2 Great American Institutions: Pizza and Cars

Tuesday 12th August

In NYC I'm trying my hardest to avoid cliched tourist experiences. So no trip up the Statue of Liberty, no Empire State Building and certainly no WTC site visit. A couple have slipped through the net though, allowed to do so as they're enjoyed by locals alike. The first was yesterday, when we took a trip to Coney Island to check out the beach. Although Coney Island is not surrounded by water as such, it has a long South facing sandy beach. We were glad for the hazy sunshine, but it never quite got sticky enough to need to go for a swim. We couldn't pass up a ride on the Cyclone, a wooden rickety rollercoaster that gives a great view over the bay before plunging into a series of, even for my age, fairly stomach-churning turns.

The second was yesterday, on a food tip. After walking from Union Square to the Brooklyn Bridge to get the water taxi, we discovered that it had stopped service for the night. So, walking 6 blocks back in, in order to get onto the bridge, we crossed the Hudson on foot over the Brooklyn Bridge, as dusk had set in, affording lush views behind us over Manhattan, to the right out of the Hudson Bay and in front over Brooklyn. So having walked solidly for what seemed like 6 hours (okay maybe 3 with breaks), finding a 60 metre queue outside Grimaldis, at 9.15pm on a Monday, we were beginning to doubt the wisdom of our choice of dining experience.

view under the Brooklyn Bridge Southwards

In New York, as I am told by our more-than-gracious Brooklyn-based hosts, the best way to choose your dining venue is to imagine what experience you want. Obviously, good nosh is paramount, but to refine your options down you need to think about what kind of experience you want to go with your pizza. Although queueing for an hour didn't factor highly into the experience I wanted, Grimaldis have been turning out great pizzas for over 100 years. And at under £15 for a flaggon of wine and a 96 inch pizza (easily enough for 2 very hungry walkers - that's actually a litre and 18" for the litiguous amongst you), I felt compelled to try my hardest to convince my very hungry and grumpy girlfriend to stand patiently more than a stone's throw from the entrance. I did it by going of to find somewhere else to eat, and taking a very long time over it...

Was it worth it? Hell yeah! I so nearly bought their T-shirt until my more pragmatic girlfriend vetoed the idea.

If you happen be in New York City, with someone whose company you enjoy enough not to need alcohol to share a meal with, I'd recommend where we ate on Saturday night, for those interested in a less patience-wearing experience (even I'm talking the lingo now, I mean meal). The Bedouin Tent on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn does lush Lebanese food, with a nice back garden to eat in. Again the right side of £15 for 2, and highly recommended.

Wednesday 13th August 2008
6pm

What a ballache this is proving to be. From the various sites I'd read, I'd imagined buying a car in the US to be a lot less hassle than this.

I checked it out - a UK driving license entitles you to drive in most States (but check each one out - I know Florida doesn't) for up to 12 months before you have to get a local one. Insurance I thought would be the hardest with only 18 months of driving experience - in addition to being a foreigner - but a call to GMAC showed that I could quite easily be insured. I read on a forum there was only one underwriter that would insure foreigners - and they demand 2 years experience - I forget who they are but this is bullshit, probably courtesy of their PR department. Part 3 is registration...

So for those reading this thinking of doing the same, here's the process. You find the vehicle you want. You get insured on it, doable over the phone. You get the insurance company to fax you the insurance card you need in order to register. Then, you go to a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office (also known by other names in other states of the US), with the title signed over to you and/or a Bill of Sale, the insurance card AND SUITABLE PROOF OF ID.

This is the chestnut that we failed to pick up on until we'd gone over to New Jersey 3 times. On Saturday, we went over to check out a pickup truck at a dealer. It looked great at a good price. I wanted a mechanic to give us a second opinion, as without my dad at my shoulder, I didn't feel grown up enough to make an educated judgement. Garages close at weekends, so on Monday morning I went back, another 40 minutes on the New Jersey Transit. Stopping in at the first garage, I spoke to the mechanic. He didn't know the dealer personally (hence more likelihood of an objective judgement), and happened to drive himself a Ford Ranger, the model I was after. Further, he seemed Latin American so I spoke in Spanish to him, explained our plans, and we chatted for a while. He came and had a look at it, and plugging his computer in saw that one cylinder was mis-firing.

But on the way he told me about a friend of his that had a better one, again the same model. So on Tuesday, we went again, another 40 minutes, to have a look at this one. It seemed perfect, so he signed the title over and I gave him the cash. I called the insurance company and got it insured, then got the train back to New York City.

Since 9-11, New York State has increased the stringency of its ID requirements. Without a New York State driving license, a foreign passport and a credit card is only 4 out of 6 ID points. This, I discovered this morning at the DMV office in Brooklyn. My girlfriend has just come back from New Jersey, thankfully with the money back (minus $100 for the day he took off work and to get a replacement title). She says he seemed kind of glad in a way to not be parting with it, and genuinely sorry for us. We're getting on a bus to upstate NY in half an hour.