They Say The Neon Lights Are Bright...
5 Things About New York
Food
When you’re somewhere as exciting as New York for less than three days, every moment is precious. It’s very easy to spend your time wondering if you’re doing the right thing. Perhaps you should be in the restaurant opposite or the next street along to get the full experience? So we were very pleased to have had great eating experiences! On Friday we encountered the Stage Deli, on 7th, a proper old Jewish New York deli, and somewhere renowned for its huge portions, even in NY. I had hot borscht followed by potato pancakes with apple-sauce and sour cream. And a giant gherkin. On Saturday we found Camaje, a tiny bistro in Greenwich Village, where the chef gave cookery classes, so the food was really excellent. And on Sunday, tired and not looking forward to getting up at 5am to catch our flight back to the UK, we found a great Italian place, opposite Carnegie Hall, where the waiter remembered my mum’s seven selection anti-pasti order without writing it down and my dad had the biggest slice of panettone I’ve ever seen.
Weather
Cold and bright on Saturday, we were surprised and delighted to find on Sunday morning that everything was covered in a couple of inches of snow. We forewent the ferry trip to see the Statue of Liberty in the belief that we’d all freeze and miserable so instead went for a crisp walk through Central Park. It was beautiful and we were entertained by horses and carts, fat squirrels and small children experiencing their first snow-ball fights. I also got Ma with one in the back. Heh heh heh.
People
Lizzie’s NY guide book opens with a joke, “Q. How many courteous New Yorkers does it take to change a light-bulb? A. Both of them.” If it’s true that New Yorkers are rude, then we barely saw it (apart from one girl in the Guggenheim Museum, but the less said about her the better!) and everyone was chatty, polite and friendly. All of our waiters wanted to talk, the shop staff were friendly and we chatted to all sorts of people. This, for my non-stop family, was perfect. The rudest people I encountered, in fact, were two British women getting out of the lift at the hotel.
Sights
After being used to London and small villages in England, I was unprepared for the long, straight streets of New York. Looking left from our hotel we could see Central Park and right we could Times Square with it’s huge buildings stretching up out of my camera screen. Just walking around New York was a sensory overdose that regularly took my whelm-levels to tipping point!
To see the whole city we visited the Empire State Building on Sunday evening. This was a wise choice, as it was completely empty and, judging by the roped queue areas we cut across, it must take hours to get up there when it’s busy. The observation deck gave us stunning views of the sparkling city stretched out below us but the bitingly cold wind that meant we could only stand it for a minute and scurried into the gift shop to buy skyline mugs and cocktail glasses. I’ll never forget it though.
Shops
I was a bad Christmas shopper. The main things I bought in New York were a pair of purple suede Camper boots and an old-style black and gold MTV t-shirt. Both for myself. Oops.
We planned to visit the famous stores. Our first was Macy’s, which we very quickly decided was just Debenhams on steroids and we hated it. There were queues for the escalators so we left after a few minutes.
Bloomingdales was more fun, including the restaurant, as was FAO Schwarz, where they had a fantastic selection of cool toys of the kind Aron loves, like Kid Robot and Ugly Dolls. We didn’t venture into Barneys, although we took pictures of the Charles and Camilla windows and spent a good half an hour in the Virgin Megastore and Toys R Us at Times Square.
It was such a short time to spend there that of course I’m going to feel like I didn’t get to do everything I wanted, but it was a wonderful gift and a fantastic taster that gives me enough knowledge to properly plan my next visit!
Food
When you’re somewhere as exciting as New York for less than three days, every moment is precious. It’s very easy to spend your time wondering if you’re doing the right thing. Perhaps you should be in the restaurant opposite or the next street along to get the full experience? So we were very pleased to have had great eating experiences! On Friday we encountered the Stage Deli, on 7th, a proper old Jewish New York deli, and somewhere renowned for its huge portions, even in NY. I had hot borscht followed by potato pancakes with apple-sauce and sour cream. And a giant gherkin. On Saturday we found Camaje, a tiny bistro in Greenwich Village, where the chef gave cookery classes, so the food was really excellent. And on Sunday, tired and not looking forward to getting up at 5am to catch our flight back to the UK, we found a great Italian place, opposite Carnegie Hall, where the waiter remembered my mum’s seven selection anti-pasti order without writing it down and my dad had the biggest slice of panettone I’ve ever seen.
Weather
Cold and bright on Saturday, we were surprised and delighted to find on Sunday morning that everything was covered in a couple of inches of snow. We forewent the ferry trip to see the Statue of Liberty in the belief that we’d all freeze and miserable so instead went for a crisp walk through Central Park. It was beautiful and we were entertained by horses and carts, fat squirrels and small children experiencing their first snow-ball fights. I also got Ma with one in the back. Heh heh heh.
People
Lizzie’s NY guide book opens with a joke, “Q. How many courteous New Yorkers does it take to change a light-bulb? A. Both of them.” If it’s true that New Yorkers are rude, then we barely saw it (apart from one girl in the Guggenheim Museum, but the less said about her the better!) and everyone was chatty, polite and friendly. All of our waiters wanted to talk, the shop staff were friendly and we chatted to all sorts of people. This, for my non-stop family, was perfect. The rudest people I encountered, in fact, were two British women getting out of the lift at the hotel.
Sights
After being used to London and small villages in England, I was unprepared for the long, straight streets of New York. Looking left from our hotel we could see Central Park and right we could Times Square with it’s huge buildings stretching up out of my camera screen. Just walking around New York was a sensory overdose that regularly took my whelm-levels to tipping point!
To see the whole city we visited the Empire State Building on Sunday evening. This was a wise choice, as it was completely empty and, judging by the roped queue areas we cut across, it must take hours to get up there when it’s busy. The observation deck gave us stunning views of the sparkling city stretched out below us but the bitingly cold wind that meant we could only stand it for a minute and scurried into the gift shop to buy skyline mugs and cocktail glasses. I’ll never forget it though.
Shops
I was a bad Christmas shopper. The main things I bought in New York were a pair of purple suede Camper boots and an old-style black and gold MTV t-shirt. Both for myself. Oops.
We planned to visit the famous stores. Our first was Macy’s, which we very quickly decided was just Debenhams on steroids and we hated it. There were queues for the escalators so we left after a few minutes.
Bloomingdales was more fun, including the restaurant, as was FAO Schwarz, where they had a fantastic selection of cool toys of the kind Aron loves, like Kid Robot and Ugly Dolls. We didn’t venture into Barneys, although we took pictures of the Charles and Camilla windows and spent a good half an hour in the Virgin Megastore and Toys R Us at Times Square.
It was such a short time to spend there that of course I’m going to feel like I didn’t get to do everything I wanted, but it was a wonderful gift and a fantastic taster that gives me enough knowledge to properly plan my next visit!
posted by Becky @ 11:27 am
1 Comments:
At 6:44 am,
Unknown said…
It is so nice to see that someone has comnmented on your Blog. Very encouraging to know someone has read ones ramblings.
Hurt beyond description when i realised my name is not listed in your blogfriends.
Love you
Post a Comment
<< Home