Good morning New York! This is what Times Square looks like in the morning. Frankly, it’s not as good, a little tacky.
Al, I took this picture for you!
First up on the agenda was to see Central Park which was only a 15 minute walk away.
What I thought was really cool was the great divide between Central Park and the rest of New York.
Once at Central Park, we took a walk around enjoying the serenity of it all.
I was really excited about seeing the Bethesda fountain.
I recognised the Bethesda terrace from a recent movie I watched. Where in the centre a guy gets confronted by a bad person, then multiple assassins step out from each of the pillars, they all shoot the one guy then disappear back around the pillars. It was a cool movie although the name of it escapes me at the moment…. wait…. John Wick. Good movie, watch it.
So gross!
I took a picture of the bridge because you can totally imagine someone being killed here at night. Walking around Central Park, I can understand why it gets so dangerous at night, it feels like you’re so far away from the city sometime although you’re probably only a 5 minute high speed run away from other people.
The Boathouse is an iconic restaurant and I was told to go there and have a glass of champagne. However, the champagne was ridiculously expensive so Josh and I settled for just using the toilets.
Next up, the lake where Stuart Little rides that boat in that boat race in the movie.
When we emerged from Central Park onto 5th avenue, this is the sight that met us.
It turns out it was the 5th Avenue Mile run. Lots of people in disgustingly nice sportswear being very happy about running in the morning. Yugh! Josh and I got out of there quick sticks.
At this point, we got hungry and wanted brunch. We found a place called Little Collins. I read about this in the Melbourne Broadsheet. This restaurant represents a wave of Melbourne-style cafes opening in the US bringing good coffee and Melbourne brunch to America.
The cafe even had a Melbourne Little Collins St sign in it! The food was nice BUT it wasn’t a Melbourne brunch. First we squeezed into this tiny little area where you stood on top of people eating to order your food. While you waited for your food, you eye-balled the people eating to see if you could pounce on their table. Josh and I managed to grab one just before our food arrived. Then because other people were standing around staring at us, we scoffed our meals down. I swear to god, I gave myself indigestion eating so fast. There was no “one coffee, have your breakfast, have another coffee, maybe some tea”. We were in and out in 20 mins. Ah well, I guess if I want to do brunch right, I’ll come home.
After ‘brunch’, we walked back to our hotel taking in the sights.
Along the way we found Bryant park which I remember from an episode of Person of Interest. Where they attempt to protect someone in the park and that person ends up getting shot from one of the surrounding buildings.
We went back to our hotel and got ready for our show.
Kinky Boots!!!! I loved the movie and the story behind it. I was so excited to see it. All the music is written by Cyndi Lauper. The theatre we were in was also beautiful.
After the show, Josh and I headed straight out for food. We found a great bar called The Ten Bells and yay, they had a Happy Hour!
Josh and I put away two dozen oysters. It was glorious. Then we walked around for a bit and I saw a great little place with a neon sign that said BAR. This turned out to be a great Cajun restaurant.
After this, it really was time to go home. We walked for what seemed like ages (about an hour) where I decided it was time to take a (toilet) break. So we stopped at…. this place?
But not to worry, we still had room for a snack….
and a night cap.
When we left this place I saw that we were still an hour’s walk from home so I insisted on taking an uber. Josh very kindly agreed and we zipped home.
I was exhausted when we got back to the hotel and crashed. Didn’t have a great sleep because our bed and pillows were like giant marshmallows. I was so tired I didn’t care. All I could think was my poor feet. I had a look on my iPhone and it said I did 22,788 steps on this day. Great, walked off all the calories I drank and ate. Win!
Talk soon,
Sim
