Day 2 - Greenwich Village

Alex and I took the next morning slowly. No need to wake up early and rush. After a breakfast of English muffins and coffee cakes (thanks Grandma!) Pop Pop and Grandma drove us the few blocks to downtown Closter to wait for a 11:10 bus. We were early and it was cold standing there in the wind, but I guessed NYC wouldn't be much better. Alex complained the whole time, however.

Finally, right on schedule, a bus pulled up along the curb. We played our $6.30 each and walked all the way to the back, each of us carrying a large and heavy black duffel bag. Yes, Alex picked a seat all the way in the back, so everyone watched me struggle (and sometimes hit them) as I pushed my way to the back.

Alex made nice conversation with a man that noticed his purple High Point hat and recognized the area. He warned us that New York City would be very different than hospitable, conservative North Carolina (thanks, dude).  Just under an hour later, we were slowly making our way through the Lincoln Tunnel.  Too slowly, if you ask me because I do NOT like tunnels. But Alex held my hand and soon we saw the city!

Our first impression of the City. Classy huh?
I guess we'll just have to come back when we're legal...

Once off the bus, we navigated our way through Port Authority seaching for the subway. We bought one-trip tickets, as suggested by Kim and mapped a route to Union Square. Her office was a mere 3 blocks from there. The subway was tricky, again with our large bags. Halfway down Broadway, we realized Alex's bag was much lighter than mine, so we switched. (He's so chivalrous!)  Though it would be humorous, it would be pointless for him to offer to carry both, and I am not quite that helpless. With my awesome ability to follow directions and read the small map of the City I had in a guidebook, we were soon outside of Kim's office panting only slightly. Once upstairs, she greeted us excitedly.

She suggested we spend the afternoon touring the Village. When I asked (ignorantly) how to get there, she said "You're in it!" So she pointed out on my map fun places to eat, what roads were the most colorful and then gave us a time to meet back at the office.

Let me pause here to back-track. Before we started really exploring, we already knew NYC would be a lot of fun, if only for the interesting people. While waiting in one subway station, a very tall -person- walked pasted us.  I only barely noticed this person because of his or her ridiculous height and skinny legs. Once, what I thought was a she, passed us, Alex whispered "that was a man!" I looked back quickly to see my first New York transvestite.

Anyway, this was only the beginning of the crazy, funny and unusual people and things we saw in NYC. 

Before we made it to the Japanese places Kim suggested, we got hungry and tried gyro's from a sidewalk cart. Mine was chicken, Alex's lamb, but they were both equally difficult to eat and equally delicious. Successful first taste of streetfood.


Then we went into the West Village to look at shops, restaurants and find Magnolia Bakery that a friend of Alex's had suggested.  We had to walk around a bit before we were hungry enough to try their coffee and a very large toffee peanut butter bar that we enjoyed between a playground and two very sketchy men who decided to sit on the ground instead of one of the 15 benches in pedestrian-only area. The peanut butter bar was wonderful, the company....entertaining. We finished quickly and continued on our way.

We shopped around a few clothing stores. Alex bought a striped sweater that came in handy when he wanted to look nice for Regis and Kelly (more on that on Day 4). We spent quite a bit of time in Urban Outfitters (ironic cause there are plenty of those in VA) mostly to keep warm and sit down for a few minutes as we were getting tired by this point. About 6:15 we headed back to 11th and University to meet Kim and L-train it to Brooklyn where we'd meet Bob for Thai take-out. Another first for both of us. We split several yummy dishes between the four of us.

 Standing in the subway station, Alex notices something on the tracks. "Subway mice!" he whispers to me, and Kim hears it too. "Those aren't mice..." she says.  If nothing else made it as clear, his excitement over rats definitely did; we made the right choice for Spring Break!