The other Chinatown

On one of my bachelor weekends, I took a walk down East Broadway from around Canal Street towards City Hall. Since we know Chinatown quite well, I though it would be good to follow a different path and see if I could make some connections.

Making connections is the the next stage of our evolution from tourists to newbies to New Yorkers. Kitty and I have enjoyed exploring neighborhoods, but, as our guests can attest, many times you get off the train, explore and then hop back on at the same station to travel to the next neighborhood. Consequently, ones knowledge of the city is more like blots of ink on the map. As you get away from the center of the blot, the knowledge of a neighborhood diffuses. Lately, our travels have caused us to get to know that connective tissue between our favorite neighborhoods. We have found that it is sometimes better to just walk from one spot to another, rather than fight your way on the train (or worse... on the bus!).

Just this weekend, Kitty and I made an epic walk from snacks in Chinatown to the UCB (Upright Citizen's Brigade). We traversed SoHo, NoHo and the Village, detoured into the West Village for happy hour and then up into Chelsea. It was only about 10,000 steps, which is one days supply of healthy walking.

But I digress. Hopping off the train in the East Village, Kitty and I retraced my earlier trip down East Broadway. We discovered the Secret Chinatown Bus Burial Ground. Lines of true New Yorkers wait to pay $35 to go (round-trip) to Boston, Baltimore or Washington DC. These buses have no heat and sometimes people are moving with most of their homes with them, so seating can be cramped.

Moving south from the Burial Ground, we found a Chinese grocery store that was so authentic that there were no signs in English, no one spoke English and we were the only caucasians in the store. (yes, I count myself as a caucasian... mom is from the sub-continent.)

As we walked, I started to make connections on how to get from one neighborhood to another. By the time we got to Upright Citizen's Brigade, we had successfully connected 5 different "inkblots" of the City. More importantly, I'm starting to realize that, when it comes to Lower Manhattan, things aren't as far as one might think. The subway stations tend to be nearer to each other than expected and many times it is just quicker to hoof it!