Day 13

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Today we headed off at around 9.30, with the first stop being the Original Soup Kitchen which was used in the Seinfeld. “No soup for you!” Just took a couple of photos there, Carl on one side with me under the Soup Kitchen sign, a truck driver was even nice enough to leave a gap between him and the car in front so we could get some photos! The niceness is quite a rarity in NYC!

We then walked across a couple of blocks, stopping for some Sbarro pizza, then towards the Rockefeller Centre. We bought some Sunrise/Sunset tickets for the Top of the Rock, which means you’re able to go up twice in one day – once in the daylight, and once at night. I decided I preferred to do this rather than the Empire State Building, as you can see Central Park from the Top of the Rock (not the ESB), and you get good views of the ESB also. We went up straight away, and it was absolutely gorgeous up there. Truly stunning views; though I think Central Park probably looks better and more colourful in the warmer months – when it’s green and not white with snow! You’re up on about the 67th floor, so you tower over a lot of the buildings, and get a really clear view of the Empire State! You’re also way about Times Square, so it’s cool to look down on where the ball drops!

It was freezing, so once we’d had enough of being windswept, we caught the subway down to the West Village. First stop was the corner of Bedford and Grove, which is the outside of the “Friends Apartment”. Took a few photos, and then headed over a couple of streets to the outside of Carrie’s Apartment from Sex and the City. From there we walked another couple of blocks and found Gay Street, so Carl could have some photos there =P

As we were walking back towards the subway, we found a puppy store. I got all excited coz the puppies in the window were so cute, so we went in. We walked towards the back of the store where the rest of the puppies were, and it was just horrible. They had 2 puppies in each about 20 cages, all along the wall and on top of each other, and these cages were hardly big enough for just 1 puppy… And they were all crying, and all looking at us with the puppy “save us” look. A couple of them looked like Kiah and I just wanted to open all the cages and let them out. It was so horrible and quite upsetting =(

From there, we recovered in a Starbucks, before catching the subway back uptown, stopping to get some photos of the famous Flat Iron building, had a quick look in Macy’s, walk through Bryant Park and then stopped and had a look in the HBO store. It was quite tiny, and didn’t really have anything from any shows I watch, so we soon left and took some more photos, this time outside the New York Public Library.

Walking across another couple of blocks, we went inside Grand Central Station for even more photos, and gossip girl memories for me! We went down to the food court, where they have a Magnolia Bakery, made famous by Sex and the City!

We caught the shuttle which runs between Grand Central and Times Square and headed back to the hotel where we rested for a while, having seen so much during the day, then we met up with Madi (who had been sick for the past week, and we soon realised her cold still hadn’t left her). We had heard that the premiere Madi and I had tried to see the other week was actually on this night, so we headed to the theatre it was supposed to be at (Ziegfeld) to celebrity spot! The premiere was for a new movie starring Adam Sandler and Jenifer Aniston called Just Go With It.

It was absolutely freezing, so the red carpet was under a marque, with cars stopping outside it, and the ‘fans’, i.e. Us, we left behind a barrier on the other side of the road. Numerous cars dropped of people and we couldn’t see who they were, then and one point, all the people around us started yelling out “Deeeeve!! Deeeve!” We had no idea who it was supposed to be, much less could we see this ‘Deeve’ person, and then once they’d got inside the marque, someone said it was singer Dave Matthews. Next was “NICOLE!!! NICOLE!!!” And we thought it must have been Nicole Ritchie, though it definitely wasn’t her husband on her arm, and she was quite tall… Once she was in the Marquee we got a quick glimpse and realised it was Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban!! Aussies!!

The next car to stop, did so in an odd spot, in fact it was right near us, and then the doors on our side of the road opened, and out jumped Jenifer Aniston!!! She was tiny, and she came over, and was signing things for people, and it was all very rushed but she was so nice. We weren’t quick enough with paper and a pen, so no autograph, and I was so flustered that most of my photos are pretty terrible, but I saw her, and was so happy I did!!! She’s absolutely gorgeous in person!!! She soon got ushered away, into the marque, all of us quite hyped up and excited that we’d finally (properly) seen a real Hollywood star!!

One more car stopped, and again the person got out on our side of the road, this time it was Adam Sandler! Again shocking photos, but we were prepared with pen and paper this time! And then he didn’t come over to us. He did the worst acting in his life and told the crowd he thought he had to go straight in, though you could tell he really just couldn’t be bothered saying hi to his fans. Quite disappointing, but I was still pretty stocked to have seen him in the flesh anyway! =P

At this point we were pretty much numb with cold, so we found the nearest Starbucks to heat up again. Once we thought we could feel our fingers again, we walked down into Times Square and went to TGI’s for dinner. As always, it was yummy!!

Madi was feeling pretty terrible, so we pushed her in a cab and sent her home, and then walked around the corner, back to the Rockefeller Centre. Time for Top of the Rock in the night time!

Again it was absolutely stunning! The lights just made everything look so much more amazing! It was also way, way colder and windier, so we didn’t stay up there for too long.

After another exhausting day, it was back to the hotel for some well-deserved rest!

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