I come back to Sam bouncing more that when I left and carrying soya milk and obviously cinnamony breakfast..... I bounce around the apartment totally unable to stop.....making Sam & Daisy have bagels and coffee so we can OUT THERE ALREADY!!!
Finally I get them to leave.... Tap tap tapping my foot, sighing a lot and generally acting like a teenager on a first date.... We walk to the subway (not Tube, not metro, the FREAKING SUBWAY) Sam unable to pass anything without taking a picture... I am sure I will pass a corner and see the houses as nothing more than flats from a film set... Obviously spent too much time in Cinecitta.... We descend the Subway and yes, it is like being in The Warriors.... Oh, or The Matrix....well, pretty much any film at all... It is dirtier that I expected, no, we'll, not really I expected it to look like this, but had thought it had been cleaned up, but no, it looks like New York subway from the 80's... Good....
We emerge and then the freaking out really starts, yes there are squeals, shrieks, panting.... And we are just at the park! We wobble down the bridge and there is is... Omg, there is the Statue of Liberty, the is Manhattan (bloody hell that's big) there is Brooklyn bridge, there is Manhattan bridge (where is the Empire State Building? Much discussion, Daisy insisting that the Chrysler building MUST be the Empire State....argument that goes on all day)
We walk, take endless pictures, shriek (of course) take more pictures, Sam wants to do everything, be everywhere all at the same time! Too many photos to take... Daisy takes a million selfies, as you would when you are gorgeous in NYC for the first time. It is hard to get my head around, so familiar, and yet totally unknown, obviously so much bigger and yet everything looks exactly as I expected it would... You try to put it into perspective of what you already know, it is not 'alien' as say going to Europe, everything obviously is in English and you recognise everything... Again the feeling that this is all an elaborate film I am part of....
It feels like we could be there forever.....but it is fast approaching the very limit that our feet and patience can take.... So we drift out and unable to see the Chrysler Building noodle around like tourists.... Until we are approached by a business guys, who not only points us in the right direction (um, just above our heads) but insists on telling us about it and ensures that we go inside, both of which I am grateful for, as again it is stunning......perfectly Art Deco, such clean lines, shining silver and chrome.... *sigh*
We walk, take endless pictures, shriek (of course) take more pictures, Sam wants to do everything, be everywhere all at the same time! Too many photos to take... Daisy takes a million selfies, as you would when you are gorgeous in NYC for the first time. It is hard to get my head around, so familiar, and yet totally unknown, obviously so much bigger and yet everything looks exactly as I expected it would... You try to put it into perspective of what you already know, it is not 'alien' as say going to Europe, everything obviously is in English and you recognise everything... Again the feeling that this is all an elaborate film I am part of....We walk over Brooklyn bridge, keeping clear of the cyclists, stopping to read all of the graffiti and look at the locks Sam and Daisy taking all the pictures possible... It's long... Longer that Waterloo bridge which in comparison you could leap in one giant step (comparisons to London, it's the only reference point we have!) and by the end we have decided we need to refuel... We cross the park at the end of the bridge and thankfully there is a greasy diner waiting for us... We sit at the counter and have a grilled cheese (omg look at the 'eggs over easy' look at the mountain of potato hash, omg is he really grilling the tuna on the hot plate for the tuna melt...) and obviously 'the best coffee in NYC' - it was good but we did feel as if we were in Elf...I want to remember it all... The 'yes boss' the short order cook keeps saying, the roundness of the diner seats, the long complicated order someone comes in to give...
Fortified we march on.... And we walk.... And we walk...... We decide (Daisy decides) that our Main priority of the day is to go see where NY Ink is made... So we get to the Wooster Street Social Club just as it opens...now this IS like being in a film....we take pictures, Daisy hugs the guy (she would know his name..... Obviously I don't.....) I make sure I use the rest room....the guys buy t shirts, Daisy squeals...
We walk on..... We go to see a showroom gallery with Damien Hirsts in.... $20,000 for spots that might have been painted by Rob Lucas... An original Basquait... We walk on.... The graffiti is witty, sharp and obviously worthy of a photograph or two.... We find the Ghostbusters fire station (ok) and I think about the immediacy of The Twin Towers, again something that maybe I have watched too many Blockbuster films, but has always seemed slightly unreal... But here being here I can now see the streets people ran down to get away from the buildings, from the soot etc... We walk on......we stop in record shops in the Village, we giggle over silly names of shops 'Pluck You' the chicken shack....and passing a vegetarian cafe is too good an opportunity to pass up..... So we stop in an impossibly hip cafe in the village and have amazing vegeburgers and Daisy as some kind of fake chicken, fake bacon club sandwich.... So hip, SO GOOD and we listen to all the New Yorkers around us (god, like sometimes I so wish I could play the Cello - now say it with a broad NY accent....damned funny)
In the park we have a Glee moment and then we start on 5th avenue. I am aware that I will never get the chance to experience any of this again for the first time, so take my time... Yes, it's a little dreary, a bit like walking along a longer, wider, more busy Regent street and as Sam says, we wouldn't do that, we would scoot around the back streets.... But it's 5th FREAKING AVENUE... So it's amazing.... We pass the Flat Iron building almost without noticing (well, it's behind you) and walk past an interesting piece of art in the park.... H & M proved too much to walk past and we stop for a mammoth trying on session and both Daisy & Sam emerge carrying new clothes....
Onwards.... Feet starting to hurt now... The Empire State Building underwhelms me......yea, it's tall.... But it's BUSY, SMELLY and they are doing lots of LOUD works to the outside.... So we rush on...The New York Public Library is guarded by complacent rather smug lions as well as the grumpiest New Yorker we have met so far.... So we march on, turn a corner and start to follow our noses to to both the Chrysler Building which we can now see gleaming, with eagles....yes EAGLES glaring down.... And ridiculously, incredibly Grand Central station.... Again, eagles, grandeur, pomp..... Wow..... Totally overwhelmed and obviously only able to think about Waltzing around it...I have a little cry.... 
It's just so totally beautiful. passionately beautiful.... There is no reason to have chandeliers but there a plenty, certainly no reason to have stars on the ceiling.... But there are...... The ticket desks are so beautifully Art Deco, the clock, the wide wide staircases.... I could almost imagine they used to have red carpet for the evening train to Chicago. It is romantic, breathtaking and the sunshine and the chandeliers.....omg. The cop looks effortlessly cool, chewing gum, leaning on the ticket windows and Daisy HAS to have a picture, am sure he is pulling a mean face just to look extra cool....
It feels like we could be there forever.....but it is fast approaching the very limit that our feet and patience can take.... So we drift out and unable to see the Chrysler Building noodle around like tourists.... Until we are approached by a business guys, who not only points us in the right direction (um, just above our heads) but insists on telling us about it and ensures that we go inside, both of which I am grateful for, as again it is stunning......perfectly Art Deco, such clean lines, shining silver and chrome.... *sigh*We decide to end our adventures for the day, our feet are bleeding, we are hot, dusty & smell BUT we know we have to get a Pawnee Tshirt from the NBC shop in the Rockerfellar centre ('he was really rich wasn't he' states Sam...ummmm)
And we jump on the Tube, no, Subway.....BAM....like we have been here for our whole lives.....get out nada kindly homeless man points us in the right direction (thought New Yorkers we meant to be miserable) and we wander, slowly back to our spotless, but now very Westburied apartment to survey our purchases, try on our tshirts, shower anddddddd relax.....
Popping out briefly to the hippest bar, with the coolest music (Babs? Followed by Barry White...yes please...) whilst Daisy safely lays on the sofa enjoying her tablet for a while....are we still in a film? YEP......the hippest, most cool film EVER.
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