Chinatown & Little Italy

I think Chinatown and Little Italy were on my to-do list right from the beginning. Even though they are pretty much packed with tourists, it was a nice little change to see different cultures blended in in New York. And as an Italian food lover what would have been a better place to find pasta than Little Italy! (Well, perhaps Italy) We went on a three-course dinner in the first restaurant we came across and weren't disappointed. At least I know I wasn't. I just made a rookie mistake and ordered something I wasn't sure about; I should have know that mushrooms are a crucial part of the Portobello salad. Haha. Besides the mushrooms it was great ♥

I would love to tell long exciting stories about these neighbourhoods but I think that's about it- We wandered for a while after eating in the restaurant and left after that. Before leaving I wanted to buy something I couldn't find in Finland, so I decided it was time to step inside one of the Asian shops.Most of them looked like they sold meat in any form and some guy was casually delivering livers in a plastic bucket with no lid on. I guess that's how things roll over there.

We found a Japanese shop and of course it sold the cutest Hello Kitty candy. A little girl inside me wanted the cute stuff, so I just had to have it!

Short message

Hello everyone! Just wanted say I got a bit carried away with designing my blog, so the layout will look a little weird during the next few days. I only had to do a few changes, but here we are. Haha. It will be fixed - and look fresher than ever - soon. I'm hoping to create a website that is more user friendly, modern and beautiful. Thank you for understanding!

Staten Island & the Statue of Liberty

I had previously read on some blogs about the Staten Island ferry, which is free and goes between Manhattan and Staten Island every half an hour. I thought it would be a great way to see the Statue of Liberty, since I didn't have a hankering to queue at the foot of the Statue itself. So on a sunny day - the only sunny day - we headed to Staten Island and did a little cruise at the same time. I know most of the passengers were commuters, but I did also see a lot of tourists among them.

Once we got to Staten Island, we weren't sure what to do because this borough was huge and we hadn't done much investigation about its sights. So we wandered around for a while, just to see what kind of a place we had landed in. And I've got to say, it was so different from Manhattan! Staten Island seemed like a sympathetic neighbourhood, whereas Manhattan was sparkling new.

I couldn't help thinking how much Staten Island started to remind me of Britain. You know, old cute houses and those wiggly roads with small pubs and cafés. It looked so cute. After sauntering on a few roads we thought it would be best to leave as we hadn't planned to do anything in Staten Island. Perhaps going to a mall over there would have been a good idea; I presume the prices are a bit lower there than in Times Square. If it only had been summer, I also would have loved to see the botanical gardens. Actually, there would have been lots to see if we would have just stayed longer on this side of New York.

Before we said good bye to Staten Island, we had a few slices of pizza at one of the restaurants at the harbour, which was heavenly. Then we squeezed through to get into the ferry to admire the skyline of Manhattan for a while and then continue to the WTC museum. Oh, and even though it was +13 this very day, it was a good choice to put on a think coat. It was windy, just like it tends to be in New York City!

Exploring the Museum of Modern Art

In MoMA there was...

...a Henri Matisse exhibition on his cut-out works. His colourful art was beautiful and original. Every piece had its own story, but especially the following was fascinating. Matisse fell in love with the divers and a swimming pool so much that he wanted to turn his living room in to one with paper! 

One morning in the summer of 1952, Matisse told his studio assistant and secretary Lydia Delectorskaya that “he wanted to see divers,” so they set out to a favorite pool in Cannes. Suffering under the “blazing sun,” they returned home, where Matisse declared, “I will make myself my own pool.”

...modern art in the classic sense of the word. Fun mixtures of colours and weird looking objects. Works for me. It's refreshing to see the kind of art which makes you think about the story behind the piece. Sometimes, you just don't figure it out but I guess it's okay.

Our Top of the Rocks experience

I think you can't leave a city without admiring its lights above a higher place. Especially when we're talking about New York! Before we actually went up to the tower, there was a brief introduction about the building of Rockefeller Center with some comment clips. I immediately got a flashback of a history lesson in middle school. I remembered this black and white photo where a group of lads were casually sitting on a steel pipe high above New York City having lunch.  Apparently, the workers also used to take naps there between working hours. Good to know not all the history lessons were useless!

But back to our experience. We intended to go up to the tower during daytime, but despite our fairly early reservation, we got tickets for 6 pm - and by that time it would be dark. There are a few upsides and downsides for visiting Top of the Rocks when it's dark.

+ The lights look awesome. 

- It's almost impossible to get a great photo of you with the lights of New York

Okay, I guess if you're a professional photographer taking photos up there would be a piece of cake. But for us, it was a struggle trying to adjust perfect amount of light and contrast while focusing on our faces. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort. I saw others were experiencing the same problem, desperately trying to add light to their faces with the help of their phone. I don't know if they succeeded better than us.

Then, my little brother came to me and told me they found a cool room on the lower deck. He called it "the gaming room" because it kept making beeping noises just like a Nintendo. On top of that, it had white walls with flashing lights in blue, red, green and yellow. Seemingly, a Finnish guy overheard us while marveling the room and asked if we wanted a picture over there. I don't know why but none of us responded to him. After I realized he had asked again and was waiting for an answer, I quickly said "Yeah, that would be nice" and handed my camera to him. It was just super weird to hear Finnish in that state of mind, especially when it was a stranger talking to you. So, here's a happy family portrait taken in the weird room by a random Finnish guy, who made us speechless simply by talking to us in our native language.

Christmas at Rockefeller center

New York was full of Christmas lights. They even had the famous tree lightning at Rockefeller center when we were there, however we didn't go there because it was totally crowded up to few blocks away from the tree. But we still got to enjoy the great atmosphere with people ice skating, singing Christmas carols and ringing bells while raising money for the salvation army. There was also a light show which was reflected on one of the walls near the tree. Just a tad different than in our little city where I come from.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy the holidays!