Italy and Spain – Day 5

Saturday July 15 – Florence – Day 1

Walking Tour

After having breakfast at the hotel at 8am we went to the bus and left by 9am. Upon arriving in Florence, the first thing we did was to have a bathroom break at a public restroom near the river. Once everyone was done, which seemed to take a long time, we walked to Piazza della Signora.

Piazza della Signora

The walk took about 15 minutes and along the way we passed a classic Mini Cooper, which I took a picture of, and a record store, which I made a mental note of. Once in Piazza della Signora, we gathered in the center of the square and waited for our local guide to arrive. While waiting, I took some pictures of the statues and the architecture in the square.

After our guide arrived, he gave us a quick overview of the square and taught us about a couple of the statues before we made our way to Ponte Vecchio.

Ponte Vecchio

This is a famous bridge in Florence. It has buildings built on it that were once houses but are now high end shops for Cartier and Rolex. We learned that this bridge was spared from being bombed in WWII because it was built up so much that even if it had been destroyed, there would have been enough material to move vehicles across it.

Duomo

Next we walked through a square with a carousel, the second one in two days, and eventually rounded the corner to see the Duomo. All I knew of the Duomo was the dome, I had no idea what the building looked like. When I saw it, I was stunned. It was one of the coolest, most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. The white and green in the construction was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Leather Shop

After admiring the Duomo, we made our way to a leather shop. Along the way we passed the former home of Dante, author of Dante’s Inferno. Before entering the shop our local guide bid us farewell and I tipped him; he was pretty good. Once at the shop, we were given a demonstration of the leather production as well as the jewelry they make there.

Afterwards we were given time to browse the gift shop. This part was a little annoying to me as I was tired of standing and I didn’t see what this had to do with our tour. It felt too salesy. However, the woman who gave the demonstration -who was a little older than me but very beautiful- later asked if I was Italian when I saw her in the store. I told her I was and she said, she could tell. Another woman in the shop complimented my mustache which was nice.

When we were done with the shop, Jago gave us all a paper map. We were then give from 12:30 or 1pm until around 7pm to explore Florence on our own.

Free Time

Jago had said he would take anyone who was interested to the market place for lunch. I was under the wrong impression that that is what most of the people were going to do. Instead, everyone had their own ideas and pretty much just fanned out. I was the only one who went to the market with him.

The cool thing was that it gave us time to talk one on one. He asked me about how TCs operate and why we do things certain ways. He gave me insight into what makes things easier or more difficult for TDs. We also talked about Formula 1 and he told me he follows Fernando Alonso, as every good Spaniard should.

The Market

Once at the market Jago and I shook hands and went our separate ways. I found a sandwich place with no line and grabbed a ham and cheese, or something like that, and two iced teas. Somehow or other I got to talking with the woman running the stand. I think she commented on the fact that I kept telling people where the restroom was and how they should be paying me to work there.

I think she said she grew up in Sardegna and that she missed the sea. I told her I was off to Madrid the next day and later to Barcelona. She told me to go swimming for her and I told her I would. She was pretty and if I’d been traveling alone, not with a bunch of high school kids, I might have tried to ask her out. It seemed like there was a vibe but maybe I’m reading into things.

Free Time Cont’d

Anyway, after finishing my lunch, I began meandering around Florence. I made my way back to the Duomo and found a cool place called Move On. The first floor was a bar and the top floor was a record store. I didn’t need a drink so I bypassed the bar and made my way upstairs.

I was greeted by a man upon entering and I immediately asked, “Mina?” Without missing a beat he went over to the bins and showed me where her records were. “Grazie,” I said and he left me to sift through them. I was looking for her album Studio Mina which I’d fallen in love with thanks to season 2 of Master of None. For better or worse, I didn’t end up finding it. I don’t know how I would have gotten it back to the states without breaking it anyway.

After leaving the record store, I made my way back to Piazza della Signora. When I got there, I started taking pictures of the statues in the square. Then suddenly, amongst the people sitting in the shade, I found Natalie and her mom, two women from our group. I sat in the shade and rested with them for a bit; listened to their day thus far and told them about mine.

It’s a good thing I found them too because they thought this square was the meeting location when in fact we were to meet behind the duomo. After chatting with them, I made my way over to the record store that I had seen when we were walking into the city from the bus in the morning.

The guys at the front counter were busy talking to other customers, so I meandered around the store for a bit. Eventually I made my way back to the front and asked the guys behind the counter if they had any Mina albums. One of them came around the counter and led me to the rack.

He sifted through with me and I asked if he specifically had Studio Mina. He told me he didn’t but said that another record, which he showed me, was a compilation which had several of the songs off that album. It was a double album, not exactly what I was looking for and frankly too expensive to justify so I thanked him and before I left, asked if there was a restroom. He told me to try the place next door.

I went into the crowded gelato shop and anxiously waited in line for the one restroom they had. I was nervous I’d get kicked out for using the bathroom without buying anything but frankly it was too busy in there for them to notice me.

After taking care of business, I made my way back to Ponte Vecchio and strolled around that area for a bit. I was looking for one of the bars I had found before leaving for the trip but it was just a little too far away and I wasn’t sure I’d have time to walk there, get a drink, and then walk back to the meeting place.

I then began the long journey back to the Duomo and took a lap around it looking for Move On again. I could have sworn it was near there but I couldn’t remember exactly where. I found shade, took out my phone and began looking around on Google Maps.

I knew I was close and began walking again. While aimlessly looking at my phone and walking I suddenly heard, “Hey.” It was Natalie and her mom. “We promise we’re not following you. Where is the meeting point again.” I told them where it was and then did my best to tactfully shoo them away so I could grab a beer at Move On.

After they left, I turned around to realize I had walked right past it. I went in and had a beer and sat and chilled until it was time to walk over and meet the group at the meeting area. Once we were all together, we walked over to the restaurant where we were to have a group dinner. The meal was pretty good, not the best we’d had but not bad.

Afterwards we walked back to the bus and made our way back to the hotel. We chilled in the room for a bit and I Facetimed with Kyra and them with Mom briefly before meeting with Nick, Issac and Chloe in the lobby. We headed out because they wanted more food and I just wanted to grab a drink.

After walking around for a bit, we ended up at Bar New York, the place on the corner right near our hotel. The others got food and I ordered a cocktail which was not very good but that I drank anyway. Later Ashlyn joined us as we just chilled and ate and drank and talked. Issac and Ashlyn order desserts which we all shared and it was delicious.

Afterwards we went back to the room. If memory serves, this was the night that at one point a teacher from another group knocked on our and was looking for someone. I answered with no shirt on and she apologized once she realized she had the wrong room.

Later that same night, before we went to bed, there were students -not from our group- out in the hallway talking and laughing. Eventually I ducked my head out and said, “Hey guys I don’t mind if you stay up and talk but if you could do it in your room or go down to the lobby, that would be great.” They were very nice about it and scattered, presumably off to their rooms.

It’s About Time

Friday 9/27

On September 24th, the Hunters Point Library finally opened to the public. I was so excited that I decided to bike there on Friday, my first available day off.

Hunters Point Library

I first saw this library back in 2015 (which is apparently when construction began) when I was an instructor for Bike New York. Ever since seeing the building, I was looking forward to checking it out as it seemed very modern and chic, and because I’m a design and architecture nerd.

However, whenever I would pass by it, it was still under construction. Apparently this was something that had been in the works for 9 years. I found a multitude of articles about the delay and the $40 million price tag. However, I kept following it online until finally I found an article that posted an opening date.

When I got there, the first thing I noticed was that there was no bike parking. I had to find a place to lock up across the street. However, considering all they had dealt with to get it completed, I wasn’t going to complain.

Hunters Point Library

The library itself is beautiful. The layout is very minimalist and almost industrial, using light wood and concrete in the design. It is very unconventional as well and you sort of have to zig-zag across the structure to make your way up to the higher levels, making for an airy and open design.

When I got to the top level, I was a bit bummed that the roof, which was meant to be a patio for lectures and to just sit and relax, was not open yet as it was still under construction. I guess they just figured, “let’s get this thing open already.”

Hunters Point Library – interior

The only other complaint I had was that there was only one computer that was for searching the catalogue! I don’t understand why, of all the computers they had in that area, just one was for searching. It also seems odd that they would just have a catalogue computer on one floor and not at least one on all of the floors. However, I guess I shouldn’t complain as it was at least cool to finally check it out and I’m sure they are still working out the bugs.

Manhattan Movie Bench

After having explored and photographed the library for half an hour I made my way to stop number two. I biked over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan (mention the bit about how I biked far passed it and had to double back) to find a movie location.

View from the bench from the movie Manhattan

There is a clip in an episode of Family Guy where Stewie and Olivia are sitting on a park bench, looking at a bridge and Stewie says, “This really is a great city, I don’t care what anybody says.” However, not until I was watching the CNN docu-series The Movies did I realize it have been stollen from the Woody Allen film, Manhattan.

So, a bit of Googling lead me to the location which I decided to make a quick visit to before continuing on my way. I’ve never seen Manhattan and thus I don’t necessarily care about it, but it’s always fun to go to famous locations.

Apple 5th Ave

Next I made my way to the recently re-opened 5th Ave Apple store for a third attempt to try and go in without a line. However, despite it being open for a week, there was still a line out front. Now, I’m not sure if perhaps the line was only for people who were buying something but, regardless, I didn’t even want to waste the time it would take to lock up my bike, walk over and find out, so I continued on my way.

B&H

After that failed attempt, I made my way over to and down 9th Ave to 34th St to visit B&H Camera. I was looking for a backpack to replace the uncomfortable Away bag I’d purchased, and was in search of a wrist strap for my GoPro.

I found Incase backpacks, the brand I was looking for, but I couldn’t find the specific model I was interested in. I then moved on to the camera section where I ended up finding a wrist strap that was considerably cheaper than the one I had found on their website which was great.

Not that you care, but I wanted the strap so that when I go on my next vacation, if I want to take the GoPro into a body of water, if I drop it, I hopefully won’t lose it. However, as a secondary precaution, I bought a “floaty” for the camera so that if I do drop it and it slips off my wrist, it will at least float to the surface.

Jeffrey Deitch Gallery

Next I made my way to the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Soho to check out the Tokyo Pop Underground exhibit.

The first thing that caught my eye was a statue of a Golden Robot. I was familiar with the design of the robot due to the cover of the 2001 Aerosmith album, Just Push Play which was illustrated by Hajime Sorayama. It was fascinating to see a three-dimensional version of an image I’d been familiar with for 18 years.

Hajime Sorayama’s golden robot statue

The next big feature item in the room was the skateboard wall. The wall was covered in hundreds of used skateboard decks. The decks had been flattened in such a way that the nose and tail of the boards no longer curved up, making it look like a two-dimensional image.

Whats more, the decks appeared to be layered “over” one another as if they were all piled on top of each other. However, the decks “below” were cut in the middle so that the decks “above” could fit into the negative space in between to give the illusion of sitting on top.

Skateboard wall

From there, I made my way to a dark room with six glass rectangular cases, three on either side, that were lit from above and below. There was a mirror on the back panel of each case. In the cases were more of the Hajime Sorayama robots, this time in chrome.

There was a pole sticking out from the back of the case into the back of the robots to make them appear as if they were floating or hovering in zero-gravity in the cases. It gave them this haunting yet ethereal appearance.

Chrome robots in glass cases

The last piece that really intrigued me was one in the lower level of the gallery. There was a dark room with a projected image of an anime character, a young girl in a nightgown, on the wall. Towards the far wall was a single light bulb which was turned on and hanging from the ceiling from a wire. In the middle of the room was a podium with a computer mouse on it. Below the mouse was a label which read, “Click mouse, then wait.”

So, I clicked the mouse and the projector whirred to life. The anime character suddenly fainted and fell to the ground, lying on her side for a bit before the image faded to black. Then a noise came from the ceiling and a ceiling mounted printer printed an image of the collapsed character.

Anime girl

It was so bizarre, like a piece of performance art. On the ground were hundreds of other printed papers from the other visitors to the gallery. Pleasantly confused, I made my way to the last stop.

K&M

I headed further south to K&M Camera to check out their inventory of Incase backpacks. Upon entering I immediately found the bag I was looking for but, in doing so, accidentally knocked over all of the other backpacks and a shelf of cables and other equipment sitting above it.

Embarrassed, I took the bag to the table to examine it. I was ready to buy it but it was more expensive than it was listed on the Incase site. I asked if they could price match the website and though they could not do that, they could check Best Buy and B&H. They found they “same” bag on the B&H site for even cheaper than it was marked on the Incase site and gave it to me for that price.

I knew this was not the same bag, having just come from B&H, however I was not going to correct an error in my favor. So, I got rung up for the lower price and then the guy I was working with needed to get the non-display bag for me to take home.

However, when I got to my bike, I noticed that he had given me a different model. I then had to walk back to the store and exchange the one he gave me for the floor model I had been looking at. This should have been easy except that the floor model had a security device that he had to fumble with before I could finally leave with my bag.

Lunch

I biked down to the Fulton Street station since I had two backpacks to awkwardly carry and hopped on the train back to my apartment to grab a small lunch. While eating, I realized that there had been one other thing on my to do list that I wanted to get done. This one, unlike the others, was time sensitive as it was a one-day-only pop-up shop.

Modern Anthology

I hopped on my bike one more time and took a ~20 minute ride to Smith Street in Brooklyn to check out the Never Not Riding x Modern Anthology pop-up event. I had one thing only in mind, a 5-panel hat that I wanted to get as a sturdier cap to wear than my cycling cap.

Upon entering I immediately found the hat I was looking for and, as luck would have it, I got the last black one. I grabbed it and held onto it while walking around the store and chatting with the owner of MA and the founder of NNR. I also grabbed a free beer and relaxed for a bit.

Never Not Riding hat and stickers

I was stoked to be getting this hat. To top things off, it was a little cheaper than I thought it would be, and, the founder Nemo, threw in some NNR stickers for free as I was hoping he would. A very solid/productive day off.

Saturday 9/28

Since Friday had been so busy, Saturday was deliberately more chill. I basically just did laundry, returned my Away backpack and applied to more jobs. However, in the evening, I met up with my buddy Kris for a little birthday shin-dig on his roof.

We chilled for a bit before heading out to grab pizza and eventually bar hopping around Crown Heights. The star of the night however was Butter & Scotch. I had been there once before but had never indulged in their cocktails.

The one I ordered was really good, Ciao Bella, and the one my friends got was also good. I bought Kris a slice of cake since B&S specializes in desserts as well. It was a really fun night and was nice to be able to just bike there and bike home when I was done.