January 2nd 2009 New York!

We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed for a morning workout. The
view from the gym is amazing. The buildings are so enormous and on
most the sides of them are some type of billboard ad. So we are ready
to see the city, we start walking around aimlessly, so touristy.
Luckily our hotel is right in Times Square. A total tourist trap, but
awesome nonetheless. Every corner they are trying to sell you some
piece of crap I heart NY shirt, or mini statue of liberty. It's
incredibly hard to walk around, it seems like no one knows where the
hell they are going or want to go or how to get there. I know we had
no clue. I was bumped into real hard a good five times but maybe it
was because I was in awe looking at all the displays and lights. I
heard about 20 different languages today, people come from all over,
it's very crazy! To add to it all, it was about 20 degrees out. We would
only walk 5 blocks and I couldn't feel my face, hands, or toes. So we
went to this sushi spot called Haru for lunch, it was very good. We
chatted a bit with a couple next to us from CA, both having gotten
there and both having no idea where to go and what to see. So we came
to the conclusion that we need to just go back to the hotel and talk
to them. We almost got into a cab outside of the hotel which would
have been the worst mistake we could have made, instead the doorman
called over this black BMW 7 series with tinted windows, it was Alex, a
concierge driver. An almost to the point of being too nice, Egyptian
man. Where do you wanna go? So we explained we wanted to see all the
spots that most tourists don't see. He knew exactly what we meant. He
took us everywhere except the East side. We saw where Madonnas
penthouse was, where John Lennon was shot which is in front of
Madonnas building. Yoko Ono still lives there we found out too. Alex
knew all the good stuff and fun facts! Which, I love. I'm a dictionary
of strange and interesting facts, and now I am being brushed up on NY
trivia, fantastic! We went to Ground Zero, which was a spot both Matt
and I wanted to see. Alex parked and we got out to get the best view.
The whole area was fenced off with guards but we walked around the
whole area. It was well lit so we could see all of it. It was the eeriest place I have ever been. More eery than a cemetary. To think of how many people died in this very place. We went to a
tribute fire station seen with names of the firefighters from that
station that were killed. There was even a store with pictures and
memorabilia from 9-11 but it was $5 to get in so we just ogled from
outside. This was a pretty special moment because it still feels like
it was yesterday I was watching the burning towers on TV. He took us
through Central Park which isn't as pretty as you see in the movies
with it being winter, it wasn't very green. He took us through the
richest neighborhood in New York where the elite and celebrity live.
It's not like other rich neighborhoods where there are huge mansions
and tons of land because no ones owns houses around here. Its all
condos, lofts, and apartments. From just looking at the area, I
wouldn't have considered it to be a very wealthy area. We saw the
Trump Tower where apprentice is filmed, Matt got a kick out of that
because he loves that show. We drove by Tavern on the Green, which is
supposedly a landmark but I had never heard of it, so I took a picture
anyway. We drove by the Metropolitan Museum which I really really
wanted to visit which we didn't get to, maybe on our 1 day back to NY
after the cruise. We saw an Apple store, which was so futuristic, it
was just a glass case with the apple emblem and you get in this
elevator which takes you down into the store. Who would have thought
of that, seriously? We drove by the biggest Juicy store I have ever
seen! I was pretty excited to go there, but we reserved shopping for
tomorrow. We drove by numerous cathedrals, the really big, really
ornate, with really creepy statues you see in all the movies. I didn't
get to go in one of those which I really want to, again maybe when we
get back. We saw the big NY christmas tree that's right by the open
ice rink. Madison Square garden was fun to see. The empire state
building is more plain then I imagined, but tall nonetheless. Alex our
driver and Matt really hit it off! Alex insisted he pick us up later
that night to drive us around. He even called a friend and got us
reservations at Buddakhan. A very hard place to get into. During that
first ride, we realized Alex has a lot of connections. Even to the
mafia in NY. So we met up with Shannon, Matt's friends sister who
lives in NY and headed to Buddhakhan. The food was amazing as I had hoped
for, being that NY is known for it's amazing food! Our waiter was a
bit too gay and stuffy for my taste. But the dessert was simply
divine, the chocolate peanut butter bombe. I even took a picture of
it, it was THAT good! After an amazing dinner and some catching up
with Shannon we headed to Buddha Bar. I really love the whole asian
decorations, little buddhas and whatnot. They had a 20ft buddha in the
center of the restaurant, I really wanted to get a picture with it but
I would have been the center of attention with a huge flash ruining
everyones meal..so I settled for a 5ft buddha type statue instead. It
was still early and the place wasn't too hopping. So we had some
drinks. We asked Alex where else was a good spot to go. He said he
knew just the place. We pull up to this bar that had no signage,
Shannon bars with no big signs are the good ones. It turned out to be
a hookah bar, Alex knew everyone there and got us well taken care of.
We got our own booth and a hookah. I'm not a bug fan of hookah but I
enjoyed it anyway. Alex got Shannon and Matt up into the DJ's booth
which you had to climb up these little stairs, I was in the bathroom
and missed out. The music was a good mix of Indian and top 40. There
wasn't a dance floor but most bars in NY don't have enough room for
one so you have to make your own, which I did of course. Shannon had
some friends that wanted her to meet up so we headed to the Brass
Monkey, I was sure it was a gay bar from the name of it. It ended up
being a bar you could definitely find in the U district. A total
college bar. I can't even name the number of bad pick up lines from
guys that are probably younger then me I got there. But Shannon's
friends were nice and we made the most of it. On a late night out at
home, Matt and I will usually get some Taco Bell which we regret in
the morning but I didn't see one Taco Bell there, Alex knew the best
spot for some late night junk food. Joe's Pizza, this little tiny
pizza joint with a huge banner on the wall that said, "Joes Pizza,
best slice in NY as seen in Spiderman" and I can tell you now it was
indeed the best slice of pizza I have ever had, it could have been
that I was just drunk but it was pretty good. I was excited to get
back to my heavenly bed at the hotel, I love hotel beds!