All Alone, Along the Broadway

The last weekend trip to New York City gave me the much needed confidence, and this weekend I went alone to NY - Penn Station. Reminiscing the walk along the 5th Avenue that I did last week, I wanted to try out the oldest north-south through-fare "The Broadway" this time. I knew I was looking at a 4.8KM walk from Penn Station to my destination @ Allen Street which is in the middle of Chinatown. Keeping the ever viewable, mist shrouded(It was cold and raining) Empire State building spire as my guide, I ended up in broadway.

One good thing about NY city is the avenue and streets criss cross each other at right angles (the exception being broadway) and named serially using numbers, All you have to worry about is whether you are heading at the right direction, as you could move from one street to another very easily. As I walked along the Broadway, the glass & concrete monolithics came into view one after the other. The street hosted almost all the brand shops that one could think of and it was very tempting to enter them all and look around, but I continued on with my paatha-yatra. My next pit-stop was Union Square, a historic intersection in the broadway.

Union Square hosts the infamous Union Square Greenmarket Taking some snaps and apples, I moved into the Union Square park, which I heard has a statue of Mahatma Gandhiji. I went around the park and an active inquisitor followed me throughout, whether out of curiosity or perhaps for the apples that I had in my bag :) This stuart little showed no signs of fear and I took some snaps, u bet!! After moving around the park twice or more, I could not locate the Mahatma's statue. A fellow Indian manning the nearby newspaper stand pointed the direction in which I could find the statue. With a nod and a smile, I started moving in the direction he pointed. At a few steps from the main park, there was a small enclosed garden and atlast I found Mahatma Gandhiji statue in Union Square. I considered my sole purpose of the walking through the broadway fulfilled and headed towards allen street through Bowery unknowing of the high drama that was about to unfold in the Allen street. Contd... in the next post.