*wants to be a part of it.*
Okay, so, trip report.
New York was awesome. We didn't really do too much of the traditional touristy stuff (Statue of Liberty, etc)... we were mostly there for the shopping, dining and general wandering around. And we definitely did a lot of all of those things. I'm lucky that the wandering around was at least equal to the dining, or I'd have come back weighing 500 pounds... lol. But I love just walking around the city, especially at night, because I swear I have a big shiny buildings fetish. Some people find beauty in nature, but I honestly find few things more beautiful than the lights of a city at night.
Anyway, some of the highlights... well, the Strand and Forbidden Planet are still probably my favorite places in the city, even though I didn't blow nearly as much of my money as I expected to at either place (though that might have been because we went early on in the trip and I didn't want to spend much, AND THEN WE NEVER WENT BACK *glares at jadedguardgirl* lol). I did find this poster at FP, which is MADE OF AWESOME and will go quite well with my Cloverfield movie poster (if it wasn't for the pink sheets you'd never know that a girl lived in my room...).
We also discovered the wonderful, yet expensive world of Lush. And by discovered I mean we were in there for at least an hour smelling everything in sight while Leo wandered around outside doing things that did not require massive amounts of estrogen. I ended up with two shampoo bars (the cinnamon one and the "Ultimate Shine" one), a Honey Bee bath bomb, Ice Blue peppermint soap and Skinny Dip buttercream soap. I tried that last one in the shower today and it smelled awesome. I can see why people get addicted to this stuff, but my bank account is probably safe because I don't have a store anywhere nearby and I'm usually too lazy to order stuff online... still, really happy with my haul for now.
Also, oddly, though it seems incredibly touristy and probably is, the NBC Experience Store is really damn cool. It has merchandise for every show you can possibly think of that's remotely associated with NBC. I am now the proud owner of a Dick in a Box magnet, which is apparently so awesome I can't even find it online, but I assure you it exists as it is currently gracing my fridge. You're jealous, admit it.
Little Italy and Chinatown were fun, and had amazing food. Taipan Bakery in Chinatown is one of my new favorite places in the world, if only because I have been going through egg custard tart withdrawal since Bao, our old bubble tea shop/Chinese bakery, closed here in Buffalo... and they had amazing ones FOR A DOLLAR EACH. I curse the fact that they are perishable, because I totally wanted to ship a ton of them back home. :( Also there was a great, huge Chinese supermarket we spent a lot of time in, where oddly enough I found the lemon tea variety of Vitamin Water that I have been searching for since regionals in 2007. Huh. I also bought caramel macchiato Kit-Kat bars. Don't ask me why they exist, but they're quite good.
We got to see matrarch a lot during the trip, and it was really nice to be able to hang out with her, especially the night we visited her family's apartment in Queens and we all got to play Rock Band and eat pizza... lots of fun. Most days we'd sleep in a bit, take the subway into Manhattan for the day, do all the stuff we wanted to do and then head back to Brooklyn, rent a movie from the great little locally-owned video store down the street, and get pastries for dessert at the greatest Italian bakery in the entire universe. Seriously, if I lived down the block from that place I would weigh 500 pounds. They had fruit tarts topped with entire halves of peaches. Now I have another small crusted pastry to go into withdrawal from.
So yeah, in general it was a great trip, even though I got a little grumpy near the end thanks to lack of alone time, nausea from taking the subway so much, and... well, the bad news I'm trying not to think about. I'm glad that jadedguardgirl and homer2101 love me enough to put up with my whiny ass... lol. <3 I hope we can go back at some point, because I still feel like there's so much I haven't done, or would like to do again. I don't think I'd want to live there, because if I did it would become less exciting and novel than it is now, but it is probably my favorite place of all to visit at the moment.
(oh yeah, and we walked in on the mafia! and ate weird but delicious varieties of mac & cheese! and visited a coffeeshop I honestly thought was fictional! there's way too much to talk about in just one lj entry... lol.)
New York was awesome. We didn't really do too much of the traditional touristy stuff (Statue of Liberty, etc)... we were mostly there for the shopping, dining and general wandering around. And we definitely did a lot of all of those things. I'm lucky that the wandering around was at least equal to the dining, or I'd have come back weighing 500 pounds... lol. But I love just walking around the city, especially at night, because I swear I have a big shiny buildings fetish. Some people find beauty in nature, but I honestly find few things more beautiful than the lights of a city at night.
Anyway, some of the highlights... well, the Strand and Forbidden Planet are still probably my favorite places in the city, even though I didn't blow nearly as much of my money as I expected to at either place (though that might have been because we went early on in the trip and I didn't want to spend much, AND THEN WE NEVER WENT BACK *glares at jadedguardgirl* lol). I did find this poster at FP, which is MADE OF AWESOME and will go quite well with my Cloverfield movie poster (if it wasn't for the pink sheets you'd never know that a girl lived in my room...).
We also discovered the wonderful, yet expensive world of Lush. And by discovered I mean we were in there for at least an hour smelling everything in sight while Leo wandered around outside doing things that did not require massive amounts of estrogen. I ended up with two shampoo bars (the cinnamon one and the "Ultimate Shine" one), a Honey Bee bath bomb, Ice Blue peppermint soap and Skinny Dip buttercream soap. I tried that last one in the shower today and it smelled awesome. I can see why people get addicted to this stuff, but my bank account is probably safe because I don't have a store anywhere nearby and I'm usually too lazy to order stuff online... still, really happy with my haul for now.
Also, oddly, though it seems incredibly touristy and probably is, the NBC Experience Store is really damn cool. It has merchandise for every show you can possibly think of that's remotely associated with NBC. I am now the proud owner of a Dick in a Box magnet, which is apparently so awesome I can't even find it online, but I assure you it exists as it is currently gracing my fridge. You're jealous, admit it.
Little Italy and Chinatown were fun, and had amazing food. Taipan Bakery in Chinatown is one of my new favorite places in the world, if only because I have been going through egg custard tart withdrawal since Bao, our old bubble tea shop/Chinese bakery, closed here in Buffalo... and they had amazing ones FOR A DOLLAR EACH. I curse the fact that they are perishable, because I totally wanted to ship a ton of them back home. :( Also there was a great, huge Chinese supermarket we spent a lot of time in, where oddly enough I found the lemon tea variety of Vitamin Water that I have been searching for since regionals in 2007. Huh. I also bought caramel macchiato Kit-Kat bars. Don't ask me why they exist, but they're quite good.
We got to see matrarch a lot during the trip, and it was really nice to be able to hang out with her, especially the night we visited her family's apartment in Queens and we all got to play Rock Band and eat pizza... lots of fun. Most days we'd sleep in a bit, take the subway into Manhattan for the day, do all the stuff we wanted to do and then head back to Brooklyn, rent a movie from the great little locally-owned video store down the street, and get pastries for dessert at the greatest Italian bakery in the entire universe. Seriously, if I lived down the block from that place I would weigh 500 pounds. They had fruit tarts topped with entire halves of peaches. Now I have another small crusted pastry to go into withdrawal from.
So yeah, in general it was a great trip, even though I got a little grumpy near the end thanks to lack of alone time, nausea from taking the subway so much, and... well, the bad news I'm trying not to think about. I'm glad that jadedguardgirl and homer2101 love me enough to put up with my whiny ass... lol. <3 I hope we can go back at some point, because I still feel like there's so much I haven't done, or would like to do again. I don't think I'd want to live there, because if I did it would become less exciting and novel than it is now, but it is probably my favorite place of all to visit at the moment.
(oh yeah, and we walked in on the mafia! and ate weird but delicious varieties of mac & cheese! and visited a coffeeshop I honestly thought was fictional! there's way too much to talk about in just one lj entry... lol.)