoroughly enjoy MiB, probably more than I should). We wandered some more, sat some more, basked in the sun some more, and finally looked at a map, which revealed that originally we were exactly 1 1/2 blocks from 107th St, which diagonally comes out of nowhere. We walked back, but were too late to get in--and anyway, you have to have a tourguide, and we don't like that as much. After a few sketchy pictures of the house, we went BACK to the 7 train, stopping at a bakery on the way.

Here is one of the many reasons I like Queens. You go 2 subway stops, and you feel like you're in a completely different world--then you go 2 more subway stops and it happens again. When we first got lost, we were in a Hispanic neighborhood, and the two of us were very incongruous by our different appearance (and probably by the fact that it was the middle of the day and we were wandering about.) Anyway, Latino music was blaring, people only were speaking Spanish--even all the signs were in Spanish. The bakery we stopped at had Ecuadorean soda, which I got, and we also got a roll and a croissant for snacks (VERY good, both. The soda, however, had 32 grams of sugar and tasted like a Shirley Temple on Steroids, but I enjoyed that too. Because my palate is deranged.)

When we got off the subway on Main St, Flushing, we again stuck out, but this time we were in Chinatown. So we walked some more, watched some high schoolers playing basketball, and just took in the sights--the stalls of fruit, people hustling to catch the bus, the man selling Northface jackets out of his trunk, the stores full of Hello Kitty paraphernalia, the faint scents of spices and gasoline and mangoes. And then we ate some more, obviously. This time it was steamed dumplings, from a hole in the wall tiny place. YUM. And they were 10 for $2.50, so that's hard to beat. We bade farewell to Queens, took 2 trains, a bus, walked some more, and came back to the apartment.

It may seem like not much was actually accomplished today--no museums, no sports, no plans fulfilled of any kind. But it was really, really fun. The sun helps, of course, but more than that it was just experiencing the city in a different way, and seeing the people. New Yorkers are a kind bunch, usually, and it made me glad, yet again, to be living here.