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.