Melissa brought little presents for Denise and me: I got a little "wristlet" type thing from some Middle Eastern country that Melissa can't remember the name of, and Denise got a cool bag from India. I loved my wristlet!
Melissa got a lot of crap for wearing my Israeli Defense Force shirt throughout the day. haha.
*************************
I'm splitting up the days spent with Denise and Melissa into what we did on each day. First up is our free walking tour of Greenwich Village! It was hot but our tour guide was really good! So here's what we got...
We got to our meeting place really early, so we stopped for a place to eat called "Papaya Dog"!
It was super delicious cheeseburgers, hot dogs, fries, and exotic fruit smoothies.
You heard the sign!
Oh, how nice. I'll make sure to buy some. They had signs hung up like this all over the place.
This is where they treated people for the small pox epidemic, or something. Edgar Allen Poe went here for a migraine once. A lot of the rich people from New York fled to this area because it was still separate from the city and thought it was far enough away from the epidemic to escape it. They were dead wrong. Excuse the pun.
This is the Stonewall Inn, home of the famous "shot heard 'round the world" for gay rights. It was a gay "night club" during a time when it was illegal to have one. They got around it through some loop hole or another and hosted drag shows and housed the local gay community on late nights. Somehow the Mafia was involved with its protection, which kept the police from raiding it (the cops were paid off by members of the Mafia). The rumor is that the cops weren't getting paid enough to keep out anymore, so they set up a line halfway through the night and stop letting people in. This upset the people inside and there were angry shouts from all sides, but all around it was fine. Then there was the mysterious beginning of the fight.
The follow story of events comes directly out the mouth of our tour guide, paraphrased. Rumor is that a drag queen slapped a cop in the face with her purse and the cops rushed the bar. Drag queens were shouting and slapping, butch lesbians were beating up cops, others were throwing out of the bar people they were mad at. There were surges back and forth until the police finally managed to get everyone pushed into the bar and started arresting people. However, instead of people running out the back door and fleeing, they ran out the back door and looped around in on the cops and turned the tables. They barricaded the cops into the bar! The fight lasted 3 days before it broke up.
It is still to this day a prominent gay night club, which hosts numerous drag shows. I plan to attend once. haha.
This is the smallest taxed property in NYC. The building that used to be here was bought and demolished to make the subway system, but they were only allowed to destroy as much as they needed. This meant that if they only needed to remove part of a building, they could only remove that part and had to leave the rest. This is the only part of the property they did not need. It still belongs to the family who originally owned the building and they still pay taxes on it. Now it's just about principle.
This is the facade of the apartment in the TV show Friends. They did not film inside this apartment. They filmed at a TV studio.
This is the oldest wooden house in NYC.
I don't know why I needed a picture of the street names, but I did it anyways. Story about this continues under next photo.
The building covered in scaffolding is being worked on because it's a special building. This is 86 Bedford St, home of Chumley's, the famous speak-easy! It was full of nooks and hidden doors, which coined the phrase "86 it", meaning GET OUT FAST THE COPS ARE HERE.
The oldest BRICK building in NYC.
Its front...and it happens to be right next to....
The narrowest building in NYC! 75 1/2!
Apparently someone famous lived here, but I didn't recognize the name...
This is the facade for the Huxtable House in the famous Cosby Show!!! I had no idea they lived in Greenwich Village!
This would have been the "real" setting for West Side Story!
A very odd tasting and textured yet famous "rainbow cake"! Denise is in love with it.
Cafe Wha? The famous starting place of nearly every famous musician, including...
Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix!
The [questionably] oldest tree in NYC!
The Washington Arch, built in adoration of...
George Washington the statesmen, aaaandddd.....
George Washington the General! There was some crazy story about the architect who designed the arch, something to do with some famous stripper and he was put to death for it. I don't remember how it went...
And the best name for a food vending stand ever.
Well, that was Greenwich Village. It literally took me 2 days to finish this post. It's going to take a while to get all these pictures up. *sigh* Alright...better get to work...
Melissa got a lot of crap for wearing my Israeli Defense Force shirt throughout the day. haha.
*************************
I'm splitting up the days spent with Denise and Melissa into what we did on each day. First up is our free walking tour of Greenwich Village! It was hot but our tour guide was really good! So here's what we got...
We got to our meeting place really early, so we stopped for a place to eat called "Papaya Dog"!
It was super delicious cheeseburgers, hot dogs, fries, and exotic fruit smoothies.
You heard the sign!
Oh, how nice. I'll make sure to buy some. They had signs hung up like this all over the place.
This is where they treated people for the small pox epidemic, or something. Edgar Allen Poe went here for a migraine once. A lot of the rich people from New York fled to this area because it was still separate from the city and thought it was far enough away from the epidemic to escape it. They were dead wrong. Excuse the pun.
This is the Stonewall Inn, home of the famous "shot heard 'round the world" for gay rights. It was a gay "night club" during a time when it was illegal to have one. They got around it through some loop hole or another and hosted drag shows and housed the local gay community on late nights. Somehow the Mafia was involved with its protection, which kept the police from raiding it (the cops were paid off by members of the Mafia). The rumor is that the cops weren't getting paid enough to keep out anymore, so they set up a line halfway through the night and stop letting people in. This upset the people inside and there were angry shouts from all sides, but all around it was fine. Then there was the mysterious beginning of the fight.The follow story of events comes directly out the mouth of our tour guide, paraphrased. Rumor is that a drag queen slapped a cop in the face with her purse and the cops rushed the bar. Drag queens were shouting and slapping, butch lesbians were beating up cops, others were throwing out of the bar people they were mad at. There were surges back and forth until the police finally managed to get everyone pushed into the bar and started arresting people. However, instead of people running out the back door and fleeing, they ran out the back door and looped around in on the cops and turned the tables. They barricaded the cops into the bar! The fight lasted 3 days before it broke up.
It is still to this day a prominent gay night club, which hosts numerous drag shows. I plan to attend once. haha.
This is the smallest taxed property in NYC. The building that used to be here was bought and demolished to make the subway system, but they were only allowed to destroy as much as they needed. This meant that if they only needed to remove part of a building, they could only remove that part and had to leave the rest. This is the only part of the property they did not need. It still belongs to the family who originally owned the building and they still pay taxes on it. Now it's just about principle.
This is the facade of the apartment in the TV show Friends. They did not film inside this apartment. They filmed at a TV studio.
This is the oldest wooden house in NYC.
I don't know why I needed a picture of the street names, but I did it anyways. Story about this continues under next photo.
The building covered in scaffolding is being worked on because it's a special building. This is 86 Bedford St, home of Chumley's, the famous speak-easy! It was full of nooks and hidden doors, which coined the phrase "86 it", meaning GET OUT FAST THE COPS ARE HERE.
The oldest BRICK building in NYC.
Its front...and it happens to be right next to....
The narrowest building in NYC! 75 1/2!
Apparently someone famous lived here, but I didn't recognize the name...
This is the facade for the Huxtable House in the famous Cosby Show!!! I had no idea they lived in Greenwich Village!
This would have been the "real" setting for West Side Story!
A very odd tasting and textured yet famous "rainbow cake"! Denise is in love with it.
Cafe Wha? The famous starting place of nearly every famous musician, including...
Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix!
The [questionably] oldest tree in NYC!
The Washington Arch, built in adoration of...
George Washington the statesmen, aaaandddd.....
George Washington the General! There was some crazy story about the architect who designed the arch, something to do with some famous stripper and he was put to death for it. I don't remember how it went...
And the best name for a food vending stand ever.Well, that was Greenwich Village. It literally took me 2 days to finish this post. It's going to take a while to get all these pictures up. *sigh* Alright...better get to work...
