NYC Day 5

Today was our last day in NYC. We ate at a little bagel shop on 5^th avenue and took a stroll along the southern end of Central Park. Then it was time for our tour of NBC studios at the Rockefeller Center. The tour was ok, however the best part was getting to see the studio where SNL is shot. I guess its nearly impossible to get tickets to this show, so we figured we’d never get to sit in those seats again. At the end of the tour they usher the group of 30 or so into a little mock studio and ask for two volunteers. Since no one was putting their hand up, I volunteered. I had to “act “ as a news anchor and read from the teleprompter. The other girl had to act as the Weathergirl. This was a fun little exercise. After the tour it was a mad dash to get back to our apartment to check out and catch our bus to the airport. I was so relieved when the lady we were renting from showed up on time, but then she utters these disastrous words:

“I have $80 (the deposit was $100), so you’ll have to stop by my café (she runs a café which is four blocks up) to get the other $20.” We had 9 minutes before our bus arrived. This video explains what ensued.

In the end we made it to the airport on time, frazzled in true New York fashion.

I loved NYC. Getting to live in the city for a week gave us a window onto what it would be like to live there. Our favorite spots were: Greenwich Village, Washington Square, Morningside Heights/ The Upper West side and the Upper East side.

We'll miss our little Au Bon Pain stop for breakfast at the Rockefeller Center every morning, but we certainly are happy to be home in a clean apartment and to see family and friends again.

NYC Day 4

Jono is a huge fan of SNL. I too enjoy this show, but he’s definitely more passionate about it than me. Because of this fact we decided to get the “Rock Pass”, where one can go to the top of the Rockefeller Center and get a tour of the NBC studios located in this building (for the South African peeps: this is where Saturday Night Live is shot). Before we took the elevator to the top we went to NBC to reserve our tour of the studios. Upon arriving at the NBC desk they notified us that all tours were fully booked for that day and that we would have to reserve one on Saturday: the day we leave. Fortunately they had a spot for us in the very last available time slot we could accommodate with our schedule for Saturday. Phew, that was a close call!

I think our outing to the Top of the Rock was my highlight of the trip. At the top of this building one has an incredible view of the city in all directions. We spent a couple of hours here as we perused through the displays on the building’s history and took in the breathtaking vistas of New York.

After spending a considerable amount of time at 30 Rock we moved northwest on Manhattan to Columbia University. Here we strolled around the campus, which has a lot of character. Whilst there, Jono decided he wanted a Dunkin Donuts cup of coffee. Since we were right by a university campus we figured this popular east coast chain of coffee shops would most definitely have a store just around the corner. Not So. Finally, after walking down Broadway for about 40 minutes we finally found one. Eureka! Exhausted after our hunt for Dunkin and the fact that we have been walking 8hrs of the day for 4 days straight, we decided to head to Riverside Park, located just a few blocks to the West on the Hudson. Once there we plonked down on a bench facing the river and read for a bit. This was nice.

Getting silly at Columbia University

Any Seinfeld fans out there?

Jono is so exhausted he can hardly celebrate!

After talking about it for a bit we decided to try and see a Broadway show that night, since it was our last night in New York and all. So, rejuvenated from our rest stop by the river, we set out yet again in the direction of Times Square to get tickets to a show. Our first choice was “Promises Promises” with Kristin Chenoworth and Sean Hayes, however the only two seats available weren’t together, so we decided to get tickets for “A Behanding in Spokane” instead: a play featuring Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell, both actors we absolutely adore. The time was now 5.45pm and the play didn’t start till 8pm, so we figured we had PLENTY of time to go back to our apartment, change and make it back to the theatre in time. And we would have: if a train hadn’t stalled on the subway track we were on. Oh my goodness, it was so close! By the time we got to our apartment it was 7.05pm: the play starts in 55min and is 61 blocks downtown. Realizing we wouldn’t have enough time to walk from the apartment to the subway station we decided to hail a cab: this was fun. In the end we made it to the theatre with 5 minutes to spare. But we were sweating! The play was a dark comedy and had a great plotline. The theatre was quite small and so it was really cool to see Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell up close in that kind of a setting. They did really well. I think Rockwell carried the show. After the show we decided to end our evening at the Beekman Tower Hotel with drinks. Friday was a lovely day in New York.

Photo of the day:

NYC Day 3

Today was absolutely delightful! The suffocating heat was exchanged for a cool 70 degrees with scattered showers. perfect. We started the day by heading to Times Square to stand in line at the TKTS booth to purchase cheap tickets for a broadway show. Since it was lunch time by the time we got there we decided to get some lunch. I got a MOST delicious salad box from Maoz- a Mediterranean fast food place. Jono had a slice of pizza :)

After lunch we headed towards the TKTS booth. The line was insanely long and so we decided to come back later. As we were leaving, a dude stopped us and asked if we'd like to go to a comedy club tonight.He mentioned that some actors from SNL might be there.. we figured this was a scam, but Jono really wanted to go to a comedy club whilst we were here so we decided to take the risk.

Represent in Times Square

Hoping we hadn't made a terrible mistake by buying the comedy tickets, we headed South West towards the meat packing district to go explore the High Line. This park is soooo cool and seems as though it was designed by a bunch of "anti-starbucks cool kids", as Jono put it. The following is a little excerpt of this Park's history:

The High Line is a New York City park, built on an elevated 1930s freight rail structure on the city's west side. Prior to the HIgh Line's construction, freight train accidents on the street level caused so many fatalities that the street was known as "death avenue". Built to remove dangerous freight trains from Manhattan's streets, the High Line delivered milk, meat, produce and raw and manufactured goods into upper-floor loading docks of factories and warehouses. The last train ran on the High Line in 1980, carrying a trainload of frozen turkeys.

How cool is that? Now its this uber cool park that one can walk along amidst the west side buildings. A must see when in New York- kudos to Mark Paternostro for giving us the heads up about it.

After strolling along the High Line we decided it was time for a cup of Joe. We wanted something other than Starbucks and so started hunting for a quaint coffee shop. Although we never located this ideal place, we did walk past one restaurant and saw Bob Balaban (A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman etc) sitting at a table by the window. I would've taken a picture to prove it, but didn't want to be "that guy".

Since our hopes of finding a good coffee shop were slipping, we gave in and got Starbucks in Union Square. We realized we would have enough time to zip uptown and change before our comedy show (it had gotten a little chilly). And so we did just that. Using all our navigational skills we dashed uptown, made a quick wardrobe change and zipped back down just in time to get a slice of pizza before the show.

Ahhh the show. Other than being lied to in various ways it actually turned out to be pretty enjoyable. It was no Jerry Seinfeld, but entertaining nonetheless. By the time it was done it was just before midnight and so public transportation had thinned out quite a bit. We wanted to get to 49th and 1st ave, and so hopped on a bus going in that direction. Once on board we realized we were the only ones on the bus. The bus driver used the intercom to communicate with us even though we were two seats away from him. He asked us where we wanted to go and dropped us off right at our spot. So cool. We had our own private bus for 10 minutes. On the corner of 49th and 1st is the Beekman Tower Hotel that has a 26th floor restaurant and bar. Although they were closed we still got to go up and look at the view: a great ending to a great day!

The comedy club was just around the corner from where Dave shoots his show.

Pizza before the show

Photo of the day: A bus all to ourselves

NYC Day 2

It was 95 degrees in New York today. 95. I'm gonna let that sink in for a moment.

Basically, we were just barely short of dying. It was so hot -but we prevailed against the harsh forces of nature. We started out our day with a delicious pastry (once again) from Au Bon Pain- they really should bring this franchise to California. With energy from these scrumptious goodies coursing through our veins we headed down to the financial district.

The Subway was our relief from the heat today

Here we accidently stumbled upon St Paul's church: now a memorial spot for 9/11. We sifted through all the displays and photos of people who died on that day. It was quite something to be right where it happened and imagining what it must have been like for people who spent each day working in that area. We went and looked at the 9/11 memorial site preview and I recorded my story of where I was when it happened (they are gathering stories from around the world for the new 9/11 memorial museum).

From there we walked down to Battery Park to get a good look at the Statue of Liberty. Of course we first had to sit on a bench for about 20min just to try and cool down- it was so stinkin hot- both of us were dripping in sweat (gross, I know). We then made the almost fatal decision of walking Brooklyn Bridge- the WORST possible day to attempt this "hike". With lots of moaning due to the heat, we made the trek. It was still worth it though, and whilst there we saw a buddhist monk with a really nice camera- doesn't that contradict what they are all about? Anyway, after taking in the view we made our way back over the bridge and decided to visit Chinatown: Bad Choice #2.

Battery Park

Statue of Liberty in the distance

Drinking in the view of the city on Brooklyn Bridge

Mixing the odors of Chinatown (raw fish, garbage, urine etc) with sweltering heat is never a good combination. Add lots of people and soon I was very hot and bothered. We were actually on the hunt for little Italy but could not locate it: just before vowing to NEVER go to that part of town again and heading back to the cool subway we noticed a restaurant "La Bella something-or-other". We had struck gold! Little Italy was a timely relief and we thoroughly enjoyed walking down Mulberry st and listening to the "Luigi's" and "Frankie Cee's" chatter in their thick italian-american accents: we felt as though we were on a movie set. We even heard someone say :"Get outta here!". That was awesome. WE continued walking all the way to Greenwich Village to find a spot to have dinner. We discovered a great little gem called the Olive Tree and enjoyed the oasis of air conditioning and tasty food. Exhausted from a long hot day we decided to head back to our apartment- but first we just HAD to go back to little Italy to have Tiramisu for dessert. So, we navigated the treacherous subway system yet again, making about 3 transfers just to get some tiramisu. There was a little street vendor selling homemade tiramisu in cups that we had seen earlier in the day. With our tiramisu and cold water we sat down on a curb and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Little Italy yet again. A perfect ending to a not so perfect day. :)

Jono's cool new playing cards

One could write on the tables with chalk at the Olive Tree

Although it was extremely hot today, we still had a great time, and feel as though we saw and did a lot. So please don't misunderstand my "whining". Now to rest our weary feet.

Photo of the day:

Jono in the cemetery of St Paul's Church with ground zero in the background

NYC Day 1

Jono and I are visiting New York this week- neither of us have ever been.

We arrived yesterday and had a fairly smooth transit to our apartment for the week, located on 116th st - a little too far Uptown for my liking. Once inside the place it became very clear to both of us that a trip to the laundromat was necessary. So, with sheets in tow, we made our way through this "eclectic" (sketchy can also be inserted here) neighborhood at midnight. We survived this outing, although we are absolutely convinced we saw a Mafia deal going down on our way back. Of course my husband, being a superhero, immediately got to work on scrubbing the bathroom once we got back to the apartment. Now we have a squeeky clean powder room. I love him.

We intended on starting the day Bright and early this morning, only to wake up at 10.30am, although dismayed at first we soon realized that the New York day goes deep into the night and not much time had been wasted.

Ready for the Day!

Our Apartment Building

We decided to hit up the Metropolitan museum. After wandering around Central Park much longer than we originally intended we finally found it. I really enjoyed the Met: the medieval display was my favorite. The coolest thing about the Met is the snappy-pin-thingys they give you as a ticket- this way you can sport your little pin all day letting the whole city know you are a tourist. Can you spot our pins in the pics?

Getting lost in Central Park is fun

Next up was Times Square. On our way there we stopped at the Rockefellar Center and had an AMAZING apple pastry at the Subway station there. Good times.

Once we got to Times Square we noticed everyone gazing at one Jumbotron in particular: this was because the NFL people were about to announce where the 2014 Superbowl was going to be held- NYC was in the running. Jono and I took a seat on the stadium seating located at the north end of the square. Within a few minutes the results were in for the NFL vote and NYC had won. It was cool to see everyone's reaction. We were almost on TV but were obviously not enthusiastic enough to make the 3sec shot.

After people-watching for quite some time we hit up Chelsea and had GRAY's Papaya pineapple juice while watching a man get arrested for trying to take his pant off in public- a valid reason in my opinion for getting arrested.

*Sidenote* we stopped at what we thought was an authentic pizza place for lunch, which ended up being really crappy.

After our refreshing pineapple fix, we walked to the Flatiron building and sat in Madison Square Park watching the squirrels harass the people. Extremely amusing. From Chelsea we went down to Greenwich Village and enjoyed Washington Square Park. I love the arch in this park, and kept thinking of "I am Legend", since Will Smith's character lived right on the square in the movie. Then we walked along Bleecker st and checked out all the cool little restaurants along the way. This part of the city really reminded us both of Cape Town. We then made our way back to Times Square to soak up the City lights (because according to Alicia Keys "they will inspire you") Feeling truly inspired we decided to call it a day and head home.

Photo of the Day: On the Rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum. I heart New York.