NY Day 2: Tito and the Subway Girls™️

Taking advantage of this step in my professional writing career by jet-setting on a lavish vacation I certainly cannot afford. Stay tuned for every inevitable fumble, wrong turn, and overpriced meal as LAUREN TAKES NEW YORK!

(Kerra's pants keeping us motivated)

Another day, another snoozed alarm. Thankfully, we had no shuttles to miss this time around. Leaning on Eastern Standard Time as an excuse, we spent our first morning in The Big Apple lounging around the room. Eventually we found the Keurig, and with that the energy to get out and face the beast otherwise known as the New York subway system.

Our goal: To find Times Square and Broadhurst Theatre (where we would later see Anastasia the Musical.) Seemed easy enough, until we remembered who we are as people. After fifteen minutes of checking Google Maps and texting our host to make sure the A train goes downtown, we got on a passing car.

Turns out, riding a subway is way less shitty when you're not lugging giant suitcases. We actually found seats this time, looking positively like tourists as we squealed about how proud we were of ourselves. We exited on 42nd street to what I'll call the "New York of Hollywood." It's where James Marsden wielded a sword atop a bus searching for Amy Adams in Enchanted, and Justin Timberlake followed Mila Kunis through a street wide dance mob in Friends With Benefits. Basically, it's how movies set in NYC prove they filmed on location.

Even in daylight, Times Square is overflowing with lights and spectacle. Giant televised billboards sit on top of fierce architecture. Needless to say, my phone storage is currently full with hundreds of pictures taken walking up and down the street-- including a few of Kerra and the NYPD. We're allowing ourselves these first few days to fully embrace tourism in all of its cheesy glory. By Tuesday we will surely have the unaffected glaze in our eyes of every cool New Yorker who sees this stuff daily. But for now, I'm gonna marvel over the McDonalds on 7th that has nicer set up than some clubs I've been to back home.

From there we found a bar with a rooftop set up and got ourselves tipsy enough to start singing aloud (which really isn't much, we sing aloud sober,) and head over to the pizza place across the street. Here we met our new best friend, a guy named Tito who recently moved to NYC from Egypt, and thankfully found our harmonizing endearing and not obnoxious like the ladies seated at the table across from ours. Naturally, we took a picture with him and promised to keep in touch forever. Then we scurried off to the apartment to change for Anastasia, probably the worst decision made all day, considering I had the bright idea to wear the really cute four inch heeled boots I'd brought with me on impulse.

Those shoes hurt like hell the second we hit the street. They hurt walking to the subway, finding the theatre and waiting in line. Like in some Shakespearian comedy, every time I found a spot to sit, the line would move forward just enough to leave me nothing but brick wall. Kerra was in heels too, and we were so distraught we almost forgot to be excited for the show. But then we found our seats and I realized I was about to watch my very first performance on Broadway. It was enough to forget the shoes, and that curtain rose to such a spectacular performance, (expect a review because I honestly can't shut up about how IN LOVE I am with the show,) that by the end I was willing to put up with four inches of hell for that standing ovation.

We left the theatre still in pain, but glowing. We got ourselves more drinks and headed back to the pizza place to see our new best friend Tito. He took his lunch break and showed us pictures of the pyramids, and looked at us like alien's when we brought up Moses and The Prince of Egypt movie. He was positively smitten with Kerra, and offered her his jacket for our journey back to the subway. After thinking over protecting her hair in the drizzle outside, she thanked him but declined. We dared the journey through the city and found that two different subway entrances were closed. By the time we got on the A train and off again, I was hearing colors and seeing sounds wearing those heels. We hobbled up (and I mean UP of course our Airbnb is on an incline) the street and to the apartment. Now that the shoes are off, I'm just waiting to get feeling back again in my pinky toe.

Back at it again tomorrow!

#travelblog #travelseries #travelpost #newyork #NYDay2