doahleigh - Holy Waste of Teabags!

So here’s the big NYC post. Like I said, this is going to be mostly for my own future reference, for that day when I’m like “Wait, have I ever been to Grand Central Station? I can’t remember.” I’ll just check the ol’ blog and find my answer. If you’re interested in the play-by-play of others’ trips, read on. If you just want to scroll through the pictures, feel free (by the way, I was so rushed and distracted the whole time that picture-taking was not my primary concern. I basically just held my camera out and hit the button a lot. So these aren’t the greatest photos I’ve ever taken). And if you’re bored to death with the whole business, come back a little later when I’ve written something more interesting.

I took this trip with my friend Robin. She had been there once before and so remembered a little bit about the lay of the land, but I’m happy to say I figured it all out pretty easily. I never really felt completely lost or confused, and we even gave directions to people a few times! Despite our cameras and maps, we so looked like locals. Uh huh.

We left Thursday morning and actually had to fly west to go east (oddly, it was cheaper that way), so we sat at our layover for a couple hours and got to New Jersey in the afternoon. We were staying with someone R knew just across the water from Manhattan. This is the view from the end of her road, about a sixty second walk from her front door:

Since it was our host’s birthday on Thursday, we didn’t go into the city that night so we could hang out with her. We strolled through the park at the end of the road and took pictures of the skyline, went to the grocery store to buy a birthday card, then had Pakistani food made by our host’s Pakistani friends. We got to learn a little about Pakistan culture too, including the fact that one of the girls was related to Benazir Bhutto. I think maybe Benazir was her aunt, and she was in Pakistan for a wedding when Benazir was killed. She had even talked to her earlier that day. It was surreal to hear her talk about her so personally. We also took a ride in the BMW convertible that our host had just leased! That night we went to bed later than we wanted to, but we were ready to go see the city Friday morning.

Friday we figured out the bus system and went through the Lincoln Tunnel to Manhattan. As soon as we stepped foot onto 8th Avenue outside the Port Authority where we were dropped off, I was immediately overwhelmed. We just started walking with no real destination and got swept up in the fast-moving chaos of the city. Eventually we stopped to make a plan and look at a map, but we made the mistake of pausing right in the middle of Times Square where we were immediately accosted by the tour bus people. We talked to this guy, Salu, for a good half hour before agreeing to buy tickets from him.

As soon as the sale was complete we asked for the nearest Starbucks—I was starving and Robin needed coffee. That’s one thing about New York that I noticed: no matter where we were, it was never in the right place to find what we wanted. On our walk to the middle of Times Square we had been looking for a Starbucks, which supposedly are on almost every corner, and never found one. But later that day we saw one every two minutes. There were a couple times we were starving and walked forever looking for a place that didn’t seem sketchy but didn’t cost $30 a plate. Once we were severely craving gelato, and we even went so far as to call our boyfriends who searched Google Maps for us. Guess what, the nearest one was about twenty blocks away.

Anyway, Salu pointed us to a Juan Valdez café where we had a quick breakfast, then we were off to find Madame Toussaud’s. That turned out to be far too expensive, so instead we hopped on the tour bus and went to the Empire State Building. Part of our tour bus ticket deal was one free day on the bus and a ticket to the ESB. We waited in a crazy long line, spent about 15 minutes on the observation deck and headed back down. As soon as we got to the ground floor we encountered mad media. Camera crews and reporters blocking our way.

We got outside and saw signs everywhere for Mariah Carey. We had no interest in awaiting her arrival, so we moved right along and found our way to Grand Central Station where we took a couple pictures and grabbed some lunch. Then we walked to Rockefeller Center. That is one of those places you see all. the. time. on tv so it was pretty cool. We saw the golden statue, the Rockefeller building, the place where they ice skate, the spot where the Christmas tree goes, Today’s Studio 1A. Around the corner we saw Radio City Music Hall, then went on to find the Museum of Modern Art.

We knew that MOMA had free friday evenings, so we got there early to make sure we got in. We checked out the gift shop, then sat around the lobby. At about 3:45, just before the free hours started, we realized maybe there was a line we should be in. Uh yeah. A line that went down the block and around the corner! It went fast though and we got in no problem. We blew through all six floors of the museum, doing our best to take it all in without lingering so long that we wanted to leave before we got through. I took this one for Brad (if you haven’t seen it before, read the caption):

We sat in the MOMA sculpture garden for awhile eating over-priced gelato, then decided to walk to a tour bus stop that would take us closer to the Port Authority. We sat at the SE corner just outside Central Park for 20 minutes before we realized that the buses were done running. By then my legs were so painful that I was practically limping, so we hobbled down to the SW corner of the park and sat in Columbus Circle until I could move again. We worked our way down 8th Avenue until we found a place to eat dinner, then hobbled the rest of the way to the bus station. We were so tired, we fell into bed soon after getting back to the house.

Saturday morning we got to the city about 10:00, stopped at a Starbucks (this time we knew where to look) and hopped on a tour bus. We rode the bus all through midtown, into the Flat Iron District and then into Greenwich Village. Although Friday was gorgeous, this day was cold and windy and we were ill-prepared. We got off the bus in Soho partly to walk around and check it out, and partly to get out of the cold wind on the bus. We strolled around, checking things out, and eventually made our way to Ground Zero. I’m sure you’ve all heard about the little chapel next to the WTC buildings that survived with hardly a scratch. We checked that out for awhile, and took what pictures we could of Ground Zero, which isn’t much. It’s all blocked from view while they do construction. Still, it was an obvious hole in the landscape, and that alone was enough to evoke memories of the loss that happened there.

From there we walked down to Battery Park to sit for awhile. We didn’t want to take the ferry to the statue, so we took a couple pictures from the park and called it good. Off to Wall Street we went. We saw that iconic bull statue (can’t even remember what it’s for), the New York Stock Exchange and all the other fun money-related things. By then we were exhausted, but we still had to walk up to the pier by the Brooklyn Bridge to catch our bus. We rode that into Chinatown, got off to walk around, then struggled to find a good place to eat lunch. We ended up in a little Italian place with delicious food in Little Italy. We went back to the other end of Canal Street, but it was so crazy and overwhelming that we escaped as soon as possible. No Coach or Chanel or Prada for us (thank god), but not for lack of trying on the sellers’ part. Hopped back on the bus to get to midtown. We found the Marriot Marquis where you can buy discounted Broadway tickets, and the line was holy long already!

But we entertained each other to get through and buy tickets to Chicago. Since we had a few hours until the show, we got back on the bus (our legs were so tired!) and rode the whole downtown tour so we could see the things we missed by getting off the first time. By the time we got back up to the Broadway area, we had time to grab some Jamba Juice (in lieu of dinner) and get in line at the Ambassador Theatre. The show was amazing and very entertaining. We got out and walked through Times Square at night, which is full of energy. Then back to the bus station and home to bed.

I want to take this moment to say that my best word to describe Manhattan is: DENSE! So dense. So many people, so many cars, so many buildings everywhere. Look at all the people:

That tiny little island is jam-packed with stuff. I don’t get how it doesn’t just sink. Anyway, Sunday we slept in a little later. We knew it was going to be cold again, and we had accomplished so much already that we knew we could be a little more casual on our last day. We got to the city around noon and immediately hopped on the bus for the uptown tour. This one took us along Central Park, over to Grant’s Tomb, past where John Lennon was shot, through Harlem, etc. We got off at the NE end of Central Park and went in. The park is so totally different than I had imagined. I thought it was just a big park, like grass and trees and people hanging out. Oh no. First, we encountered elaborate fountains and flower gardens.

Once we figured out how to get out of there (we kept hitting dead ends), we were in the middle of a sophisticated system of paths and trails full of runners, walkers and bikers. Then we found the reservoir and some tree covered grasses, and then somehow we ended up hiking in the middle of woods.

After the forest we walked over a bridge and pretty soon were in the middle of what was basically a street fair. Finally we got out of the park and, in search of much-needed food, we ended up down on 47th for pizza. That’s when we called the boys about finding us some gelato, but instead ended up at Red Mango. Which, by the way, best frozen yogurt EVER! By then we were freezing and so very tired, so we agreed that we had done all we wanted to do and now it was time to say goodbye to New York City. We got back on the bus, through the tunnel and into NJ. We took a nap, ate some dinner, packed up all our stuff and crashed. Monday was a long day because of the layover (and we almost missed our connection!), but we were home by 4.

Tuesday I was tired and so not ready to go back to work, and my legs still hurt a little too. Plus, all the walking and not a single pound lost! Such crap. I’m so glad I went though. It wasn’t a very expensive trip (thanks to the fact that someone let us use their house to sleep), and I got to see a city I had always wanted to visit. I’m sure I’ll be back someday, but it was definitely an amazing first visit. Thanks to Robin for putting up with my soar legs and slow walking at times. We should travel together more often. I’ll leave you all (as if anyone is still reading) with this gorgeous view: