ah, 2010 is looking to be a great year. I've been couch surfing for about a month now to save money, also to have a greater bonding experience with the city I love, Richmond. My adventure begins in early December, with my trip to New York. Never been before, first time but certainly not my last. We (Ben, Sera, and I) took the chinatown bus from Richmond at 1 a.m., juice box wine in tow. Sera and I sat together. Sera's seat was held up by an electrical cord,(note the cord as a makeshift clothes line for her socks)
Ben singled out sitting next to some random person (sorry Ben!).
Luckily for the juice box wine it blurred the essence of actually how fast the bus was actually going. We arrived in Chinatown in impeccable, unrealistic time around 5:30 a.m. The original plan was upon our arrival we would work the fish markets to help fund the trip. To our dismay, a storm was coming through? so the fish markets were not happening. In the long run it worked out because check in for the hostel was 3 p.m. and that's entirely too long to smell like fish. Instead we hit up a classic looking diner for I have no idea how long zombied out to lack of sleep. I can't remember much in between this time but sometime in between the MTA and the drop off of Park Ave. I just remember walking alongside central park and amazing apartment buildings along the way.
Just before our turn onto Park Avenue, this wondrous gem parked alongside Central Park, we joked that this was where I moved to in NY. (for some reason with my big trip people had confused this with me having all ready moved to NY. Wishful Thinking).
My friends and I stayed at a hostel Jazz in the Park, off Park Avenue.
Love this place, not only cheap, but european friendly and clean.
This was our cozy bunker, it was just the three of us so there was one random.. I felt bad for the dude because for some odd reason I've been snoring incredibly loud. I believe it to be because of the cold weather and that I can't breathe through my nose.
On our first day we went to Queens to visit MOMA's P.S.1., Saw some amazing graffiti from the MTA window that I unfortunately was too slow to take a picture of, caught this after our stop though.
And alas, this... is what we walked into approaching the little sister of the MOMA.
It doesn't even capture the massive amounts of hair sprouting from this gigantic architectural feat.
Had great exhibits 1969, Between Spaces, installations, TONS of video as well, my eyes were tearing from focusing on too many. And the swimming pool by Leandro Erlich. Luckily, I was able to sneak in these great shots with my cell phone camera.
All in all very pleased and excited by P.S.1
After spending almost all day at P.S.1 we were starving!.... and ended up getting lost outside and around Grand Central Terminal looking for pizza places...but only to find multiple Starbuck's and McDonald's everywhere. This became the ongoing joke of the NY trip. " you know what I really want right now? Starbucks." I will say I got an incredible work out between running around the city subway to subway. We all definitely earned that food for sustenance.
I can't even really begin to fully place things in order of this trip because so much happened in just a few days, but I'll try my best. At some point Sera was going to visit her cousin who lives in SOHO, while Ben and I were going to times square to check out "the View" which truly was.. at the Marquis Marriott in the meantime. (so many escalators).
I ordered the most delicious pink lemonade that yes, I paid 15 dollars for and completely do not regret it. Completely worth it and completely made me tipsy... made for an interesting journey going BACK down the numerous elevators... it was as if I were floating down from the very top and my big blue hat was my parachute. ah. Back to Times Square. I wasn't that shocked by the brightness of Times Square, it reminded me a lot like Vegas. but the buildings combined with the lights was amazing.
Later we went to Brooklyn, to the Beauty Bar.. cutest place ever PBRs were 4 bucks... just shocking compared to the dolla prices in RVA. I still voted this favorite bar. Sera met up with us there. I love Brooklyn. I hope to move there someday. The subway ride back to the hostel included an toothless homeless person throwing a temper tantrum that he missed his stop, yelling "FUCK THE MTA" and a cute little jamaican woman threatening to call the cops on him. Which led to stopping and punching the interiors "FUCK THE POLICE" Good for us he got off at our stop where we could hear the continuing shouts.
Now mind you, it was around last call when we left.... the lack of sleep was overwhelming I hadn't slept since Dec. 6th then we left on the chinatown bus at 1am on the 7th and still had been up all day and night. Sleeping in was the goal for the morning of the 8th interrupted by waking up by 8a.m. to partake in the hostel complimentary breakfast.... wait for it cold hard bagels and butter! didn't mind considering it was complimentary. then back to sleep. One of the goals of the trip was to experience baller dining experiences. After waking up, we searched around park only to come across more Starbucks and McDonalds... to finally reach an adorable Thai restaurant with an amazing lunch special. 8 bucks. 8 fricken bucks! This included, free refills of the thai iced coffee, 3 courses an appetizer, shrimp & chicken dumplings, Entree, thai fried rice, and dessert, a scoop of green tea ice cream. The presentation of the meal was spectacular! 8 bucks!! I voted this best meal and deal.
After lunch we attempted to go to MOMA or the MET but time constraints failed us. So we went shopping. We went to some pretty good thrift stores. I found these great Steven Madden heels for only 15 bucks. *note to self, next time when trying on shoes make sure the hunk of change/ credit cards stored in your boots return there*. I almost had a scare of losing said cash and cards when I went to pay for the heels... and surprise! no money in boot. I ran upstairs to see if my hair-tied money was there. and .... it wasn't. I was in a fricken frenzy, ran back downstairs...the cashier, also owner?, who had a short platinum bob and carefully applied black geisha lips, asked me my name.. And praise the heavens, someone had turned my money to the cash register... all was not lost and all my money was there. So. Lucky.
And even more lucky to view this while walking around.
More shopping continued, Ben split to H & M, Sera and I Forever21, both 3 storied cheap MECCA. I honestly have no idea how long we spent there time and money, but the evening ended back at an irish pub near the hostel, mind you the search for the pub led to circles and Sera & I shouting repeatedly "Wheres the pub!" "it's Britney bitch" (don't ask) Poor Ben. Finally, we reached the pub, which had karaoke night... just wow. It snowed that night big chunky flakes with sprinkles of rain.
It ended up raining the next day, which worked out to our benefit, and spent the entire day at MOMA. Oh yeah, that was everyone else's idea too. (really long line)
Our first order of business at the MOMA was the Tim Burton Exhibit! I took so many pictures even though I technically wasn't supposed to. The exhibit included really early works from his childhood, sketches and pieces from his stop motions and movies. SA-WEET. Upstairs we saw the Cezanne's, Picasso's and Warhols, etc. So much to take in. Honestly, one of my favorite moments in the MOMA was the security guard yelling loudly at a woman to mind her children haphazardly running around. I agree with Sera, that man should follow us everywhere.
Here's some shots from the top floor the MOMA
bottom level:
After MOMA we searched and searched for a coffee shop to A. boost our energy B. eat and C. SIT!
The holiday window displays in Times Square were insane! I would love to be a window display designer in New York! Especially to see these near Christmas!
That evening we hit up Time Square again, so Sera could view "the view" and of course ordered that immaculate 15 dollar lemonade. I vote this as best drink.
My attempts at a self portrait with the view.... sorry about the awkward face.
We later went to a Cantina which I voted worst deal/drink/bar. We ordered margaritas (bad) 9 bucks for the small tumbler size (bad) and the server just sucked ( bad) All was made up for with a 2 buck hot dog.
The last day of the trip was devoted to chelsea and galleries, with all of our bags because from there we would go straight to chinatown to find our bus. that we almost missed (or so we thought) the bus was supposed to depart at 4:00p.m., in turn was delayed for 45 minutes. Our goodbye to NY at least ended at a cute deli with grilled cheese and chocolate milkshakes (the perfect idea for December NY weather).
The drive back was much longer one ...with traffic, the A.C. turned on, and without alcoholic beverages and oddly the sobering experience of almost dying... having nearly sideswiped 6 count em 6! big trucks. Oh did I forget the random stops off I95 to prolong the horrify return?
Welcome back to Richmond.
