New York through the eyes of a Russian-speaking guide: myths and facts about the Big Apple

Special Correspondent "Duma" Dmitry Zhogov talked with the former Odessa journalist, and now the guide to the Big Apple, Alexander Ostashko. The guide told him what an idea of ​​New York he had before the move, and what the Big Apple really is.

Stone Jungle Explorer

New York seems to many of us as a city that never sleeps, as a city of yellow taxis and neon signs, a city of people rushing in a hurry and vagabonds sleeping on the streets. But which New York really is?

Alexander Ostashko - guide through the stone jungle. He passionately loves to conduct tours of the Big Apple. But in connection with quarantine, he is forced to temporarily cease his activities.

“For him, quarantine is a knife in the heart. The notorious coronavirus deprived him not only of earnings, - the author notes. “Sasha is an actor who has been deprived of the opportunity to shine in front of the public.”

Ostashko said that in February he had an excursion, which 16 people refused.

“Eight pairs. They said they did not want to go in a group. Because it’s like a coronavirus, and they’re scared. This was the first bell. Now everything has stopped, ”said the guide.

In love with new york

Ostashko admits that he is in love with New York. According to him, this city is “such a separate planet, where there is absolutely everything that you can and cannot imagine, a maximum at a distance of a couple of hours by car”.

In the Big Apple, Alexander has his own company - Tur-Shmur. This name was chosen among many other options on the basis of one attribute: “We are focused on“ our ”tourists. “Our” tourists, having seen such a sign, will take a picture of it and will laugh at it, publishing it at home. It is memorable and simple, ”Alexander explained.

He has been living in America for six years. Today is a resident of New York. However, Alexander explained, there is no such "pompous concept as a native."

“There are Native Americans - Indians. And as for “the indigenous people, there’s not even such a word,” the author writes.

At one time, Alexander fell in love with this city, and now he reciprocates, revealing his secrets to an inquisitive Odessa. Alexander himself also managed to "show his feelings" in relation to the Big Apple. When he first moved here, he had eight months until his family came to visit various museums.

“I walked out of Manhattan, traveled to nearby cities - Philadelphia and Boston. Here the distances are completely different than ours. Odessa is tiny, and probably only here you realize how tiny it is, ”recalls Ostashko.

Secrets of the profession

“New York is five, it’s difficult to name them districts, these are not districts, but special cities. It's just that they once agreed to live together. They are called boros. These are Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, ”Alexander explains. - New York is on the islands. Only one borough, the Bronx, is on a continent called North America, and the rest are islands. ”

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In the profession of a guide, Alexander notes, the main thing is to tell fascinatingly.

“People need to learn something new! But to find out not the number of steps on the Potemkin Stairs or the height of the Opera House. Nobody needs these numbers, they are forgotten three minutes after you pronounce them. Just like endless dates, ”Ostashko said.

Small Odessa

When Alexander lived in Odessa, he had experience as a guide - a month and a half. That was 20 years ago. Now he can compare how it feels to conduct excursions in Odessa, and in the largest city in America.

“I really love Odessa, but there are twenty attractions, thirty more far-fetched attractions and another 50 artificially created ones,” reveals the secret of Odessa's hometown. - Total 100. What are artificially created attractions? This is the very "shadow of Pushkin." She is not needed. We do not know who Kandinsky is, so we are once again showing Pushkin! And here one hundred sights can be found within three quarters. "

Alexander admitted that he did not want to conduct tours of the so-called little Odessa - Brighton Beach in New York.

“I take professional Odessaism quite hard. To the fact that my good friend Sasha Roitburd calls "Odessa town." I can use Odessa in some kind of textual sketch, but no more, ”he explained.

At the same time, Alexander added, if friends come to him and ask him to show Brighton Beach, he, of course, will not refuse to do so.

Eleven Odessa America

“In the USA, there are eleven Odessa! I said that there is everything, even Odessa, ”Ostashko assures. “Of all of them, I love Odessa most of all, which is in the state of Delaware. Not the one on Brighton. ”

In this city, he said, 452 people live.

“And they are terribly proud that the population has grown by two people over the past two years,” added Odessa.

Nevertheless, this is a tourist attraction, the guide noted.

“This town, by the way, is much older than Odessa’s hometown. And the houses in it are older. It’s interesting to walk along the street and look at buildings that are fifty years older than houses in big Odessa, but are in much better condition than all the “pearls by the sea” houses, including those just built or recently renovated, ”the guide notes.

To come here with a guided tour, you need to contact the initiative committee, the historical community of this city. After that, the receiving party prepares for the arrival of guests.

“The whole city meets and accepts you! They dress in dresses of the XNUMXth century, all the houses are open in front of you. You come to drink tea at the house of Sarah Middleton, whose family lived in this house from the eighteenth century, then Sarah herself leads you to Aunt Jessica to try her famous cookies, that is, tourism is solved in Odessa in this way, ”Ostashko explained.

Unsafe Harlem

When Alexander just arrived in New York, he really wanted to see Harlem with his own eyes.

“I had an idea that there should be upside down cars, barrels of burning gasoline, graffiti, robbery of old women every 15 meters,” he said.

A newcomer emigrant for a long time begged friends to take him there, and once this happened.

“I didn’t really understand where we are in New York. I ask, where are we actually going? They tell me: come on, come on. Ten minutes later we stop in the middle of the street, and they tell me: well. What is it? The very center of Harlem! ” - recalls Odessa.

Glancing around, Alexander did not see all that “what frightened Seyful-Muliukov” (the host of television programs of the Central Television of the USSR). Around were playing "combed children in clean shirts, the sun was shining brightly."

Once upon a time, this was indeed a dangerous area with insecure places.

“Panicked people claim that they exist today. No. Does not exist. New York today is one of the safest cities in America, ”says Alexander.

He noted that this was achieved thanks to the "political will of the authorities."

“This is President Bill Clinton, then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and New York Police Chief William Bratton,” he added.

Once, Odessa residents noted, bribery in the police, protection, protection, torture in police stations in New York happened. But if you offer a bribe to a policeman today, then you are in big trouble, Alexander warned.

“They killed John Lennon and shot Andy Warhol. Here the white-cap Ku-Klux-Klan clan held processions. President Grant began to fight with his representatives, and now this organization is something like a cutting and sewing club, ”said Odessa.

About tourists

Speaking about the tourists he encounters at work, Alexander said that the audience can be very different.

“It can be those who came for a short time, and those who live here and decided to learn more about the portraits on the banknotes that they use,” the guide explained.

Sometimes there are not the most pleasant people.

“If the group has more than 50 people, then unpleasant people are also found in it. This is the usual law of large numbers, you just have to put up with it, ”he added.

One day, Alexander brought a group of tourists to President Grant's mausoleum. Inside the mausoleum are two huge sarcophagus. After twenty minutes of the story of what was the commander in chief of the army of the North, why he was buried in New York next to his wife, whose name was Julia, a tourist turned to him.

“A woman comes up to me:“ Sasha, I have a question - whose second coffin? ” I say: “Sveta, I just told you that he loved his wife very much, and they are buried nearby, here is her sarcophagus, it says“ Julia ”on it. She says: “I understand everything, but whose second coffin?”

About Central Park

Central Park is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Many thousands of concerts and hippie parties were held here, a great many films were shot.

“This is four square kilometers, and there are still paths that you loop along and walk much more,” Odessa explains.

Here, he says, so many films have been shot that you get tired of walking around locations.

So that the walk would not tire the tourists, Alexander developed eight routes for them in the Central Park.

“I came up with excursions so that people did not have to walk a lot,” the guide argues.

The fact how the legendary "little Odessa" lives today in New Yorkread in this stuff.