Summertime.....in the city

-Ok, so this may not be about Sevilla, but it continues my travel adventures...and there was some Spanish involved :)

New York City

Wednesday, July 7

Bright and early in the morning (around 4:30), after a busy 4th of July weekend and a day of babysitting, my wonderful father took me to the airport. I was going to visit my friend, Vimala, who has an internship there with Ernst and Young. She has an apartment with three other OSU students on the Upper East Side. Craving some more city experiences and given the opportunity to visit without paying for a hotel, I booked a flight. There were about 20-30 people on the 50-person plane. I was definitely the only one on the flight not travelling for business. I was able to sit on the left side though, and had a great view of the city flying into La Guardia. After navigating out of the airport, I went to catch a cab to the Astoria subway station. The taxi driver (unfortunately not the cash cab, but there was a TV in the cab) was mad because he was only taking me there after waiting 2 hours. After I didn’t tip him enough, he told me not to come back to NYC. Ha. I climbed up to the subway station, bought a metro card and caught the subway to Times Square. Somehow, I managed to get on the one that Vimala told me not to (she made me repeat her directions back to her), but all ended well. I met up with her at the Ernst and Young building at 5 Times Square. She gave me keys to her apartment and three note-cards with directions on how to get to her house ☺ I guess I really have a reputation for being bad with directions. I took two subways and made it safely to her apartment.
I was too excited to take a nap just then, so I set my stuff down and went to the café across the street, Café Haba, for some coffee. I then began my first tour of the Upper East Side beginning with Museum Mile, or 5th street. I sat on the famous steps of the MET and peeked inside the museum. It is beautiful inside: old and majestic. I continued walking to the Guggenheim, where I stepped in for a while as well. I didn’t think it was as pretty, but more modern. Next stop: central park. It was nice to be around green space and see the bridges and buildings towering over the park. It was also interesting to see the nannies with children in the park. I was able to see one of the public pianos that are set all around the city for an art exhibition. The artist wanted to invite people to play the piano, and will donate them to public schools after the exhibition ends.
To get to the museums, I had to cross Park Avenue, which has a great view from the street divide. The apartments are very grand and expensive looking. I saw a photo shoot on a corner on Park Avenue, I believe for a fashion magazine.
Right from the start, I noticed all the languages being spoken. It was so great to hear that again and see people from all over the world. It was very, very hot during my time there and I quickly learned that churches are the best sightseeing spots because they are free and air-conditioned ☺
Trekking back to the apartment, I ate some lunch and cooled off. I finally did take a much-needed nap, and then headed out once more. I took the subway south to visit Bloomindales. Being well over my budget, I didn’t stay long but instead went to some of the surrounding shops like H &M, Gap and New York and Company (I had to go there- it’s like going to KFC in Kentucky).

I then made my way down Manhattan to St. Patrick’s cathedral. It is a beautiful place from the inside and out. I saw the statue that is on the opening of 30 Rock and then happened upon another church, Saint Thomas. Next was MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art. I just walked into the lobby and took a few pictures of the art there. Then I made my way down to Rockefeller Plaza and went into the grand Lego store. They had all colors and all styles. The store was filled with huge, intricate creations of scenes of the city and a dragon that ran throughout the whole store. I checked out the NBC studios and site where the Today show is filmed. For some relative peace and quiet, I headed to Bryant Park and ate a black and white cookie from a health food café called Pax. They are soft with black icing on one half and white on the other. The park had a cute carousel and many people reading or taking a lunch break. If I ever lived in a city like that, I would rely on the park spaces to chill out and take a respite.
The New York Public Library was next, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I saw there. It is so grand and old, and just the way I always pictures a library should be. It differed from other libraries I have seen in that there were many closed off rooms that contained the books. If you were to just walk around without opening any doors, you may not even see any books! The rooms had books stacked up high, long wooden tables for spreading out and antique lamps. The first printings of the Declaration of Independence were on display as well as drafts and commentaries. It was nice to see some history and notices that in those times they used the letter ‘f’ very often where today we use ‘s’.
I continued walking down and made my way to Times Square. That didn’t last long though, as I was soon overwhelmed with the massive amount of people and general noise. The advertisements are very impressive, but I think there might have been too much going on. While I was there though, España won their game in the world cup and people were running through the streets with flags yelling for the team. That was pretty cool to see the support and excitement. Before heading home again, I stopped in Grand Central Station. Unfortunately, Improv Everywhere was not there, so everyone was moving at normal pace. Just like the Library, it is a beautiful building and is neat because it combines the old with the new.
Back home, I rested for a bit until Vimala came home from work. We then took the subway downtown toward the NYU/ Alphabet City area to meet up with our friend Deepak for dinner. The area is really neat with many shops, restaurants and bars. We went to a falafel place-kind of a dive, but yummy. After our meal, we hopped around town to the trendy places. We went to a Moroccan restaurant, and Vimala fell in love with the singer there. People were dancing too! It was great to see humans out and about after 10 p.m. again ☺

Thursday, July 8

Thursday I decided to explore the financial district. I remember going there the last time I was in New York and loved the atmosphere. I first went to Trinity Church, site of the infamous National Treasure movie. I had actually stolen the Declaration of Independence from the Library the day before and was going to put it back in the underground gold mine of treasures. Ok, enough of that. I walked around and happened upon Century 21, the king of all discount stores. I bought some towels for Vimala’s apartment while marveling at the incredible amount of languages being spoken in the store. Afterwards, I walked around the World Trade Center Site. There were many people around the site and a lot of dedications to the heroes. A walk down Wall Street was next with lots of tourists as well as people in suits. The stock exchange was not as heavily guarded as the last time I was there, but you still couldn’t go very close to it. I then winded my way over to the Seaport with shops, restaurants and replicas of old ships. I had a great view of the old ships with the grand, newer skyscrapers in the background. I really loved that area because it seemed to hold a lot of history and be somewhat removed from the hustle and bustle.
After stopping at a café for a bagel, I walked to the city hall park to rest and eat. Circling back to the WTC site, I went into St. Paul’s chapel. It is Manhattan’s oldest public building in continuous use, hosted George Washington on Inauguration Day and survived the attacks of September 11. The inside did not resemble a typical church very much, with only a few rows of chair set up in the middle. The perimeter was filled with letters, offerings, video anthologies and ‘remembrances’ from the attack. There were a few pews with scuffmarks that were caused from the rescue workers taking breaks in the church. Their equipment would scuff up the pews, but the people decided not to paint over them as a way to remember the rescue efforts.
Continuing around the financial district, I made it to the famous Fraunces Tavern, home of the French onion soup. The tavern also serves as a museum to items from the time of George Washington and the like. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed. I walked down this very cute street that was filled with tables from restaurants. The cobblestone street just completed the feeling of stepping back in time. I finally found the bull at the end of Broadway as well as the Museum of the American Indian. Hungry after walking around, I ate some frozen yogurt from an organic place. A lot of the cafes and restaurants here are very health-conscious and proudly display their organic products.
I took the subway back home and napped for a bit. I still can’t get away from that Spanish siesta ☺ Feeling cooled off, I then took the subway north to the outskirts of Spanish Harlem. I enjoyed seeing all the shops and restaurants in Spanish as well as hearing it spoken all around me. It is a totally different world from the financial district. There were a lot of stands on the street selling food, knockoff items and just random knick-knacks. I took another stroll through north central park, around a lake. I also found a pretty garden area.
Dinnertime arrived, so Vimala and I again met our friends at an Indian-Chinese place. I tasted lots of new foods but enjoyed them all. We walked around NoHo and SoHo more and ventured into the biggest Whole Foods I have been in. Two stories cover almost a whole block and I could spend hours checking out the plethora of food.

Friday, July 9

Friday morning began with some coffee from my Café Haba and another walk through Central Park. This time I was able to see the Balto statue (free of little children climbing all over it). I loved taking pictures of all the beauty as well as listening to the various artists. I passed by a sax player, violin/bass combo as well as my favorite, a band consisting of a bass, trombone, trumpet and a banjo. The four men were so entertaining and a good number of people stopped, sat down and listened to them. I walked down the Mall, which ends at the majestic Bethesda fountain.
After some much needed quiet time, I went down to check out Madison Square Park as well as Gramercy Park. Gramercy might have been my favorite with beautiful homes surrounding a quaint green space. Heading further down to NYU, I checked out a few of the buildings from the outside, but most said that you needed a student id to enter, so I just walked around. I grabbed lunch at a market and ate it outside in a NYU courtyard. Walking towards Union Square, I made a stop at a beautiful Grace Church. The pews had little doors with people’s names on them. I also went into the Strand bookstore, with 8 miles of books. I looked around there for a while and bought “Retrato en Sepia” about a girl who loses her memory.
I finally made it to Union Square, which was a lot more active that I thought. There were many big stores and restaurants as well as many tourists. A farmers market was located in the center of the square, which was neat to walk around. I saw lots of food, but also paintings, photographs and sculptures. Being so hot, I grabbed some ice cream and ate it on a bench in the Square. Feeling a little overwhelmed, I made it back to the apartment. I researched a dinner place around our house and went to check it out. It was east of our apartment, which led me to the water and John Jay Park. I sat there for a little while and began my book. When Vimala got off work, I met her at the diner and we had a classic American meal of a burger and fries. It was a cute place and kind of reminded us of Hella’s. On the walk home, we decided we needed to be even more cliché and bought some New York cheesecake at a local bakery. We ate it at the apartment while watching Titanic. Aw.
In the evening, we met up with the guys again in Korea town. They had just finished showing a movie for kids in Harlem, and their boss wanted to take them out to dinner. I tried lots of new foods again, but really enjoyed them! We walked around that area for a while, and then went back to the alphabet city area again to explore.


Saturday, July 10


Saturday morning I was really ambitious and woke up early to go catch some of the Today show. After taking a subway uptown, then downtown due to construction, I finally made it to Rockefeller Plaza. Being the weekend and having different hosts, the show was not too crowded. I enjoyed watching all the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff as well as the interviews. I got a frisbee from some committee that works with the Olympics! After the show, I ate my bagel breakfast in the plaza and spent some quality time people watching. So good here. I went again into Saint Patrick’s cathedral, then back home to spend time with Vim since she didn’t have to work.
We decided to actually visit the MET, so walked the 5 or so blocks there. If I lived that close to the museum, I would go there as often as I could. We visited the Picasso exhibit, the Egyptian area and my favorite: the American Women exhibition. It showcases women’s fashion in American from the 1800’s to the late 1900’s. The exquisite dresses and lavish outfits were a sight to see. After that, we made our way to Spanish Harlem again to have lunch at a recommended Spanish restaurant. We sat outside on the patio eating burritos, fried plantains and empanadas. It was delicious and the atmosphere was beautiful. We were able to see where Deepak interns and the area where the movie was held.
Vimala then had to head to a Mets game (since she was invited by the company to meet some of the clients). She went to Queens so I went back to central park. We visited the Belvedere Castle, walked back to the mall and saw the gondola boats. Some kids were playing with giant bubbles and we saw a bride and groom photo shoot. So cute. We met up with Vimala again and took the subway to little Italy. We put in reservations for a place called Lombardi’s and waited 45 minutes. In the meantime, we got delicious gelato (you know, to round out Italian night!). I had hazelnut and ginger snap flavors…yummm. At Lombardi’s, we ordered a regular pizza as well as a white one, both of which were delicious. We walked around Little Italy for a bit, and then went to some other areas to check out the restaurants.

Sunday, July 11

Unfortunately, the trip came to an end way too soon, and I had to leave Sunday morning. I took a subway and a bus safely to La Guardia, and then jetted back to Dublin. I am so glad I was able to take this trip. I enjoyed comparing this city to Sevilla, listening to all the Spanish and was surprised I enjoying being in a city so much. While there may not be bullfights and Semana Santa, there were some very cool sights and so many beautiful buildings and parks.