By the third day, I'd gotten into a little bit of a routine. Awake after a mostly restless sleep and wonder why someone had been punching my legs all night long. Realise that it was due to the fact I'd walked 500 miles the day before, then get up and showered. Escape the confines of the hostel and make my way to the next coffee shop on my long list. This morning it was 9th Street Espresso, reportedly the best in the city by quite a number of people and sites, I was quite excited. On the walk, two tasty visual morsels greeted me, brightening my day.
But after a while (and a brief walk through a turd hole), I arrived.
Ordered and received this (although, in real life, it wasn't quite as oddly yellow looking).
The rest of the morning was spent wandering a little more around the east village and then to the lower east side. One thing I did notice everywhere is these signs. And they irritated me significantly. New York has too many rules and signs telling you what to do everywhere.
C.C. Renta! Plus pointy hat dog walking man.
Of course, a drag show theatre and a funeral home. Perfect neighbours.
Gluten Freeness
After the disaster of the day before, I went pretty much straight away to Pala Pizzeria. Its a regular restaurant and they definitely do gluten free all the time, so, they should be open and I could get the famed Gluten Free Pizza, plus I'd been told it was one of the best. I arrived there around 12.30, middle of lunch time, and this is what greeted me.
Yep, you guessed it. It was closed. There was no sign of anyone inside and no clue as to what there actual opening hours were, just a couple of magazine articles telling me how amazing they were. Fuck them, useless twats.
At this point I was pretty worn out from both the previous day and the mornings walkings and the jetlag gremlins were making their way back into my skull. Fortuntely there were two places that saved me. The first was another partially gluten free bakery.
If you can't read it, yes, its called Babycakes. Walking inside of it is like stepping inside of a ukulele playing girl's mind (infact, my balls poofed out of existence just from being there). But, they did make a rather good zimt donut, yum (again, lack of photos due to fact that eating dounts is better than taking photos of donuts). This fended off the jetlags for a little while, but more importantly made me feel very homery as I've not eaten a donut in a very long time.
Partially fueled by my dount, i traipsed back up to the east village, all the while crying and whailing to anyone that would listen that I may never eat a gluten free pizza for the rest of my life (people were sympathetic).
But, in my final hour, I found this place. And was saved. Behold, Cafe Mogador.
I was seated in its rather busy dining room, perused the menu and ordered myself an apple cider (I don't care if it was only early afternoon, holiday time is alcoholic time). Although when it arrived, it was very flat and murky and seemingly very limited in alcohol content.
45% happier and fuller, I set off on one of my main sights to see in New York. The Ghostbusters firehouse! OMFG!!
I was quite excited to see the place, I mean, a huge portion of my childhood was taken up with everything and anything to do with Ghostbusters, I even built myself a fully working proton pack out of cardboard and lots of wires (ok, so it may of just been lightbulbs and not a proton stream shooting out, but it was close enough for the 10 year old me). Now, this is the actual place, THE headquarters of THE ghostbusters! But, again, it was a little underwhelming, where were the stands selling ghostbusters crap? Where's Ecto 1 screaming into the place? Where's Bill Murray, why doesn't he camp out there to greet fans? Meh. But, yes, it was still freaking ace.
Afterwards, it was time to walk and explore more, this time around the lower west side and all its cool buildings.
Now this is my absolute favourite building in New York. Look at it. Its like some giant obsidian command tower for keeping the ignorant populous in place. Awesome.
Afternoon Coffeeing
As you may of guessed (routine is good remember) it was time for an afternoon coffee, my choice for the lower west was RBC (directly opposite my favourite overloard building). Tiny and not what you would think of as a good coffee place, but it was the first to have actual comfy chairs to sit on and read.
The coffee itself was rather good, around an 8 out of 10 and in a nice big cup for slow drinking.
For some reason I can't quite fathom, for entertainment they had two tv's. One with CNN on (ok). The other with a live feed from the pool next door. The pool for the dog exercise centre (yes, they exist). So during my entire coffee experience there was a woman in a pool with a small dog swimming it around in the doggy equivalent of arm bands. Doesn't get much better than that.
After basking in the comfy chair for a while I moved on down through the financial district, the only time i stopped was to take this pic.
That was it. The sum total of things to see down there. And to be honest, the only thing I was thinking when stood there was "hmm, is that the little corridor of buildings that Godzilla munched his was down in the rather crappy but fun 1998 americanised broderick version of the film?".
Next on the walk southward was the former site of the World Trade Centre.
This place left me feeling a little odd. Not because of what happened there, but the shear number of people posing for photos infront of and the touristy gaudiness of it all. But, saying all this, I was walking past it taking a photo, so who am I to judge.
After a little longer though, I'd arrived at my destination.
Next on the walk southward was the former site of the World Trade Centre.
This place left me feeling a little odd. Not because of what happened there, but the shear number of people posing for photos infront of and the touristy gaudiness of it all. But, saying all this, I was walking past it taking a photo, so who am I to judge.
After a little longer though, I'd arrived at my destination.
If you don't recognise it, its the Staten Island Ferry. Apparently something one should ride, its free and is interesting and such. I pretty much walked in, walked on and it set off. Awesome timing.
I quickly made my way to the front of the boat and discovered out on the water it was around -30degC and there was a force 500 gale blowing. But me and a few other hard Newyorker types toughted it out. Turned out to be well worth it.
I even saw the statue of liberty. Although it was much much much smaller than I thought it would be. Like, tiny (and yes, I understand what perspective is, I know its bigger than 2cm).
I escaped back onto the mainland.
Jumped on the train and realised I was really hungry and fooking tired.
Then. Out of the blue, like a flash, the waitress plonked down this glass with two stick things in it. I was about to protest that I'm gluten intollerent when I realised I was infact in Gluten Free restaurant. She sensed this and smugly boasted that they were infact, Gluten Free! They were quite yum.
Hence why theres a big bite out of one of them before the picture was even taken. (be thankful they lasted long enough to have a photo taken of them).
Then. I waited.
And waited.
And then. It arrived.
Although i was intreauged as to what a Winkie was (in England, a Winkie is what a small boy would call his little manhood).
I moved on to my favourite bar/cafe again.
Ordered a bottle of Cider.
Robot Giraffes.
I even saw the statue of liberty. Although it was much much much smaller than I thought it would be. Like, tiny (and yes, I understand what perspective is, I know its bigger than 2cm).
Proof I was there.
On the way back it was just as the sun was going down so I got some great shots of the skyline.
I escaped back onto the mainland.
Me, "Fooking Tired".
At Last!
But, I had a plan. I wasn't giving up on the dream that is Gluten Free Pizza. I headed north to Risottea again. This time the motherfuckers were open. I sat. Ordered a cup o coco, a Pizza, and waited.
Then. Out of the blue, like a flash, the waitress plonked down this glass with two stick things in it. I was about to protest that I'm gluten intollerent when I realised I was infact in Gluten Free restaurant. She sensed this and smugly boasted that they were infact, Gluten Free! They were quite yum.
Then. I waited.
And waited.
And then. It arrived.
Now, don't get me wrong here, it was rather yummy indeed. But, I think the pizza had a case of the obama about it. Not its fault, but it could never live up to the expectations I'd set out for it. Still, I left feeling full and quite happy. I didn't even have room for desert.
I moved on to my favourite bar/cafe again.
HARD!
Had a wee drinky and then at the end of the night, stumbled homeward.
The journey was mostly uneventful. I just tried my best to not fall asleep/mong out on the train like this girl.
No comments:
Post a Comment