A cool spring trip to the big apple, New York
The Sohotel
As individual travelers, we have to arrange our transportations and accommodations. After the 10-hour-long bus, we had our first step into New York City, the hotel. The hotel is called Sohotel, named after Soho and hotel, yet actually located in the Little Italy area. The best thing I would like to talk about this hotel is their front door. No matter arriving at dark or departing in the morning, we found the hotel sign look much more fantastic than their internal appearance. The hotel cost us $226 for two nights and that was way too cheap in this district. Although the two rooms we stayed were not too roomy but they were satisfyingly clean. However, as comments posted on some on-line forum, we did hear the music from a club nearby. Moreover, the utilities were not so satisfying because there was no phone in the room (it’s my first time to have a hotel room without a phone line; this is not a motel, though) and we had tiny streams of hot water at one of the two rooms we stayed. Who would have been satisfied without a hot shower after a long day walking?
The shopping
The Soho area, named after "South of Houston Street", is famous for its artistic atmosphere, distributed by the creative and colorful artists. I found this apple green "Catherine" on Broome Street, a shop of clothes and accessories for youth. Their spring collections are more like white and some spring colors and worthy for double of your money at GAP or Old Navy.
When I saw the shop signs with Chinese characters along the streets, I knew that I was in the Chinatown. Close to the subway station Canal St. and Grand St., the Chinatown in the morning was like a traditional market for me when I passed by the street where residents arranged their basements for the storage of vegetables. In the evening, every corner of the Chinatown became a souvenir shop -- magnetics, T-shirts, accessories and postcards. That’s where we got everything for our friends.
Coming to the crowded Time Square, We escaped some flows of people by shopping at Virgin Megastore. Virgin Megastore is located in the center of Time Square, across the street is the ABC studio. We spent more than two hours going around the three-floor store and bought 2 CDs and a T-shirt.
Later on, I was in the corner of 34th West and Broadway, GAP. I was fasnatied with the commercial of Sarah Jessica Parker and Lenny Kravitz singing "I’m crazy for that lady..." The excuse to shop at GAP was simply for my belt, forgotten, in a kind of emergency, and a pair of jeans. With an idea in my mind that original price in US$ might not be higher than CAD. Moreover, shopping in New York has a benefit is that the 8.625% sale tax is not implied on clothes and shoes under $110.
There are two places I have wanted to go in New York City since seeing the movie "Serendipity". Macy’s Department Store was the place where two characters met in a Christmas. Another reason why I had to come here was the pride of having the same name "Macy". Arriving around 9 o’clock, we did not have much time going through the 7-floor department store. In no time, I had bought my souvenir for myself -- a Macy’s department store handbag at Macy’s. Then, the other place is Serendipity. This dessert shop has been more and more popular since the movie’s come-out and the prices have been getting inflated
as well. I did not take my chance to go there, but we may do it one day.
The meals
The first meal in New York! From the hotel, we walked through Soho, Littly Italy, and Chinatown. Finally we decided an Italian Clam
House restaurant at the corner of Mulberry and Broome. Entering the restaurant, the smell of seafood was all around the restaurant and by
the name of the restaurant I believed that they were specialized in seafood. Nevertheless, I ordered a plate of chicken with sausages and bell pepper, which was not seafood at all but Italian (I have thought
that Italian food has some similarities with Chinese food). One reason was that seafood plate seemed more expensive than others and the other reason was that Ian had never been interested in seafood. We had had stomachs since we were on the bus and so we didn’t enjoy the food much. From that time on, we tried to avoid Italian restaurants in the
following two days but they were everywhere!
After visiting the Washington Square and New York University, We walked from Washington Square to Soho, trying to find a non-Italian restaurant, but as I dais before, they were everywhere! It seems to me that New Yorkers love Italian food. We finally found somewhere we love so much -- Amls Blue, a Mediterranean restaurant. I thought that diterranean was like Greece, neighboring to the Aegean Sea, with the color of sea blue. I love the sea blue and I have wanted to design a room with Mediterranean style. Sunday evening was a quiet time for the restaurant even though Monday was a holiday. I ordered a plate of
couscous with mixed seafood with a cream brulé for dessert and they were terrific!
Another restaurant I will definitely go back is Bagel Stix at the corner of 8th Avenue and 53rd Street. I love the combined colors of
orange and blue of their shop sign and their friendly air. I was not heading for bagels; instead, we had a chicken noodle coup and a
tiramisu. I love soup, especially home-made-style soup, and I had tasted tiramisus for years until I did not find a good bakery where
they had good tiramisus. Here, they were the best I had ever had.
To Be Continued...
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