Of NYC: Part III

My last full day in NYC was supposed to be filled with tours of the city. Of course, that's the one day it was miserably drizzling all day.

Nah, it wasn't that bad (what with me being a Vancouverite, a.k.a. I've spent the majority of my life in a drizzle very much like this one). In fact, I decided to be all tourist-y and check out Central Park before breakfast.

On the way, I happened to pass the completely and utterly majestic St. John the Divine Cathedral, which made me feel as if I were back in Europe. I had the opportunity to sing in Winchester Cathedral in England a couple of years back, and I know that Winchester has the longest nave in the world, but this cathedral seemed equally grandiose. Oh man, oh man, you know I love me some cathedrals. I would spend the whole summer just touring cathedrals in France and England if I could (except for the whole money issue ...) - but I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with the offerings of NYC.

By the time I made it to Central Park, it was 8ish and the runners were out in full force.

And I mean, holy crap, the runners were out in full force. I don't think I've ever seen that many people running (together, separately, in a group/pack/herd) outside of a race. This made me very excited, because obviously, I'll be joining these lovely people come September, and I do love some company (aka, I'm a scaredy cat); at the time, it also made me a little bit jumpy, because I was nearly run over by a running group, one of those little tractor thingies that the park rangers (?) use, and another running herd.

I know you'll be happy to note that I survived (although the emotional therapy will cost millions, millions I tell you!) by walking on the non-paved path by the reservoir.

Isn't it magical? Like an enchanted forest.

 One thing that did strike me (and thankfully it wasn't the tractor or the runners!) is how different it all was from what I imagined. I thought Central Park would be like a flat ... well, park. You know, with a mowed lawn and some paths and some pruned trees, much like the parks in Vancouver. But, really, it was a forest. And the hills! Man, for some unknown reason, I always thought that New York was flat, but that was absolutely NOT the case. Good thing I found out now and not during some sort of road race.

But back to the reservoir. The cherry blossoms were out in full force, so it was gorgeous (aside from the whole rain/mist/general dreariness thing).

All in all, it was very magical. Of course it also made me want to live on like Central Park West or something (?) so now I have to somehow become famous/rich enough to buy a place doing mah thing (how about a reality TV show about a computer scientist ... who doesn't know how to hack into anything just yet ... or do the weird hardware stuff where you make a router out of a paperclip, a magnet and some pennies? I'm sure if I dress up provocatively enough, we can make it work!).

I also spent the majority of the time in Central Park looking for that bridge that's in all the movies, but I seriously could NOT find it! I pride myself on my map-navigating skills (caveat: but if I have not seen a map of a place before, don't expect me to be able to tell left from right), but it just was not to be. So I got some unlucky tourist to take multiple photos of me at the closest bridge I could find.

I feel like carbs make my face puff up ... oh wait, they do! Probably not the best idea to ravage an Italian restaurant's menu the night before a photo shoot.

The poor thing had to stand there and take at least 15 photos while I worked on my pose. Lesson learned - pose at home in front of the mirror, perfect the pose, and then whip it out in public to diminish the time spent embarrassing self and strangers.

Anyway, somewhere in the middle of all the Central Park wandering, I met up with a group of other prospies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We had 1.5 hours there, and I think I managed to cover 1 collection (and yet somehow, I expected to be able to cover all of it ... I think all my fast running has gone to my head). So European Masters were conquered, and then I had to run and meet up with a friend at Columbus Circle. She was nice enough to show me around, and we hit up a ton of places (all of which happened to be food related ... I think by the end of the night, I was in the ninth month of my food baby pregnancy). First up was Epicerie Boulud (across from Met Opera), where we imbibed elderflower sparkling water and grilled cheese sandwiches with some fancy greens in them. I definitely felt fancy and all gourmet-like, and so did my wallet. And by fancy, I mean my wallet felt empty. And then we walked around the Upper West Side for a bit and stopped by Melissa's Bakery for mini cupcakes. Oh and then we stopped for coffee at some other cute cafe.

Of course then we had to exercise off all of this delicious food, so we had a nice 2-block sprint for the bus. And by blocks, I don't mean those tiny hey-the-next-cross-street-is-10-feet-away kind of blocks, I mean the kind where you can't even see the next crossstreet; in any case, it was extremely epic, and would've been more so if I wasn't carrying a cup of hot tea that tended to splash around. A lot. I think after that sprint, I realized that the whole carb-loading thing doesn't work unless you also practice running a lot, because man, oh, man, my throat was burning and my legs were unhappy and my arms were WAY too exhausted from carrying my cup of tea.

Thus fatigued, we arrived on the Upper East Side, home of all sorts of fancy stores. We strolled past Oscar de la Renta, actually went into Ralph Lauren, and gazed with sadness and desire at the huge lineup at Laduree Macarons. I love you macarons, but I will not wait in a 30 person lineup for you. By that time, I realized that I had to be back in the Times Square area, so we walked into some station at Lexington and 52nd (?), where I was hoping to take the F train downtown. But thanks to the construction and other NYC train related mishaps, I did not quite end up there.

Yup, I ended up having to take the F-train way WAY far into Queens, just to be able to take the F train downtown. Let's just say, I never want to go to Queens again. Ever. It is a far far away place, like Narnia, except you want to go to Narnia and it's way easier to get to Narnia.

I think I was 1.5 hours late for the dinner thing (it was at Joe's Pizzeria) but it was buffet style, so I managed to snag me some pizza and some ricotta stuffed bread.

O. M.G.
The ricotta stuffed bread. I ... I can't even talk. It was like amazingness melting in my mouth. I'm pretty sure I had the entire load (which probably contained about a pound of cheese). Not. Even. Sorry. (But the pizza was meh). Thus ended my fabulous trip to NYC. Actually, no, it ended back in Montreal on Sunday night after 12 HOURS of travel (thank you 'fogginess and cloudiness' in Philly, where I had a connection, thank you US Airways for having that stupid connection in the first place - I mean, I had to go SOUTH to Philly, just to fly up NORTH to Montreal, thank you missed connection, thank you rebooked flight 2-hours-later where a floorboard was broken, no wait thank you for the broken FLOOR, thank you changed gate and delayed flight and thank you huge taxi line at the Montreal airport which made me take the bus shuttle downtown). Actually the last one wasn't half bad, but it did take longer. I think I came home ready to just die.

Now I have to say, I've been told horror stories about New York (muggings, dirtyness, unkind people), and .... I found it all to be wrong. The whole people walking fast and not slowing down thing? THANK GOD. I hate slow walking people. I am walking to GET SOMEWHERE and if you're walking slow, I now have to speedwalk on the street just to pass you. So I totally feel ya, New Yorkers. The whole not paying attention to you? Well duh, I'm walking fast. Also sometimes I have heels and shades and music on, so I'm just strutting down the street and I'm not looking for people to throw off my stride. The dirtyness? Well, I confess, the Times Square area was a little bit, but otherwise, uptown was quite nice (up until Harlem. Harlem is scary and dirty and I refuse to go there). And thankfully, I avoided muggings even though my first night in NYC, I ended up taking the wrong train and had to walk 7 blocks in weird alleys in the dark before I caved and got a taxi. Turns out, I was about 2 blocks from my hotel at that point, but I was out of my wits.

Also, cabs are fabulous. Mine had TVs IN THE BACK SEAT. So exciting. Definitely most exciting part of NYC, hands down.