Museum Month: The Tenement Museum In New York’s Lower East Side

by Jessica Marati on

Often, the sights that are just around the corner are the ones that you somehow never get around to exploring. You say that you’ll go one day, but there’s never a real rush. You tell yourself that it will always be there.

For me, that sight is the Tenement Museum, located in the heart of New York City‘s Lower East Side, a block and a half from the apartment I’ve called home for the past three years.

The Tenement Museum celebrates New York’s immigrants by exploring the history of a single tenement building at 97 Orchard Street, built in 1863. From the outside, the museum doesn’t look too different from the other apartment buildings on the block, including my own. But inside lies a rich tapestry of stories tracking the major immigration waves of the 19th- and 20th- centuries, starting with the Germans and followed by Eastern European Jews and Italians.

There are three ways to experience the Tenement Museum: by exploring the carefully restored apartments at 97 Orchard; by taking walking tours of the neighborhood; or by attending a “meet the residents” session, which allows guests to interact with costumed interpreters depicting people who once lived in the building.

On a recent Sunday, I opted for a building tour that was focused on the experience of sweatshop workers. At one time, the Lower East Side was the center of the American garment industry, particularly in the 1860s when the neighborhood was bustling with workers churning out Civil War military uniforms. Most work was completed in small home-based garment workshops, in cramped and often overheated quarters.

The tour started with a visit to the garment workshop of Harris Levine, a Russian tailor whose 1900 census data provided the basis for the space’s recreation. The guide explained how workers would work an average of 70 hours per week, crammed into tiny quarters along with the boss’s wife and children.

Once garment factories were introduced at the turn of the century, units at 97 Orchard became slightly more spacious and tailored for family living. A visit to the Rogarshevsky apartment, which was inhabited in the 1910s and 1920s, provided a look at the changing nature of the neighborhood as immigrants started to assimilate and economic conditions started to improve.

The building was condemned in 1935, which is where the museum’s focus ends. But stepping out into the traffic and construction of Allen Street, it was evident that life in today’s Lower East Side isn’t too different from the world depicted inside the Tenement Museum. It is still a neighborhood of immigrants, crammed together in tiny apartments, working like maniacs to survive… just today with higher rents and more espresso bars.

[Images via Tenement Museum]

Travel Partners From Hell

by Jessica Festa on

For those debating whether to travel in a group or go solo, you’ll want to read this. Just because you get along with someone at happy hour or Sunday morning spin class, doesn’t mean it’ll be smooth sailing on the road. After backpacking around the world for five years, both solo and with others, I’ve had my fair share of unpleasant travel partners. Think about these situations, and decide if your potential travel partner seems laid-back or fits into one of these categories.

The Cheapskate

For the most part, backpackers are budget-travelers by nature. They stay in dorms with 13 other people, forgo tours for the cheaper do-it-yourself version and will walk 15 blocks to save the equivalent of $1.50 on a meal. However, there’s a big difference between trying to stretch your dollar, and being downright cheap. When backpacking Europe, I traveled with a girl who talked of nothing but how much her condo cost, and how she couldn’t afford to eat or take the subway. She was so cheap; she used to eat the egg yolks from my daily chef’s salad as her lunch. We also went to an amusement park in Vienna, but didn’t go on any rides because she felt it was too expensive. In my mind, I was wondering why we had even walked the two hours to get there – because she refused to spend money on public transportation – if we weren’t going to enjoy it. Before traveling, make sure you’re both on the same page about the budget.The Spend Thrift

On the other hand, there are those who have no budget at all, which can make you feel like you need to spend more than you have. In Argentina, I traveled with a girl who clearly had a lot more money than me. She constantly wanted to eat in nice restaurants, take guided tours, opt for fancy tourist buses and take taxis rather than the bus or subway. Not only did I not have the money for this, but it went against my mentality of trying to get away from the tourists and go local. Before signing up to travel with someone, make sure your travel philosophies are aligned.

The Clean Freak

While I’m not suggesting being clean is a bad thing, there is a point where it can be borderline high maintenance. Especially when in other countries, you’re going to have to deal with certain places not being up to par with western sanitation standards. When I was in Thailand, I was with a girl who would constantly whine about the bathrooms – how squat toilets were gross and how there was never any toilet paper. She also almost had an aneurism when one of the guesthouses had a spider on the wall. Trust me, I enjoy a spider-free room and toilet-paper stocked bathroom as much as the next person, but sometimes these differences in place and culture are what make the trip interesting.

The Anti-American

Being from the United States, I know the hardships of being stereotyped as an “ugly American.” While traveling, I’m constantly forced to listen to people talk smack about U.S. travelers and how ignorant, annoying and rude they are. In reality, I think it’s pretty ignorant, rude and annoying to have people talk badly about Americans when there’s one sitting at the table. It’s bad enough having to hear this from strangers, but when it’s your own travel partner, it’s downright infuriating. I’ve actually experienced this while traveling with other Americans. On a local tour in Peru, as the guide talked about the culture, every reply from my companions seemed to be how Americans contrasted negatively with Peruvians. When the guide talked about how in Peru corn and potatoes were staples, the retort was that Americans were fat and ate nothing but processed foods. When the guide talked about how hard the Incas worked to build temples by hauling large boulders up mountains, the reply was that Americans were lazy. I couldn’t help but be offended, and also feel they were missing the point completely. Make sure your travel companion is both open to learning about a new culture, but also proud of their own.

The Complainer

Similar to the Clean Freak, the complainer will make you wonder why they bothered leaving their home country. The food isn’t good, the accommodation is subpar, the public transportation is unreliable and the culture is “weird.” In Prague, I traveled with someone who was a vegetarian. Not only did she whine about how the city didn’t have good food the entire time, she actually screamed at a waitress for bringing the wrong salad in a restaurant. “She should learn to speak English!” she huffed to me, annoyed. Needless to say, I was mortified.

The Cling-On

There are some people who never want to be alone, others who thoroughly enjoy their own company and those who fall somewhere in between. In my opinion, this is the most important thing to discuss with your potential travel mate before booking your plane ticket. While backpacking in Australia, I traveled with a girl who wanted to do absolutely everything together. If I ever tried to do something on my own, or opted not to signup for a tour she was doing, she accused me of ditching her. I once went outside to read a book, and she barked at me for not telling her. It felt like a stifling relationship, and really put a strain on the trip.

The Lazy Backpacker

Of course, it’s important to relax to prevent travel fatigue, but there are some travelers who will make you wonder why they bothered to buy a plane ticket. When backpacking in Italy, I traveled with someone who would sleep until noon, nap at 3:00 p.m., and spend a majority of the day on Facebook and watching TV in the common room. When I’d ask her if she wanted to cook dinner, she’d reply, “Sure, if you get the groceries.” I guess typing was exhausting, because she barely saw any sites in one of the world’s most beautiful countries. Before traveling with someone, try to gauge their excitement level to make sure they’ll actually get out of bed and get dressed.

The Space Obsessor

When backpacking, belongings in the hostel dorms tend to get jumbled together. Be prepared to not always have your things perfectly organized, and for other peoples’ things to sometimes be touching yours. In Chile, I traveled with someone who was definitely not okay with this. Not only was I verbally scolded for hanging my towel on the hook next to hers – the edges touched – my pants were thrown in a ball on the floor when I hung them on the same chair as her shirt. After awhile, her behavior made me feel like I was walking on egg shells, and led me to book separate rooms to avoid the unnecessary conflict.

The Ultra Planner

While it’s good to have some sort of plan in mind when embarking on a trip, there comes a point when too much planning takes the spontaneity and adventure out of travel. When traveling in Spain, I was with a girl who needed to have everything planned out days in advance, from what sites we would see, what time we would wake up and go to bed and where we would eat dinner. Not only that, but veering from any discussed plan would set her into a frenzy. While I wanted to meet other backpackers and locals and explore together, she had an itinerary that was apparently set in stone. Make sure you’re potential travel partner is okay with going with the flow sometimes during the trip.

Have you ever had an unpleasant travel partner?

Vagabond Tales: How To Pay Off The Police While Traveling

by Kyle Ellison on

Let’s face it: things happen while you’re traveling. Although many travels go off without a hitch, occasionally there are unforeseen hurdles, which simply need to be navigated. Sometimes this can be as minor as your bag ending up in Hamburg when it’s supposed to be in Berlin, as unlucky as contracting swine flu in Mexico, or as downright scary as ending up in a knife fight in a back alley in Spain (more on those stories another time).

Of all the travel inconveniences I’ve experienced over years of vagabonding, however, the one which happens with undoubtedly the most frequency is being cornered into paying off the police. Sometimes this is my fault, sometimes it’s someone else’s fault, and other times it’s nothing more than rampant corruption. Either way, I’ve paid off the police enough times while traveling to warrant mentioning it with some authority.

One thing I want to set straight, however, is that I have never intentionally bribed the police, because that, I believe, is illegal. In every situation where money has exchanged hands between myself and an officer of the law the idea was proposed to me without my offering it first. I don’t by any means condone corruption because it’s one of the largest social cancers plaguing much of the developing world. Nevertheless, when staring down the barrel of a sticky situation there is often too little time for letting your morals get the better of you.

It’s worthy of mentioning that all of these situations occurred while driving vehicles in Latin America. If the idea of confrontations with police officers doesn’t rank high on your list of travel plans, perhaps my number one rule of advice would be avoid operating vehicles in Latin America.

If your bucket list includes a surf safari across Central America or driving the length of Highway 1, however, I offer this mini-survival guide for navigating an awkward situation in places where the lines of justice and extortion are frequently blurred.Rule #1: Anticipate the scenario.

Just like you shouldn’t travel with any item you don’t fully expect to get stolen or lost, you should never drive in a foreign country and expect everything is going to be ok. One solution is to take a pre-determined amount of money, usually around $20-$40, and stick it in the glove box as a precautionary measure. In Mexico, this is officially known as “la mordida,” (the bite), and on about 50 percent of trips to Mexico I have found myself needing to pay off the police with the money stashed aside for just that reason. If you expect that you’re going to be hassled and plan accordingly you already have the upper hand.

Rule #2: Let them do the talking.

In situations like these, the issue of who is right and who is wrong is completely null and void. Arguing will get you nowhere except into a deeper hole.

Usually, what will happen is the police will lay out a long, difficult series of events, which need to take place in order for you to right your horrendous wrong. This often involves talk of following them to the police station, the arrangement of court dates, the confiscation of your passport, or your inability to leave the country now that you are a roadside criminal. Often times fear tactics are also employed in that they will most likely mention you are going to be arrested and potentially spend some time in jail.

Regardless of how scary the situation gets, however, just keep letting them talk because usually it’s building up to them offering you the easy way out.

Having been pulled over for “speeding” in a rural town in Costa Rica, the policeman even launched into a long-winded dialogue about how proceeds from traffic violations were now going to underprivileged Costa Rican children and how my wife and I would need to drive to the capital of San Jose immediately to pay our $240 fine at a specifically named bank. Then, as expected, the offer was laid out before us.

“Or, we could always just take care of it right here.”

One $20 bill and five minutes later, we were headed towards Playa Samara completely free and clear.

Rule #3: Only leave a small amount of cash in your wallet and hide the rest elsewhere.

In Uruguay, there is a law which mandates headlights must be turned on regardless of whether it’s day or night. Having just made a bathroom stop my wife and I had forgotten to turn the lights back on, and in the twelve seconds it took me to realize the mistake, police at a roadside checkpoint had already seized upon the opportunity.

I again endured the long-winded diatribe about how our passports would be seized, we’d miss our flight, have to appear in court in three weeks in Montevideo, etc. and so on. I was then made to step out of the car and follow the policeman towards the back of his vehicle.

Opening the passenger side door so as to block the line of sight for oncoming traffic, he threw me the much-anticipated olive branch.

“You want to make your flight right?”

“Yes sir.”

“You don’t want your wife to see you go to jail do you?”

“No sir.”

“2,000 Uruguayos.”

The equivalent of $100, I explained that I simply didn’t have that much on me. This, of course, was the truth, because I had only left $40 in my wallet for precisely this reason. The rest was in my backpack sitting safely in the backseat.

“It’s everything I have,” I explained, being sure to dramatically open my wallet and show its empty recesses.

Placing the green and red Uruguayo notes beneath a piece of paper on his clipboard I was allowed to swiftly return to my car and drive away.

Rule #4: Follow directions and you will be fine.

Of all the times I’ve been forced to pay the police, things really were looking pretty dire in Tijuana, Mexico. Having spotted empty beer cans in the front of our truck, a bicycle cop concluded that our sun-bleached pack of surf friends must have been drinking and driving. Though the cans were left over from our lunch in Ensenada, this was a point we had little way of proving. According to the policeman there was nothing we could do and we were all going to jail.

Seeing as the official judicial policy of Mexico is essentially “guilty until proven innocent,” the idea of spending the night in a Tijuana prison was beginning to appear more and more likely.

Then, as quickly as we had been pulled over, we just as quickly were told to leave. Before nervously pulling back into the border line, however, we received some very curious and detailed instructions.

“The cross. It costs $80. You will buy it under the bridge.”

In no mood to ask questions we resumed our spot in the border line more than a little shaken. Though we were back and moving and on the road, however, we couldn’t lose the feeling that this encounter wasn’t over.

Sure enough, a quarter mile up the road, while stopped in gridlock border traffic, a street vendor approached us with a faux-wood crucifix of Jesus. As had been prophesied by the policeman, he approached us while underneath a bridge. Knowing full well what to do, we handed the vendor the aforementioned $80. As a final slap in the face we weren’t even allowed to keep the cross.

I would later find out that in an effort to crack down on police corruption, cameras had been installed to monitor the shady dealings of roadside police. The cameras, as it would happen, are not able to see beneath the bridges.

So does the fact that you can get away with paying your way out of traffic violations mean I recommend reckless irresponsibility while abroad? Of course not. Preying on tourists who have laughably little rights may be a devious way to earn a buck, but unfortunately, with the depressed level of foreign wages and low government pay, it’s a twisted means towards making ends meet.

There are many whom will cry foul and claim that succumbing to “la mordida” is simply like feeding the bears in the woods – if you encourage bad habits they will cease to go away. Whether you choose to do so is ultimately up to you, but should you find yourself in a situation like those described above, may this long-winded log of my own personal bad decisions serve as an illicit road map for procuring your much-deserved freedom.

Want more travel stories? Read the rest of the “Vagabond Tales” here.

[Images courtesy of: blmurch, danielmvier.com, and tiffa130 on Flickr]

Travel Hubs To Avoid For Memorial Day 2012

by Jessica Festa on

Holiday travel can be hectic, especially when it comes to transportation. Despite the potential to be a scary experience, AAA statistics show that 34.9 million Americans used plane, train and automobile transportation last Memorial Day. With this year expected to be just as crazy, Foursquare has compiled data from 20 billion users, to let travelers know what the busiest travel hubs are expected to be this Memorial Day.

Top 10 Busiest Airports:
Foursquare looked at the change in check in rates to airports vs. the same time window during the week prior to Memorial Day 2011 to compile these findings:

1. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
2. San Francisco International Airport
3. Chicago O’Hare International Airport
4. John F. Kennedy International Airport
5. McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas)
6. LaGuardia Airport (New York)
7. Denver International Airport
8. Boston Logan International Airport
9. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
10. Newark Liberty International AirportTop 10 Busiest Train Stations:
Foursquare looked at the change in check in rates to train stations vs. the same time window during the week prior to Memorial Day 2011 to compile these findings:

1. New York Penn Station
2. Grand Central Terminal
3. Union Station (Washington, D.C.)
4. Chicago Union Station
5. 30th Street Station (Philadelphia)
6. Long Island Railroad Jamaica Station
7. Newark Penn Station
8. Union Station (Los Angeles)
9. New Jersey Transit Frank R. Lautenberg Secaucus Junction Station
10. New Haven Union Station

Top 10 Busiest Bus Stations:
Foursquare looked at the change in check in rates to bus stations vs. the same time window during the week prior to Memorial Day 2011 to compile these findings:

1. Port Authority Bus Terminal: New York, New York
2. South Station Bus Terminal: Boston, Massachusetts
3. Harbor Pointe and Shuttle Area: Anaheim, California
4. Boltbus Midtown Stop (34th Street and 8th Avenue): New York, New York
5. Megabus NYC Stop (West 31st Street): New York, New York
6. Megabus DC Stop (Union Square Parking): Washington, D.C.
7. Frankford Transportation Center: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
8. International District/Chinatown Station: Seattle, Washington
9. Hollywood Studios Bus Stop: Lake Buena Vista, Florida
10. Magic Kingdom Bus Stop: Lake Buena Vista, Florida

Top 10 Busiest Highways:
Foursquare looked at the change in check in rates to highways vs. the same time window during the week prior to Memorial Day 2011 to compile these findings:

1. Lincoln Tunnel: New York, New York
2. Bourbon Street: New Orleans, Louisiana
3. Lombard Street: San Francisco, California
4. Rodeo Drive: Beverly Hills, California
5. Huntington Beach: Huntington Beach, California
6. Long Island Expressway: Long Island, New York
7. Holland Tunnel Toll Plaza: Jersey City, New Jersey
8. I-95 on Georgia/South Carolina State Line
9. Brooklyn/Queens Expressway: Brooklyn, New York
10. I-95 on Florida/Georgia State Line

Top 10 Busiest Rest Stops:
Foursquare looked at the change in check in rates to rest stops vs. the same time window during the week prior to Memorial Day 2011 to compile these findings:

1. Delaware Welcome Center Travel Plaza: Newark, New Jersey
2. Maryland House Travel Plaza: Aberdeen, Maryland
3. Molly Pitcher Service Area: Cranbury, New Jersey
4. Lake Forest Oasis: Lake Forest, Illinois
5. Cheesequake Rest Area: Sayreville, New Jersey
6. Woodrow Wilson Service Area: Hamilton, New Jersey
7. Chesapeake House Travel Plaza: North East, Maryland
8. Grover Cleveland Service Area: Woodbridge, New Jersey
9. Charlton Service Plaza (Westbound): Charlton, Massachusetts
10. Des Plaines Oasis: Des Plaines, Illinois

Is Long-Term Traveling Selfish?

by Jessica Festa on

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living,” – Miriam Beard

Is long-term travel selfish? It’s a dilemma many backpackers and full-time nomads struggle with. You miss birthdays and weddings, you get to skip sitting behind an office desk eight hours a day, you make your family and friends worry and spend each day fulfilling your own desires to explore the world.

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of selfish is “seeking or concentrating on one’s own advantage, pleasure, or well-being without regard for others.” While I would say that partially correlates to the long-term traveler, I’m not sure it’s a completely accurate depiction.How Travel Is Selfish

There are many selfish aspects to long-term travel. Travel is about oneself, and what we want to get out of an experience. Our days are dictated by sites of interest, as we commit to exploring unique landscapes and having rare experiences. It’s purely for the benefit of oneself. However, isn’t it necessary to be selfish in life, to get what we want, even if the method is unconventional?

How Travel Is Not Selfish

The part of the definition of “selfish” that doesn’t sit well with me is where it states that the person is acting “without regard for others.” Traveling is inspiring, and many long-term travelers try to make a positive impact where they go. Whether it’s helping a community, imparting knowledge, buying a handmade scarf at a market or playing a game with a child, travelers can make a positive impact. Even something as small as teaching a local about life in your home city or doing a language exchange can help educate someone in another place.

Of course, different people have different travel philosophies, meaning there may be some genuinely selfish travelers out there. However, if they’re enjoying what they’re doing and not causing harm, are they really acting “without regard for others?”

What we learn we can then pass on to others. By traveling we automatically help the local economy in the place we are visiting. One argument many people have for long-term travel being selfish is that the traveler doesn’t help their home economy; however, I don’t think many non-travelers are staying home solely to make purchases to help their economy. The cheeseburger you bought for lunch, those new shoes and that gold watch were more likely purchased to fulfill a self-centered desire than anything else.

Many Things In Life Are Selfish

Everybody has the ability to make their own decisions. If someone chooses to travel long term, they shouldn’t be made to feel like they’re doing something wrong. It may be unconventional, but is that really a bad thing? Moreover, aren’t most of things people do out of passion “selfish”? If you go to the gym, do yoga, get a dog, buy a shirt, or go to work, aren’t these all motivated by a selfish desire? In my opinion, you need to be a bit selfish in order to feel fulfilled.

Is Being Selfish Always A Bad Thing?

But, why does this need to be a bad thing? Our passions are what help us grow. Why do you think travel is such a great resume booster? It gives you life skills and knowledge, and makes you more of a citizen of the world. As a well-rounded individual, you can then make a positive impact on society.

On a recent bus ride in Bolivia, I sat next to a man who had uprooted his two boys, one 14 and one 9, to volunteer around the world. At first I couldn’t believe he would take them out of school and away from their friends at such a young age; however, when the nine-year-old boy began to speak, I was amazed at how smart he was. He knew how to read braille from working with the blind, spoke of the habits of monkeys living in the wild, knew a lot about health and nutrition and spoke of working with the mentally challenged in a mature and sensitive manner. His dream was to travel the world and experiment with natural remedies to come up with cures for diseases. What a selfless goal to come out of someone’s “selfish” act.

Do you think long-term travel is selfish?