Day 10 - PK occupy Wall St...no not really

I like how this blog can be interactive, on our tenth day we added the famous Tom’s Restaurant (based on the diner in the TV show Seineld) to our list, thanks to “FiveIron4Life” of the tripadvisor forums for reminding me!

Obviously this was our first stop for breakfast.  It was yet agai very good value, very good food.  I’m still constantly surprised by how much cheaper everything is here, especially food.  I ordered 2 eggs, sausage, bacon and pancakes.  Mmmmmmm, that sausage was good!!  They served orange juice in these cute little glasses, that looked like shot glasses, you’d almost think they put a bit of vodka in it.

From memory, I think KN had scrambled eggs and corned beef hash, it looked equally delish – apparently it was too. After breakfast, I took up the suggestion of taking a tourist shot in front of the restaurant.  Sorry I tried my best to make a ‘natural’ walk-by pose, but failed, so took a stock standard tourist pose.

My attempt at a natural walk by pose (fail!)

Fall back to standard tourist pose :)

Today was a rather random day, we’ve seen and done nearly all the things we set out to do in NYC, so we took our time today and just made random plans.  Next stop, lower side of Manhattan to Wall St!

Soon as we got out of the subway, I had my usual hankering for caffeine.  As convenience would have it again, there was a mobile coffee shop on wheels!  A peculiar looking orange truck, with Love and Coffee written all over it....of course that grabbed my attention!  Tried it....and loved it.  Another awesome coffee I’ve found in NYC, how you keep track of this one though, I have no idea?!

We hung out for a bit at a public seating area nearby, while we contemplated our next move, drinking my coffee and eating a chocolate donut – while I abuse Google Maps for being so slow and chewing up my iPhone battery.  We decided to head into the main touristy area of wall st, and find the Century 21 store for a bit more shopping.  Found it at Cortland St (nr Church St) and also found some bargains.  Bought a pair of Timberland’s and a whole bunch of business shirts for work.  Seriously cheap, same brand/type back home, at one fifth the price!  Averaging $20 a shirt!!

Left the store with to humongous bags and stumbled by the area being occupied by....I don’t even know how to describe the group.  To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what this group is protesting, I do but I don’t.  I understand what I hear on the news, with the whole corporate greed and unemployment rates, but being here in person I’m totally confused.

A lot of their signs just seemed like random crap to me and half of them looked either stoned, drunk, or not all there.  It was all peaceful I guess, freedom of speech and all, maybe I’m just getting old and don’t get it?

One of the occupiers who spent some time doing his make up today

This occupier was yelling something about something.

Camp site of the occupiers, I was hoping to smell bushfires and bbq sausages cooking

Magic Pimps are also occupying Wall st.  This is serious business people!

Moving on, we took a good look around the area, taking photo’s of some cool looking buildings, the freedom tower’s being built and just absorbing it all.

After our lovely tour of the Wall St area, we headed back to Times Sq for some more touristy gawking.  Can never get sick of this place!  We ventured into Red Lobster and shared one of the platters.  Was very good seafood, and at a very reasonable price again.  The layout of the restaurant was very flash, and being situated right in Times Sq, I was expecting much higher priced food!  Was not disappointed, very pleased, and we tucked right into the lobster, shrimp, fries, salad, biscuits (flavoured with garlic butter, mmm mmmm). 

Full up on food yet again, we headed back to the hotel.

Well rested, we felt like watching a movie that came out “Tower Heist”.  So we watched it at the Newport Plaza, our first ‘movie’ in the states.  My sister had mentioned to me years ago, that in the US, you guys like to put actual butter in your popcorn.  Back home we don’t really have that, not at cinema’s/movie theatres anyway.  Unless you bring a stick of butter with you.  So I had to see it for myself and sure enough, there was a butter ‘flavour’ dispenser!

Yes, I dispensed butter flavour all over the popcorn.  And yes, it was delicious.  Uh huh, I know I’m eating a lot of crap, but I don’t really care over two weeks for a holiday!!

The movie was pretty good, can never go wrong with Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller.  The annoying part was a young teen, talking, ranting, yelling through the whole movie.  I wish I totally doused by popcorn with butter, I could have shared it with him, all over his fat head.

Was an experience all together!  We’ve really done so much more than we planned to do and it’s been an awesome time.  Two more days to go and don’t want to leave!  

Tomorrow, Brooklyn baby, Liberty Park, more Hoboken!

Day 9 - All about the Letterman!

Today was all about the Letterman show.  One thing I forgot to mention on yesterday’s blog, earlier in the week KN registered us for the online raffle to get Letterman tickets.  We got picked, but had to answer trivia questions which I totally forgot about.  I actually missed their call, so rang back and was asked the questions (which caught me off guard).  I got them all wrong.  Woops!

I was so disappointed, I am a David Letterman fan, but it has been years since I’ve been a solid viewer of the show.  The questions they asked were “what store does Letterman go to visit now and then the past 10 years”, I answered “The Pizza Store” – WRONG!  It was the Deli.  Second question was “what colour hair does the announcer have, who introduces Letterman on every show”. I said grey, WRONG, was red...of course!

So after that disappointment yesterday, the lady from the Letterman show mentioned we could still go in a raffle for tickets the next morning, but we’d have to line up and enter at the box office from 9.30am.  Which we did, but first we had breakfast.

A quick meal at “Europa Cafe”, across the road from the Ed Sullivan theatre on Broadway.  Another quick, cheap, easy meal – plenty of this around!   After breakfast, we lined up at the theatre, filled out a form, and were advised they will make phone calls to the successful applications from 10am – 12pm. 

As we had to be around to take the call, and near the theatre if we win, we decided to spend the morning at Times Sq for more souvenir shopping.  There’s plenty of these stores around naturally and it’s interesting how the pricing for the same items drop the further away from times square you go.

While shopping around, KN had to get her nails done, so we looked in a nail shop run by the usual Asian nail peoples.  The pricing was apparently over the top, interestingly we found a place around the corner who were nearly less than half the price.  Conveniently they also did men's haircuts, particularly head shaves for men, which was perfect for me.

FYI I shave my own head with clippers back home once a week, didn’t bring my clippers overseas as there was no point, so always planned to visit a barber shop at least once during this trip.  So I had my hair clipped.  A young chap by the name of John clipped my hair, was very precise with how he cut it, and styled it up a bit too!

I only know of one place back home that does these kinds of haircuts for men back home, normally it makes more sense for me to do it myself, but this guy makes it such an art form I couldn’t say no.  So if you’re ever in town and need your hair done or your nails did, check them out!

While I was getting my hair cut at Cohen’s, I got the call from the Letterman show!  Two tickets for KN and I, simply had to pick the tickets up between 1-2pm!  There are a number of lists, under the name of the page’s, and all based on seating areas in the theatre.  We were on Karen’s “Gold List”.   So after our trip to Cohen's, we made our way back to the Ed Sullivan theatre and picked up a couple of hot dogs from one of the many food carts in NYC.

Made it to the theatre and the line was growing already, just to pick up tickets.

We get there, receive our tickets, and the way the system works is they write on each ticket issued in numerical order – and within the colour coding of the lines (Red & Blue).  Depending on which list you came under, your seat allocation will either be to the left, middle or right – up close, up back, or upstairs on another platform.  Either way the theatre is set up so you are nice and close.

After picking up our tickets, they split us up in groups, where one of the lead page’s hypes up the group and advises us on some of the ground rules.  No camera’s, no yelling, heaps of energy, and to come back at 2.20pm and line up in our designated groups.

So we headed back into times sq for a bit more window shopping and I decided to try a NY pizza.  We stopped at the “Famous Famiglia Pizzeria” in times square.  My first slice of NY pizza since we’ve been here and it was awesome.  I know a lot of the locals will say there’s so much choice, don’t have to go to Times Sq to taste real pizza, but it did the job for me!

There’s a pizzeria back home called “New York Slice Pizzaria”.  It pales in comparison, this pizza was so good.  The sauce was so nice, plenty of nice cheese, meat, and the base is nothing like pizza I’ve had back home.

Getting closer to 2pm, we made our way back to the theatre.  On the way, we stopped by a cupcake shop we walked past earlier that we had to check out.  It’s called “Crumbs Bake Shop”, on Broadway right near the Ed Sullivan theatre!  KN ordered a Red velvet and peanut butter cup cakes, were absolutely delicious. 

We finally arrive at the theatre for the third time today and get in line as directed.  It felt like we were at a line for customs at the airport again.  So many checks of ID, tickets, so on and so forth.  When they let us in the building, there was another line up before we could actually go in the theatre.  The same lead page was hyping the crowd up, laying down the law again, but this time emphasising on how they need the audience to laugh and cheer as much as possible.  Even if Letterman isn’t funny, we had to laugh at everything he says.  There was so much of this reminder, I felt as though I’d have to force myself to laugh the moment he opens his mouth.

The wait in line felt incredibly long.  It was starting to heat up and others in line were beginning to get frustrated.  I was feeling even worse (sick) and was contemplating going outside and just bailing on the whole show!  I pushed through, finally they let us in and showed us to our seats.

We ended up on the fourth row from the front, and like the SNL studio, we were surprised by how much smaller the theatre actually is.  So many lights in this place, the set/background/props look totally different to when it’s on TV, I was literally gob smacked for a few minutes just soaking the place in.  Meanwhile feeling like I was going to pass out and dreading the thought of having to leave the show while filming.

But the show was about to start and this is how it works.  They have a host/comedian, that warms up the crowd (for the life of me I can’t remember his name).  He was funny though and did an awesome job.  It’s then followed by another warm up “video”, featuring Alec Baldwin, and other crew from the show.  It was hilarious, couldn’t stop laughing through it.

Once that finishes, the band (CBS Orchestra) come out and play a couple of songs, followed by Paul Shaffer who comes out and joins the band.  When they’re done, Letterman comes out!

Off the camera, he also warms the crowd up, picks someone from the crowd and starts a random conversation and makes jokes.  Someone from the crowd raises his hand for a question, who comes from San Diego, and Letterman works his magic and just comes out with the jokes.

As soon as he’s done with that, he runs backstage, puts his suit coat on – then they start recording on camera and does his usual routine.  Starting off with a joke that the viewers from home wouldn’t get (now I do), saying something along the lines of “You know something, here’s a tip, do yourself a favour and don’t have a conversation with someone from San Diego”.  Haha, funny guy.

The rest of the show is just as you see it on TV.  But during the commercial breaks, it’s cool how they change the sets around as they need, move the props/backdrop, and the band plays a couple of numbers and they’re amazing too.  On this show, the celebrities interviewed were Mark Harmon (NCIS), Matt Lauer (NBC Today Show) – he did a skit with top 10 travel tips and it was funny, Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead) and the Eli Young band (a country band I’ve never heard of before).

Once the show was finished, we were beat, and made our way back to the hotel to just hang out and rest.  I was still feeling sick, but the Letterman show was definitely the highlight of the trip for me so far.

Tomorrow ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, stay tuned for a “Seinfeld” breakfast, coffee round 2, PK occupying wall street and a bar in Hoboken!

Day 8 - Central Park tour, Katz Deli and....Coffee!!

Another glorious day in New York City!  We headed straight into Manhattan to Grand Central Station, to see the place and have breakfast there.  Like every other place we’ve seen so far in NYC, being here in person puts things in perspective in a big way.  Grand Central Station is massive.  The main concourse is so much bigger than we expected it to be.

Outside entrance into Grand Central

One of the many hallways

One of the stairs leading into the main concourse

Famous main concourse

It’s like the heart of the subway system, connecting all the different lines, it’s not hard to get lost as a first time tourist.  There’s also the main dining concourse at Grand Central station where we had breakfast, with quite a few food stores to choose from.  We settled for Juniors and had a cheap and easy breakfast.

KN ordered a bagel with cream cheese and a fruit cup, I had 2 eggs, corned beef and home fries.  Was pretty good for cheap food again.  Yes I tasted the coffee, was just the standard filtered coffee, no need for further comment.

Talking about what to do over breakfast, we thought we’d try Central Park again and ‘attempt’ to find some of the key spots we’ve seen in movies.  The thing with Central Park is it is so freaking huge!  As tourists you know it is going to be, you see it on a map, yeah it’s big.  But when you’re actually here and walk around the park trying to find certain areas, it quickly dawns on you how much walking there is to do.  Especially when you don’t know where you’re going!

I think our brains started compensating for the lack of real knowledge of the park and where the movie spots were.  Because we were certain we saw locations from a number of movies, till we were schooled by a proper tour guide :).

**Caffeinated Interlude**

Prior to Central Park, I had to ‘try’ and find another coffee shop/cafe that does a good espresso.  Not filled with much hope, we stumbled past a place that didn’t really stand out at first, but some uncontrollable force demanded me to stop and look twice.  “Cafe K” (8 E. 48^th St near 5^th Ave.).  I ordered a regular latte and watched the barrista make my coffee.  He knew what he was doing.  I tasted it.  I felt the chemical imbalance of caffeine in my veins return to normal.  Take notes fellow travellers looking for coffee in NYC!

Cafe K.  GO THERE!

Back to Central Park....

So we decided to go on a bike tour of Central Park, hosted by a friendly chap with an accent I couldn’t quite figure out.  He seemed to know everything there is to know about movie/celebrity trivia in relation to the park and NYC in general, so it was pretty cool.  They do the tours in the park on bicycles with a cart on the back.  It definitely beats walking around aimlessly, with no sense of direction and your mind making you believe “yes, this is where they shot this scene for this movie”, when really it’s just another patch of grass with a similar looking tree.

Unfortunately one of the main areas used a lot for a number of films was closed, mainly for clean up in preparation for the NY Marathon being held this Sunday.  But we got to see a lot of other areas for a lot of movies, too many to list here.  We also saw the area with the fountain that they shot “MasterChef” (for those of you back home that were fans and remember the NYC segment).

The fountain from the show "Friends"

Building in the background with two towers from Ghostbusters

Big Daddy scene where Adam Sandler trips over a rollerblader with a stick

John Lennon's apartment where Yoko still lives.  Also where he was shot out front.

Memorial at Strawberry fields

After about an hour the tour came to an end, we hopped off at the lower west side of the park, to venture back into town and get inspired for lunch.  It didn’t take much to get inspired, one of the places we had on the list to try was a pastrami sandwich from “Katz’s Delicatessen”.  Seen this on so many movies and TV shows, it was a must.  

Didn’t take long to find the place, walk through the doors, and WOW.  Place is as busy and packed as we’ve seen it on TV.  They have a system which works, you enter, take a ticket, then go to the counters you want to order food from.  One counter for the sandwiches, one counter for food from the grill, and another for fries and soda/drinks.  You hand them the ticket after ordering for them to mark, and you pay on your way out when done.

We ordered one pastrami sandwich with mustard and American cheese, with a side of pickles and fries.  Sandwich was more than I was expecting, it was incredibly awesome.  The pastrami was so tasty and juicy, goes well with the mustard and cheese.  The fries were really nice too, I could have eaten more.  I don’t know why I didn’t.  Maybe we should go back before we leave :).

  Afterwards, met up with another one of my cousin’s who lives nearby for dinner.

She took us to a place, directly across the road from our hotel, to a very nice Cuban restaurant called “Azucar Cuban Cuisine & Cigars”.  Yes, ‘and cigars’!  We ordered from the tapas menu, so we could have a wide variety of food.  Neither of us had tried Cuban food before, so it was a great idea.  Our waiter was very flamboyant, funny, enthusiastic, and constantly had a smile on his face.  He was also very persuasive, convincing us to buy certain dishes!   

 

Guacamole with banana chips..it works!

Bacardi coconut flan

Hard to see, but there's a number of dishes there. Croquettes, shrimp, chorizo sausage dishes...

I couldn’t really compare Cuban food to anything else, it’s definitely delicious and something I’d go back for!  After a flan dessert and finishing our Mojito’s, we headed back home to crash and burn. 

Another BIG THANK YOU to my cousin for taking us out to dinner!!  Tomorrow, more midtown, my hair gets a treatment (yes, what little hair I have), and making it into the Letterman show!!  Even after failing the trivia questions!!!