506 Words
New York City - A Bite Out of the Big Apple
Riding in a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park is definitely a tourist cliche. It is not inspired but somehow it's necessary. It'd be like going to Venice and refusing to ride a gondola.
Springtime in New York City is movie material...may as well act the part with all the right props. Taking a bite out of the big apple is not easy, especially when you consider the sheer scale of the city.
We only had a weekend - half of which was taken up with a seminar. Where to start?
"We begin at the end." Kathleen, one of my oldest friends, laughed. She had flown down from Toronto and met me at the hotel armed with a plan, well actually, with an appointment. She had scheduled us into the Bliss Spa for Monday morning after which we would fly home. This booking created an end-point of indulgence, leaving us free to abuse our feet with endless walking and to spoil ourselves with anything that smelled good.
Arabic kabob stands, creamy espressos, pulled Carolina-style barbeque pork, curries and teas. We rode the buses, took the cabs, cruised Bloomingdales, but mostly we just watched and walked.
The Village, Lexington Avenue, 42nd Street, Madison Avenue, Times Square, Central Park, Fifth Avenue. NYC street names read like the who's who of roads. We've all been there through books, movies and films. But actually striding those iconic streets is like starring in your own movie.
The yellow cabs are endless, and it's just possible that there are even more coffee shops than Vancouver. Spring blossoms float, daffodils nod, suits abound and the vibration of 8 million bodies creates the energy that the city is famous for. In Times Square we stood gob smacked by the talking heads soaring several stories high, seeing the mix of blinking, streaming and flashing lights and animations.
Can you go into this city among cities without going to FAO Schwartz? I had to see the big piano keyboard that Tom Hanks immortalized in Big. At the top of the escalator, past the enormous stuffed animal zoo, I found it. Children jumped and danced on the huge keys that lit-up with neon colours as the honky-tonk piano notes twanged in the air.
Down the last aisle I found the child-sized hummer for $30,000.00 U.S. and watched a child tugging on the door of the kid height $18,000.00 U.S. sports car.
In my limited musical repertoire I generally only know the choruses of most songs and even that's rather incomplete. This left me with Frank Sinatra's New York, New York, looping endlessly in my brain. Unfortunately, it was only those two words. "New" and "York" that went round and round, but what a lovely groove it left.
Hard to think of much else when you're striding down Lexington, coffee in one hand, notebooks in another. I kept pace with those busy New Yorkers, looking like I too, had a very important date...and I kept it...at the spa.
It's called Bliss for a reason.
Star in your own show: www.NYCtourist.com
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