adventures of a New York wanderer | day 2

A fitful night sleep ended at around 5:30am, when both Hazel & I were woken by the sound of sirens and horns blaring. Welcome to the city that never sleeps! The weather report for the day predicted grey skies and rain showers, so we decided this would be our shopping day. We figured we’d just pop into a shop if and when the rain showers started. I foolishly hadn’t brought any kind of coat or waterproof jacket with me. What was I thinking? I guess I figured on every day being sunny. Oh such folly on my part.

As it turned out, it poured with rain pretty much all morning and into the early afternoon. I got drenched and because of the rain, I took hardly any photos! No photos of Hazel doing her best Audrey Hepburn impression at Tiffany’s. No photos of Saks Fifth Avenue. No photos of anything really. Boo! It was a great day for exploring the city, but just not a great day for capturing on film, errr I mean memory card (that really doesn’t sound as charming, does it?).

At one point, to escape the rain we dropped in a bar situated at the bottom of the Empire State Building and grabbed a couple of lager shandies. We watched people as the trudged their way along 5th Avenue, dodging umbrellas and generally looking a little damp, much like we were…

 

We popped into Macy’s too, but it was pretty busy and the music was so load, I really didn’t enjoy it that much. There were so many sales assistants swarming over every customer that walked by. Arrggghhhh! I don’t really enjoy shopping at the best of times, but when I do go, I prefer just to be left alone to browse at my own leisure.

I did buy one thing though. An umbrella. A funky clear plastic bubble style one, with taxi cab yellow edging. It was pretty cool and probably the most practical style for a crowded city situation. I could have the umbrella up and yet still easily see where I was going …

Just a shame I didn’t think about the size of it though. I would actually end up having to leave it in New York because it wouldn't fit it into my suitcase to bring it back home.

By the time we got back to Time Square, the rain had eased off. While there, we saw one of the big advertising boards showing the Dunk Tank game. It’s great fun! A live camera is pointed down into Time Square and you can see yourself up there on the big screen. Like a movie star, hahaha! It’s like a playing a giant real-life game of Where’s Wally / Waldo …

Here's a couple of other "random" photos I took and rather like ...

 

In terms of things I managed to tick off my “must see / do / eat” list on this day, they were:

• Pancakes for breakfast (very tasty, but HUGE! There were 3 on my plate but I could only eat 1.5)
• Looking longingly through Tiffany’s windows
• Sitting in a booth at a diner and eating a cheeseburger for my tea