New York, Day Three and Four

So, Day 3 - Tuesday - was my day to be pretty much all alone. Raphael had to go to work, and I had an entire list of things that I wanted to see before I left. I was pretty glad that we had done a lot over the last two days, so I knew how to navigate the subway system, and was pretty confident that I wouldn't look like one of those idiot tourists that everyone hates!

R & I stopped to grab a coffee on the way in, and then went our separate ways at Grand Central Station, with plans to meet for lunch. I took the train down to the City Hall stop, because my first task that I wanted to accomplish was taking pictures from Brooklyn Bridge. After I got down there, I quickly managed to find the pedestrian lane, turned on my iPod and began to walk. It was such a rush - first off, because it was a really windy (but sunny, though somewhat chilly) day, and also because of the cars zooming by below me. It was pretty breathtaking, the view from up there. Definitely recommend doing this if you happen to find yourself in NYC.

After I was satisfied with my shots, I decided that there wasn't enough time to head up to Greenwich Village before lunch, so I stuck around the area. I walked down to Ground Zero, because I didn't really get to see it last time. Still made me overwhelmingly sad when I thought back to September 11, 2001. I felt like a bit of an asshole taking pictures... I took a couple because I wanted to remember it... but then I put my camera away, and just reflected for a while.

Then, I found Century 21 - another must see shopping place on my list! I strolled around the womens, juniors, and shoe departments, but I was actually kinda disappointed because it wasn't really a place that you could just browse. It seemed slightly disorganized (plus they were doing inventory or something, so that could have something to do with it) ... Didn't end up buying anything.
Then I walked into Sephora for a little bit and browsed around the store until R. called me to tell me it was time to start heading up for lunch.

The train ended up being right on time (he called me a little earlier, to allow for delays), so I ended up walking around Grand Central station (another thing to check off my list) ... and then I walked out the completely wrong door, and was a little disoriented for a few minutes until I found my way back to where we were going to meet. Strolled into the GAP for a little while, and ended up buying a new GapScent that I love - DreamOn.

Met R. for lunch... we went to this little pizza place, that was absolutely DELICIOUS. mmm, New York Style Pizza!

Then we went for a walk to this little street that offered up a great view of the UN Building, and a little further down, the Chrysler Building.
Walking back to his workplace, we stopped into the Daily News building (where they filmed part of Superman)... they have a giant rotating globe in there, and mileage to major cities around the world. Oddly enough, the first one I found was Toronto - 348 miles. Thought that was kinda coincidental and neat :)

So then we parted ways again, I headed down to Astor Place, trying to get to St. Mark's Place. Raphael gave me directions from the giant cube... but I totally forgot them, and this was the only time that I was actually kinda lost. I ended up finding maps on the wall around the NYU Campus, and 20 minutes later, I eventually found my way to St. Mark's. Totally eclectic neighbourhood, I loved it. I stopped into the CBGB's store, and picked up the cutest guitar top, a pink guitar pick (that I have visions of turning into a necklace... should've bought more!) and a bib for my niece.

At that point, it was around 2pm, so I called up my friend Kate so that we could meet up. We wandered around all over the place... Stopped into a little cafe in Little Italy... saw a movie being shot (and quickly got shooed out of the way when the principle actors were ready to come out... wonder who it was!) ... stopped into a random art gallery - not sure who the artist(s) was, but it was pretty cool... first thing I noticed was an overwhelming smell of bananas (which I HATE with a passion), but I couldn't figure out why... then as we got further inside, one of the pieces was a huge WALL of bananas. Like, there were at least 1000+ of them. CRAZY.

*edit* Here's a link to the gallery's website about the show:
http://www.deitch.com/projects/sub.php?projId=230
Turns out that the artist was Stefan Sagmeister.

Then we headed over to Greenwich Village to a bunch of record shops, including Bleecker Street Records, which I was dying to browse around in after driving by there last time.
Wandered around SoHo... Kate pointed out the building that Monica Gellar & Rachel Green supposedly lived in on Friends... and we stopped for cupcakes at Magnolia, the SATC Hotspot and ate them in a little square, where birds were at our feet and people were playing chess. It was lovely!
Then we walked through the little boutiques... stopped in at Marc by Marc Jacobs... bought an awesome ring for myself, and a cool metal cuff for my sis-in-law. Saw a gorgeous sunset, looking down Christopher St (I had no idea that we were that close to the water!) Then walked up to 8th Ave, where we found some great shoe sales (I managed to control the shopping urge - mostly because my back was breaking from carrying around my camera, wallet, iPod, tripod, etc all day)
Then Kate and I parted ways, and I went to meet Raphael to start heading back to Queen's.

That night, R cooked us all an awesome dinner - his special House Rice, with chicken cutlets. Spent the night hanging out with good friends :)


The next day, I only had a couple of hours before I had to head to the airport to catch my flight. Ended up going to Roosevelt Ave in Queens, and browsing in a bunch of little stores for some souvenirs to bring home to the rest of my family that I hadn't bought for. MAN, I was not expecting the extreme TACKINESS of some of these stores!! LOL... there were like, glowing Jesus statues!! And those really tacky moving scene fish-tank type things... R kept trying to convince me to bring one home to my bro-in-law. Thankfully, I managed to find a couple of shot glasses instead.

I couldn't believe how overwhelmingly sad I was to leave the city that day. It was such a heavy feeling, I was seriously sitting at the airport with a super pouty face, probably pretty close to tears. I can't even begin to describe how much I love that city. It's like I belong there, and every time I leave, I leave a part of myself there to collect upon my next trip. I must find a way to live there one day. It's calling me.