Day 18 in New York

Yesterday, Thursday, we went wandering through the East Village area. We searched for the CBGB site (which was not easy as there isn't even a little plaque or anything to say that it was once a historic venue), we took a peek at Tompkins Square Park, poked our heads into Katz's Delicatessen (famous Jewish deli) but didn't get anything as it was packed, wandered past a movie being filmed and stumbled across a little 'cafe' called Tuck Shop, which is basically Aussie favourites that you can't buy here such as meat pies, sausage rolls and lamingtons. We then walked up St. Marks Place which is a really cool street with heaps of cafes and little stores. It was very cool and I would loved to have gone at night to hangout but we don't have any time left.

Artwork on the side of a building in the East Village

Apparently this used to be CBGB's

Next we caught the subway to Times Square as we were planning on doing the NBC tour and then heading up to the top of Rockefeller Tower. As we found out, the only tour time left was 5pm which didn't work for us as we wanted to go up the tower then so we could see it in daylight and then stay to watch the sunset and see the skyline with all the lights on. So we bought tickets to go on the tour on Friday. We then had to wait around for a couple of hours until we were ready to go up the tower. There was no point heading back to our room and we had already looked at most of the shops in the area. We did however go into Saks Fifth Avenue (to use the bathroom haha) which is an amazing store, very expensive, but looks awesome. After that we just hung around Rockefeller Plaza until we were ready to go up Rockefeller.

It took us a while to get up to the top as they have scheduled entry times and security to go through to manage the hoard of tourists that go up everyday. We finally got up at 5:45, just in time to see to see the city in daylight before the sun set at 6pm. The views were amazing! After sunset, when all the lights have come on, looks the best, but the photos didn't work out very well (wish I had a tripod).

View from Top of the Rock looking north

Top of the Rock looking south

Looking south

Looking south-west. Yes that is Times Square where all the light is!

We then headed back to our room, grabbing Christie's favourite dinner along the way (Chipotle), and then spent the rest of the night trying to see if we could fit all the shopping we had done in NYC into our suitcases. Not an easy task!

Day 17 in New York

Today, Wednesday, we headed to The Strand bookshop to find me a signed copy of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, which was launched there last night (which I couldn't attend due to being in Niagara Falls). Here I spent quite some time going through the shelves and reviewing my (currently) two-page list of books I want to buy while in the US. I was very good and only bought six books on the list. The best thing about these books, which are not released in Australia, is that they were so cheap! Hardcover books for only $8.50! I also managed to get another of David Levithan's older titles which he also signed the night before. Yay! For my book posse, there will be more details up soon on The Tales Compendium. Christie finally managed to drag me away from the shelves, only to get stuck looking at all the fabulous Strand merchandise! Oh I am in love with this store!

My new books!

My merchandise :)

My signed copy of Dash & Lily!

After finally departing (sigh), we ducked across the road to a chocolate shop called Max Brenner. The tag line is Chocolate By The Bald Man. It smelt so fantastic in there and if we hadn't had plans to meet Christie's friend Dan for lunch, we would have stayed and had something at the cafe there. But, if you were wondering, we still bought a little something from the gift store.

Max Brenner chocolate

Next we headed into Chinatown to meet Dan at his office for lunch. He then took us for Chinese (what else do you eat in Chinatown!) at this place around the corner from his office. We let him choose the food since he seemed to be a regular there. For someone who never eats Chinese, I was pretty impressed. The soup dumplings were really good, although Christie had some difficulty eating them. We then went back to his office and Christie borrowed a computer to fill out her green card application. We then left so Dan could get back to work and we wandered through Chinatown and then headed home.

Christie and Dan with soup pork dumplings

Tonight we met up with Lauryl for dinner at Vapiano (the pasta place we found in DC) and had a lovely night there with her. As a side note, today was the worst weather we have had the whole trip. A wave of humidity hit Manhattan and it was seriously disgusting. That, mixed with a drizzle of rain, and we felt sick and light headed all day. No amount of water could make us feel better. The only relief the whole day was when we were in the highly air-conditioned Vapiano. Fingers crossed it isn't as bad tomorrow.

Lauryl and Christie at Vapiano

Day 16 in New York

Yesterday we woke at 4am to start our very long day visiting Niagara Falls. First off, riding the subway at 4:45am on a Tuesday morning is just that little bit creepy. It took us about an hour to get out to JFK and luckily the lines at the airport were very short, no one sane flies this early! Basically our plan was to fly to Buffalo, find a shuttle or a taxi to take us to The Falls, spend a few hours marveling in their wonder and then fly back to JFK in the early evening.

Our flight arrived at about 9:30am and we went looking for transport. A guy at a shuttle bus counter told us it would be $45 each to Niagara, or that we could catch a taxi and it would be $35 each. We didn't know of any other options so we thought we'd catch a taxi. While walking to the taxi rank we spied around a corner a mini-bus with Niagara Shuttle on the front. We thought it would be the one the guy had told us about but figured we should double check and it was so lucky we did! It was a locally run bus direct to the falls for $1.75! Hell yes! It wasn't a particularly comfortable ride, especially for Christie who was stuck next to a homeless woman, but it got us there in one piece.


The Falls were amazing. So powerful! It is autumn/fall in the US at the moment and I don't think we could have picked a prettier time to come. Words and pictures can't really do it justice but check out the photos below anyway.


We had a heap of fun playing around in the leaves as well....


Tourist season finished on Saturday for Niagara so we missed it by a couple of days but we think we actually had the better deal. We couldn't go on the Maid of the Mist, and most of the shops were all closed but there were less tourists around which was really nice. We grabbed lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, one of the few places open and then wandered around the gardens before it was time to catch the shuttle back to the airport. The annoying thing is that this shuttle only runs every two hours, so 3pm and 5pm. Our flight was at 6:25pm so we couldn't take the 5pm so we had some waiting around to do at the airport. Buffalo was due for a storm that evening and once we had gone through security, we found out a bunch of flights had been delayed and cancelled due to issues at JFK. Our flight was delayed to 7:10 and then 7:40 due to bad weather both in Buffalo and New York. It wasn't a big deal to us since we didn't have any luggage and we didn't need to be anywhere but it screwed up a lot of peoples flights. An Aussie guy we met had his flight delayed, then it was cancelled, then he was put on standby but didn't get on that flight and then he was put on ours. He missed his connecting flight at JFK to Heathrow and then to Paris.

When our flight finally took off, the turbulence wasn't too bad but as we came into JFK we understood why flights had been grounded as there was heaps of fog. We couldn't land for quite a while and we were just flying in circles. When we finally dropped altitude the turbulence was pretty scary. They then wouldn't let us off the plane for ages. So our flight that was supposed to arrive at 8pm didn't arrive until 10pm, and it then took us over an hour to get home. Oh what joy! But at least we had had a fabulous day at Niagara :)

Day 15 in New York

Today we headed straight to The Strand bookstore at Union Square to see if I could organise to get a signed copy of a book that is being launched there tomorrow. I would go to the event myself but unfortunately we had already booked flights to Niagara Falls before I found out about the signing. For those of you who don't read my book blog and have no idea what book I am talking about, David Leviathan and Rachel Cohn, who co-wrote one of my all time favourite books Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, have written another book together and I would have loved the chance to meet them and get a signed copy. Anyway, the point is we visited this store and oh my gosh it is an amazing bookstore. The store wouldn't reserve me a signed copy (you can do that online but where would I get it shipped to, I leave on Sat) but said they should have some copies in store on Wednesday. So I am going back on Wednesday and I plan on spending a lot of money on books there (well actually Christie is giving me a limit). Once again, I digress. This store is amazing, it has every book you could ever want! I would come back to NYC solely for this store. And the young adult section? Massive! Three huge alcoves filled to the ceiling of lovely, lovely books, many of which are not released in Australia.

There were 3 of these, going much higher, all filled with YA books!

I'm sorry if that bore you all but it is very important to me so you just have to deal with it.

So next we caught the subway to 5th Avenue and visited the mind-blowing, famous toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz. This is where Tom Hanks danced on the giant piano in the film Big. While we didn't do any dancing ourselves, it really was the coolest toy store. I wanted to buy all this stuff and I don't even have a kid to buy for. Nat, I swear, if I had more room in my suitcase, Hannah would be getting half the store!

You can have your very own big piano for US$250,000!

After leaving F.A.O. Schwarz, we went to...Tiffany's. I was one of those girls who never really understood what the big deal was about Tiffany's. I am no longer one of those girls! Chrisite bought herself a beautiful bracelet and I am eyeing off a necklace which I hope to go back and buy with mum when she buys her bracelet in 2 weeks time. It can be a nice mother-daughter experience!

Christie's special purchase

The rest of the afternoon consisted of wandering around 5th Ave and also the streets around the financial district, where we went back to Century 21 (where I bought another bag). So that was our day. Tonight is going to be an early one as we have to be up at about 4:30am to get out to the airport for our flight to Niagara Falls!

Day 14 in New York

Today we decided to explore the Financial District. We headed over to Wall Street and had a look at the New York Stock Exchange building. We also attempted to get close enough to the bronze bull statue but there was a bus load of Asian tourists surrounding it so we will head back another day and see if we can get closer (I have a mission to perform for Theresa ;)).

On Wall Street

One of the entrances to the New York Stock Exchange

Across the road is the beautiful Trinity Church and graveyard. I really like it because it is completely surrounded by these massive buildings but these century's old grave-sites are still allowed to rest. Maybe I'm morbid but I think these old traditional little graveyards are...magical is the wrong word, but I don't find them creepy. Maybe I find them peaceful? I'm not sure. I just sound like a freak obsessed with death!

Trinity Church

Trinity graveyard

Next we went by the World Trade Centre site which is under construction for the new memorial and museum that are being built. Next to the site is the World Trade Centre Tribute Memorial which is set up by the families of those lost in the attacks. We had the option of visiting and going through the gallery or having a tour of the gallery and areas around the site with someone who had been there or who lost family. We decided for the first option as we thought it would be too sad hearing the stories. As it turns out, we didn't have a hope either way. It was so sad and very emotional. We were both in tears. They had quotes from people who were there on the day, quotes from answering machine messages left by those on the planes, whole walls covered with missing posters and photographs to remember those who lost their lives. There was also the footage we all know too well and countless stories of the rescue efforts. Neither of us thought we would be that effected by it but a lot of it I couldn't look at, it was just so sad. It didn't look like anyone else was crying (there were lots of people there) which I don't really understand as most of them were American. Maybe we are just overly emotional. Either way, if any of you ever go, take a tissue or two.

Memorial site under construction

Next we walked through Saint Paul's Cathedral which is also next to the site and was one of the many support centres for the rescuers on September 11th. It's also amazing that it was still standing because it really was only this tiny little church right on the edge of the area.

You can see the construction site through the trees at St. Paul's

We kept walking through the streets, walking past the old Woolworth Building, which is one of New York City's oldest and most famous skyscrapers and was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930. And a bit of a pop culture reference for all you Ugly Betty fans, this is the headquarters for MODE magazine on the show, or so I am told. Continuing our walk we came to City Hall Park which happened to be hosting an event called Come "Out of the Darkness" Community Walk for Suicide Prevention. These are hosted in communities all over America. Purple was the colour of the day and it was fantastic to see such a major turn out for such an important cause.

Woolworth building

Our night consisted of us heading back to Rockerfeller Plaza to try and go up the top again but clouds had set in and it just wasn't worth the trip up if we weren't going to be able to see anything. We'll try again another time. Without this to fill the next few hours, we, er, went shopping in and around Times Square (new bag and a prezzie for Mum) and then headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for drinks, dinner and dessert! And then more shopping at the Rock Shop! Got a couple of cool t-shirts and accessories (scarf and badges) here.

We headed back to our room as we were planning on going back to Wall St. (which is 3 blocks from our building) to watch the filming of a new HBO show that was happening on the street but as it turns out, we read the sign wrong and it's happening tomorrow morning at 6am (the part of the sign we read was for when all cars had to be removed from the area by or they would get towed). We are so not getting up at 6am!

Halloween decorations in our building's lobby

Day 13 in New York

Today we set off to explore Brooklyn. Don't worry, not dodgy Red Hook! First we went to Prospect Park and wandered through the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Then we jumped on the subway to check out what an American Target is like. It was two levels and, next to the escalators, there were separate escalators for shopping trolleys! So funny, wish we had taken a photo! Target here sells groceries, cleaning products and has it's own pharmacy. It also has quite a few different designers that do a target brand, so like Stella McCartney did for our Target, Mulberry and Mossimo and some other designers I didn't know had done it for the US. We also found that Target here has Tim Tam's! Couldn't believe it, we thought they were only available in Australia! They are $4 a packet here though.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

Next we headed to the area Dumbo (yes I keep thinking of a little baby elephant!) which is right between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge and visited the chocolatier Jacques Torres for some tasty treats. We then walked around the corner to a famous pizza place, Grimaldi's, for a late lunch but the line was so long that we decided we wouldn't even get into the building before 4pm (at the earliest!) so we gave up and went to another place over-looking the water and had one of the best meals we have had in the US. Some things just work out.

Brooklyn Bridge and the place we ate lunch is on the corner

Back over on Manhattan

Day 12 in New York

Yesterday, Friday, both of us were feeling a bit under the weather so we had a major sleep in and hung around our room until about 2 pm. We've both been feeling unwell and really drained the last few days. Anyway, so that our day wasn't a complete waste, we headed down to Pier 17 which looks out over to Brooklyn and gives a nice view of all the buildings in the Financial District (where we are currently staying). We wandered around the pier for a little while, making a mandatory stop in Gap and spending money. We then had 'lunch' at one of the restaurants on the pier and sat out in the sun (it was a chilly 12 degrees yesterday but the sun was lovely). We then headed back to the room and got ready to head out to Brooklyn to see Angus and Julia Stone play.

Over the bridge to Brooklyn

The Financial District from Pier 17

As the majority of you all know, Angus and Julia are one of my favourite bands and we couldn't believe our luck that they were playing here while we were in the US. And tickets were only $16! So we set off for Brooklyn, with directions to the Bell House written on a scrap of paper. When we got off the subway we had been assuming that it would be much like the area we were in on our second night in NYC when we went to see the burlesque show. We were wrong. Trying to find this venue was the first time we have really felt unsafe our entire trip. We thought that any second we could get jumped. There was no one around and it was blocks and blocks of empty run-down warehouses. Walking quickly, with our wits about us and hoping we would find the venue soon, we finally got to the Bell House, which wasn't actually very far from the subway, but those 4 blocks felt alot further.

The support act was Gareth Dunlop who is a singer/songwriter from Belfast. He was really good and I went and asked him where I could buy his EP from after he had finished. He laughed and said he didn't know but was trying to find out. Haha. I did get one at the end of the night. Angus and Julia played a good set with a few new songs mixed in. I especially liked one that Julia wrote which I think might be on her new solo CD and an unreleased song (it's new) that Angus wrote while he was on a road trip to Big Sur (I think it was also written about Big Sur). It wasn't the best show I have seen them do (although I have seen them 8 or 9 times now so I have a bit to compare it with) but it was still good and it was cool seeing them in a small venue like I used to before they were so popular in Australia.

Gareth Dunlop

Angus and Julia

We found a closer, more populated subway station to get home via. What we found out, once we got back last night, was that the area we were in is called Red Hook, and this is apparently one of the unsafest areas we could have been in. Oh and it was a very cold 4 degrees for those of you interested :)

Day 11 in New York

Thursday we took a trip to visit the Statue of Liberty and Eilis Island. These kind of fell short of our expectations and once you have seen Lady Liberty, well, to us, who the immigration museum doesn't hold any personal significance, our interest in our days' adventure came grinding to a holt.

Leaving Manhattan behind

Lady Liberty

So we did what any girl in Manhattan would do, we went shopping! Century 21 is another of the big discount designer stores and there is one 3 blocks from where we are currently staying. We spent a little while *cough* 3 hours *cough* shopping there. I came away with a new winter coat, 2 new wallets, a little cardi and a evening top. Oh and another ring. I am having a little war within my head at the moment as I have promised myself I won't buy anymore shoes as I don't have enough space in my suitcase for them. But, I can't buy these in Perth. What on earth am I to do??? And don't say buy another suitcase as I'm only allowed one on my flights.

Thursday night we went and saw the Irish band Two Door Cinema Club at Webster Hall. Christie is a big fan but I had only ever heard one song. The show was pretty good, and although alot of their songs sounded the same (although Christie swears they don't on the album) I still enjoyed it.

Two Door Cinema Club

Day 10 in New York

Today we had to change hostels because our current one on the upper west side doesn't allow people to stay more than 14 days, and we are in New York for 20 days. So we packed up all our stuff (with much difficulty!) and then stored our luggage until we could check into the next place. Meanwhile, while waiting, we decided to do a little more shopping, paying Gap another visit, both of us buying the same skirt without knowing the other had, and we almost bought the same top except I chose a different one when it came down to decision time. We are totally merging into one person!

We then went for lunch at Alice's Tea Cup. Lindy, did you go here when you were in NY? Alice's Tea Cup is pretty much how it sounds, you essentially go for high tea and get scones and any kind of tea you want but due to timing we ate lunch instead with our tea. Lindy you would have loved it, it was completely Alice themed, with lines from it written around the ceiling, illustrations all over the bathroom, and Alice merchandise for sale. Even a tea named after her. I took photos of everything for you which I will post on facebook tomorrow. The event has been well documented. I even got you a menu!

After finishing lunch it was time to go to our new hostel in the Financial District. Not wanting a repeat on the subway like when we first arrived, we paid for a cab to take us downtown. The place is kind of a shared apartment, we have our own room but we share a couple of bathrooms and a kitchen. And, as I have discovered while writing this, the rooms are in no way sound-proof! If we had a choice, we would have stayed in our original hostel but, what can you do... On the plus side we have excellent internet in our room so I can keep you all up to date. Yay!

Tonight we had an absolutely amazing time seeing Green Day's American Idiot on Broadway. It was so unbelievably amazing, just the very first scene/song/act/whatever you wanna call it was worth the price of the ticket. I could barely contain the squeal that threatened to escape from my mouth. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos but I bought a program and have taken photos of it so hopefully you can get a tiny idea of what it was like. The set was fantastic, so awesome! And at the very end, all of the cast came out on stage with guitars and played Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).

Just another amazing day in New York City. Shopping. Alice. Rock Musical. Sigh.