Day Thirty-Six
Saturday we were a bit more touristy than we usually are. We decided to spend the day in Brooklyn. Our original plan was to tour the
Brooklyn Brewery, explore downtown Brooklyn, get some cheesecake, visit the house where Elke's grandmother grew up, get dinner, stroll along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade walk across the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan, check out City Hall and then head home.
However, we ended up hitting a slight - but
very welcome - snag in our plans. We went to the brewery as intended. The tour was kind of silly - we stood in the same room the entire time staring at the machinery while the tour guide (who acted and sounded just like Eric Foreman) told us about the history of the company. But it all turned out to be worth it, because after the tour everyone got one free beer. Elke and I both got the Scorcher, which was amazing. But it was slightly tainted by some creepy old fat man who was already wasted (it was 2.00 in the afternoon), there alone and wanted Elke and I to get in his car with him and go get lunch. He was obviously smashed if he thought we were that stupid OR desperate. We made our escape for the bathroom and waited for him to win.
After we left the brewery we hit our snag. We decided to stop in the cool looking store right across the street called
Beacon's Closet. Of course, "stopping in" turned out to be a 3-4 hour binge of shopping insanity. It was this AWESOME thrift/vintage store that was not expensive AT ALL. People get money for the stuff they bring in, so there's much more incentive to donate and therefore TONS of great stuff, most of which is designer. I ended up getting 2 skirts and a dress, which is a lot considering most things were a size zero.
By the time we were able to pry ourselves away from the billions of racks filled with wonderful, inexpensive clothing, it was after 5.00. We decided to skip exploring downtown, visiting Elke's grandmother's old house and strolling along the promenade. By that neither of us had eaten more than a donut and just wanted to find somewhere to eat. But there wasn't really anything down by the bridge - just old people, mostly. I couldn't even find a place to buy some cheesecake.
We walked across the bridge, which was actually a really amazing view. I guess I understand why it's considered to be such a touristy thing to do, but I did notice that a lot of people also appeared to be locals, most of whom were exercising. One of the coolest things was seeing the Municipal Building from the bridge. It's a really neat looking building from the back.
We walked around the City Hall area for a bit, but didn't really see anywhere we wanted to eat. We tried to find the African Burial Ground, but the road to get there was blocked off and it didn't really seem to actually be there. I feel like they may have built over it, which is just twisted.
Since we couldn't find anything in that area, we decided to take the train to the West Village, which is completely full of places to eat. We ended up eating at Florent, a diner-type place our
Not For Tourists book recommended. Among the clientele, which consisted mainly of older locals, there were two huge men dressed up as girls. But not just any girls. They looked like Little Miss Muffets - gingham dresses, ruffled pinafores, layers of crinolines, giant Mary Janes, ringlet girls, parasols, and the bigger of the two also had a Hello Kitty backpack. It was nuts. But we were glad they were there, as they kept people from looking at us. We both looked like crap because we'd been out for so long.
We walked around the village a bit more, but headed home soon after.
Day Thirty-Five
We were very dull girls Friday. I got up with Garrett around noon to say goodbye to him before he left for Baltimore. I won't see him again until school starts (next week.. not a huge deal).
I think Elke finally got up around 2 or 3. By that time I wanted to go back to sleep, but couldn't since she was up already up. Keep in mind we had a very late night the night before. And, since I got drunk entirely on beer for the first time all summer, my stomach was completely fucked up. I was just very bloated and very grouchy.
Despite that, we decided to wander around the West Village. Elke hadn't gotten a chance to do so yet, since I went while she was in class. I took her back to a few places I had liked when I was there, but we didn't really see anything either of us wanted. There was one store,
Girl Props, which is completely crazy. But it was a bit much to take in all at once the first time, so it will definitely be a place to which we return.
Part of the reason we were so glad to be in the Village is that it is very close to one of the very few Taco Bells in New York City. Even though my stomach was mad at me and even though we kept passing delicious-smelling restaurants, we went straight to Taco Bell and stuffed our faces. Elke especially loves it because she's a vegetarian.
After that we did a little bit more shopping and then just came home. We were both still exhausted from the night before.
Day Thirty-Four
Seeing as I'm updating a few day after the fact, some of you (if there are ANY of you) may be wondering how I keep track of what I did each day. I mean really... what did you do Tuesday? Can you even remember Tuesday? It's even harder if you don't have work or school to take up a chunk of your day. Luckily, I am an ULTRA dork and keep track of all my expenses in an excel spreadsheet. That way I know what I spent each day, which helps me to remember what I did. Aren't you glad you aren't me?
Anyway, Thursday was loads of fun. Garrett was here, so we were supposed to go to
Sylvia's for brunch - thanks to
Missing Angel Juan it's one of the places I MUST visit before leaving. However, I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache, and so I thought soul food might not be the best thing to put in it, so instead we slept in for a bit longer. When we woke up we sat around for a bit, hoping Elke would wake up so we could go to lunch. But she didn't, so we ordered carry-out from Flor de Mayo, the place that has fried chicken and fried rice in the same meal. Except it was even better because the lunch price was only $6.00, whereas the dinner price was almost $10.00.
After eating Garrett and I headed down to Canal Street so he could get his brother a shirt for his birthday (as requested). Elke was up by this point, but not yet ready to leave, so it was just the two of us. We found the shirt pretty quickly and then headed back home to meet up with Elke so we could all go to
Panna II for dinner.
However, Garrett and I had a pretty late lunch (I think it was around 3.00) and Elke's lunch was even later, so it took us a while to be hungry enough to eat dinner. We also called Elke's friend Sarah and her boyfriend Dan and friend Anthony (who is the best person EVER) and they decided to join us. But of course, first we had to stop by Sarah's apartment to smoke, as you can't go to Panna II sober. We also picked up some beer on the way - Panna II is BYOB. Half of us took the classy route and bought 40s. It seemed fitting.
Dinner was, of course, delicious. And SO cheap. They have a special deal where you can get an appetizer, soup, bread, mango chutney, an entree and dessert for $10. And of course it's all delicious. We pretended it was Sarah's birthday and so they played the techno Indian birthday song and clapped and sang and turned off all the lights except for the strobe light and disco ball. Great fun.
I think we finally got out of there around midnight. Garrett, Elke and I had intended to take a night-time trip on the
Staten Island Ferry. It's free and it offers one of the best views of the city and the Statue of Liberty. You just ride the 30 minutes out there and the 30 minutes back AND they sell beer for not much at all on the boat.
Of course, all the trains were messed up because of construction, so it took us FOREVER to get down there. And then we had to walk a while when we finally got off the train. We just barely made it in time to pee before the 1.30 ferry docked. But once we were on the ferry we were all much happier, except Elke, who had left her sweatshirt at Sarah's and so was really cold.
The ferry was every bit as amazing as Garrett said it would be. We just drank our beers (Elke had hot chocolate) and watched the city come and go. I love being on the water and I love the city and I was drunk, so I was a very happy camper. I think I could have made a whole night of it - which is what Garrett used to do with his friends when they were younger because the beer's so cheap and they don't card. But by the time we got back to Manhattan it was 2.30 and time to head home.
So that's what we did.
