The Financial District in Lower Manhattan
Well I was back in New York City a few weeks ago although this time with some very different plans than my first trip there in February. While I did take some time to do some site seeing and take in some history, I also had a few other things planned: Shopping and Baseball.
No I did not go see the Late Show but the studio was just a 2 minute walk from my hotel
I got into New York on Monday night around 9:30pm and took my very first crack at driving in New York City. I stayed at the same Time Square hotel that I stayed at in February so knew where I was going but was still a little nervous. The nervousness very quickly went away because I quickly realized that it didn’t matter what I did on the road because everyone else is crazy. I could do whatever I wanted and as long as I didn't take the honking personally I just tried not to get hit and went where I needed to go. Really as long as you drive like a cab driver everything is just fine. The rules of the road do not apply in this city.
A stainless steel wall sculpture in Rockefeller Centre
On Tuesday morning I got up set to tackle my next challenge: the NYC subway system. Now I am from Calgary where transit in a word SUCKS and although I figured NYC mass transit had to be a lot better (really anything can be) I was not completely sure what to expect. What I got was the most helpful transit staff ever, the easiest transit map to read and cheap, fast transit to pretty much everywhere in the city. And while subway stations in New York are not air conditioned, all subway cars are so once you are on the train it actually was not completely unpleasant (let's face it I'm a nurse so the smell of urine really doesn't bother me). You will be happy to know that I never once got off at the wrong station and always ended up where I needed to be.From the subway I headed down to Canal Street.
Now I think Canal Street should be (if it isn’t already) as famous as Fifth Ave because you can buy some of the same stuff, just for a LOT less money. For those of you who have never had the pleasure, here’s how it goes. Basically within 2 minutes I heard the words I would be hearing a lot that day “Come buy, I make good price for you”. For reference, Canal Street is in Chinatown and English is not the first language of most shop owners. Basically I was standing on the corner waiting to cross the street when this nice lady came up to me and said “Are you looking for hand-bags”. I of course answered “yes, I’m looking for hand bags”. Her response was then “follow me”. At that point she lead me on a little 3-4 block walk that ened up at a run down looking building a block south of Canal Street. From there I followed her up 7 flights of very narrow, very hot stairs to a locked room. She had been on her cell phone for a while so the people on the other side of the door knew we were coming, which was good because the room is pretty much sound proof. I could not hear a thing when the door was closed although the room was filled with people. Inside the room it was wall to wall hand-bags. There was Prada and Chanel and Gucci and my new personal favourite Coach. Now these are not your good carbon copies, these were the real thing at much more reasonable prices. After some negotiations I bought a couple hand bags and then headed downstairs to see what else I could find on Canal. I had not made it down 2 flights when I was approached again “you looking for hand bags” I was still looking so I headed into another locked room to buy a few more.Back on the street I realized that everyone had hand bags to sell. I did hit a few more little places including a couple back rooms and a van. When all was said and done I had bought purses and wallets and skirts and shirts and a watch (all at very reasonable prices I might add). I eventually had to leave and head back to my hotel because I was buying way too much. It was the most fun I have had shopping in a good long time.
Me hanging out on Broadway...just down the street from my hotel
St. Patrick's Cathedral
I wandered back up to Time Square and then headed over to Grand Central Station.
I was very glad I did that on Tuesday because on Wednesday a water main broke (or as New Yorkers say, exploded) and the area was a complete mess. I am sure you will all be happy to know that I actually had no idea it had happened until a few hours after when I heard someone talking about it at the ball game. Grand Central is on the opposite side of time Square from where I was staying and off the subway lines I was traveling so it did not affect my trip one bit.
The Chrysler Building
Of course I didn’t just shop while in NYC. I did hit one museum as well. I was thinking of hitting more than one but it turns out I needed almost an entire day to see this one. I decided I would check out the American Museum of Natural History.
Look Mom....a Mammut...yep that's what the sign said so I am guessing that is what this is
I think this is a boy statue. This was in the People of the South Pacific exhibit. A very amazing exhibit. One of my favourites.
There were some really cool special exhibits as well including Mythic Creatures which was all about unicorns and dragons and mermaids and well mythic creatures from all parts of the world. It was really neat to see the history of some creatures that in certain cultures started out as stories to scare children but later became happy/fun characters in childrens books.
There was also a Frog exhibit with real live frogs including everything from poison dart frogs of the amazon to big huge american toads. These guys just kind of hung out. Not a tough life I think considering they live in a museum and have no predators.
Oh and then there was the Gold exhibit all about the history of gold. Very nice. I totally recommend this place to anyone who visits the city.
The Rose Centre for Earth and Space at the museum
No comments:
Post a Comment