... and so I reached the Flatiron District. The Flatiron Building splits the road of the two most popular roads named... of course Broadway and 5th Avenue! Very famous building in my opinion.
So I saw a lady in Madison Square Park opposite the Flatiron Building with one of these trolley bags the old ladies use and as I'm already realising that I have baggage issues, I approached her to ask where she got it from. "Next to the 99c Store, she said..." What? 99c? Nevermind the store next door - I'm heading to the 99c Store! :D)) Big Smiles. I bought loads for 99c each and now I really need a trolley! All trolley-bags are sold out, but okay, I have enough time left in NY to search for a trolley bag, so... aah - lookie here - Manhattan Mall. Sale! Sale! Sale! Let's go in! So now I'm hungry. I order Chinese from this fast food restaurant; option number 1. Noodles with one "topping" for $4,50 or something like that. Go to the till and Mr. Chinaman tells me it's $5-something... No-no Mr. Chinaman, I took option ONE and not TWO! Read my fingers! Option 1! No he sa u hatopa fy-something... Not planning to get screwed over by Mr. Chinaman I clearly show him that he's mistaken - look at my food - I have option 1. This goes on for about 2 minutes and I'm not about to give up. He keeps on saying the same word but I have NO idea what he says and after living in Dubai for almost 5 years, honestly, accents can't be an issue for me! I start to apologise for not being able to understand him and eventually he shows me the word on the bill - TAX! What?? Was THIS the word he was trying to explain? You're kidding me right? How many different variations and accents do you get for the word TAX?! Try it. I can only pronounce one accent! Anyway, I paid fy-something and left.
Whoo-hoo! Times Square!
BROADWAY TICKETS! It's time to line up for Mamma Mia, Lion King or Chicago.. whichever one I can get first! When I got to the ticket booth there was a line of ... well, longer than the Empire State Building line of the 25th! Suddenly I had a fast forward replay of 3 hours waiting in my mind and that didn't look like much fun. I'll do Broadway tomorrow! Off I go to Mars 2112. Read up on this on the net. Once again, another queue. No thank you. I'm not that keen on eating weird and wonderful food from space!
I didn't purchase Hershey's chocolates, but thought you might like to see what it looked like from the outside... I read up in my NY book I got from Anine about Lindy's Famous Cheesecake! Who is counting calories right? So there's this little fella celebrating his birthday at Lindy's. He's there with his sister, parents and grand parents. So the waiters start singing "happy birthday" when suddenly one of the other waiters shout STOP! STOP! Now everyone is looking at the "stop"-waiter. Lets describe this waiter that you can imagine this: He is in his late 30s, semi bald, pleasantly plump and very "pink" if you know what I mean ;-) So he leans over the table and with a beautifully sexy husky voice he starts singing Happy Birthday to this boy of 6 years old in the "Happy Birthday Mr. President" version. By now you can just imagine the confusion and perhaps fear on this poor kid's face, not to mention the parents! I don't think they'll go there for his next birthday! That must have been the highlight of my day! My Cheesecake was delicious by the way.
Out of Lindy's and it's dark already, not to mention 1 Degree Celsius. There are SO many people on the streets that you have no choice but to walk halfway in the road. This is crazy! You can hardly move! I wonder what New Years eve will be like!!!
At night I usually take the Metro back to the hotel (tired) and as I was heading towards the Metro, I noticed Bryant Park - lots of activity. Detour! I bought the most beautiful handmade Christmas Tree Bee at one of these stalls, but I don't even want to share the price with you.. You only live once right? I decided not to make a fool of myself by trying to ice skate either... I saw too many daredevils falling their butts off in the short time I was watching... Time for bed. It's been yet another long day.
