Munching on the Big Apple

Oh. My. God.

[gushy pathetic touristy love shall be forthcoming in the below paragraph: you have been warned]

How to describe the pleasure of this city?... so shiny, so full, so loud and exciting and wonderful!!! Walk in any direction, aimlessly, and there will be people to watch, shops to peer in at, delicious goodies to consume. The area we are staying in, the east village, has plenty of character but we are fast-discovering that all the boroughs have bucketloads of charm, and that downtown assails the senses (in a good way) with its neon, tacky, busy sights.

The guesthouse we are staying in is wonderful too, our room, the 'loft', a cheapie but a goodie, a homey nook located up a fixed ladder, but in close proximity to the well-equipped kitchen, lounge and bathroom. the hostess is a walking encyclopaedia of NY knowledge and upon our arrival ingratiated herself to me with a document to behold... a 4 page copy of her recommended dining options throughout NY! hurrah! I am in foodie heaven (and upon my return to adelaide, I shall be in fatty boombaladah hell, but thats a worry for later).

So far our food crawl has included the following notables: 'dumpllng man' (they only make asian dumplings); s'mac (they only make gourmet macaroni and cheese); pommes frites (they only make belgian fries); a moroccan restaurant; and a cafe/local institution featured in the musical, 'rent'. On a trip to Little Italy for the San Gennaro Festival, I went for broke on some home-made torrone, but thankfully my molars did me proud and remain chip-free. We overdid it on a cupcake run to the magnolia bakery, but it must be said that the cupcakes were a little disappointing compared to those made by our good friend, Ms Lou Applebee. Spud's been on a bit of a burger tour of the U.S., but he is yet to develop any sort of holiday pudge.

My most embarrassing New York moment to date came as I attempted to tackle one of those glass revolving doors outside a 'barnes and noble' bookstore the other day. Suffice it to say that my ability to navigate myself through rotating doors and gates is somewhat below average. As a result of my poor revolving-door form, there have been multiple incidents where i have inadvertently joined spud in his small section of revolving door. squishy but entertaining, so its become a bit of a joke as we shuffle in unison and share the same limited oxygen until we reach the other side. HOWEVER, when i absent-mindedly wandered out of barnes and noble and packed myself into a section of door with a small, confused asian man, it was hard to say who was more confused. Actually, thats a lie - it was definitely him, poor dude.

TODAY has definitely been the most surreal of our days here. The main highlights:
(NB: Not at all travel-related, but definitely the highlight, was that we heard via sms that spud is an uncle for the second time, welcome henry john!)

-When there was a bit of a whoopsy with entering the subway through revolving gate (oops, my bad again) a brooklyn subway worker sledged spud and i: "do you need a lesson in getting through the gate?". Spud's response: "yes, evidently we do". The guy, unaccustomed to spud's trademark 'sarcasm disguised as acquiescence' was then forced to agree, "uh, yeah, you do".

-After travelling to the Rockefeller Observatory Deck (like the empire state building, but newer and better views) and admiring the vista at sunset, our high-speed elevator, which was at its 16-person capacity, made a concerning shudder and ground to a holt somewhere around the 36th floor. Which suggested that it was stuck. And yes, it was. Thankfully the Americans in the lift were fairly... um.. "empowered" when negotiating with the lift emergency-contact dude and the 25 minutes we spent trapped in the lift passed relatively quickly, with building camaraderie amongst the multi-cultural group. And although threats of panic attacks were made by a couple of the american ladies on board, none were had. phew. (ps we got our money back).

{a side story here... as we were entering the packed-with-tourists viewing deck and gaze into the distance, spud turns to me and says: "wow, this would be a great place to..." At this juncture I think, 'yeah, to propose, that would be lovely'....
then spud completes his sentence..
"...do a nude run".
Much to the disappointment of both of us, neither of these outcomes eventuated}

-Having decided to indulge in $5 night at the local Aussie-themed bar, 'the sunburnt cow', spud and i happily demolished our el cheapo chicken schnitzel burger and lamb burger. We then sat and took in the atmosphere as we sipped our el cheapo beer and cocktail. Ahhh... the mock ayers-rock walls. Ahh... the music being pumped from the fibreglass rock (which, incidentally was appalling reggae covers). Ahh... the oversized paper lights casting a red glow onto the walls and the exposed wooden floorboards. Aah... the enormous rat scurrying across those wooden floorboards! Unsure of what exactly to do (other than rest our feet on higher ground), we decided to skedaddle, and to subtly mention the furry little visitor to the barman. His ocker response did little to soothe my concerns about scoffing our burgers some 10 minutes earlier: "Oh, a rat, there's probably heaps of them, they come in from the garden".

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