New York City

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Just got back to Ottawa from 2 nights in New York City. Lower Manhatten island to be exact. We stayed by Times Square and spent a lot of time there. I was surprized at how safe it was, with cops on every block, no bums on the streets. Times Square is lit up like a Christmas tree right to the tops of every building. There are yellow cabs as far as the eye can see. Extremely fast and efficient subways, though brutally hot down in the stations. We took the Staten Island ferry past the Statue of Liberty and shopped in Canal Street. There is not a namebrand knockoff that you can't buy. Wendy and Megan were all about the shopping. You walk past usually a young black guy and you hear "handbags handbags handbags, or lectronics lectronics lectronics, or watches watches watches" under their breath and you deal. You have to know what you want. For instance I'm looking for Yyve St Laurant, the medium white one, and they send a runner to their stash while you make a deal. Sometimes it's a bad knockoff, sometimes it's a really good knockoff, sometimes it fell off the back of a truck. $1600 purse for $35. Amazing, and every square inch of sidewalk is covered in vendors all selling some variation of the same 5 things(meat, nuts, art, clothes, sunglasses)and all different price for the same item or people, people, people. We peeked at Central Park, shopped at Tiffanys, checked out Trump Tower, ate New York pizza in a deli and had breakfast in Times Square. You would need a month to even scratch the surface.

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