CITY SIGHTS TOUR - downtown

This post is a little belated so I must make it brief as my memory is already failing me. 

What better way to get your bearings in dense Manhattan than to prop yourself on top an embarrassingly bright blue and yellow bus and cruise the crowded streets of New York. The day began with Mathilde and I walking up to Times Square & grabbing a quick bite for lunch at a fast food sushi “restaurant”. After a very impatient 45 minute slog in the City Sights line, I boarded the bus and set out on my 2 hour tour of Manhattan. 

The bustling Times Square, along 34th street, into Chelsea, West Village, NoHo, SoHo, Meatpacking District, Tribeca, Financial District, and then back up through the Lower East Side, East Village, and ending at the United Nations (in Murray Hill - where we live!). At this point, NoHo & SoHo were by far the most seductive neighbourhoods. Straddling NoHo and SoHo is Houston Street, where the NYC street grid ends. The enchanting streets are lined with beautiful leafy trees and quaint awnings beneath which lay charming and somewhat quirky cupcake cafes. Walking the lengths of the streets in NoHo, like Bleeker Street would result in an outright calorie fiasco.. and truthfully, would be worth every single moment of indulgence! Uptown (i.e., Midtown) it is difficult to sidestep a Starbucks when in the desperate pursuit for good coffee. Starbucks coffee is, to put it kindly, is outright vile! My mama always told me… you can never trust American coffee! She wasn’t wrong! Camille ordered a coffee last week and the barista heated up the milk and added a shot of brewed coffee, in what universe is that okay! 

Back to the bus ride - we had a tour guide that was, to put it lightly, extremely right- wing! So her every comment, whether it be of historical or social significance, had a tablespoon of George Bush mixed in with twelve cups of conservatism. Gliding into the Financial District, naturally the excitement starts to build- in no time we will be in view of Lady Liberty. On previous trips of NYC, I had been to the Statue of Liberty before, and climbed to her crown, however I was nonetheless excited, like every tourist on the bus, to catch a glimpse at her pale green empowering stature. Although I do not plan to take the trip to Ellis Island again, I was happy to admire her from the boundaries of Battery Park. Mathilde and Camille plan to get the Staten Island Ferry over to Staten Island in which we are guaranteed to snare a decent view of the statute. 

The Lower East Side was likely my least favourite neighbourhood. Having said this, there is a great deal of history in what were seemingly mundane sights. The Jewish influence inhabits the LES - from dilapidated family-owned curtain stores to decades-old restaurants that have been rejuvenated and transformed into trendy deli-style cafes that charge a fraction of the price than that only 5 blocks uptown. It was a Wednesday, but the streets in the LES were practically bare - at the cafes there were no 9’to’5’ers with their kindle in hand and only a few straggling tourists. 

All in all, a perfect way to capture NYC. 

MA HUUUUUUUGE PIZZA

Thank you Mr Mike’s Pizza! Defrost…
My dinner for the next week.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM 

“The Met”

Yesterday Camille and I ventured 62 blocks uptown to meet with the infamous Metropolitan Museum that borders Central Park and sits neatly and deservingly in the Upper East Side. This is the second time I have been up to the Park but haven’t yet endeavoured to stray beyond it’s shallow depths. We encountered an Australian Nanny who had just moved here from Sydney with an Aussie family, of which the mother was a diplomat with the UN! I was disgusted, but somewhat honoured (in a sick & twisted way) that a pigeon left me a little “Welcome to New York” present on my arm, thankfully not in my hair! We arrived at The Met when the sun was at it’s highest, however there was not much sun to be enjoyed! 

Naturally, we ceased the opportunity to capture some gossip-girl like moments on the stairs of the Met. $12 entry, and little did we know we were in a three-storey maze. 

To cut a long story short, I enjoyed a cocktail of beguiling, stimulative, confrontational, and outright vapid exhibits. My favourite realms were the Egyptian, the Armour and the French Renaissance exhibits. The modern exhibits were somewhat difficult for that of the “not-so-artsy” eye to admire.

Fast-forward 3 hours and our legs were ready to collapse from underneath us. With the view of absconding the enormous crowds at the entry/exit we made a quick dash for the nearest subway station through the pouring rain. However, once we fled shelter, it was blatantly obvious why the other museum goers were abstaining from braving the elements outside the decadent walls of the museum. The rain was torrential! Water, mud, garbage and most likely a whole lot of pigeon, were the make of a rapid river gushing down the gutters of Fifth Avenue. We had given up on keeping our shoes any kind of dry. But really, the cherry on the cake was that we were firstly, on the Upper East Side!, secondly, that our dresses were now see-through and finally, we were making good ground towards the subway, but in the completely wrong direction! 

After 20 minutes of desperation (and a whole lot of “you girls are crazy” stares) we found ourselves on the subway - panda eyes, leather bags (and their contents) soaked..the works! It’s a rarity that a true New Yorker will stare at a social abnormality on the subway. Last week on my first subway ride, I witnessed what first appeared to be a hold-up by three loud and seemingly aggressive men which turned into a 15 minute gospel choir performance. Mind you, this was all at the same time that a middle-aged man was preaching about the goodness of the profanities found in the English language. Despite what was going down, the only shocking thing in that subway carriage, in the eye of the New Yorker, was my dropped-jaw expression. Well, obviously I wasn’t from New York!

This is why it was so damning to be the subject of such merciless stares from the subway-goers. Mind you, it was peak hour and we were creating puddles with our dripping dresses. To add insult to injury, we had in haste, taken the wrong subway downtown. At this point, all Camille and I could do was giggle and repeat “What can you do?”. Eleven blocks south of home, we arose from the mildly dry depths of the subway, and found ourselves in Union Square… not such a bad place to be. The rest of the walk home was dry but still a little cringeworthy. We arrived home, straight to the fridge, Corona in-hand, ready to go and laugh away our sorrows at the Comedy Cellar later that night. 

In spite of this, best day in NYC so far! 

A lazy Saturday in Manhattan. I think I am finally, or almost, past the jetlag. 

Hanging out at our apartment with Camille, I’m reading my Lonely Planet & discovering what’s to come next in the big city. Instead of scribble, if I write it in my blog, it almost makes it obligatory that I tick everything off this list in the coming months.

In the past week I have been hasty but I think, not so premature, in concluding that the only way to really achieve what you want to in Manhattan is to write it all down, otherwise you end up with a myriad of screen shots in your head of places to visit/return to and before you know it, those ideas are lost with a bunch of new ones, and you haven’t even hit the next avenue yet. On my first run in Manhattan I made a mental check of several shopping, recreational and most importantly eating spots I wanted to check out, and when I returned to the apartment, all were lost due to the ambiguity brought on by overexcitement! 

You must excuse this systematised approach, is it that pathetically obvious that I am product of law school and unfortunately not creative industries?

Midtown East & Fifth Avenue

DYLAN’S CANDY BAR - Third Ave at 60th Street 

A candy junkie’s worst nightmare, sweet Dylan’s has giant swirly lollipops, crunchy candy bars, glowing jars of jelly beans, brightly coloured Pez dispensers, softball-sized cupcakes and a luminescent staircase embeded with scrumptious, unattainable candy. There’s a cafe for hot chocolate, espresso, ice cream and other pick-me-ups on the 2nd floor. 

NIKETOWN NEW YORK - E 57th Street at Fifth Avenue

Leave Gotham and enter Niketown, an athletic wonderland where you’ll find the full line of Nike products, including sneakers, clothing and gizmos for every sport. You can test-drive your own footwear on the in-store treadmills, making shopping even more fun than it already is.

CAMPBELL APARTMENT - 15 Vanderbilt Avenue at 43rd Street

In the blocks east of Times Square, things get a bit more buttoned-up businessfolk and New Yorker-subscriber than to the west. like it’s 1928! This hidden-away sublime spot in Grand Central was once the of a ’20s railroad magnate fond of fussy European details: velvet, mahogany and Florentine-style carpets. Weekends are best. 

THE GINGER MAN

The United Nations of beer. A great Murray Hill beer post, this high-ceilinged handsome pub is is all about good beer, good snacks and the suits that come to take part in it all. This bar is definitely a mid-week specialty. There are well over 100 bottled beers, and a dozen of the world’s best ales. 

230 FIFTH - 230 Fifth Avenue at 27th Street

Filling up the penthouse of a former hotel, the 230 has a Studio 54-throwback lounge look inside- but who stays there anyway? Outside, plants line the patio’s sprawl that looks north towards the Empire State Building. Drinks come in plastic cups- but views are superb and they hand out robes if it’s chilly (not going to be the case for us!). 

First night out in Manhattan.

Cam and I went to this quaint Irish Bar called ‘Falite’, and phonetically that is “Fil-tcha” (Galic).. Apparently… According to our new Manhattan friend Brad.

We met a few New Yorkers who were able to help us with our trivia questions, however we gave up after the second round! 

Brad looks like Jesus. Brad lived in Australia for a couple of years, in Melbourne and in Coollangatta. Loved Melbourne and hated Coollangatta. So I told him that Coollangatta isn’t really Queensland, its totally New South Wales - it worked, so his perception of Queensland is still yet to come into any real existence. 

We enjoyed $1 Bud Lights - spent a total of hardly anything (because we are good girls and didn’t drink much, ahem…. or because it was just so cheap!). Played trivia, but were complete hacks at it. We got the first question correct because it was entertainment, and then the rest seemed to fall into the American history category, or even if it was an entertainment question, you really needed to live in the US to know! Even once we acquired Brad for our team, he didn’t know some of the questions, and he is a born and bred New Yorker. 

We danced a little, played lots of pool, and mind you, I always used to pride myself on being the worst pool player in the world but I kicked Cam and Brad’s ass in the first round. Maybe I need to drink more often when I play pool. 

We made it home by 1am, 6 hours straight was a good effort for our first night on $1 Buds. At home we cooked up an amazing spinach, pesto and cheese pizza (defrosted more like it). 

Looking forward to doing it all again next Thursday

A perfect dinner in a perfect city.

Thanks Cam!

” How many degrees Celsius are 68 degrees Fahrenheit?
Replace Fahrenheit with 68 and solve for Celsius:
C = (68 - 32) * 5/9,
C = 36 * 5/9,
C = 20
20 °C = 68 °F

At what temperature are Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures equal?
Replace both temperatures with “T” in one of the equations above and just solve for T:
T = T * 9/5 + 32,
-32 + T = T * 9/5,
-32 = T * 4/5,
-40 = T
-40 °C = -40 °F “

good morning new york

this is the view from my room. i’m lucky, i scored the room with a huge view of the city and the Hudson river also. To the right of this photo is Queens. You can see Queens from our lounge room. 

Having a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast :) It’s early but I’m slightly jetlagged!

Bb

1. Visiting Obama.. Early morning run pays off when you by-pass security, beat the tourists and get a non-obstructed view of the White House. 

2. No body talks shit about my boyfriend (I wish)! Had a brief word to the right-wing conservative “setting-up-shop” outside the White House. I was very polite in answering “How’s you’re morning ma’am?” …Way too frightened to get political on his ass.

My humble abode last night… It looks so much less seedy post-clean this morning. 

My supposition in less than 24 hours = 

1.       Europeans - sleep with their underwear on.. ONLY their underwear on.

2.       Asians - aren’t that chatty or maybe he was just keen on his “me time”.

3.       Americans - so freakin loud but… “honoured to be in their nation’s capital!”.

4.       Brits - super friendly and can definitely drink!