So, if you read my last post you'll know that we had a bit of a rocky start in the wondrous NYC. Once we had woken up, things got better very quickly.
The first worry that we had was that we were staying in a really seedy place. When Elizabeth went to shower (in a shared bathroom) and discovered that almost everyone she bumped into was a young adult or teenager. It was just a normal backpackers. First and biggest worry - gone. That and a good nights sleep had set the day off to be at least an okay day. The discovery of free wifi in the hostel was an excellent mood booster as well. Though a little surprising since our much more expensive hotel in Orlando didn't have free wifi in the rooms. Although our hostel in Orlando did - maybe that's a just a thing hostels do here.
After a quick google maps we discovered it was only going to take us about 15 minutes to get to times square from our hotel if we caught the subway. We decided today was the day for exploring!
Stepping outside onto the streets of New York in the day time is a lot less scary than night time. We're staying in China town and it really does remind me of an upper class Bangladesh. There are major differences, of course, like the roads being more than dirt and the fact that there at least seems to be some regard for road rules (though not much) but the smell is the same, the little shops with vegetables and fish sitting outside seem the same. There is just something about it. Apart from the fact that it is dirty and crowded, china town is fine - the feeling of being legitimately scared completely passed (though I still would not like to walk around at 2:00am here).
The subway was actually pretty much exactly how I pictured it - dirty, but fine. It was cheaper than expected which is good since Taxis seem to be expensive and take much longer to get anywhere. We caught it to Times Square and started our adventure.
The first thing I noticed when we reached the surface was the amount of cabs on the roads. at least 50% of cars are cabs. I used to think that in movies it was silly that they could always catch a cab so quickly - but no. Not in New York city. You be hard pressed to go thirty seconds without seeing one. I am in no way joking.
Both of us were hungry so the first stop was anywhere with food. We came across a small food court. We got pizza from a little place called the Villa and I would give them at least a B for their food. It was very good. No longer being hungry also improved our moods ten fold.
We wanted to find the actual square of times square so we just sort of started walking and imagined that we'd end up there eventually. After going in what I think must have been the wrong direction for a while we came across an information centre. An information centre like none that I had ever seen before. There were flashing lights and big glowing balls and it was really quite large. There was a vending machine with this ice cream that wasn't ice cream and I don't even know how to explain it but it tasted good.
We didn't actually get very much information from the centre and just kept on wondering. We managed to stumble into the biggest Disney store I have ever seen. Then all my dreams came true and my inner little child completely took over. As soon as you walk into the disney store you hear the wonderful music of walt disney, see the characters being projected onto giant white trees and hundreds and hundreds of plushies. That is basically the entire downstairs. At this point I was excited, very excited and we spent maybe fifteen minutes downstairs just gawking at things and then we saw an escalator and curiosity took over as we thought "we'll come back down soon anyway".
The song "I see the light" from tangled was playing as we went up to the next floor and something I was not expecting came into view and almost sent me into tears. The Disney castle. It was right there. Absolutely surrounded by all the Disney Princess merchandise I could have imagined.
I think most people know that I love Disney - but I don't think people realise just how much. They don't know how many hours of my childhood were spent dreaming about Disney and watching Disney. I know that a lot of girls are the same - but this love has carried through and I still love it just as much, if not even more now.
If I had've been in this store with someone who wasn't into Disney I probably would have just sent them out, or told them to leave me alone. I was in my happy place of all happy places. Elizabeth, thank goodness, understands how flipping amazing this place was. The first half an hour at least was just spent gasping at every little thing that was even remotely cool. We were both so overwhelmed. I could go into every little detail about this store but I won't - I have already spent four paragraphs talking about it. Just know that is was amazing.
After at least two hours spent in the place where dreams come true we decided we should keep on exploring the city. Something weird about New York is that when you're inside a shop you're so oblivious of your surroundings and then you step outside and see the abundance of flashing billboards and then remember "Oh yeah, that's right, I'm in New York City". We found a lot of other stores, including MnM world which is three stories high. We need to go back there because we really didn't look around that much. So much merchandise for chocolate. It's crazy.
By that time we were getting thirsty and wanting to sit down after walking around for several hours so we went looking for a cafe. Everywhere was super busy and then we came across a little diner. An actual diner. We walked inside. AN ACTUAL SINGING FIFTIES STYLE DINER WHERE THE STAFF ACTUALLY SING. We were seated and were in there about 5 minutes before we discovered that you had to spend a certain amount of money there to actually order. We are on a tight budget and weren't hungry so we left. We plan on going back there though. It was fairly amazing.
We ended up retreating to good old McDonalds and having something to drink there. Elizabeth made the glorious discovery that you could get what we worked out to be about a litre of iced tea for 1.09c. Somehow by that time it had become about 5:00pm. Looking across the road we saw what was going to be our plans for the night. A billboard advertising the broadway show "Mamma Mia".
We had dinner at Maccas and then went to the first Broadway show I would ever see. It was excellent. The whole show was done very well and the cast was just spectacular. My only complaint is that it wasn't "real" musical theatre music. I knew this going in, of course, but it didn't feel like broadway - just because it's ABBA music, not theatre music. I honestly have nothing to complain about though, the show was excellent. We caught the subway home and so concluded our first day in New York. I love this city.
The first worry that we had was that we were staying in a really seedy place. When Elizabeth went to shower (in a shared bathroom) and discovered that almost everyone she bumped into was a young adult or teenager. It was just a normal backpackers. First and biggest worry - gone. That and a good nights sleep had set the day off to be at least an okay day. The discovery of free wifi in the hostel was an excellent mood booster as well. Though a little surprising since our much more expensive hotel in Orlando didn't have free wifi in the rooms. Although our hostel in Orlando did - maybe that's a just a thing hostels do here.
After a quick google maps we discovered it was only going to take us about 15 minutes to get to times square from our hotel if we caught the subway. We decided today was the day for exploring!
Stepping outside onto the streets of New York in the day time is a lot less scary than night time. We're staying in China town and it really does remind me of an upper class Bangladesh. There are major differences, of course, like the roads being more than dirt and the fact that there at least seems to be some regard for road rules (though not much) but the smell is the same, the little shops with vegetables and fish sitting outside seem the same. There is just something about it. Apart from the fact that it is dirty and crowded, china town is fine - the feeling of being legitimately scared completely passed (though I still would not like to walk around at 2:00am here).
The subway was actually pretty much exactly how I pictured it - dirty, but fine. It was cheaper than expected which is good since Taxis seem to be expensive and take much longer to get anywhere. We caught it to Times Square and started our adventure.
The first thing I noticed when we reached the surface was the amount of cabs on the roads. at least 50% of cars are cabs. I used to think that in movies it was silly that they could always catch a cab so quickly - but no. Not in New York city. You be hard pressed to go thirty seconds without seeing one. I am in no way joking.
Both of us were hungry so the first stop was anywhere with food. We came across a small food court. We got pizza from a little place called the Villa and I would give them at least a B for their food. It was very good. No longer being hungry also improved our moods ten fold.
We wanted to find the actual square of times square so we just sort of started walking and imagined that we'd end up there eventually. After going in what I think must have been the wrong direction for a while we came across an information centre. An information centre like none that I had ever seen before. There were flashing lights and big glowing balls and it was really quite large. There was a vending machine with this ice cream that wasn't ice cream and I don't even know how to explain it but it tasted good.
We didn't actually get very much information from the centre and just kept on wondering. We managed to stumble into the biggest Disney store I have ever seen. Then all my dreams came true and my inner little child completely took over. As soon as you walk into the disney store you hear the wonderful music of walt disney, see the characters being projected onto giant white trees and hundreds and hundreds of plushies. That is basically the entire downstairs. At this point I was excited, very excited and we spent maybe fifteen minutes downstairs just gawking at things and then we saw an escalator and curiosity took over as we thought "we'll come back down soon anyway".
The song "I see the light" from tangled was playing as we went up to the next floor and something I was not expecting came into view and almost sent me into tears. The Disney castle. It was right there. Absolutely surrounded by all the Disney Princess merchandise I could have imagined.
I think most people know that I love Disney - but I don't think people realise just how much. They don't know how many hours of my childhood were spent dreaming about Disney and watching Disney. I know that a lot of girls are the same - but this love has carried through and I still love it just as much, if not even more now.
If I had've been in this store with someone who wasn't into Disney I probably would have just sent them out, or told them to leave me alone. I was in my happy place of all happy places. Elizabeth, thank goodness, understands how flipping amazing this place was. The first half an hour at least was just spent gasping at every little thing that was even remotely cool. We were both so overwhelmed. I could go into every little detail about this store but I won't - I have already spent four paragraphs talking about it. Just know that is was amazing.
After at least two hours spent in the place where dreams come true we decided we should keep on exploring the city. Something weird about New York is that when you're inside a shop you're so oblivious of your surroundings and then you step outside and see the abundance of flashing billboards and then remember "Oh yeah, that's right, I'm in New York City". We found a lot of other stores, including MnM world which is three stories high. We need to go back there because we really didn't look around that much. So much merchandise for chocolate. It's crazy.
By that time we were getting thirsty and wanting to sit down after walking around for several hours so we went looking for a cafe. Everywhere was super busy and then we came across a little diner. An actual diner. We walked inside. AN ACTUAL SINGING FIFTIES STYLE DINER WHERE THE STAFF ACTUALLY SING. We were seated and were in there about 5 minutes before we discovered that you had to spend a certain amount of money there to actually order. We are on a tight budget and weren't hungry so we left. We plan on going back there though. It was fairly amazing.
We ended up retreating to good old McDonalds and having something to drink there. Elizabeth made the glorious discovery that you could get what we worked out to be about a litre of iced tea for 1.09c. Somehow by that time it had become about 5:00pm. Looking across the road we saw what was going to be our plans for the night. A billboard advertising the broadway show "Mamma Mia".
We had dinner at Maccas and then went to the first Broadway show I would ever see. It was excellent. The whole show was done very well and the cast was just spectacular. My only complaint is that it wasn't "real" musical theatre music. I knew this going in, of course, but it didn't feel like broadway - just because it's ABBA music, not theatre music. I honestly have nothing to complain about though, the show was excellent. We caught the subway home and so concluded our first day in New York. I love this city.
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