Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Travel Log

This is a detailed description of what I did in New York city. It's not very interesting, but there are a couple of embarrassing stories about me.

Day 1
Ate pizza at Vezzo's, this cute little place. Our waiter was a little impatient, but the pizza was delicious.

Went to Grand Central Station.

Went to Rockefeller plaza.
-Saw the NBC studios.
-Saw the tree and the ice skating where a few brave sould were attempting to skate in the freezing rain.
-Saw the sacks windows which you have to wait in line to see.

Walked through time square in the pouring rain.
-My brother talked to this rapper who asked him to listen to his demo.

Went into St. Patrick Cathedral, where you could pay two dollars to light a candle and buy souvenirs for visiting, hmm.

Day 2
Went shopping in the village. There were a lot of really unique stores, one had really great vintage stuff and while I was trying stuff on, my mom was looking around and I guess there was really dirty stuff on the ceiling. I bought something and brought it out in a bag that had the 'f-word' on it a bunch of times and I didn't realize it until I walked out and my mom pointed it out. All the people working there could hardly speak english... it was interesting.

Ate at Katz's, the deli where a scene from "When Harry Met Sally" as filmed right next to where we ate. There were so many people in there, and if you wanted a table, you had to stand next to one until the people were done eating. You could either stand in this huge crazy cluster of a line or you could pounce on one of the service tables and have a waitress who would yell 'coming through' to you if you were in her way.

Shopped more in soho, all the stores were so busy, you had to practically wait in a line to get in them.

Saw Spring Awakening on Broadway. It was really controversial (some of the topics were sex, homosexuality, suicide, illegitimate pregnancy, abusive parenting and school administration, etc...) but really amazing.

Ate at John's Pizza which used to be a church with this amazing ceiling.

Day 3
Went to central park
-Went in this castle
-Saw the John Lennon memorial and where he was killed. There were people camped out there and lots of flowers on it.

Ate at Whole Foods which was really good.

Waited for Hannah Montana outside of the Trump Tower; we didn't see her.

Saw some break-dancers.

Went to the Charmin bathroom. So we really had to go to the bathroom and the only place was this place where there were dancing Charmin bears outside of it. We had to go up this escalator and down this windy hallway all the time hearing this awfully cheesy song about toilet paper and watching this music video with people dancing to it. There were about thirty doors and a man with a megaphone directing people to which door (bathroom stall) they should use. There were staff who would wait for the stall to be empty and would clean it after whoever was using it was done. This one guy was in there a while I guess and the man with the megaphone said in front of everyone "whoa, you were in there a long time, must have been a good one..." everyone laughed.

Went to The Museum of Modern Art or 'MoMa' and saw Van Gogh's Starry Night, which was breathtaking.

Ate at Penelope's which was this really cute little place with really good food and good looking staff. One of them, who was like a bus boy or host or something was kind of giving me the eye. You know, the smiley kind of eye. So I was smily a little too. Why do I flirt with people I know nothing about? I was seriously considering giving him my number just to see what would happen for a good story or something. We left and he said goodbye to us.

Day 4
Took a ferry to staten island; went past lady liberty.

Walked through battery park and saw the statue that once sat outside of the twin towers. It was ravaged; there were a bunch of holes in it, it was quite a site.

Went to the World Trade Center site. It was surrounded by a fence and a tarp and people were crowded around the small openings in the tarp. The place where they are doing construction was so deep... it was intense seeing that and picturing the dust and debris that covered the whole area six years ago. There was a fire station right next to it and one of the chiefs was talking to people about what happened. There was also a memorial museum thing next to that but to see anything in it was ten dollars so we didn't go in it.

Went back to Penelope's for dinner and to see if that person was there again kid of as a joke. He wasn't, so we asked our waiter, whose name was John, if the thin blond guy form the night before was around and he proceeded to do some detective work to find out who was working and who it could have been. There were two possibilities. We rationed it down to one and John, in all sincerity, patted me on the back and apologized meaning to say that the boy who was giving me the eye was in fact, a homosexual. I was a little embarrassed. John went and told the other people working, but he liked us so it wasn't making fun... that was actually a really fun time. John was awesome.

Went to Magnolia Bakery which is famous for its cupcakes and long hours. There was a bouncer of sorts at the door regulating how many people could be in it at once and letting people from the line outside into the place. The cupcakes were something. I am usually not a cupcake fan but I'm a believer now.


It was such a good trip. I could see myself living there; the atmosphere was amazing and I felt safe the whole time.

I hope you all had a good new years!

1 comment:

no simple highway said...

sounds like an amazing trip - i've always wanted to see nyc in the winter...

we should grab lunch together sometime - and! you should check this out:

www.southgreengirls.com