Mine was quatro formaggio, although I so nearly picked a pizza base topped with macaroni cheese. I also had a cherry soda that had about 200% of my sugar RDA in it. I would never usually touch full sugar drinks with a barge pole, but when in New York eh!
I think the most exciting part of this lunch was that whilst we were waiting for our pizzas...it started to SNOW! It was so exciting to be looking out the window onto 10th avenue seeing the snow falling! I was terrified that the snow would stop whilst we were eating and that we wouldn't get a chance to be out and about in it, but I didn't have to worry because it snowed all day. After lunch we made our way towards the Guggenheim, which meant we got our first glimpse of Central Park, in the snow no less! I was mainly excited because Mia goes to Central Park in Princess Diaries (you may notice reading this that a lot of my holiday was spent being excited about places Mia goes in Princess Diaries :P).
The walk to the Guggenheim was LONG, and it was really really snowing, and settling in areas. We got absolutely soaking wet, and freezing cold, but I genuinely didn't care because you can't care about things like that when you are experiencing New York for the first time ever :D After the Guggenheim we went to Grand Central Station to have a look, and honestly it didn't hit me that I was there till after we had left. I felt like I'd seen it before because of how iconic a place it is.
This was another recurring theme throughout the whole holiday; feeling like I'd seen things before. We also discovered the most amazing food market kind of underneath the station, and it hurt me inside that we were staying in a hotel and I was unable to buy and cook some of the things we saw. Some of the stuff that really stands out in my memory are the cheese stall, the salmon counter (particularly the delicious looking teriyaki salmon with sesame seeds, mmmmmm!) and the most stunning gingerbread houses I have ever seen in my life.
Then it was dinner time. Now, I make no secret of the fact that despite being an atheist, I am Jewish through and through and extremely passionate about my heritage and the traditions that come with it. So for this reason, Sammy's Roumanian will probably remain as one of my favourite dining experiences, ever. It is this unbelievably Jewish restaurant that specialises in shmultz over consumption, and from the second I saw the gloriously green Jewcumbers on the table I knew it was going to be wonderful. I had mushroom barley soup followed by salmon steak with latkes and apple sauce. Pretty much my dream dinner.
And then, my grandpa told the waitress that we were there to celebrate my 21st birthday, so later on she brought me out a plate of ruggelach (delicious Jewish sweet pastry pancake cakey things) with a candle on top!
So I told her that we had all come over to also celebrate my parent's 25th and my grandparent's 55th anniversaries, so the entertainer (think Bar Mitzvah singer, keyboard, Jewfro and all) played that "Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today" song about New York for us all. It was just so much fun.
Then, he started playing Jewish music such as Hava Nagilah and Hevenu Shalom Aleichem, so lots of people got up to dance the Hora, including my mum and dad! The best thing about it for me was that we had travelled to an entirely different country and were surrounded by people we had never met, but we all knew the same songs and same dances and loved the same foods. That is very special. Definitely my favourite thing about being Jewish; the global community and instant connection you have with other Jews. I was very proud of Stuart who coped very well with all the madness and what must have been a huge culture shock for him! But he ate a steak the size of his arm, along with 5 latkes, so I think he found it all okay! After the meal was over I quickly smuggled a Jewcumber into my handbag for later, because I just couldn't leave without one spare.
After we got the Subway back to where we were staying, most wanted to head to bed as everyone was tired out from the traveling the day before. I however was not going to sleep before getting a glimpse of Times Square. Luckily we were only a 10 minute walk from it, so me and Stuart decided to head over. I remember approaching it and being in such a daze that all I could really take in were lights, lights everywhere. I couldn't believe I was there, really truly THERE, in New York, in Times Square. It was just wonderful.
We started off by going in the M&M World, which to be honest was the same as the one in London. Then we went in the Disney Store, which was beautiful as ever. Then I had to go in Sephora (another thing that will crop up throughout these diaries, so many Sephoras!) because we don't have that in the UK and I had heard so much about them from watching beauty channels on YouTube. Then we went to Toys R Us, which was just INSANE. It has a BIG WHEEL in the shop! On the bottom level, but so tall that it goes all the way up to the ceiling, and you can really ride on it! And there was a sweet shop there too! And an entirely different sweet shop that only sold Wonka chocolate! It was just amazing!
We finished the night by going to Starbucks, where I ordered a frappacino. The lady in there looked absolutely aghast and said, "You do know a frappacino is iced right? You can't have an iced drink, it's snowing out, they are for when it's hot!" so I said to her, "I'm from England. If we only had cold drinks when it was hot out we would never have cold drinks!" She was so nice and friendly. Stuart and I then walked back to our hotel in the snow and settled down for a sleep after our first day in what would soon become my favourite city in the whole world.
