June 10th, 2010 -- New York City

We woke up at a reasonable time to try and cram as much as we could into our day. We started out with a walk through Central Park. There were so many bicyclists that it reminded me of Seattle. It really is huge too. We ended up walking along Madison and Park avenues just because the amount of park is overwhelming. The guy who took this picture seemed to be Spanish. I assume so because when I thanked him for taking the picture he said "nothing," which is a literal translation of the shortening of the Spanish "you're welcome": "de nada." The language nerd in me noticed that. :)

Here's a cute little bakery we found, though we did not buy anything. It fits perfectly with my image of NYC.

As did the bevy of street carts and business-type people buying food there.

Here's us in the Museum of Modern Art, including ourselves in a piece of reflective art. The museum had quite a bit of cool art and I was jealous of the students who got to go there on field trip. Ahh to grow up in NYC. However, the fact that I found the gift shop more engaging than the museum either speaks to the quality of the curation of the gift shop or my being a plebeian.

Wandering around NYC takes energy, and we had to replenish that energy with some Italian espresso from Zibetto, a standing-only coffee bar near Times Square. It was very European and I enjoyed feeling so sophisticated. Well, until my cappuccino ran out, that is.

As a foreshadowing of the Condado area in San Juan, we strolled into a fancy hotel and tried not to look like we didn't belong there. The hotel even had a tea room, which I promptly took surreptitious pictures of. Yes, this is how the other half lives.

After that, we wandered into Times Square, which was positively frightening for me. It's a big area blocked off from cars, full of tourists and touristy businesses, surrounded by very tall buildings. It's over-stimulation central. I was glad to be out of there. After that, we wandered around Park and Madison avenues again, window-shopping at the designer stores. We found an awesome accessory shop with just about everything. It was like a Claire's but for customers our age.

Around 5pm we hurried back to our hostel to retrieve our luggage and head off to the airport to catch our flight to San Juan. Here's a view of train tracks at Jamaica station.

Next up in travel blog: Our First Day in San Juan! Architecture! History! Food! Withering Heat! And Much, Much More!

June 9th, 2010 - Seattle, New York City

We left Seattle early on June 9th and got to NYC around 5pm.We both bought these hats at Folklife and swore to make them useful in Puerto Rico. Since we didn't want to crush them, we ended up wearing them whenever we were moving our baggage around.

Here's an awkward in-flight photo! You're right there with us!

For those not acquainted with NYC's subways, they are old and grody and kind of creepy. This photo doesn't do them justice. However, it was pretty cool to be able to navigate Manhattan by ourselves on the subways. I even got a metrocard.

We rested our hats at Pink Hostel, which was very comfortable and welcoming. I recommend it to all female travelers going to NYC. Since we were hungry, despite the delicious plantain chips served on Jet Blue (a preview of cuisine to come???), we went out to a little Mexican joint in the neighborhood called Las Delicias Mexicanas (The Mexican Delights).

It lived up to its name. I had a yummy chorizo burrito. A quick hop on the 6...

and we arrived at the community center, El Taller Boriqua, one place we knew had salsa dancing that night. Conveniently, it is also Puerto Rican; the name means "The Puerto Rican Workshop," with "Boricua" being the native name for the island.

Frankie Vazquez and Los Soneros del Barrio were playing ("sonero" means the improvising lead singer in a salsa band).

They were very good. The dance hall was filled in middle-to-upper aged dancers and it appeared to be somebody's birthday. The owner's son bought us drinks, and one of the musicians schooled us in how to dance the cha cha cha. We felt welcomed, if not a bit out of place.

After a while, we left and headed to another salsa joint, but it was closed so we ended up wandering around the NYU area. Despite being a Wednesday, the bars were very busy. We went down some stairs into Cafe Wha?, which had this creepy head mounted on the ceiling:

But we forged ahead anyway. Beneath, there was a band playing covers of various types of music, including Alicia Key's "New York." I have to say, it felt so touristy but it was quite amazing to be in New York for the first time listening to a deft singer belt that song out. Here's a terrible picture of her singing to help you visualize it a bit:

After a while there, we went home to sleep so we could fit in a bunch in the next day.

Tune in later for the continuation of this thrilling travel series. 

Chapter Two: New York City During the Daytime!