Show Me This, Show Me That

The next morning, we headed back to the city, where we walked from Grand Central to our hotel in Chelsea at 8th and 23rd. On the way, we passed the scaffold-draped New York Public Library and Bryant Park. There were a bunch of people playing bocce ball, or something similar, in the park. Along Broadway, the was an outdoor fashion exhibit of some kind. It was neat because a lot of streets around Broadway and Times Square were pedestrian only, or had a pedestrian walkway/bike path in the middle of the road.


When we reached Leo House, where we were staying, we quickly dropped off our bags and headed out again. We got some really tasty Indian food for lunch, which we ate near Times Square.

Above: Leo House, home base for a few nights in Chelsea.
Below: A school we walked past. The playground is on the roof...

From there, we were just a block away from the Music Box Theatre, where Christina had arranged tickets for Lend Me a Tenor, a Broadway show, which was not a musical despite its name. I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite funny. It was also neat to see actors who we recognized on stage (and up close, we had great seats). The actors included Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace), Tony Shalhoub (Monk) and Justin Bartha (The Hangover).

After the show, we headed off for a very different experience in a very different part of town. We took the subway to the East Village, where we had a nice walk before catching the Improviser Festival at The Stone. The Stone is a "performance space dedicated to the experimental and avant-garde." What this means is we were two of about four audience members for what was a really interesting, intimate and not too pretentious set. The instruments ranged from guitar to pink post-it notes to a weird glove connected to a computer.

Above: We saw some men fishing near this sign when we were walking around the East Village.
Below: At The Stone.

We got dinner at Katz's Deli, not realizing it was sort of a landmark, until we walked into the packed restaurant. Then we noticed the walls covered in photos of celebrities and presidents, and found out it was it was featured in films such as Donnie Brasco and When Sally Met Harry. I tried a potato and spinach knish, pretty much the only vegetarian thing on the menu. I didn't know what it was until I ate it, but it wasn't bad, essentially a stuffed bun. Vaguely like an Estonian pirukas.

Above: Hendrik trying a chili dog for the first time.
Below: My spinach knish (the "k" is not silent) which Blogger decided to rotate on me.

Note: I might be moving my blog to WordPress in the very near future because I waste a lot of time fighting with Blogger when trying to post/format pictures, despite having a rudimentary knowledge of html coding...