Adventures on a shoestring in NY

NEW YORK (AP) - Standing in the aisle of a street-corner liquor store,

Romanita Tanon swirls her wine in a plastic cup before taking a sip.

The small serving, poured from a $3 bottle of imported Kourtaki, is the

winetasting portion of her tour of New York City's most-famous Greek

neighborhood: Astoria, Queens.

"Can we have more?" asks the woman from Flushing.

"It's one serving per person," replies tour guide Howard Goldberg.

Welcome to Adventures on a Shoestring - a $5 walking tour that's part history

and part homespun tales of some of the city's lesser-known attractions, such

as Roosevelt Island, Manhattan's Gramercy Park and Brooklyn's Little

Odessa.

And welcome to Howard Goldberg's home turf.

On this day, the Astoria tour offers olive, feta cheese and wine tasting at a

local bakery and liquor store in between the tour guide's stories of growing up

in the neighborhood.

"This is my New York," says Goldberg, who was born in Astoria.

"Not the touristy side. Not even the side that most New Yorkers are

necessarily knowledgeable about."

Bundled in heavy jackets, gloves and scarves, about two dozen people from

as far away as Massachusetts - and as near as a few blocks away - follow

Goldberg on a 90-minute walk under train trestles, through parking lots and up

and down streets.

"This is where my best friend lived," he says, pointing to a two-story brick row

house with an iron gate. Earlier, he jokingly told the group when it gets to his

old house to yell "Get out of Howard's house" at the new occupants.

Goldberg started the inexpensive adventures 35 years ago "by mistake." Free

guided tours of the old Herald Tribune newspaper plant were for groups of 15 or

more; so he ran an ad seeking cohorts.

"Thirty-five people showed up. None of them knew each other; they just

wanted to tour the newspaper," he says. "When the tour was over, some of

them said to me, 'Why don't you make it a permanent organization?"'

Goldberg prides himself on being able to save money and have a good time in

a city known for taking big chunks out of wallets.

"Look at it this way. A family of four comes to New York. They go to a

Broadway show, maybe out to eat, and buy a few souvenirs and their whole

entertainment budget for the year is blown. But they can save some money

here - there are all kinds of free concerts and free TV shows," Goldberg says.

Kate and Fran Sweeney of Bourne, Massachusetts, decided on the tour at the

last minute - over breakfast at their hotel a few hours earlier.

"We're doing the regular tourist things, too," says Kate Sweeney. "We've got

tickets to a Broadway show tonight and we're going to go to Ellis Island

tomorrow. So we thought we'd do something a little off the beaten path today.

"That's really the best way to get to know a place."

During their jaunt through Astoria, which began beneath the elevated subway,

the group stopped at St. Demetrios Cathedral.

They got a brief history lesson from the president of the congregation, Harry

Kales, and a chance to quiz him about "everything Greek."

Kales tells the group that during the 1950s the largest Greek community

outside Greece was in Astoria. By the 1970s, many had moved to Long

Island, but the Astoria community still thrives.

"What's a typical Greek meal?" asks one tourist. Answer: Lamb or pork with

spinach and cheese on pita bread. At least, says Kales, that's his own favorite

meal.

"I've lived here 18 years and I never went to a lot of these places," says Hillary

Giacoia, pouring pitchers of wine with fellow Shoestringers at a Greek tavern

called Uncle George's.

"Who'd have thought they would have all these places here - in Queens?"

(For more information, Adventures on a Shoestring can be reached at

212-265-2663.)