NYC Adventures – Part I

Hello, friends!

As I promised, here’s the trip to NYC recap for you with lots of pictures!

We took Friday off and got on the train in Harrisburg, PA on Thursday night. It was my second time in NYC, and both times we took the train – you can relax for 3.5 hours and don’t have to worry about parking (which is pretty expensive) and traffic in New York. I am like Sheldon Cooper – big fan of trains. When I was little my grandparents would take me and my brother on vacations/to visit relatives and we’d always travel by train. I have a fascination and love for trains ever since then. And trains these days are pretty awesome – WiFi and all 🙂

So I was taking pictures and posting them on my Instagram while I was on the train. Here’s one getting out of Philly.

3.5 hours later we safely arrived to the Penn Station in NYC! We took a cab to go to our hotel. We stayed at Ameritania Hotel on W 54th and Broadway. The room was just tiny, which we didn’t really care about as we were planning on being out and about most of the time.

By the time we checked in and got out to find a place to eat (or I should rather say “choose from the million of places to eat”) my gold totally got the best of me. I was so tired and sick I couldn’t remember what we talked about at dinner when I woke up the next morning! We ended up at the Play Wright Celtic Pub, where I ordered this beautiful French Onion Soup hoping it would make me feel better:

and…couldn’t eat it..took a couple spoonfuls, but I felt so bad that I couldn’t even taste it…

The next morning I woke up bright and early – and feeling SO much better! Like the night before was the worst part of my cold and I got over it!

On Friday morning we left our hotel room to go find a good breakfast place – which was right there on the first floor of our hotel. Since I hardly ate anything the night before I was starving! The place was the continental breakfast buffet, so I got a banana, a yogurt, blueberry muffin and a hard boiled egg.

The sole purpose of our trip this time was my appointment at the Consulate to apply for my passport, which is expiring in August. My appointment was at 2:00 pm so after breakfast we decided to go for a walk since it was still to early to go to the Consulate.

While we were walking around, I asked my husband how far we were from the Consulate and when he said it was only 2.5 miles away, I suggested to walk there. What I didn’t take into account was that I wasn’t wearing my tennis shoes  (since I thought we were only going out for breakfast when we left the hotel) and pretty soon my feet started killing me! But what’s a trip to a big city without blisters, right? 🙂

We walked towards Central Park and decided to make our walk through it. It is sooooo beautiful!

We got out of the Park near MET and Guggenheim Museum

We sat down on the steps to MET to listen to the Acapella Soul. My god those guys were GREAT! I love male acapella bands, but these guys were so…so….New York! We bought their CD for ” free with a donation of $15 and more” 🙂

While we were still walking through the Central Park, my husband looked up bike stores on the map that were nearby, so next thing we headed to one of the bike stores we found in the neighborhood. Tell you what, I got out of that store the happiest woman in the world – my husband got me a pair of Shimano cycling shoes, which you have already seen in my yesterday’s post!!!

When we got to the Consulate it was still too early for me to go in and they were closed for lunch. So we decided to have lunch, too. Right across the street from it we found this treasure:

Tiny little Italian restaurant – Gina La Fornarina, but so cozy and beautiful inside. And oh my God was the food good! I got their Caprese Salad (one of my most favorite salads).

and Milt got their Artichoke and Avocado Salad. Isn’t it a masterpiece?

The food was so good that we let the server/bartender talk us into ordering cappuccinos and desert. I had a cheesecake (we’re in New York after all)

and look, he made me a cappuccino with my face on it 🙂

Pretty soon it was time for me to go to the Consulate. I have to say – my country is famous for its bureaucracy and heavy and slow mechanism of the official institutions. For 2 days I was preparing myself emotionally for going into the consulate. Just because there were too many times before when I was sent home missing one little paper (not from this consulate though). Well, this time I came well prepared – I brought every single document I had, even though it was not on the list and was not required. There was no way I would get sent home and wait for another 3 months for the next appointment. Those were my thoughts as I was entering the building – I was in full armor and I was ready for whatever the nearest future was about to bring.

Imagine my surprise when I was in and out of there in 23 minutes – including security checks and waiting in line! I was so happy everything went well I was ready to party 🙂

We headed out to do some clothes shopping and then back to the hotel to rest my poor feet. This time we took a cab 🙂

After a half hour rest my feet were ready to go again, this time “properly equipped” 🙂

This time we decided to walk towards the Times Square and see what trouble we can get into.

It was around 5:30 pm and we decided to take a bus tour! It was a perfect solution for tired feet, limited time in New York and plus – how much better can you see everything from a double-decker? Yep, doesn’t get much better 🙂

So we got the tickets and headed over t the tour bus stop…to be continued tomorrow, friends! Stay tuned for NYC adventures Part II with lots of pictures!

Stay fit!