Friends - it is nearing the end of day 4 in NYC and it feels like forever and not a day at the same time! I am thoroughly enjoying it here - what an amazing place and totally my kind of spot - where anything goes and in some ways the city never sleeps! I am amazed by how clean NYC is - definitely puts London to shame and the absence of graffiti on every surface is strangely refreshing!
Saturday night saw me head off to Hoboken with Megs - my old uni friend. We yabbered like we had seen each other yesterday...not 14 years ago mind!!!! She was amazing about taking me to a place called Arthurs Tavern - totally all American place - complete with pickles and a mexican waiter (who was so amusing!) and a beer called Blue Moon!!!! Check it out - http://www.arthurstavern.com/
We also swung by Carlo's bakery - the one where Buddy the Cake Man from TV makes his incredible confectionery - was heavingly packed full of people - tourists just like me - so none of Buddy's cannoli for me (wink wink nudge nudge!) - if you don't know what I am talking about - check it out - http://www.carlosbakery.com/
Then Sunday - armed with list of things to do and a map book off I went. The weather was speactacular - just perfect. Sunny and beautiful. I caught the 320 bus to New York and got off at the Port Authority. First stop - Time Square. Holy macaroni - that place is INSANE. You get brain freeze from the noise and the people and the lights and the chaos and the movement and the madness and the touts and the performers and the artwork and and and and and and and and and - phew! I saw the big ball that drops on new year and then hot footed myself out of there - I was aurally befokked!
Next stop - Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker Street (where SJP from SATC stood in her dinkum actual Manolo's!) - overcome - just overcome! The BEST red velvet cheesecake ever in the history of the world - yumbarumba!
Then off to the 9/11 memorial...which I did not realise was not fully open yet and therefore you need tickets - so did not manage to go inside....but still completely eerie. My heart felt like it was beating slower there - for real.
By now - the subway - she was my HOME! I had kind of mastered the insane mish mash of letters and numbers that make up the subway system, figured out how to get a metro card, loaded some loot and hotfotted it from station to station...this place is HUGE - no doubts about that! So from 9/11 site it was off to see the hottest lady in town. No man - mind out of gutter - not your mama! The statue of Liberty. A bit of a long wait with a load of friendly peeps in a long ass queue - but worth it. Off on the ferry to Liberty Island (I really though the little lady would be bigger than she was - seriously - to me on the telly she was always a giant) - but not so much. Then Ellis Island and a whip around the history museum - what an incredible story so beautifully told...NYC really is a melting pot as a result.
I stumbled upon the tiny triangle of a garden called Bowling Green (after having watched a GINORMOUS yoga class happening in Battery Park to drums - lovely!) - and I was just in awe. This tiny garden was shady, restful, pretty and so cool - I sat and watched the world go by! Then it was off to see the bull charging (I had seen the movie Arthur on the plane over - so it meant even more to me!!!) and then a peak at |Wall Street. By now - it was 6pm and my sorry arse was W.E.A.R.Y. - like bone tired. And then I got myself totally, blasphemingly lost. Those of you who know NYC will know that a block is as long as....mmmm - well - have nothing really to compare it to (if you know what I mean!) - but it is SERIARSELY long. And I walked....FIVE...yes, FIVE blocks in the wrong effing direction! I could have sat down and cried....and the light was fading...and all I wanted to find was the NY public library....but I was now somewhere in the bowels of who knows where. So - I quit while I was ahead. Went back to my FAVOURITE place of the whole day - literally mesmerising - made me want to lie on the floor and stare up at the ceiling all night - GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL....a photo will never do it justice. I would LOVE to get married in there one day - think they would let me? :) The chandeliers, the marble, the windows, the light - an architectural delight (http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID031.htm)
So after a brilliant day, filled with so many special happy moments, with clean subways, graffiti-less walls, senosry overloads and a dream like rememberance of that delicious cake from Magnolia, I headed home and plopped into bed - filthy, weary, but in love, just in love, ever so in love, with New York City.
More to come later in the week my lovelies xxxx
Saturday night saw me head off to Hoboken with Megs - my old uni friend. We yabbered like we had seen each other yesterday...not 14 years ago mind!!!! She was amazing about taking me to a place called Arthurs Tavern - totally all American place - complete with pickles and a mexican waiter (who was so amusing!) and a beer called Blue Moon!!!! Check it out - http://www.arthurstavern.com/
We also swung by Carlo's bakery - the one where Buddy the Cake Man from TV makes his incredible confectionery - was heavingly packed full of people - tourists just like me - so none of Buddy's cannoli for me (wink wink nudge nudge!) - if you don't know what I am talking about - check it out - http://www.carlosbakery.com/
Then Sunday - armed with list of things to do and a map book off I went. The weather was speactacular - just perfect. Sunny and beautiful. I caught the 320 bus to New York and got off at the Port Authority. First stop - Time Square. Holy macaroni - that place is INSANE. You get brain freeze from the noise and the people and the lights and the chaos and the movement and the madness and the touts and the performers and the artwork and and and and and and and and and - phew! I saw the big ball that drops on new year and then hot footed myself out of there - I was aurally befokked!
Then off to the 9/11 memorial...which I did not realise was not fully open yet and therefore you need tickets - so did not manage to go inside....but still completely eerie. My heart felt like it was beating slower there - for real.
By now - the subway - she was my HOME! I had kind of mastered the insane mish mash of letters and numbers that make up the subway system, figured out how to get a metro card, loaded some loot and hotfotted it from station to station...this place is HUGE - no doubts about that! So from 9/11 site it was off to see the hottest lady in town. No man - mind out of gutter - not your mama! The statue of Liberty. A bit of a long wait with a load of friendly peeps in a long ass queue - but worth it. Off on the ferry to Liberty Island (I really though the little lady would be bigger than she was - seriously - to me on the telly she was always a giant) - but not so much. Then Ellis Island and a whip around the history museum - what an incredible story so beautifully told...NYC really is a melting pot as a result.
I stumbled upon the tiny triangle of a garden called Bowling Green (after having watched a GINORMOUS yoga class happening in Battery Park to drums - lovely!) - and I was just in awe. This tiny garden was shady, restful, pretty and so cool - I sat and watched the world go by! Then it was off to see the bull charging (I had seen the movie Arthur on the plane over - so it meant even more to me!!!) and then a peak at |Wall Street. By now - it was 6pm and my sorry arse was W.E.A.R.Y. - like bone tired. And then I got myself totally, blasphemingly lost. Those of you who know NYC will know that a block is as long as....mmmm - well - have nothing really to compare it to (if you know what I mean!) - but it is SERIARSELY long. And I walked....FIVE...yes, FIVE blocks in the wrong effing direction! I could have sat down and cried....and the light was fading...and all I wanted to find was the NY public library....but I was now somewhere in the bowels of who knows where. So - I quit while I was ahead. Went back to my FAVOURITE place of the whole day - literally mesmerising - made me want to lie on the floor and stare up at the ceiling all night - GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL....a photo will never do it justice. I would LOVE to get married in there one day - think they would let me? :) The chandeliers, the marble, the windows, the light - an architectural delight (http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID031.htm)
So after a brilliant day, filled with so many special happy moments, with clean subways, graffiti-less walls, senosry overloads and a dream like rememberance of that delicious cake from Magnolia, I headed home and plopped into bed - filthy, weary, but in love, just in love, ever so in love, with New York City.
More to come later in the week my lovelies xxxx
Awesome blog post Gina - keen as mustard to see the same sites - will add to my bucket list! Keep the posts coming.....
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