Meditations On Daily Life: March 2011

Basically, Manhattan is amazing. I really wish I had another week there, so I could explore the city more. And eat more. Heh. See below.

Day 1 (Tuesday, March 22)

I got to LaGuardia early that morning and took the M60 bus and the N train into Manhattan, emerging a block and a half from the hotel (win!). It went more or less without a hitch, which was surprising because I am very good at taking public transportation in the wrong direction. I wish all cities were as user-friendly as NYC.

I met up with JH and SB coming from JFK, and ate at Carve in the Theatre District:

Later, we frolicked in Central Park:

And then we went to the Met and saw amazing amazing paintings and sculptures.

And then we ate dinner at a Hale and Hearty Soups on the Upper East Side:

And then we took a 456 train to Grand Central...

...and walked to Times Square from there.

Shopping was involved, but goods were not purchased. The stores there are crazy; I don't remember seeing a single one that was only one story tall. The American Eagle in Times Square was three stories (!!).

Day 2 (Wednesday, March 23)

The next day we headed to SoHo for shopping.

We ate at Grotta Azzurra in Little Italy for lunch.

On the way back for more shopping, we were sidetracked by Pinkberry.

More shopping ensued. I won't bore you with the details, because 3/3 of my known blog readers are male and probably don't care.

Dinner followed, at an Australian place called Eight Mile Creek in Nolita:

We finished up at Topshop and Uniqlo, since neither of them are available locally. By this point my fUggs-enclosed feet were throbbing like none other, but for the sake of shopping I soldiered on through bravely. I mean, where else could you shop in a packed Sephora that still manages to have (almost) more salespeople than shoppers? Or a stand-alone Pink?

The weather was pretty crazy that evening. It had been raining on and off the whole day, but then it started hailing and thundering and snowing and I was super excited because I had never seen snow on the streets before, and it was falling from the sky, which was pretty magical.

Day 3 (Thursday, March 24)

On Thursday we took the M5 bus (scenic view!) to the southern tip of Manhattan, to take a ferry from Battery Park to the Statue of Liberty.

I couldn't decide whether or not this was the Brooklyn Bridge, but a map I obtained later stated that this is the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

Later, we went to Ground Zero, where the memorial was being constructed, and Wall Street.

I thought the Stock Exchange had a strange lack of activity, but then I realized it was 5:30 and the markets were closed. Boo.

We ate dinner that night with DL, who arrived the day before, at Arirang in Koreatown.

Then we all went to the Empire State Building for a very cold, very windy, very beautiful night view of the city.

Day 4 (Friday, March 25)

Friday morning I went to the Top of the Rock, which provided me a great daytime view of the city. The lack of clouds was a serious plus.

At ground level, Rockefeller Center is pretty cool too.

Since J and S were still asleep, I had some time to do more shopping in the area. The Rockefeller Center J. Crew did not yield any spectacular sale items, but I snagged a great lounge dress from the Anthropologie for $10. The 5th Ave Banana Republic was having a 25% off sale, and I got a nice cream cable-knit sweater there. This is probably my favorite Banana Republic store, because it is huge and two stories. The petities section takes up a third of the top floor, and the sale section was just as big. The only annoying thing was that there were no fitting rooms on the second floor, where the sale section was. But other than that, it was pretty heavenly.

I ate lunch with DL and her friends at Udon West in East Village.

We walked around East Village for a while and browsed in some vintage stores.

Then...Max Brenner. The Chocolate Store.

D and I shared half a chocolate chunks pizza with marshmallows and hazelnut bits, and a strawberry white chocolate smoothie. Amazing.....

For dinner D and I met up with YY and other friends of theirs at Lantern Thai Kitchen, in Gramercy.

The pad thai was great, but it was my third meal in four hours: udon at 3, chocolate at 5, thai at 7. (More food is always good food?)

We walked through Times Square and shopped here and there, but mostly marvelled at the blinginess of everything.

We also went inside Forever 21, just because it was huge and four stories tall.

Day 5 (Saturday, March 26)

The last day was a short one :'(. We ate lunch at Room Service, in Hell's Kitchen:

There was a very brief and somewhat harried stroll through the Upper East Side, because I was paranoid that I would miss my plane.

We made it to Port Authority Bus Terminal two minutes before the shuttle left for JFK. So there, paranoia does pay off. (Or we should have just not gone to the UES that late. That would have been better.)

All in all, this trip was a lot of great food, a lot of great shopping, and a lot of great sightseeing. I cannot wait to return to New York, also because the numbered streets appeal to my OCD :)

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