New York state of mind – 30/05–03/06

It was nice knowing when we woke up on Thursday, that the only driving we would do today would be to the hotel on Manhattan - and after staying at motels for the last three nights this was something we were looking forward to. We left Jasmine's apt in Queens and followed the GPS' somewhat confusing directions into town. 

When we finally hit Manhattan it was busy as ever and even though I've been pretty much all over the island I've never driven there, so this was definitely a new experience. It was fun going down streets where I've walked so many times and for once not being the annoying pedestrian - now just getting annoyed... We parked the car close to the hotel, checked in and happily embraced the fact that we would be walking for a couple of days. 

When Jasmine had to leave for work shortly after we'd checked in, Dan and I decided to walk around for a bit and get a bite to eat. I'd been craving a Chipotle burrito ever since we entered the states, so by this point it just had to happen. A couple of beers at the Knife later didn't make life any worse.

Later on we picked up Jasmine from work at the met room and I finally got to meet her coworkers that I'd only heard about for over a year. They were all lovely people and welcomed Dan and myself with open arms. We ended the night at The Bulls Head on 3rd Ave and 23rd St, where they have live music every Thursday. Jim Roberti (on guitar and vocals) and his drummer serves up whatever song the audience requests, be it from "Happy birthday" to Mumford and Sons to Lady Gaga - or anything else. It's not that crowded, it has two bars and the prices are ok. Definitely a place to check out if you're in NYC on Thursdays.

I spent most of my Friday at school, meeting up with teachers and friends and just enjoying the feeling of "being back" for a couple of hours. Dan and Jasmine spent their day walking around the Village and we all met up for lunch sometime in the afternoon. 

I'd texted most of my NY-friends and invited them to come hang out at the Knife on Friday night, so after a few Coco Chanels at the Bristol Lounge with Jon Michael I met up with Dan and Jazz again there.

We had a great night (until Jasmine had one too many, but that's a different story...) and I got to see some of my closest friends again and even some I haven't seen since I graduated.

On Saturday we woke up pretty tired. And this is the point where I should talk about the hotel... We stayed at the Eurostars Wall Street Hotel. We found it on hotels.com and it looked like a nice place for an ok NY price. Which I guess it was. The rooms were big, the service was good, it was clean, had a nice location had some class to it. The beds however, were horrible... It was like sleeping on a pile of bricks and all of us walked around town stretching our necks and shoulders, we had pack pain and I had a pretty bad headache after the first night. It made me realize that even though the place looks nice, if the bed's so bad you never fully rest, it's totally not worth it. If you ever decide to stay there, ask if they can provide you with an air mattress - cause believe me, you'll be better off.

View from hotel

Anyways, on Saturday we were also tired from the late night, and Jasmine was so tired after her drink number one-too-many that she pretty much had to stay in bed all day. Dan and I went out and got some breakfast and then headed for mid-town where we were meeting a friend of mine from Norway who was in town with her acting class. We stopped by Guitar Center so Dan could drool on some guitars and slowly walked over to the Chelsea Theatre on 23rd and 8th. I say slowly, cause we were both tired, dehydrated and man, was it hot... Moving fast in that heat really isn't an option. 

Martine, who I was meeting, and her friend Jonathan got lost so we ended up waiting for them for over an hour and when they finally got there Dan was so tied he had to back to the hotel and nap. Martine, Jonathan and I however walked down to the Village so I could take them on a tour I'd spontaneously planned ;o) We started in W 4th street, by 12th St and walked down to Perry. On the way there we passed my favorite restaurant, The Place, and Gallery Sand that has the name of our hometown on the door. Picture time! Turning right on Perry we walked over to Hudson to my favorite cafe, Panini Mucho Gusto, and grabbed a coffee. We saw the White Horse Tavern and I tried to tell some of its history - and I failed miserably... But who cares, they didn't know who Dylan Thomas was anyway ;o) We continued walking down W 4th and over to Jones St. Martine and I posed as a Bob Dylan album cover before we headed into the East Village. Studying musical theatre I thought it'd be fun for them to see Life Cafe where Jonathan Larsson wrote RENT, but they renovated the whole place. It's still fun to go there though - its still kinda historical. We ended the tour with a beer in Alphabet City.

By this time Jasmine had stumbled out of bed and she, Dan and I met at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park for a taste of the best burger in town. Jazz left early for work and after we, the guys, had swallowed our burgers whole we also headed for the Metropolitan Room, where we were seeing Hedda Lettuce, The Queen of Green. Nuff said... 










The room was crowded and the AC wasn't working correctly, but despite all of this Hedda riffed and raffed everyone in the first row and sang like it was nobody's business - showing that she is, in fact, The Queen of Green. If you want a good laugh and can take a vulgar word every now and then, you should definitely catch her show while in town.

As if one drag queen wasn't enough for the night, we met up with Martine and her class later for the midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Chelsea Theatre. For those of you who've been there you all know what the volunteering virgins have to go through, and this time there were 3 swedes and 1 from Iceland volunteering - all from Martines class. None of the other people even had a chance, and Jonathan ended up winning the whole thing.. And then him and Maria stole the whole show for a moment. I don't think the hosts could possibly imagine a better start to the evening!

The screening was fun, and there's always something fascinating in seeing the movie acted out while the movie is actually playing, but I have to admit I didn't enjoy it as much as the last time I was there. The audience participation ended up just being cast participation and there was way - WAY - too much participation going on. When the yelling back to the screen becomes so much that you can no longer hear the lines, it loses it's value. I understand how when you've seen the movie 500 times you feel the need to come up with something new, because it must be boring yelling the same stuff over and over again, but for those seeing this for the first time the original stuff is actually enough. It's like when doing a theatre production, you don't start changing the lines or the blocking just because you're tired of doing the same thing over and over again. I see how this is different, but they should really pay more attention to what the audience want to experience and not what they, the cast, think is funny. 

So that's my rant about that....

Sunday breakfast was bought at Penn Station and eaten on the LIRR going to Port Washington. We were visiting Jasmine's hometown and today was Harbor fest. It was a lovely day spent by the water and in this cute little town. 

We bought some tourist stuff, watched some dancing, listened to some music and enjoyed the cool of a local coffee shop before heading back to Manhattan and dinner at The Place. 

...hmmm is it bright enough...

Later on we met up with Sheila and Andrew for a few drinks at El Cid on 19th and 8th, where the happy hour seemed to be just as happy for the servers as it was for us. We had great time with lots of laughter, making fun of actors and acting school and some wonderful philosophical stories performed in an all natural Norwegian accent by Dan Rui Christiansen. 

Just as we were leaving for the hotel the rain started pouring - as if it had just waited for our stay to end (o: