New York, New York
40°43'50''N, 73°56'6''W
We landed at JFK bright and early and headed straight to meet new Sicilian family members in Brooklyn! For the record, Global Entry is absolutely worth it. There are also no showers at JFK, but the border agent was certain the humidity was high enough outside to replicate a shower. We were also stopped by the baggage folks because they thought we left our luggage. Nope, we just don’t have much. “Now that is the way to travel,” was a fun way to be welcomed home.
Krystal’s cousins, or second cousins once removed, all came together to share some good beer and food in New York City. We all had a blast and they really helped us beat the jet lag! We then headed to a room rental in Astoria, Queens which was a total gem! If you are headed to NYC in the summer Astoria is the best way to go because….ferries! We had an absolute blast taking the ferry around NYC. It has to be the best thrill for $4 in the city! Jet lag ensured that Krystal miscalculated the date for a reading by Jamila Ahmed of Every Rising Sun with Zeyn Joukhadar at the The Center for Fiction, rats!
The United States has so many wild things that we hadn’t seen in a while: tons of toilet paper, large washers and dryers, water you can drink from the tap, and so much space! Also really expensive coffee and toothpaste, but alas..the fun had to come to and end somewhere.
The only thing we really wanted to see in NYC was Ellis Island and we convinced a bunch of family members to come with us! Monica, or new second cousin, and Krystal’s niece Grace and her mom came along for the adventure. We packed tons of snacks because the reviews alluded to a wild adventure on a small number of ferries to get out to the islands. We totally made it and had the sun burns and tans to prove it!
It was really powerful to visit Ellis Island on the heels of a year abroad. How absolutely disorienting that must have been for some of our ancestors. We started our visit with a picnic in the grass surrounded by all of the old buildings on Ellis Island. We were loaded with pastries we picked up hot out of the oven from Yaya's Greek Bakery and they were absolutely epic. Our visit inside kicked off with a cup of coffee and a screening of Island of Hope, Island of Tears (you can watch the film too!). We walked the halls and noted how many items the museum does not have. Just a few suitcases, papers, tools, and numbers remain. The site was abandoned for almost 60 years. The history of the site as a National Park is absolutely fascinating and it was not open to the public in its current state until 1990.
In reflection, we are pretty sure NYC is a place we could live for a little while. The city seems to have survived the pandemic better than the rest of the US cities we have been to in the past year. We picked up Tunisian dates at the local grocery store and had the best Greek pastries. Not a bad deal.
