NYC: Day 3

I love parks, and to go to the park of parks was amazing.  We explored Central Park for a full day because it's honestly that big, but I'm sure we didn't get to see half of the hidden treasures.  There are many iconic spots that are beautiful enough to deserve the fame, which means I took LOTS of pictures.  Click below to see a few of them.

Conservatory Garden/Three Dancing Maidens Fountain

We traveled farther north than I'm sure most people go in Central Park mostly since all of the famous spots are on the south side of the park.  The reasons we started on the north side are 1) our hostel is a 10 minute walk away and 2) we had to visit the companion to the Three Dancing Maidens fountain found in our hometown.

On our way there, we passed one of many small Christmas tree vendors in the city.  One time, we were walking, and we saw a young couple carrying a tree down the street.  Super cute, and it never occurred to me this is what you do when you don't have a car!

The map we were using was a little confusing just because there are so many paths and turns in this park, it's not to scale, and it didn't help that all the large meadows were closed, so we couldn't cut across them to save time.  Like a corn maze, there are various markers that tell you where you are.  Instead of picketed signs, there are plaques on every lamppost which tell you whether you're closest to the west or east side, and then the closest street.

The main picture for this post is a random walkway lined by benches from this garden.  Freaking gorgeous.  Since not many people come by here, it's fairly empty and quiet, and a great place to meditate.

The Three Maidens Fountain looked so new and well-taken care of, especially compared to the one in Burlingame.  I was able to see expressions and hand gestures more clearly.  The building behind it is one of many architectural masterpieces all along Fifth Ave.  Also, not sure if this has to do with preparing for winter, but all the fountains we came across in NYC were drained of water, this one included.

Learning from our crazy day of walking, we took the bus with our unlimited pass for about 5 minutes down to our next stop in Central Park.

Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir

Fun fact about Central Park: every body of water is called something different (reservoir, pond, lagoon, etc).

The reservoir is a freaking beast and is surrounded by a fence and then a track that goes for miles and is used by walkers, runners, and sightseers alike.

Here's us on the track around Onassis Reservoir, with the San Remo in the distance.  I think this is the only picture we have of both of us that's not taken by one of us.

From the track, you see an amazing 360 panorama of the New York cityscape.

The water is impossibly calm.

San Remo

Before I mentioned the San Remo, which is a pricey apartment building near Central Park, and there are plenty of views of this building from here.

Bridges

There are also bridges galore.

 This is my favorite one, the Gothic Bridge, which reminds me of a fairytale-- just ignore me in front of it.

Osborne Gates

This is in front of a children's park, hence the running children.

There's a lot of detailing, but these were my favorite.

Upper East Side

I'm a fan of Gossip Girl, so I had my share of preconceptions for this area.

It's everything stereotypical of NYC: towering red-brick apartments, yellow taxi cabs, and stone-faced pedestrians.

We also saw what we could only naturally assume was Mr and Mrs Claus.  What's even funnier is that the next day was SantaCon, so we were appropriately prepared beforehand.  Please also note the Chase bank.  On the west coast, with Chase being my main bank, I'm strapped to find locations near me (damn, you BoA).  But there were Chases everywhere we turned in Manhattan, since this is where it started.

We also saw somebody that REALLY looked like Sarah Jessica Parker.  She had the dirty blonde hair, super long face, big nose, and large designer glasses.  Then again, we saw another girl that also looked a lot like her.  Meh, maybe it's a Jewish thing?

LUNCH: Shake Shack

Meet the east coast's answer to In-and-Out.  Shake Shack has its advantages.  Their Shake Shack burger has a great smokey, grilled taste, their special sauce is savory, and they use romaine lettuce.  Better still, their shakes are made from CUSTARD and aren't too sweet, even once you finish the drink (I enjoyed my strawberry).  Their fries are also crispy and potatoey.

Cons are that the burgers are a little on the small-side (though I was satiated with my burger, shake and split fries).  And the place can get packed during lunch time.  Fortunately, we got there a little before lunch and didn't get swamped by the infamously long lines.

I also really like their packaging!

Met Museum

Of course, a Gossip Girl tour can't be complete without sitting on the steps of the Met, like Blair used to do in her Constance Prep days.  Here is my sister, following in her footsteps.

Just behind the Met is a huge obelisk transported from Egypt.  Yeah, it's weird.

Swedish Cottage

This area is so storybook.

There is a log fence lining the path.

 And a log bench.

And a twisty, gnarly tree that you usually find blocking your path to the evil queen's castle (the San Remo will suffice in this case).

Shakespeare Garden

This is the first sundial I've found that actually worked!  It really was one-ish!

Stover's Bench, AKA Whisper Bench, is one of those neat contraptions that's designed so that your whisper can travel from one side of the bench to the ear of your friend on the other.  I tried really hard to get this to work and one of the park workers even confirmed I was doing it right, but I had no success.  My sister just thought I looked crazy putting my face into a bench.

Belvedere Castle

Oh, yes, there is a castle in this park, and while small, and a little too new looking, it's cute.

It's on the top of a hill, and there's also a modest spiraling staircase you can wander up to the tower.  Essentially this means the views are phenomenal up here.

We made a failed attempt to find the Ramble Stone Arch in the Ramble, which is HUGE.  Parts of it were closed for maintenance.  Afterwards, I watched an SVU episode that mentioned the Ramble as a place where gay men met to "meet up."  I can't verify the validity of this, but the maintenance makes that much more sense, considering.

Lady's Pavilion at the Hernshead

It wasn't on our itinerary, but it was too pretty to pass.

Nearby is some more cute seating by the lake.

Wagner Cove looks really similar to this, but it's more rustic and smaller.  We didn't go down there because some guy was playing his violin.

Not much here, just a gorgeous wooden overhang.

Bow Bridge

So pretty.  We came here near sunset.

Bethesda Fountain

No water, but still very pretty against the cloudy sky.

Bethesda Arcade

The arcade is tiled and patterned, but it was too dark to get a great picture.  The view from the arcade of the fountain against the cloudy sky was so beautiful, but the lens on the camera skewed the proportions a bit (the fountain was a LOT bigger).

The other side of the arcade.

The Mall

It's that famous walkway lined with trees and benches!  My first impression was that it was super ghetto.  There's weird music, lots of homeless people, hoodlum teenagers, etc.  It felt kinda shady.  It might be because this was at the end of a long day, or there were really high expectations.

There was a guy using a large string tied together to make a huge bubble.

I couldn't really be inspired to take a good picture of the walkway.  This was the best I got.

But then, I saw this:

Which turned into this:

The Diary

This giftshop/visiter's center for the park is small and housed in a wooden cottage that used to be a diary.  It's perfectly whimsical and reminds me of something in Pushing Daisies.

Gap Stow Bridge

Here is the view from this bridge:

A couple asked me to take a picture here, and the woman kept kissing her beau on the cheek.  Super cute.

We kept walking, and we ended up back in noisy, bustling Midtown, with cars swarming around Army Plaza (a golden statue of a man with a sword drawn on a horse).  Nearby, we saw where all the horse-drawn carriages were kept.  Sad sight seeing these tired, adorned horses clomp slowly down the pavement. I try to remember the horses we saw earlier, ridden by law enforcement.

Pulitzer Fountain

Decorated for the holidays!  This gorgeous fountain is right in front of the gigantic and illustrious Plaza Hotel.

Apple Store

Definitely wins the award for the largest and coolest looking Apple Store I've ever been in.  The crowd outside of it is indicative of the huge mass of people that were underground in the store.  We took the stairs instead of the glass elevator.  It is like a huge warehouse of Apple products down there, and there's no room to walk.

FAO Schwartz

Equally as busy, FAO Schwartz really doesn't live up to the hype for me.  Sure, it's huge and has a variety of stuff catered to kids (candy, toys, etc), but the store design wasn't very appealing to me.  I also forgot to look for the giant piano from Big.  Oh, well!

I, however, did fall in love with these adorable stuffed muppets.

And liked the giant kaléidoscope:

Fifth Ave

We walked down Fifth Ave and gawked at all of the elaborate window displays for the designers.

And the cute holiday decorations.

DINNER: Soup Man

Perplexingly, the reviews for Soup Man are better here than for the one in SF.  It probably has to do with the fact that it originated here, but you'd think it'd be the same stuff.  Anyway, this little place is basically a tiny window.  We both got the lobster bisque, which came with a Lindt chocolate and banana, and walked over to the public eating area nearby.  It was pretty expensive, but we thoroughly enjoyed and were full from the savory soup (that was not salty) and chocolate.

Columbus Circle

We were debating whether to go here or not, and a woman walking by overheard our deliberation and said, "Oh, you have to go.! There's an arts and crafts fair there."  Wow, thanks for the tip, kind New Yorker!

Decorations at Time Warner.

It's called Columbus Circle because there's a turnaround with a Columbus statue in the center.  There's also a huge golden globe and the Empire Hotel nearby.

The holiday fair was pretty cool, but very expensive.  The stalls were all green and looked fancy.  We also saw our German roommate here; small world, huh?  But I guess not considering the world gets narrowed down considerably when you're both tourists in the city.

Gray's Papaya

This is a famous hot dog place with good dogs.  The place looks cheap, and I was skeptical of the hype, but I get it now!  We were both still full from the lobster bisque, so we split a hot dog.  It was so tasty that we could have bought two.  The bun is super soft, and the hot dog is fried and warmed with simply some ketchup and radish on top.  It's just a good tasting dog that's super cheap!  I also had some papaya juice, which was a little powdery, but still tasted pretty good with the hot dog.  It was a good snack to end our long day.

Hope you weren't overwhelmed with all the photos!  :)  Next post will be all over Manhattan with lots of sightseeing!