Saturday September 3rd, 2011
Saturday the power finally came back on where I was staying in Conneticut, and I headed to the Greyhound station in order to catch my bus to NYC. I was pretty excited to travel there again. If you know anything about me, then you will know that I love to travel. It's just about my favorite thing to do. So, when things worked out and there was a chance to travel to NYC to meet up with Zilly and PK, I jumped at the chance to meet them. Truthfully, I'm the kind of person that would leave tomorrow if someone invited me to travel somewhere.
Anyway, the bus ride was okay, except for this guy who took up more than half of the seat. He really pissed me off. He was thin, but he spread his legs so wide that his leg touched mine even though I was pressed against the side of the bus (I was sitting at a window seat). I really wish I was more outspoken instead of being so shy. If it wasn't for me having problems with speaking with strangers, I would have told him to find another seat or something.
I got off the bus and tried to find the restaurant. It was really scary to ride the subway, as I had never done so before, but I did pretty well. Unfortunately, the directions didn't really include the words "right" or "left," so I went down the wrong way on Bowery. I asked an old man who was sweeping the floor, and he said I had to go down this one road to get to the street I was looking for. Unfortunately, the directions I was previously given didn't mention that the two streets were parallel streets and that I'd have to go North a bit to get to the next street. Anyway, by the time I got to the restaurant I was probably looking like a dishevelled panda. I looked in the mirror later to find that my gel eyeliner that I had recently bought was not heat proof. The eyeliner had melted all over my face. I seriously looked like a panda lol.
(On a side note, I don't think I recommend Mac Fluidline Eye-Liner Gel for use in the summer.)
Anyway, I finally met Zilly and PK at:
Jing Fong Restaurant
20 Elizabeth Street
NY, NY 10013
Although I tried not to expect anything, Zilly and PK looked exactly what I had imagined. Haha, it was kind of weird that I was so accurate. Anyway, we ate and talked a bit as we ate dim sum. "Dim sum [...] typically refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food, traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates."
Truthfully, I had no idea what the names of the dishes were. I was still a bit out of it after my little adventure through the streets of NYC. However, it seems that PK remembered some of the dishes.
According to PK, he had shrimp rice cakes, vegetables wrapped in tofu skin, fried shrimp balls, chicken over rice, and bok choy. And, of course, they served hot tea. Obviously they didn't serve black tea like the one in the picture. I really didn't care to ask what kind of tea it was. Probably some sort of green tea.
On a side note, the chopsticks were huge, bulky, and slippery! I guess for average sized people, or large males, they wouldn't be too bad, but I'm very petite. The chopstick was as thick as my pinky finger. If you go to Jing Fong Restaurant and have kids, or are petite, it might be better to just ask for a fork. Wow, it was embarrassing!
After our dinner, PK told us that he had to go meet his friends at Times Square, which kind of made me laugh. I kept thinking "Dude, is there really even anything to do there?" So, we parted ways and I spent the rest of the day with Zilly. :)
We walked along the streets just talking a bit and went into a few shops. Zilly seems to find things she needs for her apartment in every shop. XD I'm just teasing. I guess most tourists usually have in mind the things that they wish to do, but I really just wanted to get a feel for the real NYC as well as the real Zilly. I had been to NYC before and I did all the touristy things, so I really just wanted to walk around and see things that weren't really on the map. Zilly said something along the lines of "You can't really find a street in New York that isn't touristy." I kind of just laughed at that, as I slowly began to understand that some places can't escape people with "I <3 NYC" shirts.
We went to a shop that sold dishes, and I really have to remember to go back there next time I visit NYC. My sister would love the tea sets that they had. Before we left chinatown, we stopped by a shop for me to try some Bubble Tea, which I've heard so much about. Truthfully, I don't think I liked it. I mean, I liked the tea, but I'm not a fan of the "bubbles" as they call them. Seriously, someone could choke on these things! The bubbles don't even taste that wonderful anyway. The bubbles tasted like gum, except for that you could actually bite them. Why is this drink so popular?
We did some window shopping without the window at Banana Republic and enjoyed looking at all the new fashions. There was this one maroon dress that I loved. If only I wore dresses, I would have bought it right then and there. We ended up going to ground zero, which was pretty interesting. They have a new building halfway built and a memorial they are going to build as well for the people who died on September 11th. The memorial is like a big water fountain I guess. "The 9/11 Memorial will be dedicated on September 11, 2011 in a special ceremony for victims’ families. The Memorial opens to the public on September 12, 2011 with the reservation of a visitor pass." It was weird because I mentioned to Zilly that people should throw coins in the hole and wish that they would finish construction soon. Well, when the memorial is up, you can throw coins into the fountain. (If you get into trouble for doing that, then you didn't hear it from me.)
We were going to walk across the Brooklyn bridge, but there was construction, so we decided to take a ferry to IKEA instead. Truthfully, I'm kind of glad we didn't try walking across the bridge. I have a horrible fear of falling, so I probably wouldn't make it across the bridge anyway. I'd be like "ZOMG!" and hanging onto Zilly for dear life.
Anyway, we went on the Ferry (since it was a free boat ride) and went to IKEA. It was so nice to just sit on the boat and talk. We finally made it to the furniture store, and we took some time to look around at the furniture. Although I wouldn't know since I usually just get furniture used, Zilly kept saying that the prices were pretty good. She basically decided on all the furniture she needed for her apartment there. Zilly kept saying, throughout our visit, how she felt like she was the tourist and that I was just following her around. I enjoyed it, though.
So at the furniture store, we stopped to eat. It was pretty good food. She ate the salmon while I had the Chicken Caesar Salad. We also shared a vegetable souffle (or maybe it was called a quiche) which was pretty good. Queso Laughing Cow Cheese, which I had brought for the bus ride, was our appetizer. ^.^
In any case, it was getting late, so we decided to head to the port authority so that I could catch my bus. Unfortunately, we didn't realize how much time it would take us to get to the subway, so we ended up missing my bus. I don't think that us buying Thai tea helped our time either. Luckily, they let me board the next bus without having to buy another ticket. So I said farewell to Zilly and went back to CT.
Although it was a hectic day, it was worth the ticket. It was wonderful meeting Zilly and PK. :)
This is Part of my Conneticut Trip Diary 2011. If you're bored and want to read about my vacation, feel free to click here and read my entire post :)
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