This was my second trip to the Bronx, but according to Lauren and Ilya, my first trip to the “real” Bronx. My “fake” trip to the Bronx was to Riverdale, a far wealthier community much further north in the Bronx. Getting off the subway, I felt a surge of adrenaline from the unfamiliarity of place. It was dark and I had all of my things moving from Gramercy. I often feel like I am traveling with this project, but on that night I particularly felt that way.
I had been in touch with Ilya over a year ago through Couchsurfing.org. When I first came up with this idea, I thought I would rely heavily on that site, but Ilya is actually the first person I’ve stayed with as a direct result of Couchsurfing. He’s hosted people from all over the world and been hosted by people all over the United States. His girlfriend Lauren welcomed me in as well and we had a fun week exploring. Lauren and I took a long walk on Saturday and were able to check out a community garden, Yankee Stadium, and the Grand Concourse.
The apartment itself is huge and a great value considering how close they are to the Subway. Lauren can walk to work and it only took me about 50 minutes to get to SoHo for my daily commute.
Lauren and Ilya have a car so we were able to explore different parts of the Bronx. We went to Arthur Avenue, not for Italian but for Mexican, to City Island for Seafood City (worth a click), and we even ventured out to New Rochelle for dinner at Ilya’s parents house (they invited me for a week!).
The neighborhood is a beautiful block of brownstones and is called the Longwood Historic District. I posted a link to an interview with Lauren on my Tumblr page. I’ll be posting one from Ilya as well. Here’s a photo of their block.
My second week in the Bronx has me excited to see more of it. Click here to host the nomad!
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