Return to New York - Day 5

Image by Ginger DJ via FlickrIts Easter Sunday and we'd always planned to see the Easter Bonnet Parade up at Fifth Avenue. With cash getting short we attempt to buy a cheap breakfast. It was an even harder challenge as we couldn't really find anywhere open until we came across PAX Wholesome Foods. With a name like that we expected something special however it was possibly the worse pre-packed breakfast yet with the majority being thrown in the bin and we were overcharged.

We arrived at Fifth Avenue with crowds swelling around a number of posers with their bonnets. As we got deeper into the crowds the hats got better and more TV crews interviewing the owners. The guy (pictured) in the wedding dress within the slideshow below drew particular attention though I wouldn't say he was wearing a bonnet as such but his pet parrot. Judging from the activity on Flickr this guy is a regular at any public parade.




Everyone was in high spirits and those wearing the bonnets were happy to be photographed. After reaching the end of Fifth Avenue the sun had come out and was beginning to be a beautiful warm day. We walked into Central Park via the zoo. Another cheap meal lesson we should have learned from the last time was the Boathouse Cafe. The burgers and chips were worse than McDonalds. We kept saying to ourselves that the Buddakan booking would save our tastebuds later.

We settled on a good spot watching the local Morris dancers (WTF?!) and breakdancing crew entertaining the crowds. Accompanied with a full drumkit, there were about 12 dancers all contributing to the show. The mistake they made though was taking far too long to build up to their big finale. After 15 minutes of joking and some audience participation we walked away losing their potential cash tips.

Buddakan restaurant
The restaurant booking was quite early for 7:00pm so got back to the hotel early (with some sunburn). Buddakan is based Chelsea so we took a cab. The entrance was a little unassuming and actaully looked closed no-one going in or coming out. However as we enetered and walked around the corner it turned out to have a huge reception with 6 staff, a large bar and waiting room, and a cavernous main banquet room with multiple corridors and other sections. The decor was like a stylish Asian, opium den with mood lighting and the food was an Asian-mix with both achieving the desired result - romantic and delicious. It certainly made up for the day's food disappointments and clarified that New York can serve up the best food if you're prepared to pay for it. I'd say it was one of the best meals we've ever had.

Related articles

• Easter Parade in New York City Sunday April 24th, 2011 (cadogan1.wordpress.com)
• Colorful Hats March Down Fifth Avenue This Easter (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Buddakan, New York ♥ ♥ ♥ (westaurant.wordpress.com)

Return to New York - Day 4

Image by Ginger DJ via FlickrSaturday and the weather is wet. For breakfast we head uptown to Broadway for some breakfast by taxi. The Red Flame Diner was a favourite the last time we visited New York. being a weekend and raining it was busy but only for the more than 2 per party suckers so waltzed in for an instant table. Made the mistake of not having French Toast but went for the yoghurt and granola. The yoghurt had the consistency of whipped cream, not that pleasant.

We wanted to see a Broadway show in the evening so poped along to a ticket agent, the Times Square Visitor Center. Nothing on at a bargain so bought seats for Phantom of the Opera at top price for our evening's entertainment. Before leaving, Kerry made the smart choice of buying our Guggenheim museum entry tickets. For the same price as on the door and no booking fee we overtook the round the block queue who were getting drenched in the rain (couldn't help laughing at that one).

The Solomon R. Guggenheim museum is definitely an impressive building. The current exhibition wasn't that inspiring though with modernist/cubist artists on show. The side galleries hosted a 'Found in Translation' exhibition which was more interesting with multimedia. Kerry spotted Andy Warhol's ghost as we rested in the cafe but our tracking skills failed us to find him (or his lookalike) again.

The Wright Restaurant (pictured) just at the back of the museum was a culinery treat for lunch. Like its main building the decor was pure white but with a dash of coloured strips. The food also were a rich gallery of masterpieces to behold and tasted amazing. Bit pricey but hey, we deserved it.

After lunch we headed into Central Park since the rain had stopped.

We give the hotel bar a visit for some pre-show drinks and snack. The portions were huge and regretted buying one too many portions. Another taxi for the Majestic Theatre in Broadway and the crowds were really building as it seemed everyone was heading for a show. The theatre was quite impressive and the show itsel was amazing. I really thought it was going to be a cheesy affair since I try to steer clear of Lloyd-Webber TV related stuff. The first scene was set up the darkness of the story very well as the chandellier came alive being pulled to the ceiling. The decent to the catacombs and punting through the dry-ice was also very impressive. But it was the animatronic skull mask worn by the Phantom and masquerade scene that really left an impression on me.

After the show we walked back through the buzzing crowds back to the hotel. There were an army of police waiting in their cars enroute. I really thought US movies and TV shows exaggerated the convoy of cop cars but they really do it with 10 cars blarring their sirens off to the next crime-scene or chase.

Return to New York - Day 3

Image by Ginger DJ via FlickrBreakfast took a little more time to hunt down. I really wanted another French Toast fatboy breakfast and eventually stumbled across a Belgian cafe called Markt down 6th Avenue. The waitress giggled to herself when we said 'cheers' as in thanking her for taking our order.

Not ferry good views
We didn't have that much planned apart from doing the Staten Island ferry crossing so headed downtown. Kerry prepared herself for the boatride with some motion sickness pills. Although it wasn't raining, yesterday's wind had taken a chillier turn and was bitingly cold especially as we exited the subway for the ferry terminal. Quite a few people were taking advantage of the Good Friday holiday and looked like the boat wouldn't be big enough for us. Still we all piled on with the majority onto the Statue of Liberty side with the ferry having a noticeable pitch to the side. The cold wind really made things uncomfortable plus the dull grey clouds covering Manhattan and people hogging the sides made photography pointless. It took about 20 minutes to reach the other side then we all had to wait until the next ferry as we weren't allowed to stay onboard (to make it fair for the commuters). Another scramble around the terminal and a wait for 20 minutes. We had no interest in standing outside or the views so kept warm inside. Also Kerry's motion sickness pills made her feel spaced out and drowsy, poor thing.

Time Out for planning
We returned to the hotel with quite low moral. The coffee helped Kerry regain her senses but the weather and feeling we had very little to look forward brought us down. The realisation was that we both needed a proper plan instead of just going with the flow and relaxing. So, for the rest of the afternoon, we analysed Time Out, the guidebook and any other free tourist guide to plot our next few days.

There was so much choice but the more we looked into the options of clubbing, theatre, cabaret and even some restaurants, a lot of them had already sold out, fully booked or way out of our price bracket. Kerry managed to book a table for Sunday night to the most fashionable restaurant in Chelsea called Buddakan via the Top Table app. This was an absolute coo according to the hotel receptionist and others when mentioned so result! The rest of the holiday was sorted (almost).

Rooftop boozing
Recommended by Kerry's sister, we headed out to 230 Fifth Rooftop Lounge for some impressive night-time views of the city. It was still a little light when we arrived but still bitterly cold. I regretted not wearing their thermal bathrobes but did park ourselves under a heated lamp. Drinks prices were as high as the view but the bar food was surprisely good. As well as the views, the other amusement was watching the other patrons. There was group of blokes dressed in golfing gear near to our table with possibly the biggest bottle of champagne you could ever get. Checking the menu it was a credit card busting $2000 plus tips. Within earshot, we could see the English lads get more and more wasted swigging the bottle and approaching other tables with a free swig.

Related articles

• Return to New York - Day 1 (gingerdjrob.com)

Return to New York - Day 2

Jetlag, don't you just hate it. We were up and had finished the slightly pricey Eventi hotel breakfast by 7:30am.

The High Line
With a gap of 5 years from the last visit, the High Line in Chelsea was a new tourist atttraction having only been around fully converted since June 2009. It was an old elevated railtrack used to transport industrial freight in the 1930's and hadn't been used since 1980. Luckily local residents saw the potential and added their own artist and horticultural charm.

There's about 2 miles worth of relaxed walking (apart from the day's biting wind) away from the traffic. The over-the-road bridge had been turned into a small stage with a glazed window to view the underneath cars. Later was a recently added sound installation featuring a different sounding bell every minute from church to bicycle, school to peace bell, all sampled from New York.

Shopping
With our High Line visit over at about 10:30am we still had to wait for the shops to open so tool in a second breakfast at a local diner. Kerry's first on the hitlist was Christian Louboutin for some very, very stylish shoes. Next we headed down to Bleecker Street towards Broadway. I was hoping to see some smaller, boutique like shops for independent, edgy clothing brands for myself but wasn't in luck. Instead we did find the Diesel Black Gold store where we both bought the most expensive trainers ever. Managed to find the Evolution store too (for all your stuffed animals, fossils and skeleton needs) which was just down the same road of Spring Street.

Had a couple of small annoyances with the locals. First with a local R'n'B artist trying to give me a free CD then held his hand out for a 'donation'. Then the misunderstanding of our rather large lunch and service tip. Unlike tipping in the UK, the waiter/waitress will automaticaly assume all the cash will cover the meal and their tip. Before we knew, we'd lost about $5 through our English politeness.

A few more purchases like my new Oakley sunglasses and the new Venture Bros DVD we headed back to the hotel for a disco nap. The subway can be slightly confusing if you're wanting to go a particukar direction as not all go north or south. A few blocks walk and we get back in time for the hotel's free wine hour.

Even with the short kip we still don't feel energised enough to go far or out for clubbing or theatre. Rather than revel at the weird and wonderful choice advertised in the Time Out guide (Dungeons and Dragons Cabaret perhaps??), we circle about 3 blocks to finally choose a reasonable priced Japanese restaraunt called Hana. Food was ok though the jetlag ruined our appetite.

Related articles

• Bar Basque at the Eventi Hotel (blushdesignsny.wordpress.com)
• Return to New York - Day 1 (gingerdjrob.com)
• Biten off more than we can chew? - New York City, NY (travelpod.com)

Return to New York - Day 1

Image by Ginger DJ via FlickrIt's Kerry's actual birthday today and we have an 8 hour flight to Newark, NJ for our second visit to New York. Last time it was 5 years ago for Kerry's 30th! Purple Parking took their (bloody) time collecting and dropping us off at the terminal so didn't have that much time before the Virgin flight apart from treat the birthday girl to some champagne and oysters. Waiting lounge was full to the rafters and we also had a 40 minute delay. Luckily, being in Premium Economy rocked! Nice wide seats, having priority boarding and more champers to drink whilst waiting to take-off was luxury with a tantalsing view of Upper Class section and the bar. Didin't quite expect a screaming 2 year old sat adjacent to us though but at least the entertainment choice diverted our attention. We both watched 'The King's Speech' (I loved it) and 'Black Swan' (bit slow) with complete polarised opinions.

Landing and immigration process took almost forever even with the Premium Economy head-start. At least the transit to the hotel was quicker (at $12.50 each a single), cheaper and less hassle than our previous visit using the monorail and NJ rail service connecting direct to Penn Station. A small panic as we went through a different Penn Station (Newark I think) but the train guard put our sketchy tired minds at rest. We only had to drag our cases one block to the Eventi hotel which stuck out like a very tall, sore thumb.

Inside, it was very stylish and ultra-modern and our room had been upgraded to a corner on the 12th floor so we had amazing views down 6th Avenue and the Empire State Building. After a refresh, we headed to the hotel bar for a nightcap. A jazz band were entertaining the guests though luckily for us about to finish. The decor was apparently designed by the Bladerunner set designer and certainly looked futuristic. Sleep that night was fractured thanks to the NYC's traffic police based just round the corner with constant 'woop, woop' sounds.

April Good Eggs - my new Juno chart

Some new and recent cracked open tunes in a pecking order of clucking!
Number 1 for this month for me is Antranig - 'Back That Up' on Subliminal US.



If you can't view or hear the chart see my GingerDJ April Chart on Juno Download

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• My first Juno Download chart (gingerdjrob.com)