Hooliganting: March 2013

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Hooliganting: New York: Bachelorette and Tourism in One

Hooliganting: New York: Bachelorette and Tourism in One: Saturday morning in the village, meant breakfast from a local eatery. The best thing about wandering around the sunshiney streets is the lov...

New York: Bachelorette and Tourism in One

Saturday morning in the village, meant breakfast from a local eatery. The best thing about wandering around the sunshiney streets is the lovely bakeries, organic groceries, and flower shops. I could eat breakfast for every meal in these small streets that are really bustling with activity but yet have the illusion of lazy charm. Once my partner in breakfast sin and I had collected enough for everyone, we headed back to the apartment to eat before heading out touristing again.

First stop was back to the Tenement House Museum. It turned out that we were close enough to walk and so meandered the streets back down to 97 Orchard Street. This time we explored the Irish Outsider Tour from the fourth floor. It is a completely different history that still translates into the collective immigrant history of New York. This tour will highlight the trials of being an outsider in a new community. These tours are imaginative and historically sound and I would highly recommend them to anyone. This one takes place on the fourth floor so keep in mind this means climbing the fire escapes. We also took in the visitor centre this time and attempted to listen to the movie. Keep in mind you need to watch it twice or read the captions as the gift shop announced tours at top volume every 15 minutes. The gift shop itself was very clever in rooking me of money for books. Books that I had to pack funnily enough.

Our tour guide.

Tenement House Museum backside

From there, we wandered down the lower East side and found a major coup in a fabulous donut shop. I am not normally a fan of donuts but these ones were divine. And the coffee, holy smokes. I could have spend more time there, but I don't think my waistline would approve.

I nearly fell down the caverns to the businesses below while observing the street elsewhere...oops

We split up after that and while the other two went costume shopping, we went bachelorette shopping. That done, we headed uptown to Rockerfeller Center and went to the top of the rock. The Manhattan skyline shines under the sun and the effects were stunning over Central Park. We still had time after that, so we headed to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and wandered through there. The staff at the Rockerfeller Centre and everywhere else were fabulously friendly and delightful. The MoMA offers you poor signage, crowds and rude security people. I don't have a full appreciation of this style of tourism management and nearly suggested that we leave. Then I saw the exhibits and decided that the majority of it was well, not my cup of tea either. I adore the Impressionists but the rest of the exhibits seemed pretentious and overdone to me. My opinion isn't worth much but I had far more fun at the MET.

I loved the little girl trundling down the street with her shopping buggy.

Rockerfeller Center

Top of the Rock

I don't know, do you? I decided to put myself in the art.

MoMA

Time was ticking so we hopped the train and headed back to the apartment for the bachelorette. This means champagne, gifts and champagne and cheese before heading out to Lucky Chengs for the entertainment and dinner. The drag queens were fun but they don't actually sing - just lip sync and the food...eat before you go...trust me...This was definately the thing that bachelorettes do in New York though so if you are in town, munch up and give 'er.

Balloon Man

Showtime finished around 9 and so we opted to try and go bowling. That didn't fly. We ended up back in the apartment for more champagne. You can't legitimately end an evening this early so out the door we sauntered and headed for the Pyramid Club to dance the rest of the night away. They played 1980's classics, a preferred choice for our bachelorette, and it suited my vintage self just fine. We left there at 3:00 am and that meant that we barely managed to get up for brunch the following day. That turned into a whirlwind Capezio shop before heading to the airport. Bye New York, I think I might really miss you!

New York on Dwellable

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Hooliganting: New York: Singing Subways and Master of Things

Hooliganting: New York: Singing Subways and Master of Things: After what felt like a cat nap, we woke up and glancing at the clock, I realized we could definately make a Circle Line sightseeing tour aro...

New York: Singing Subways and Master of Things

After what felt like a cat nap, we woke up and glancing at the clock, I realized we could definately make a Circle Line sightseeing tour around the lower side of Manhattan. However, eyeing a still slumbering friend, I opted wait and see before going my usual hell for leather speed. Once she woke up, we made plans and hit the road, or rather breakfast at Au Bon Pain. Yum. I love real breakfasts and this one was delightful.

We headed towards the Subway and took the NRQ line towards the Statan Island Ferry Terminal. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride as along the way, there were students that broke into song. Like a flashmob, they were all out to entertain us and I was quite happy to let them. At 11:32 we raced up the stairs expecting to have missed the tour but instead, we walked (ran) right aboard and the Circle Line Tour left the dock. It was gloriously sunny but shivery. The nip in the air became an honest to goodness snap as we hit open water. The sunshine hit the Manhattan skyline in spectacular style and the views of the Statue of Liberty were grand. We didn't visit Ellis Island or the statue as they are still being repaired after Hurricane Sandy. The ship's audio explained the various vistas and they trolled up the Hudson River to give a full hour excursion.

On docking back at Pier 5, we opted to head towards the New York Historical Society Museum to meet the rest of our crew. With the subway station closed, and a necessary defrosting stop at Starbucks for our windblown selves, we sauntered to another station and promptly took a wrong train that still worked but wasn't as direct. What a difference a corner can make! On this train, there was a caravan of people walking through the Subway singing beautifully for Jesus. I coined the Subways the singing subways as the trend continued with various musicians playing for pennies.

Docking

The New York Historical Society Museum was delightful. They had interactive screens near their entrance. I had the opportunity to figure them out during our guided tour when the docent was discussing an artifact at great length. I saw that they had no sound so was happily amusing myself and then...well...I found the one with sound and so backed away swiftly. Do NOT play with these screens during a tour, instead, look at the 9/11 photographs or the artifacts in the portholes in the floor. Eventually, our guide took us up to the fourth floor to their open storage which was amazing. Tiffany Glass, the incredible train station toy collection, and furniture...wow. Then the guide suggested seeing the Autoban...I heard German highway and opted to stay on the 4th floor prowling the storage. I was wrong to do that as when I caught up, I discovered that Auduban meant incredible images of birds. Then, there was the Martin Luther King exhibition, the WWII exhibition and so much more. This was a great stop.

Don't play with these during a tour

They invite you to sit and imagine yourself in these clothes

Martin Luther King at the New York Historical Society Museum

9/11 Memorial Wall

Tiffany Glass

Due to dinner reservations, we headed out and had an incredible meal before heading over to the Nederland theatre to see Newsies. This was a high energy extravaganza of song, dance and a lovely story. We had the attention of Ed playing percussion in the pit as we were sitting at the very front. I would sit a bit further back as you miss some of the fancy footwork sitting so close and you definitely can be "sprayed" by some of the singers. I really loved this production though and would totally see it again.

Singing our way back to the Subway, we stopped in at a local pub and I tried the local beer. Brooklyn Ale...it has a bit of a kick back to it so I will stick to my usual amber's from hereon out. After midnight - yes, it was time to go to bed.