NYC trip: Day 1 and Day 2

Hello there lovely people,

So I spent a few (actually 5) days in "the city" and thought I'd share my trip with you.  So I went to NYC to visit a friend who recently moved there (Sloka).
I arrived on Thursday (Dec. 30, 2010), and spent the entire day in the airport.  For some reason-probably because she knows me and knew that I'd get lost-Sloka was adamant about picking me up from the airport.  However, she had to work, so I ended up spending about 7 hours in the JFK airport.  Bummer right?  Wrong!! :-)  The airport wasn't so bad and I got some good reading time in that I probably would have put off otherwise.  So after we finally made it back near her house we stopped for a quick bite to eat.  I had Lentil Soup and she had Split Pea Soup at Belini 181.  It was a cute little place and the food was good.


Me at Belini 181

Sloka at Belini 181

The next day we went to the National museum of natural history, and then we walked around Central Park.  Central Park was so much prettier than I expected it to be.  Who knew that there were pretty parks in NYC :-)  The snow from the blizzard had not melted yet which made it very picturesque there.  I also didn't realize how huge the park is.  It was a lovely walk.  We then somehow ended up in Harlem which isn't really the kind of place you should just stumble upon, but it was cool to see a different, very different, part of town.  I think Harlem was the only place that I saw large quantities of only Black people in one area.  Then we went and hung out near Columbia University.  We went to a bookstore and then hung out at a coffee shop for a few hours.  While we were at the coffee shop (I guess it was a coffee shop, they also had pizza though, but I guess that's NYC for you) I got some dinner, a panini, and found it to be quite delicious.  Then we went home, and watched the Times Square new year's eve celebration on the internet.  So I was a tad bummed about not seeing the ball drop in person, but Sloka really didn't want to go, and that kind of chaos isn't the type of thing you try to coerce your friends into if they don't want.  Besides not going last year gives me one more goal to achieve for this year :-)  

Picture in Central Park, who knew that they had trees in NYC

Me in Central Park.  I just loved these red leggings.  And I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that everyone in NYC thinks that Black is the only acceptable color to wear.  Needless to say, I quite stood out, and loved it :-)

Sloka and me in the coffee shop where I had an awesome panini.  I was very surprised because I don't  usually think of coffee shops as being the top notch place to go for food, but this place was on point. 

So, that pretty much sums up days 1 and 2.  The city was fun for the brief time that I was there.  However, I definitely don't foresee myself wanting to move there.  I found the city to be too crowded, too dirty, and quite gloomy.  During the freak occurrences of sunshine all of the buildings crowded in one itty bitty place blocked the sunlight leaving the place gloomy, and don't even get me started about the lack of stars.  But it is a cool place to visit.  And I can definitely see why in Sex and the City, Carie says that everyone goes there looking for love, I mean, surrounded by a billion people you are bound to find love somewhere right? 

Anyhoo, that's all about that for now
Peace, love and happiness