Winter Break - New York: Part 4

Hey guys, sorry for abandoning this blog for over two weeks. I've been doing pretty well here. I just went through a midterm frenzy week. Plus, I've been trying to work on my portfolio website and this Korean drama called My Love from Another Star came along and became a major distraction. Anyway, I'm back on the track with more stories from my previous winter break which I'm still determined to finish it up hopefully by March.

Well, let's continue where we left off. Christmas was here! It was a pretty unproductive day for someone who doesn't celebrate Christmas. Elda woke up early in the morning to attend the Christmas service in the Cathedral we visited earlier. That would leave me more time to sleep and again, wake up nearly in the afternoon. Yeah I know that it's not strongly recommended for tourists to wake up late during the vacation. That was such a waste of time. However, we didn't really have many places to go to. After all, the sole reason we came to New York was to enjoy its vibe on Christmas.

Anyway, Elda was back at around 11. I was still lying around in my bed before realizing that we needed to go somewhere. At least it was better than spending the whole day in the small hotel room. Imagine, spending Christmas day in this hotel room. Nothing could beat its boredom. Since most attractions and museums were closed on Christmas day, we thought that we would visit just a public open space. I suggested, why not Central Park? It's true it was just a park but I barely stepped my foot in it despite having been to New York. So I was pretty curious what the park that took up nearly half of Manhattan had to offer.

It took us about fifteen minutes from our hotel near the Times Square, to Central Park. New York City was still as busy as usual even though it was Christmas. Honestly, December 25^th changed not the slightest with the previous days. But surely, the energy was stronger than probably during non-Christmas days.

When we arrived at the park, I was a bit surprised. I had pictured a huge, quiet park with barely anyone in there. But apparently, the huge park had so much energy going on. There were many people that walked along its paths and some horse carts passing by in Central Park.

I was slightly tempted to ride on one of those, but I took back my thought as I saw the price they offered. Well, walking wouldn't hurt.

After taking pictures and stepping on one rock to another for a better view, we took off from the park. We passed Columbus Circle and practically walked without any clear direction along the 7^th Avenue. I took a picture of Carnegie Hall as it was a well-known symphony hall where notable classical musicians such as Yuja Wang and Lang Lang made appearances.

Right across the hall, Elda and I saw a long line. Apparently they were lining up in front of Carnegie Deli. Elda and I had no idea what it was (but it turns out we found out it was a pretty good place to eat in New York City). So Elda suggested we just lined up there. I still didn't have the slightest idea what kind of menu they offered. Anyway, we were seated by the waiters and decided we would just have desserts, as we had something for lunch beforehand (which I forgot what it was). I had chocolate cake and Elda – I think – had something with strawberry in it.

However, since probably it was Christmas day, the restaurant was busier than usual. The service was crappy. A waiter was being rude to us, and the German tourists who shared table with us were annoying. It was an unpleasant dining experience. Thank goodness we got out of there soon.

It was still late in the afternoon and we had no idea where to go next. My friend – who was also in New York – posted on Instagram that she went to this spot in Brooklyn across Manhattan, where you could see Manhattan Skyline at night. So, Elda and I went back to the hotel to take a rest and shortly after, we took off to that particular spot using subway.

As soon as we got off from the subway station at Brooklyn, we were welcomed by the darkness, the quietness, and the ghetto-ness (insert any inconvenient-neighborhood-related-descriptions) of Brooklyn neighborhood. Seriously there were only some tall apartments along the roads and barely anyone or any car passing by. Looking back, it was indeed not the best decision for two girls to be in that area at that particular time.

Anyway, we tried to brush off our negative thoughts and walked for blocks until we found a wide (and again quiet) patio at the side of the river, overlooking beautiful Manhattan at night. The patio apparently looked like restaurants or property under constructions.

As usual, we did what tourists did. Elda and I took pictures. We were surprised and glad by the presence of two other people. They were also tourists from Sweden, I guess. We helped them take pictures.

Then before it got too late for dinner, we walked back to Manhattan. Elda found this fancy Italian dining place in Manhattan that required us to walk for blocks from the subway station where we got off. However, after walking and walking, we found out that the place had been closed down for good (in addition to that, the so-called “dining place” was even located in one of the those ghetto Manhattan areas). So there goes our hope to have a good Christmas fine dining. As an alternative, as we both were already starving, we chose to walk around to find just any good food to eat. On our way back to Times Square, we found this little and again, quiet, Japanese restaurant at one of the alleys near Times Square. We were literally the only customers in the small, I don't know – 18x20 – restaurant. When we got there, they were almost closing. Thank goodness the waitress was soooo nice! So at least that made us feel a little better as opposed to what we felt at the Carnegie Deli.

Later on, we went back to Times Square, because of course, we wouldn't miss being in one of the hottest spots in the world on my most favorite holiday.

Before we called it the night, we dropped by at M&M's World. It was literally the heaven for the product's lovers! I thought of just giving it a glance but I ended up exploring every bit of the store's corner. I ended up getting myself a reasonable-sized bag of M&M's of assorted colors and kinds.

And that's it. We called it the night as we walked back to our hotel. Tomorrow would be very much exciting as we would be visiting Museum of Natural History.