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That Ginger, Anna

That Ginger, Anna

Tag Archives: Central Park

#40for40NYC Saturday Night’s Alright

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Personal and Fun, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

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#40for40NYC, bill nighly, broadway, brooklyn, budget, budget travel, carey mulligan, celebrity, Central Park, Coney Island, dallas to nyc, female travel, graduate student, helen mirren, manhattan, new york, New York City, NYC, oscar winner, single, star, student, texas to new york, thatgingeranna, the audience, Times Square, tourism, tourist, Travel

Saturday, we walked around down in NoHo because I had to turn in a paper. If you go down to NoHo there are a crap ton of brunch places and boutiques for shopping. I suggest this area for a chill Sunday afternoon. After I turned in my paper we took the train down to Coney Island. The train down there from NoHo took over 1.5 hours, so just keep that in mind. It is a pain in the butt, but you get there for $2.75 so who can complain?

Coney Island was fun! We rode the Wonder Wheel, a 95 year old ferris wheel. A ticket is $7 and you get great views of the boardwalk and surrounding area and you are RIDING A 95 YEAR OLD FERRIS WHEEL! Haha, I had never ridden a ferris wheel so it was a little freaky, but definitely fun. After the ride we walked all the way down the boardwalk and then down the big pier.


          That was fun because there was a Puerto Rican/Venezuelan band playing, people fishing and tanning, and all kinds of stuff going on. We walked back down the boardwalk and I wanted to eat at Nathan’s! I got a hotdog, pretzel, and a beer for like $14. You aren’t allowed to take the beer outside the Nathan’s tables area, but there was nowhere to sit, so I hid it in my purse and we sat on a bench by the beach. There was a DRUNK ass man that we watched while we ate. He fell down and ate his food out of the sand and it was a train wreck. The wind picked up about halfway through lunch and it was already 5 and we had a long ride back to my place, so we left. I got some saltwater taffy for $7, so I spent $34 for the entire day. If you brought your own snacks, I would highly suggest this as a full day activity! From what I understand, they also have free fireworks on Friday evenings (hello, additional date idea)!

After getting back from Coney Island we freshened up and went back downtown to Times Square. Eh…so there are some good things and bad things about Times Square on Saturday night: It is VERY crowded. Like, I can’t even imagine how NYE would be if Saturday nights are so crowded. If you want to do this, I suggest going around 10.

We walked down 45th street around 11 and all of the play casts were letting out and I got to see HELEN MIRREN, CAREY MULLIGAN, and BILL NIGHLY! So amazing. That would be fun if there were a certain actor you knew or were a fan of and you could get an autograph or picture with them, even if you can’t afford to go to the show!


   After we walked around and saw some stars, we did a little bar hopping. We went to Junior’s Bakery and got a piece of cheesecake and espresso. Then we went to Lillie’s Victorian Establishment for a drink and then went to Social for another drink. Junior’s has been voted the best cheesecake in the city and it was delicious (it’s around $7.50 a slice), but I might check out the location in Grand Central instead if you haven’t been before.

As far as Lillie’s…it’s a typical NYC concept bar with a typical NYC price. If you don’t drink beer, you are going to break the bank. With tip, I spent about $35 on two drinks (one for myself and one for a friend), which is pretty nuts. The ambiance is really great though and it’s a fun bar.

We left Lillie’s and walked to Social, which is much more reasonable! For half the price of 2 drinks at Lille’s, we got three at Social (around $17). This place is loud and definitely more of a party spot. The music caters to twenty somethings, so it was right up our alley. Times Square is definitely best at night because the lights are so pretty and there are so many characters to see.


   So, if you go to Times Square at night, I suggest getting there around 10, hanging out around the theaters to spot some stars and then heading to Social for a couple of drinks. That will keep you under $20, so that’s $20 for another activity (maybe Lille’s for one drink or an appetizer at a restaurant nearby)!

Sunday was the last day my friend was in town, so we kept it chill. We took the train to 59th street Columbus Circle, bought some food at Whole Foods and then went across the street and had a picnic in central park. This was my favorite thing we did, closely followed by Stone Street. Whole Foods has an amazing salad, soup, hot food, and dessert bar that is priced per pound. I got a drink, a huge salad and some chicken wings for $18! I brought a blanket so we had a picnic, took many pictures, and relaxed.


 It was pretty crowded since it was Sunday evening and the weather was nice, but it was so peaceful and relaxing. This would be another great date idea if you had a picnic basket and could bring a bottle of wine, cheese, and crackers or something. I highly recommend the Whole Foods idea, but bringing food from home works just as well! With the $5.50 subway fare+$20 at Whole Foods, and $5 for an ice cream from the ice cream truck, we had a full day for $35.50.

As you can see, I packed a lot of activities into a few days, so I am going to have to budget for a while. I hope that I get to do some free things this weekend and I will be sure to write about it. I don’t have an iPad right now, so it’s a little less convenient to publish blogs and pictures, but hopefully I will figure something out soon. Thanks for reading the first three installments and I will talk to y’all soon!

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#40for40NYC Episode 1: Some Drinks and History

28 Thursday May 2015

Posted by That Ginger, Anna in Personal and Fun, Travel

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#40for40NYC, budget travel, Central Park, dallas to nyc, female travel, manhattan, new york, New York City, NYC, picnic, single, student, texas to new york, thatgingeranna, tourism, tourist, Travel, whole foods

So, what’s up you crazy kids? I am going to kick off the summer series today. Before we get to my touristy touring tour of NYC last weekend, I am going to explain why I didn’t write about anything in the past week. I had a minor catastrophe, which lead to a major meltdown last weekend. I wrote a 20+ page seminar paper for a class and after turning it in a few weeks ago, the professor returned it to me to complete final edits. The edited paper was due on the 23rd at three. Of course, I procrastinated, but I left enough time at the end to complete everything-if everything went according to plan. My mom was coming into town on the 20th and my friend was coming into town the afternoon of the 21st, so I planned to finish the edits between the 17th and the 20th and tweak it, before turning it in on Friday when I went downtown. Does anything ever go according to plan at the end of the semester? That would be no. Last semester I got the flu for the first time in like 5 years (even after being vaccinated), days before 3 final papers were due. SN: I use an iPad because my Sony laptop is too big/heavy/slow to carry around everywhere. This semester, coffee spilled on my iPad and completely fried on Wednesday…so that meant I had less than 72 hours to get this paper reedited. At first, I was in denial and tried to revive it, but by Thursday night I realized it wasn’t coming back. I pulled an all-nighter on Friday and completed all the edits, but all the additional research I’d done was gone.

Alas, I got a B+ on the paper and a B+ in the class. It was my first B since an undergrad Geology class in 2010, so I had an ugly crying wine fest. I am paying so much money and living in less than ideal conditions so that I can get this degree, so the fact that my efforts were obviously subpar and I screwed up a large number of chances I’m going to have for getting into a PhD program sent me into melt down mode.  I’ve constantly been told that a B is a D in grad school and considering I’ve never gotten anything below a B, I’m reallyyy embarrassed and upset about it. Oh well though, nothing I can do about it now. I was planning on using this paper as my Master’s essay since it was the first time I’ve done primary source research, but I had to receive an A- or better, which I did not do, so now I have to figure out what other paper I am going to use. It looks as though I need to spend some serious time this summer trying to find plan Bs and getting job application stuff ready for the winter.

SO, ANYWAY! Enough of my melodramatic BS. My friend arrived Thursday afternoon and I kicked off #40for40NYC This first entry will be broken up into a few posts because it includes: the Waldorf Astoria, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Central Park, Stone Street+Battery Park, Times Square, Grand Central Station, and Coney Island.

Thursday night, we took the train downtown and met my mom at the Waldorf Astoria. 

  
My mom was staying there for business, so we met to have a drink and then go to dinner! We stopped at the Peacock Alley Bar in the lobby of the WA and each had a drink.

  
 My mom got red wine, but my friend and I got a cocktail. I got the Globetrotter, which was heavy on the rum, but definitely got the job done. 

  
My friend got a champagne strawberry cocktail, which was really good. So, here’s the deal: I do suggest checking out the WA because it is a historical location in NYC. Everyone that was everyone back in the day stayed there. A Chinese company recently purchased it, so I don’t know how it will change in the future and you should definitely check it out if you can. Keep in mind it’s a luxury hotel, so staying there is out of my reach. I have stayed there one night in 2012 when I rented a room for an ex’s birthday weekend and it’s definitely nice to be able to say you’ve stayed.  That being said, the bar in the hotel charges around $20 for cocktails, so to keep this under the $40 budget, I suggest heading there to have a look around the lobby (there are many exhibits showing artifacts and notable guests), having a drink, and watching people. They also provide individual, complementary bar snacks! You’ll spend $5.50 on roundtrip subway fare and then get a cocktail for around $20. 

  
It’d be a fun Friday or Saturday night date, watching rich people and ladys of the night in the lobby. My friend and I saw what we thoughttt was a working girl out front when we were going in. An hour and a half later when we were leaving it was confirmed that she was definitely a lady of the night when we heard her soliciting a John and saw her grab a vile of coke from another lady of the night. So, yeah, people watching in a historic location for around $25+free snacks…pretty sweet deal!

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