With our bodies aching and feet a-hurting, we get up again to face the grand city of New York. Today, we decided to do the mega-touristy tour-bus thing. We decided that our bodies hurt too much to walk around again, and we wanted to sit and see everything. We take the subway to the bus stop where we can buy tickets, but get distracted by a really big H&M. We head in and find tons and tons of clothes. I ended up in the changing room (this is British for fitting room) with 38 items of clothing. After trying all of them on, I end up aching as much I had done the night before after walking around New York for 12 hours straight. I was very glad that we were going to be bussing it the rest of the day!
After buying way less than 38 items, we head to the bus stop, and start our tour of the city. We only did the downtown loop which surprisingly covered almost everything we wanted to see anyway. We go past the Empire State Building, quickly zip through the Flatiron district then decide to eat lunch in Greenwich Village where there was a Gray’s Papaya on the corner by the bus stop (a hot dog place that had been recommended to me). We get the “Recession Special”, two hot dogs and a yummy juice drink for $4.75. We sit outside on the curb and enjoy our lunch!
We head back on the bus and take it south, towards Lower Manhattan and the financial district. We barely make out the Statue of Liberty through the trees, but we see lots of other sights on the way. We then head east, going right past the neighbourhood our apartment is located, and get to see a lot of the tenement buildings that now house young up and coming Manhattanites, but formerly housed thousands and thousands of immigrants. We eventually head further north, seeing the Trump Tower, the Waldorf Astoria among other sights. Once we hit Fifth Ave and Central Park, we decide we’ve had enough of the bus and we want to explore Fifth Ave.
We head into Apple – the coolest Apple store, actually the coolest store I’ve ever been to, then pop into FAO Schwarz (as seen in “Big”). We then walk about 15 miles (at least that’s what it feels like) to get to a Best Buy to purchase another card for our camera (our current one was only letting us take 150 pictures at a time), then we make our way all the way back uptown to the Guggenheim. We were surprised by a really long line that snaked all the way around the building and to the side, but fortunately we went through it quite quickly! The museum was showcasing a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs and scale models for buildings that had and hadn’t been constructed. Being in there was really cool, but after seeing the third floor of architect drawings and an increasing back and foot ache, we decide to head on to dinner.
We catch the final tour bus down to Times Square where we find a pizza place that had been started by an Albanian family, and now has multiple chains across the USA. We decide we’re tired enough, and head home to our lovely apartment with its comfortable and gorgeous shower, to wash off all the humidity from our bodies! Day 2 done with and we’re loving it!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
New York - Day 1
(Pix to follow)
I woke up wishing John was one of those people who jumped out of bed as soon as their alarm went off or as soon as they were nudged by their wife. Alas, he is not. We slowly get ready, hit up some delic Jewish pastry that our “landlady” had left out for us and drink orange juice, we are ready head out into the city.
We make our way first to Soho, to wander around there and do some shopping. Initially disappointed by the small H&M we find there, we hit it big in Uniqlo, a Japanese store that I had gone to many times in Japan. We wandered around some more, looking in fun little discount stores as well as Top Shop (sadly, way too 80’s style) and stopping to use the loo at Starbucks. We then have a delicious lunch at Café Gitane, in Nolita, a Moroccan inspired restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet NYC.
We start to slowly make our way uptown to the Guggenheim, where the gonyc website had told me that they do free (or pay what you wish) hours on Friday night from 5-8pm. After taking our time by Central Park and taking pictures of the very cool museum building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, we finally go to enter the building, where we are told that the museum is closing! Then we see a small sign right outside saying that, as of last weekend, they have moved their “Pay What You Wish” night to Saturday nights. We rush down Fifth Ave (well, sort of rush, we were in a bus, so it was a bit slow!) to get to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), because their free night was also on Friday night, but we had chosen the Guggenheim. We make it there by 6, giving us two wonderful hours to enjoy the amazing paintings and sculptures they had on offer. We both really enjoyed it (and would definitely recommend it over the Guggenheim, if you have to choose) and I really enjoyed seeing the paintings I had studied in the Art Appreciation class I had taken this last semester.
By 8pm, we were starving and ready to have dinner, but our feet were killing us. We followed again a Lonely Planet NYC suggestion and make our way west of Times Square to Marseille, a lovely Art Deco French restaurant that served my favourite beer, Hoegaarden, on tap! We had a lovely dinner, then hobbled home to bed.
I woke up wishing John was one of those people who jumped out of bed as soon as their alarm went off or as soon as they were nudged by their wife. Alas, he is not. We slowly get ready, hit up some delic Jewish pastry that our “landlady” had left out for us and drink orange juice, we are ready head out into the city.
We make our way first to Soho, to wander around there and do some shopping. Initially disappointed by the small H&M we find there, we hit it big in Uniqlo, a Japanese store that I had gone to many times in Japan. We wandered around some more, looking in fun little discount stores as well as Top Shop (sadly, way too 80’s style) and stopping to use the loo at Starbucks. We then have a delicious lunch at Café Gitane, in Nolita, a Moroccan inspired restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet NYC.
We start to slowly make our way uptown to the Guggenheim, where the gonyc website had told me that they do free (or pay what you wish) hours on Friday night from 5-8pm. After taking our time by Central Park and taking pictures of the very cool museum building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, we finally go to enter the building, where we are told that the museum is closing! Then we see a small sign right outside saying that, as of last weekend, they have moved their “Pay What You Wish” night to Saturday nights. We rush down Fifth Ave (well, sort of rush, we were in a bus, so it was a bit slow!) to get to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), because their free night was also on Friday night, but we had chosen the Guggenheim. We make it there by 6, giving us two wonderful hours to enjoy the amazing paintings and sculptures they had on offer. We both really enjoyed it (and would definitely recommend it over the Guggenheim, if you have to choose) and I really enjoyed seeing the paintings I had studied in the Art Appreciation class I had taken this last semester.
By 8pm, we were starving and ready to have dinner, but our feet were killing us. We followed again a Lonely Planet NYC suggestion and make our way west of Times Square to Marseille, a lovely Art Deco French restaurant that served my favourite beer, Hoegaarden, on tap! We had a lovely dinner, then hobbled home to bed.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Experiment
I have curly-ish wavey hair which can also get some frizzies. I use curling product to help smooth the frizzies and hold in the curl as it dries (naturally, of course, I can't be bothered with hair diffusers - they take too long and make me look like Tina Turner). More often than not, I use Aveda's "Be Curly" as my styling product:
About two weeks ago, I ran out! Oh no! And since I didn't have time go buy another one, I figured I would make do without for a little bit. However, the frizzies came back in full force, so I turned to other things. John uses some L'Oreal men's gel, which I tried twice, but it made my hair stick together a bit too much, which curling products (good curling products, at least) don't do. I gave up on that fast.
This morning, I thought about any other hair styling products we have in our house. John has another gel that I just know will be even stickier than the L'Oreal one, so I don't even attempt that. I have a serum spray, which I know won't do a whole lot. I also have Aveda's "Hang Straight", their straightening lotion, for the 4 times a year I decide to straighten my hair (which usually takes up to an hour, so I rarely bother). The straightening lotion doesn't do much as far as straightening anyway, so I figured, let's see what it does with my curls today.
The answer: it pretty much does the same as their Be Curly product. It helps keep in the curl as it dries and helps smooth out frizzies. The curls aren't quite as pretty as with "Be Curly" but close enough! Oh well. At least now I have some use for it!
About two weeks ago, I ran out! Oh no! And since I didn't have time go buy another one, I figured I would make do without for a little bit. However, the frizzies came back in full force, so I turned to other things. John uses some L'Oreal men's gel, which I tried twice, but it made my hair stick together a bit too much, which curling products (good curling products, at least) don't do. I gave up on that fast.
This morning, I thought about any other hair styling products we have in our house. John has another gel that I just know will be even stickier than the L'Oreal one, so I don't even attempt that. I have a serum spray, which I know won't do a whole lot. I also have Aveda's "Hang Straight", their straightening lotion, for the 4 times a year I decide to straighten my hair (which usually takes up to an hour, so I rarely bother). The straightening lotion doesn't do much as far as straightening anyway, so I figured, let's see what it does with my curls today.
The answer: it pretty much does the same as their Be Curly product. It helps keep in the curl as it dries and helps smooth out frizzies. The curls aren't quite as pretty as with "Be Curly" but close enough! Oh well. At least now I have some use for it!
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