Claudia reluctantly left us to head to the airport to attempt her journey home.. we guess she made it as we didn't see her again.. the beauty of hostel friendships.. sometimes they continue.. other times you are best friends for a day, never to see each other again. Its a fun world. So to prevent any sadness at now being a trio of travelers I invited one of my room mates Julia, from London, to come and explore the East Village with us.
So many sweet little entrance ways - I had so many movie and TV show scenes running through my head.
Did we know where we were exactly? Did we want to continue?..
To a nice little square in Soho (I think??) for lunch.. it was my first Deli experience and I was paralyzed by the volume of choice!! I mean there was a whole buffet bar, sandwich bar, hot food, fruit, and pretty much a small supermarket - what do do?! (I found myself starring at shelves and menu's throughout my trip never knowing what to order. The staff in the US are so attentive too - they are ready to take your order in just a few minutes - and there is never an easy way to order - its complicated! Eg. I went into a salad bar, lined up at the sign that said "Order your salad here". That seemed easy enough. So I waited directly under the sign facing the counter. Happy 'serve me' face on. Then from out of nowhere people were overtaking me in the line, handing over large bowls of greenery to staff and telling them what they would like in their custom made salad. "what the??" I was thinking "why aren't these people serving me? I was here at the 'Order' sign first.. HELLOOO?!!" What I was missing is that you had to walk to the other side of the restaurant to a fridge section and pick out a container full of lettuce or spinach leaves - then and ONLY then would the staff serve you at the 'order' sign. There were no instructions on how to do this - I just had to watch like a little monkey and follow the lead from the salad consuming up-towners that were obviously very well rehearsed in this salad ordering system. The end. Back to day two..
Hmm. think about it.
Still yet to find the 'East Village' we were just wondering by this stage.. but it was nice.
Things were starting to get 'artsy' I knew this was a good sign.. we mus be getting closer! However the weather didn't want to cooperate.. dark clouds over head can mean only one thing in such a green place..
Yes, rain - so an excellent time to find a cafe with extremely happy table cloths to wait it out.
Pretty little area
Finally we made it! The East Village!
It had been a long day already so we were pretty ready to head back uptown to our hostel and decide what to do for the night..
But not before stopping through Grand Central Station during peak hour
Where's Kelly?
Time for some good wholesome food..
My first (and only) donut.. I may have reduced my life span of several years after eating this thing.
Check the bags under my eyes! I was still pretty tired, so the sugar and life reduction was well worth it!
This is what we found posted on our Hostel door. I thought it was a prank it reads:
VACATE - DO NOT ENTER
The department of buildings has determinded that conditions in this premises are imminently perilous to life.
This premises has been vacated and reentry is prohibited until such conditions have been eliminated to the satisfaction of the department.
Violators of this commissioner's vacate order are subject to arrest.
Oh dear. We had a good laugh with people outside our hostel in disbelief! We loved this hostel! It was by far the nicest one I had ever been in!! The staff were still unsure of whether everyone in the hostel actually had to vacate so..
we heading to the rooftop to take in the views and laugh about the strange situation. kelly doesn't look worried..
Julia still looks pretty happy too..
Apparently this wonderful hostel was a threat to life!
View from our rooftop lounge, the corner where there had been a shooting just the night before.
View of the same corner from my window (note the sneakers tied to the top of the light pole.. perhaps this is why it was a full on party two nights previous).
So they weren't kidding - 9pm the word went out to all hostel guests - we had to all check out and try to find somewhere else to stay. Bummer - There were news teams and everything to cover the story about how the Government had kicked all of these international travelers out onto the street at night, all of this happening while many European travelers were stuck in the US due to volcanic ash.
It all sounds terrible doesn't it - but travelers are adventurers.. so the hostel lobby was more like a party really. Cups of tea handed round, smiles, laughter (slightly nervous laughter of course, but laughter all the same). The news reporter even came in and said "you all look too happy - look sad. we need tears here" - what an idiot! So the hostel staff tried there best to help us find new accommodation, bundled the four of us girls in a taxi to another hostel down the road called Pink (girls only) - obviously.
We waited to be served for an hour or two... to find out..
They didn't have room for us. BOO HOO! So we caught another cab to the Upper West Side, another Pink Hostel.
The wonderful thing was that when we got to this new hostel, although they took AGES to serve us.. they offered us tea and coffee... HAPPY! We had been in limbo for hours now so we were starting to get over it. Once again - tea makes everything better :)
Poor little Yasmin was feeling the lack of sleep the most out of all of us.. but she is a good sport and posed nicely for my shot. Oh those wonderful Parisians!
So finally we booked into our new hostel - in the beautiful Upper West Side. It was quite an upgrade from Harlem :) We slept in the next day till 11am. It had been 4 days without any sort of normal sleep. Not surprisingly I felt amazing the next day...
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