Flying Solo in NYC

Unfortunately for me, I made two poor decisions the moment I walked out the door. 1) I immediately knew I was wearing the wrong shoes for the day, but was running late so didn't go back to change them. Bad idea. Very bad idea. 2) Though I stopped to take a picture of yesterday's breakfast joint, I did not stop and partake. I figured I'd just find something along the way. Bad idea. Very bad idea.

My plan for the day consisted of trying to track down a store where the über-cute hats were sold, swinging by the Empire State Building (but not going up, as that cost $45, sheesh!), and cruising through Times Square - and all before lunch. Why? Well, that's because at noon I was due to meet up with a contact of a contact that my dad set me up with to "show me the ropes" of New York. I was due to meet him in Chelsea for lunch.

So I set off on my agenda in uncomfortable shoes and an empty belly (I know Andi, you must just be shaking your head at me right now). Much to my dismay, I did not have any success finding the store with the cute hats (largely due to the fact that most of the stores were closed at 10am). Despite the expense, I was really, really looking forward to being trendy and having warm ears in NYC. (Awww) From there I successfully found the ESB, of which I dutifully took pictures and stood in awe of. But only for a minute, because it was dang cold out. So I got back on the subway and resurfaced at Times Square.

Who knew Times Square was so big? I had no idea. Apparently it's several blocks. I walked down a few and back up, stopping to pop in a few souvenier shops, but was too apathetic (read: enslaved by the hunger demon) to make any decisions and walked away with zero purchases. Terrible, I know. You'd think with all I learned about myself in Italy (especially the "need to be fed" part) that I'd be a pro at it by now. Apparently not.

So after being overwhelmed by bright lights of Times Square, I decided to head to Chelsea and await my lunch date. By the time I made it there, my feet were throbbing and I could hardly wait to eat. When I met my dad's contact, he told me he had a lunch date with a few of his guy friends and he figured I could tag along. I thought it was a wee bit strange, but was willing to go with the flow. So we headed to Grand Central Station to hit up The Oyster Bar.

The lunch went pretty well - the oysters were delicious (albeit, not very filling) and it was fun to talk to some real New Yorkers. However, this particular crowd were all self-dubbed foodies and most of their recommendations for me were (you guessed it) food. And seeing as I only had one more significant meal left in New York, the information was appreciated, but not particularly helpful.

Truthfully, the rest of my afternoon was not very exciting, so I won't bore you with the details. My feet hurt, I was still pretty hungry, and I didn't really have any specific destinations in mind, so I just wandered. Certainly nothing to brag about. My one success of the afternoon was that when I returned to where the hat shop was supposed to be, this time I found it! Yaaaaaaaaay! I am now the proud owner of a ridiculously expensive, reversible, and oh-so-trendy hat. And I couldn't be happier about it.

Soon after I made my way home (for what was something like my 8th subway ride of the day; definitely got my use out of that pass) and Mary, Dylan, and I shared our last meal of my adventure together at their favorite Thai joint near their house. It was a bring your own wine joint, so we did. It was delightful. And I can't exactly remember now what was so funny, but we laughed a lot. Fun times.

Even though my last day in New York was probably my least favorite, I'd have to say, I definitely heart NY. It's big, it's diverse, it's terribly interesting. The city just demands your attention, and you've gotta respect that. I've got big love for the big city.