Four days and nights in the Big Apple

New York City is a place unlike any other. I've been to the Big Apple six times now, and even having spent the majority of each trip exploring Manhattan (truth be told I've only ventured to two other boroughs, each for a particular event and thus a short visit) there is still so much I haven't seen, and so many photographs I haven't taken.
This trip I vowed to spend as little time as possible at Times Square, but something about the blinding lights of that part of town at midnight draws me in time and time again. Thankfully our hotel this time was located at 30 East 30th Street (aptly named, Hotel Thirty Thirty) between Park and Madison Avenues so we were able to avoid the constant tourist circus that is Broadway between 42nd and 52nd Streets. That being said, I do love being a tourist and I love meeting other tourists, but it's the sheer number and volume of people around Times Square that turns me off.

NYC day 1:
Spent mostly in the van driving down, we arrived in Manhattan just before 5pm and perfectly on time for the start of Friday's rush hour. We creeped along 34th Street from the Lincoln Tunnel, down Fifth and to our hotel on 30th. After getting checked in and more or less settled we took a walk up Fifth Avenue past the library, the unaffordable shops, the park, the MET and up to the Guggenheim where we were disappointed to discover it was, in fact, still under renovation and thus covered with scaffolding and tarps. Such is life. We then jumped in a cab down to Rockefeller Center and continued our walk on to Times Square where we enjoyed a meal at one of the tackiest yet enjoyable restaurants I've ever been to: Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company... yes, like the one in Forrest Gump. After our late night dinner (and some movie trivia) we walked back to our hotel for the night.

NYC day 2:
After a bit of a lie in we got ourselves out of the hotel and headed down to Madison Square Park for the Big Apple BBQ Block Party . Though we didn't line up for any of the meat on offer ($8 for a very large portion of barbecue fare) we enjoyed the free samples of Snapple, Coke Zero and ice cream being given out throughout the park. Did I mention it was 95'F on Saturday? And that was the actual temperature without any humidity added on top for one of those "feels like" temperatures. Needless to say anything cool to drink was a very warm welcome.
After the BBQ we headed to Union Square Greenmarket which is held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday all year long. We browsed the delicious smelling stalls and though the only thing we walked away with was a jar of honey for one of my father's co-workers (apparently this guy and his family are HUGE honey fans), it was a really nice spot in New York. It was also at this market that I spotted the "Barack Obama is my Homeboy" t-shirt which I decided not to purchase at the time but have just ordered a tank top version of it online.
After the market we headed to Greenwich Village where I insisted on taking photos of the house used as Carrie Bradshaw's front stoop in Sex and the City and the apartment building used as the exterior of the apartment where Joey, Chandler, Monica and Rachel live in Friends. What can I say, I am a TV geek. We checked out Bleecker Street where there were more stalls set up with clothes, jewelery, sunglasses and food, and then continued to a nice jazz bar nearby for lunch (of course, the name escapes me now). After lunch it was on to SOHO for some window shopping (aka running into any store with air conditioning to cool down for a few moments), a quick drink at a diner, and back to the hotel for showers and a bit of relaxing before heading out again.
I wanted to check out the historic meat packing district and a restaurant I'd read about online (and one that is linked to SATC... told you, I'm a geek) called Florent. We walked from our hotel to Gansevoort street while lightning lit up the sky overhead... fortunately/unfortunately no rain fell while we were outside. The restaurant was full of New Yorkers and packed at 10:30pm. It was a great spot, with great food and company, but sadly is closing soon because they have lost their lease. We jumped in a cab back to the hotel shortly after dinner and prepared for another scorching hot day on Sunday.

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More later.