untold blisses

I woke up predictably early on our fourth day in New York – 5am – and jumped out of bed to see the damage that the blizzard had done.  Husband sleepily asked me how bad it was as I got back under the duvet.  I managed to convince him for about 30 seconds that it was worse than predicted, before revealing that it was no different to last night.  I’m not entirely sure we actually had any more snow after we went to sleep.

Thank goodness.

It was so very quiet outside.  No cars beeping or sirens.  It kinda felt a bit apocalyptic – as much as I love silence, New York without any noise was a little bit creepy.

We snoozed for a bit longer, watched some news and went out at about 9.  Our Starbucks was closed, but we figured something would be open as we walked towards Central Park.  We were wrong about that – the subway had only just reopened so no one could really get in the city.

Central Park was utterly beautiful.  There weren’t many people out and about as we started our walk from Columbus Circle –  a few news crews and police vehicles – and we criss-crossed the park, not entirely sure if we were walking on paths as everything was covered in snow.  We’d been told to visit the Central Park Boathouse, but figured that wouldn’t happen:

Cedar Hill was filled with children on sleds, and there was so many people skiing – it was a little surreal.  We made it to about 90th Street when the wind started picking up again, so we decided to walk back down 5th Avenue to try and find some breakfast before visiting the High Line.  Not finding anything, we went over to Broadway and towards Times Square figuring we’d stumble across something in the more touristy areas.  Times Square was eerily empty – just a few confused people wandering about.  We eventually found a Starbucks on 39th Street where we warmed up, inhaled coffee, and discovered that the High Line was closed.  Boo.

I had lost all feeling in my feet – as it turns out, my boots were not waterproof – so we went back to the hotel where I had a bath and promptly fell asleep.

We had tickets for the Jake Gyllenhaal/Ruth Wilson play Constellations and we were worried that it would be cancelled – Broadway shows had been cancelled the night before – but fortunately it was to go ahead as planned.  So I furiously tried to dry my boots with a hairdryer and we went out at about 5 to find some dinner.

We found a restaurant called Toloache – a somewhat pricy but very nice Mexican restaurant.  We both had chicken tacos, Husband had a manchego quesadilla, and I ate a lot of guacamole.  Everything was so tasty.

We then walked over to the Samuel J Friedman Theatre a couple of streets away to see the play (which I have reviewed separately).  The theatre itself was really nice, and although it was sold out, it didn’t feel cramped like London theatres.  There wasn’t even a queue for the bathroom!  We made friends with the hipster girl sat next to us who had gorgeous glasses, and everyone in the theatre groaned when someone’s phone went off.  The audience was great (except phone person).

At the end of the performance, we very briefly considered waiting at the stage door, but the wind hit us as soon as we left the theatre, so we went back to our hotel.  We’re not hardcore enough to stage door in minus temperatures.

Back at the hotel, we packed and watched New Girl and Mindy Project reruns, and continued to try to dry my boots.