New York Summary

Written on August 19^th at 11:00 pm

Although I think I’ve experienced nearly everything a tourist must need to see in Manhattan, I’m sad to leave New York, as I know there is so much more to see and do in this huge city. I am currently sitting in the JFK       airport waiting for longer than expected as our flight to Frankfurt was just delayed… right on. It actually feels great to just sit and hang out in my greasy, off the street I <3 NY hoodie after always having somewhere to go this past week. I’m looking forward to getting myself to Europe and comparing their lifestyle to the crazy, crowded and busy one we’ve been living this past week.

Buuuuut… Before I do that, let me just give you my top 10 highlights of the week:

1.       The Shopping: I love to shop and I did quite a bit of it this week. The NBC store at Rockefeller Center was a dangerous place for this Office fan on a budget to be, so I had to limit myself to the Cousin Mose t-shirt and the Schrute Farms Christmas tree ornament. I also invested some money in a kaleidoscope from the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop… It’s like an acid trip inside a cardboard tube, not that I know what that’s like, but I imagine it to be pretty much the same type of experience.

2.       Times Square: The first night of our trip we stopped in Times Square. It was beautiful, and like I’ve said before it looks so much more amazing in its neon, LED flesh compared to pictures or in film. It is so bright and so big, you can’t even imagine it. The crowds and the shops and the excitement were such a cool vibe to be a part of and really got me stoked on the week. We visited it multiple times this week and it never got old. Love it lots.

3.       Central Park: It is such an amazing thing to me that in the midst of hazy, sweaty, polluted New York, there can be such a large space of sheer, green beauty. The architecture inside the park itself is beautiful too, and I loved everything I saw. There was water, and boat races, and buskers and park benches with cute dedications, and bikers, and puppies, and frizbees, and sunshine… What is there not to like about Central Park? One of the highlights within this highlight was seeing the Imagine Circle in Strawberry Fields. I am a pretty big Beatles fan, as well as a fan of John Lennon specifically, so it was really cool for me to see the memorial for him, where people still place letters around the circle. All in all, I wish I could have spent more time in the park and definitely plan to visit again someday.

4.       The Empire State Building: It was beautiful, besides the vom on the ground supplied by a tourist afraid of heights. We went at nighttime which was definitely the best choice, because the lights on the bridges and from Times Square were magical and the view was a lot more colourful than it would have been during the day time. Plus it looked like the scene from ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ which was awesome ‘cause I kind of love Tom Hanks. 

5.       The Subway: It’s dirty, it’s greasy, it’s filthy, but it’s legit. It’s one of the few things I did this week that made me feel like a local and not a dorky tourist. One of my favourite “waiting for the subway games” to play this week was deciding which stylish business woman’s outfit I would steal. Do I like the half-pony? The pencil skirt with the bright yellow shoes? The horned rimmed glasses and the high bun? Oh to be a working lady in NYC, it sounds so glamorous.

6.       Witnessing a real-life ‘Almost Famous’ moment: I loooooove the movie Almost Famous. I would go as far as calling it my favourite movie. I witnessed something this week that could almost be a deleted scene straight from the film, and I have to include it as one of my favourite moments. Basically, when we were in Times Square starting to make our way to Rockefeller  we saw a black suburban pull up to the curb and saw a tall, long-haired gentleman jump out in his skinny jeans with a camera pointed up at a billboard exclaiming the phrase “Holy f*ck!”  After a further examination of the billboard, we saw the cover of a Rollingstone magazine featuring the band The Sheepdogs as the first unsigned band to be on the cover. It was so cool to see such a milestone moment for a small band take place before my very eyes. So great.

7.       The celebrity sightings: As much as my family hates me for making them come with me, standing out front of a theatre for an hour with my fellow Daniel Radcliffe stalkers was a blast. Hearing the screams of girls as he came out of the building was awesome and trying to take his picture was a frustrating yet fun challenge similar to the feeling you get when playing Frogger, but at the same time not really at all… We also went to the Broadway Musical Production of Spiderman with T.V. Carpio from Across the Universe, so not really a celebrity sighting but still cool, right? Also, mom claims to have seen Jeffery Tamborn who plays George Bluth Senior in Arrested Development, but I can’t really say if it was him for sure, because instead of pointing him out mom just hit me and pointed at the back of a biking man’s head and shouted “There’s always money in the Banana Stand!” Haha, it was funny.

8.       The people: From the employees at Guy & Gallard’s who practically memorized our breakfast orders by the end of the week, to our Suburban driver Kareem who drove us and our 11 pieces of large luggage to and from the airports this week, to the foul mouthed street vendors,  to the obscenely annoying bus tour guides, there were many memorable characters and people that we met this week who made it a little more fun.

9.       The food: Street food is sketchy, but an experience none the less. Soft pretzels and gyros and New York style pizza are everywhere and as much as I don’t recommend it, it is definitely an experience. The best thing we’ve had all week was at an actual restaurant in Times Square called Carmine’s where I ate most likely the best Italian food you can eat outside of Italy. Seriously, I don’t care how bad the Caesar salad made my breath smell… It was magnificent.

10.   The fam: Sometimes they drove me nuts. Lauren liked to sleep on top of me rather than on her side of the pull out couch, Adam would have sporadic nosebleeds and guilt trip me with the whole “I waited in a crowd of a billion people so you could take a picture of Daniel Crapcliffe”, Mom would get mad at me for being a slob and not putting in 100% effort to keep my suitcase organized, and Dad would sometimes make rude comments loud enough for other people to hear. But I love them, and there aren’t any other people I would rather be with on this wild adventure.

So there ya have it. It’s weird to think that we still have 4 full months of adventure left, and I’m really excited for it all. It will be nice to get settled in Ghent and have a little bit of a home there for a while. I can’t wait to see what these next days and weeks and months are gonna bring, but if it’s anything like this last week it’s going to be amazing. Ahh, Dad just brought me coffee as we’re almost ready to board the plane. I look like such a legit writer right now with my little computer and my coffee… Someday someone will be paid to bring me coffee while I write. ;) Just kidding, not really though.

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we make our way to Ghent!

Ps. My mum just informed me that our bog posts about New York might be siimilar, and I want you to know that this is all my original stuff, and I have suspicions that she might have been reading what I was writing over my shoulder and gotten jealous of my rad blogging skills. Just so you know. Haha