Sunday afternoon and the Shake Shack

The Shake Shack does all sorts of hot dogs and hamburgers, and shakes - whisked-up custard with all sorts of exotic flavours and extras. The electricity is powered by wind. When you place your order, you're given a little hand-held device a bit like a mobile-phone or an audio-guide. When your order's ready it 'shakes' and lights up so you can sit around while you're waiting, then fetch it from the kitchen. I had a 'Shake-ago' and fries - the fries not using trans-fats, so really now a health food. One thing I didn't order was the 'Pooch-ini' - a 'delicious' snack for your dog, involving peanut-butter, custard, cookies, and other stuff I can't remember. It's not suitable for small dogs, though. After stopping at the Shake Shack, I wandered south into Greenwich Village, which had a fairly retro (i.e. 1970s, 1980s)- rather than buzzy - feel. Then cut across back to East Village, which - though grittier - seemed more 'happening'. The street next to the hotel is tiny, but has about seven alternative theatres and tiny coffee bars. So I'll explore that a bit tomorrow.

Sunday afternoon wanderings

After leaving Central Park - a quick look into the vast Apple Store - it's under the street level, and you get in by going down a glass circular lift. Packed - a place to be on wet Sunday afternoons. No Ipads yet, Morgan: they come next weekend. Then slowly down Fifth Avenue - which had that feel of an archetypal Manhattan street. Iconic and consumerist - simultaneously seductive and repulsive. Also very long. So, once again - especially after walking round the Met and through Central Park, I succumbed to a taxi - to take me to Madison Square Park.... where I came across Shake Shack... about which more in my next post....

Sunday morning

Woke up really early - my body still slightly on UK time, and also with a really persistent headache, made worse by knowing that I'd forgotten to bring Anadin. Had breadfast at the hotel. 'Steel Cut Irish Oats' - which, basically turned-out to be porridge, with sliced bananas and strawberries and a side-dish of crispy bacon washed down with coffee and orange juice. Glanced at the New York Times Sunday edition - outside my bedroom door courtesy of the hotel. Then headed straight out so I could get to the Metropolitan Museum as soon as it opened at 9.30am - though stopping off at a pharmacy to get headache tablets (the choice being irritatingly wide because obviously unregulated, with a random selection of tablet strengths - and I ended up choosing some that made my face go numb within 2 minutes but which certainly had the desired effect of killing-off the headache for the day). Beginning to get a feel for the size of Manhattan and the scale of the map I use - which, in this case meant giving up on my original plan to walk to the Met, and getting a taxi instead (it would have taken hours walking). The Met is absolutely enormous. I started with the Egyptian section, which contained vast numbers of mummies, statues, frescoes, whole tombs with enormous galleries to themselves. Then Medieval, Renaissance, right up to modern and contemporary. Kept getting lost. Lots of famous pictures, of course - Rembrandt self-portrait, Van Gogh self-portrait with straw hat, and irises, Caravaggios, vast numbers of Picassos. etc, plus lots of modern American - Jackson Pollock, etc - and Damien Hirst's 'The Impossibility, etc' - i.e. the pickled shark. Stopped off for a double-espresso in the American Wing cafe. (Strange thing I've notice is that no matter how nice a cafe, even if you're drinking 'in' they still serve all coffees in paper-cups). Other than that, kept going for 4 hours or so, in order to take advantage of being there. Afterwards, out into the gentle drizzle to walk through Central Park - kept getting a little disorientated. Then to Fifth Avenue, where I first of all noticed the mega Apple Store... which I'll tell you about in my next post.

Arrival at The Bowery

The Bowery Hotel is in a 'gritty', but trendy part of NYC - half-way between 'Downtown' proper and Midtown - and sandwiched at the intersection of NOHO, Greenwich Village, East Village and Lower East Side. Inside, it's dark and exotic - with a kind-of turn-of-the-century art-nouveau feel in the Bar. Which, when I arrived (at about 6pm NYC time) was full of very trendy folk - all, I think, quite impressed by my own cutting-edge style (i.e several jackets, pants hanging out of every pocket, etc). The staff also have style - with aggressively emo'd hairdoes. My bedroom's on the twelfth floor - and yes, I do get vertigo if I get up close to my window and look down at the street below. So I concentrate on looking straight ahead at the skyline: no landmarks but a nice New York-y mix of loft-apartments and mini-skyscrapers, dotted with what look like water-towers (but I'm not sure). Lots of sirens and car-horns when the window's open - but it's all part of the background, so I had no trouble falling asleep.

But sleep came only after (a) checking out the mini-bar: wardrobe-sized - and tasty cashew nuts; (b) a wander up Broadway to Union Square and back down via First Avenue - to sniff the territory in the cold. Took twenty minutes to work out how to turn off the lights next to the bed. The TV has over 700 channels. There was nothing worth watching. I know you won't believe me, Morgan, but it's true!

Saturday - arrival in NYC

Arrived at JFK about 3.30 US time... after the trauma of carrying far too much luggage and - in order to reduce the weight of my suitcase by 2kg - having to wear several jackets and shoving various pants, cables, and portable devices into every pocket. Getting through customs, etc was faster than I'd expected - though the baggage reclaim is pretty time-consuming when the conveyor belts are spitting out a Jumbo-jet load of bags. Long queue for official yellow taxis - but worth it for the flate-rate during the ride into Manhattan. First glimpses of the skyline... and eager to get to the Hotel and 'dump' my stuff ;)