Return to New York - Day 2
The High Line
With a gap of 5 years from the last visit, the High Line in Chelsea was a new tourist atttraction having only been around fully converted since June 2009. It was an old elevated railtrack used to transport industrial freight in the 1930's and hadn't been used since 1980. Luckily local residents saw the potential and added their own artist and horticultural charm.
There's about 2 miles worth of relaxed walking (apart from the day's biting wind) away from the traffic. The over-the-road bridge had been turned into a small stage with a glazed window to view the underneath cars. Later was a recently added sound installation featuring a different sounding bell every minute from church to bicycle, school to peace bell, all sampled from New York.
Shopping
With our High Line visit over at about 10:30am we still had to wait for the shops to open so tool in a second breakfast at a local diner. Kerry's first on the hitlist was Christian Louboutin for some very, very stylish shoes. Next we headed down to Bleecker Street towards Broadway. I was hoping to see some smaller, boutique like shops for independent, edgy clothing brands for myself but wasn't in luck. Instead we did find the Diesel Black Gold store where we both bought the most expensive trainers ever. Managed to find the Evolution store too (for all your stuffed animals, fossils and skeleton needs) which was just down the same road of Spring Street.
Had a couple of small annoyances with the locals. First with a local R'n'B artist trying to give me a free CD then held his hand out for a 'donation'. Then the misunderstanding of our rather large lunch and service tip. Unlike tipping in the UK, the waiter/waitress will automaticaly assume all the cash will cover the meal and their tip. Before we knew, we'd lost about $5 through our English politeness.
A few more purchases like my new Oakley sunglasses and the new Venture Bros DVD we headed back to the hotel for a disco nap. The subway can be slightly confusing if you're wanting to go a particukar direction as not all go north or south. A few blocks walk and we get back in time for the hotel's free wine hour.
Even with the short kip we still don't feel energised enough to go far or out for clubbing or theatre. Rather than revel at the weird and wonderful choice advertised in the Time Out guide (Dungeons and Dragons Cabaret perhaps??), we circle about 3 blocks to finally choose a reasonable priced Japanese restaraunt called Hana. Food was ok though the jetlag ruined our appetite.
Comments