July fourth. So much has happened since my last posts but we will skip all that for now.
So, up until the evening of the fourth I had zero plans for this national holiday. I was quite disappointed actually. On Canada Day we have big pancake breakfasts and celebrations and food and festivals and street performers and parades and there is always something happening that you can go to. I honestly couldn't find anything here. No ward breaky, nothing. Maybe I just wasn't invited. Who knows?
Anyways, finally, on the evening of the third plans started to form. There were beach trips and movie goers and broadway plays and such. In the end I went with a combo plan and it was AWESOME!
I woke up first thing in the morning and met up with Travis, one of the guys from the apartment upstairs. We jumped on a train and met up with his friends, Carl and Bradford, and off we went to Coney Island for Nathan's Annual Hotdog Eating Contest. My last experience at Coney Island was less than ideal so I was quite hesitant to go back.
Actually, let's talk about the Mermaid parade right now. So, a couple weekends ago, my roommates and I and a couple other people all went to Coney Island for the Mermaid Parade. It is exactly what it sounds like. A parade of mermaids. A THREE HOUR parade of mermaids. Now Coney Island is a small and curious little place. It reminds me of the island where the little boys go in the movie Pinnochio and then they all turn into donkeys. It is seriously just like that. There's a carnival and a beach and little shops and bars and such. Cute little place with people that are strange and a little sketchy. They kinda remind me of the strange carnies in movies. So, the mermaid parade attracts an... Interesting crowd. Basically anyone who wanted to be in the parade could. It was disorganized and weird with lots of scantily clad women. Don't worry, they had pasties over their nipples. Haha! Anyways... This three hour parade meant that all the roads were cut off for three hours and people really couldn't come or go. Every once in awhile the cops would let people cross the road and mass chaos would ensue. We made the ridiculously stupid decision to place ourselves right by one of these cross roads. It was horrid. We had worked hard to find us a place where we would be able to see and then all of these people would try to push their way in and people wouldn't let them in cuz they were determined to keep their spot and then there was yelling and the cops were yelling to get in but people wouldn't let them in and it was mad chaos. After the sun had heated everyone up even more racial slurs started flying and yelling and pushing and it was completely horrible. I hated it. I was done with it so we tried to escape and find food. It took us two hours to fight through the crowds and crowds of frustrated people and blocked of roads and find food. Not. Cool. We eventually climbed through a whole in a fence, crossed a sketchy field and then ran across a street when the cops weren't looking in order to get to a burger. Mmmm food. After all that I bought a candy apple at the carnival and we hung out on the beach. It was good and I was able to take pictures and calm down a little but overall not a good experience. I mean usually I love crowds but not this one. This day was probably the turning point in my love for crowds. I have never been around people who would be that rude and jump in front of you and push and just have no respect or even acknowledgment of anyone around them. It just got a horrible vibe from it. For the first time I second guessed my decision to try to come back to NYC permanently. Oh well. It was an interesting experience and some of the costumes were suuuuper cool (like the unicycle riding sea monkeys!) and I got some cool pics!! I'll post those later.
So, yes, the thought of going back seemed stupid. Especially on July 4th. But Travis convinced me so I went and I am sooo glad I did. First off, those boys are good times. We laughed and laughed and had a grand old time. Second, the crowds were not bad at all. I think not blocking off strees and the flow of people really helped. And third, they have the Nathan's Annual Hotdog Eating Contest. Hilarious. That's a lie. Disgusting. Haha! But it was something to see at least once.
They had the women's competition first. Girl Power?? The chick who won weighs 100 pounds and ate 45 hotdogs and buns in ten minutes. Gag me. Way to promote eating disorders!! There is no way she keeps that all down. She is the world champ and we watched her beat her old record. I saw history being made!
In-between the women's and men's competitions they had some entertainment. There were trampoline trick performers and a game of HORSE with one of the players from the new brooklyn basketball team against some guy from the crowd. And then the men came out. *Cue manly music*
This was the strangest group of men I have ever seen. Guys came out wearing tiny, gold, shiny booty shorts and dressed as leprechauns and wearing giant bling and on and on. And these guys were the champs in potato wedge eating and hotdog eating and chili eating and spaghetti eating and wing eating and fried asparagus eating. So weird!!! Seriously I cannot even describe to you how weird this was. The guy who won the men's competition ate 68 dogs and buns in ten minutes. He tied his record from last year. He ate more than six hotdogs every minute. It was disgusting. He has a bite that is stronger than a German shepherds and he is kinda nuts. Seriously.
I think the best part of it was how into it these boys I went with were. They were going crazy as to how cool it was and how they should take up competitive eating and on and on and talking about stats and reliving the experience. Hilarious.
After I had been thoroughly disgusted we moved on and went out for lunch. Cuz if watching two hotdog eating contests doesn't make you hungry, i don't know what will!! We went to this Indian place my roommate had told me about. Sooooo funny. Before I get into it, the food was faaaantastic. Good food, decent potions, great service. For 15 bucks we got dinner, an appetizer, soup, rice, naan, and dessert. It was wonderful. And now to talk about the decorations. Panna II. Everyone needs to go. It honestly looks like someone let a five year old decorate this place. There is this blanket like curtain of lights that hangs from the roof. There are Christmas lights and chili pepper lights and Halloween lights and snowflake lights and pretty much anything you can think of was there. And then amidst all the lights there are beach balls and streamers and shiny things and Christmas decoration. And if that's not enough, on the walls there were super hero stickers, just stuck there. It was just fantastic. I want to go back at night when all the lights are lit and the place is packed because even without all the lights and people it was still fantastic.
Once my belly was full and I was feeling great I went to meet up with Joanna Dick and her mom who were in town visiting NYC. We wandered Central Park for awhile and then made the trek downtown for the fireworks. I am so sick of crowds. And not like small crowds, like millions of people. I used to love crowds and being surrounded. Now I have a panic attack when grocery shopping (apparently I am my mother's daughter!). The crowds are just too much.
We got down near the pier and decided we should probably pee before we faced the crowds so we headed into a McDonald's. Worst. Idea. Ever. Really it was our only option but still. WE WAITED AN HOUUUUR TO PEE!!!!! I waited less time to ride rides at Disneyland and this line didn't even have an exciting ride at the end!! It had a toilet. And I didn't even have to pee bad enough that it was relieving when I finally did get there. Seriously. Not cool. But we made it. And we peed. And I'm sure I would have regretted it later if we hadn't waited it out.
The Macy's fireworks were great. They have four boats out on the Hudson that fire off fireworks. It was like being able to see four identical shows all at the same time. We could see one big one right in front of us but we could also see the other three shows over these trees. It was sooooo good. They even had planet shaped fireworks and wart shaped ones and even a couple happy faces!! So fun!!
Then I fought the crowded subways and made my way home to sleep. Because apparently fun is exhausting.
Just another day in New York.
So, up until the evening of the fourth I had zero plans for this national holiday. I was quite disappointed actually. On Canada Day we have big pancake breakfasts and celebrations and food and festivals and street performers and parades and there is always something happening that you can go to. I honestly couldn't find anything here. No ward breaky, nothing. Maybe I just wasn't invited. Who knows?
Anyways, finally, on the evening of the third plans started to form. There were beach trips and movie goers and broadway plays and such. In the end I went with a combo plan and it was AWESOME!
I woke up first thing in the morning and met up with Travis, one of the guys from the apartment upstairs. We jumped on a train and met up with his friends, Carl and Bradford, and off we went to Coney Island for Nathan's Annual Hotdog Eating Contest. My last experience at Coney Island was less than ideal so I was quite hesitant to go back.
Actually, let's talk about the Mermaid parade right now. So, a couple weekends ago, my roommates and I and a couple other people all went to Coney Island for the Mermaid Parade. It is exactly what it sounds like. A parade of mermaids. A THREE HOUR parade of mermaids. Now Coney Island is a small and curious little place. It reminds me of the island where the little boys go in the movie Pinnochio and then they all turn into donkeys. It is seriously just like that. There's a carnival and a beach and little shops and bars and such. Cute little place with people that are strange and a little sketchy. They kinda remind me of the strange carnies in movies. So, the mermaid parade attracts an... Interesting crowd. Basically anyone who wanted to be in the parade could. It was disorganized and weird with lots of scantily clad women. Don't worry, they had pasties over their nipples. Haha! Anyways... This three hour parade meant that all the roads were cut off for three hours and people really couldn't come or go. Every once in awhile the cops would let people cross the road and mass chaos would ensue. We made the ridiculously stupid decision to place ourselves right by one of these cross roads. It was horrid. We had worked hard to find us a place where we would be able to see and then all of these people would try to push their way in and people wouldn't let them in cuz they were determined to keep their spot and then there was yelling and the cops were yelling to get in but people wouldn't let them in and it was mad chaos. After the sun had heated everyone up even more racial slurs started flying and yelling and pushing and it was completely horrible. I hated it. I was done with it so we tried to escape and find food. It took us two hours to fight through the crowds and crowds of frustrated people and blocked of roads and find food. Not. Cool. We eventually climbed through a whole in a fence, crossed a sketchy field and then ran across a street when the cops weren't looking in order to get to a burger. Mmmm food. After all that I bought a candy apple at the carnival and we hung out on the beach. It was good and I was able to take pictures and calm down a little but overall not a good experience. I mean usually I love crowds but not this one. This day was probably the turning point in my love for crowds. I have never been around people who would be that rude and jump in front of you and push and just have no respect or even acknowledgment of anyone around them. It just got a horrible vibe from it. For the first time I second guessed my decision to try to come back to NYC permanently. Oh well. It was an interesting experience and some of the costumes were suuuuper cool (like the unicycle riding sea monkeys!) and I got some cool pics!! I'll post those later.
So, yes, the thought of going back seemed stupid. Especially on July 4th. But Travis convinced me so I went and I am sooo glad I did. First off, those boys are good times. We laughed and laughed and had a grand old time. Second, the crowds were not bad at all. I think not blocking off strees and the flow of people really helped. And third, they have the Nathan's Annual Hotdog Eating Contest. Hilarious. That's a lie. Disgusting. Haha! But it was something to see at least once.
They had the women's competition first. Girl Power?? The chick who won weighs 100 pounds and ate 45 hotdogs and buns in ten minutes. Gag me. Way to promote eating disorders!! There is no way she keeps that all down. She is the world champ and we watched her beat her old record. I saw history being made!
In-between the women's and men's competitions they had some entertainment. There were trampoline trick performers and a game of HORSE with one of the players from the new brooklyn basketball team against some guy from the crowd. And then the men came out. *Cue manly music*
This was the strangest group of men I have ever seen. Guys came out wearing tiny, gold, shiny booty shorts and dressed as leprechauns and wearing giant bling and on and on. And these guys were the champs in potato wedge eating and hotdog eating and chili eating and spaghetti eating and wing eating and fried asparagus eating. So weird!!! Seriously I cannot even describe to you how weird this was. The guy who won the men's competition ate 68 dogs and buns in ten minutes. He tied his record from last year. He ate more than six hotdogs every minute. It was disgusting. He has a bite that is stronger than a German shepherds and he is kinda nuts. Seriously.
I think the best part of it was how into it these boys I went with were. They were going crazy as to how cool it was and how they should take up competitive eating and on and on and talking about stats and reliving the experience. Hilarious.
After I had been thoroughly disgusted we moved on and went out for lunch. Cuz if watching two hotdog eating contests doesn't make you hungry, i don't know what will!! We went to this Indian place my roommate had told me about. Sooooo funny. Before I get into it, the food was faaaantastic. Good food, decent potions, great service. For 15 bucks we got dinner, an appetizer, soup, rice, naan, and dessert. It was wonderful. And now to talk about the decorations. Panna II. Everyone needs to go. It honestly looks like someone let a five year old decorate this place. There is this blanket like curtain of lights that hangs from the roof. There are Christmas lights and chili pepper lights and Halloween lights and snowflake lights and pretty much anything you can think of was there. And then amidst all the lights there are beach balls and streamers and shiny things and Christmas decoration. And if that's not enough, on the walls there were super hero stickers, just stuck there. It was just fantastic. I want to go back at night when all the lights are lit and the place is packed because even without all the lights and people it was still fantastic.
Once my belly was full and I was feeling great I went to meet up with Joanna Dick and her mom who were in town visiting NYC. We wandered Central Park for awhile and then made the trek downtown for the fireworks. I am so sick of crowds. And not like small crowds, like millions of people. I used to love crowds and being surrounded. Now I have a panic attack when grocery shopping (apparently I am my mother's daughter!). The crowds are just too much.
We got down near the pier and decided we should probably pee before we faced the crowds so we headed into a McDonald's. Worst. Idea. Ever. Really it was our only option but still. WE WAITED AN HOUUUUR TO PEE!!!!! I waited less time to ride rides at Disneyland and this line didn't even have an exciting ride at the end!! It had a toilet. And I didn't even have to pee bad enough that it was relieving when I finally did get there. Seriously. Not cool. But we made it. And we peed. And I'm sure I would have regretted it later if we hadn't waited it out.
The Macy's fireworks were great. They have four boats out on the Hudson that fire off fireworks. It was like being able to see four identical shows all at the same time. We could see one big one right in front of us but we could also see the other three shows over these trees. It was sooooo good. They even had planet shaped fireworks and wart shaped ones and even a couple happy faces!! So fun!!
Then I fought the crowded subways and made my way home to sleep. Because apparently fun is exhausting.
Just another day in New York.
Sounds like you're having a very interesting time!!! Thanks for a glimpse into NYC life!
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