the big apple
i just spend about 10 days in new york (with a few days in Philly and DC). going with a couple of friends who had never been before, it was quite nice to do the usual sights with them such as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Museum. Security to all this places are really tough. No belts, no jackets and all bags have to be scanned. The Statue of Liberty security was particularly rough. It's managed by the Federal Police as oppose to the local New York Police or even the private security firms hired by the buildings themselves. Instead of the usual metal scanning thing everyone walks through at airports, the Statue of Liberty has that as well as another machine you step into that blows puffs of air at you. MOMA and the MET were as usual- great! and this time, i managed to swing by the Museum of National History to check out the dinosaurs and the new planetarium as well as the Guggenheim. Also decided to head to Brooklyn for the first time to check it out. Walked the Brooklyn Bridge and down the street where Truman Capote and Arthur Miller lived.
I've been to new york enough times to have my favourite cafes to eat at. So i dragged my friends up to the Upper East Side for some cheesecake, down to Greenwich Village for Cuban food. Thank goodness, Magnolia Bakery has decided to open a branch midtown so I didn't have to get them to go to Bleecker Street for those (though i think the cupcakes there are not as nice as the ones in the East Side cheesecake shop). Thanks to a friend who lives in New York, i found more new, cheap food places to go too. I do not think I will ever have fried chicken that tastes as good as the this random Korean bar/ cafe on the 2nd floor of some office building ever again! it was so good!!!
and with the US dollar not as high as it use to be- it was inevitable that i ended up doing some shopping in new york. all i can say is shopping in the states is a huge EGO boost. for one thing their sizing system there automatically cuts 2 sizes off my usual UK size hur hur. Add on the fact that most brands cut their sizes larger than usual, shopping in the US can help lift a girl's ego for sure! it helped too that my friends were also keen on stocking up on their clothes as due to their size (one's a 6 foot tall rugby player, the other 6 foot tall skinny guy) sizes were hard to find in the UK and least of all Singapore. so we all headed to Woodbury Common a huge factory outlet place for a day. it was insane there- not only in terms of the crowd (there were queuing barriers outside the Coach Store because too many people were in the shop) but also in the discounts! I saw a pussy bow blouse at Escada going for US$69. Its original prices was US$690! Prada too had a Last Chance Rack which had skirts with a RRP price of US$1000 odd down to US$80!!! did i buy stuff- of course i did. ahahha...
Philly and DC was nice. Met up with AT in Philly where we had breakfast in a diner which according to my friend had the best pancakes he had in a while! (remember I know your brother's name! HAHAHAH) and it was a glorious day in DC that allowed us to walk up and down the Mall (not a shopping centre!) taking in all the sights. We decided to check out the Cafe in the Native American Museum in DC because they served Native American food. it was really interesting- buffalo steaks, grilled salmon, along with what we reckoned were cactus juice. They also had flat bread and chicken cooked in corn husks. Very interesting and very yummy!
So at the end of my trip- i just have 2 burning questions that I have to ask
1) What is this obsession people have with Coach bags? i've just had a whole MSN conversation with debbstar and we have both agreed that a) they're ugly b) why do you want to spend so much money on a bag with someone's initials all over it and c) there are so many copies out there, no one can tell if you're carrying a real one anymore. But doesn't seem to stop people from wanting one!
2) If you were a Buddhist and avoided beef because of your beliefs- could you eat buffalo or bison? (both were on offer at the Native American Museum Cafe).
I've been to new york enough times to have my favourite cafes to eat at. So i dragged my friends up to the Upper East Side for some cheesecake, down to Greenwich Village for Cuban food. Thank goodness, Magnolia Bakery has decided to open a branch midtown so I didn't have to get them to go to Bleecker Street for those (though i think the cupcakes there are not as nice as the ones in the East Side cheesecake shop). Thanks to a friend who lives in New York, i found more new, cheap food places to go too. I do not think I will ever have fried chicken that tastes as good as the this random Korean bar/ cafe on the 2nd floor of some office building ever again! it was so good!!!
and with the US dollar not as high as it use to be- it was inevitable that i ended up doing some shopping in new york. all i can say is shopping in the states is a huge EGO boost. for one thing their sizing system there automatically cuts 2 sizes off my usual UK size hur hur. Add on the fact that most brands cut their sizes larger than usual, shopping in the US can help lift a girl's ego for sure! it helped too that my friends were also keen on stocking up on their clothes as due to their size (one's a 6 foot tall rugby player, the other 6 foot tall skinny guy) sizes were hard to find in the UK and least of all Singapore. so we all headed to Woodbury Common a huge factory outlet place for a day. it was insane there- not only in terms of the crowd (there were queuing barriers outside the Coach Store because too many people were in the shop) but also in the discounts! I saw a pussy bow blouse at Escada going for US$69. Its original prices was US$690! Prada too had a Last Chance Rack which had skirts with a RRP price of US$1000 odd down to US$80!!! did i buy stuff- of course i did. ahahha...
Philly and DC was nice. Met up with AT in Philly where we had breakfast in a diner which according to my friend had the best pancakes he had in a while! (remember I know your brother's name! HAHAHAH) and it was a glorious day in DC that allowed us to walk up and down the Mall (not a shopping centre!) taking in all the sights. We decided to check out the Cafe in the Native American Museum in DC because they served Native American food. it was really interesting- buffalo steaks, grilled salmon, along with what we reckoned were cactus juice. They also had flat bread and chicken cooked in corn husks. Very interesting and very yummy!
So at the end of my trip- i just have 2 burning questions that I have to ask
1) What is this obsession people have with Coach bags? i've just had a whole MSN conversation with debbstar and we have both agreed that a) they're ugly b) why do you want to spend so much money on a bag with someone's initials all over it and c) there are so many copies out there, no one can tell if you're carrying a real one anymore. But doesn't seem to stop people from wanting one!
2) If you were a Buddhist and avoided beef because of your beliefs- could you eat buffalo or bison? (both were on offer at the Native American Museum Cafe).