We headed up to Rt. 78 and took it clear across Pennsylvania into New Jersey to the N.J. turnpike, which took us to the...New York City skyline and...the Holland Tunnel.
(Okay, this wasn't my first time going to New York -- not that I go there very often -- but I still felt excited at the idea of going to such a big, famous city. (I loved living close to London for the same reason.) I think Stuart did, too. I always belt out the "New York, New York" song.)
But at this point in our journey, we ceased to be "excited" and began to feel annoyed when we started to crawl. I'm serious. A baby could have crawled faster than our car was moving. And if we didn't glue our bumper to the bumper of the car in front of us, four cars would try to cut in. We saw tons of people who obviously failed the kindergarten lessons on "following directions" and "waiting their turn."
After nearly an hour and a half of crawling through about 5 blocks, we saw the problem: 7 lanes merging into 2. Yikes! We did manage to finally get to the toll booth and through the tunnel. Now came the fun of navigating through Brooklyn to East Village and the cinema, using our trusty Mapquest directions. (Where's Chloe from 24 when you need her? I would have loved to have her download directions to my PDA...of course, I'd need a PDA first.)
Actually, we didn't have any problems. (Stuart is a seasoned New York driver, having had to go there on various occasions with his job.) We headed up East Houston (pronounced "house-ton" -- yes, well, we have a Greenwich Street in Reading, pronounce "green-wich") Street, and there it was: Landmark's Sunshine Cinema.
We parked about two blocks past the theatre and walked back. I felt more and more like a "country mouse." I love cities. I love the smells from all the different restaurants and cafes. I love the noise of the cars and people. I love the architecture -- some of which you only notice if you look up. But I have to say it's very easy to be over-stimulated by it all and feel a bit out of your element. I'd been looking forward to this moment for several weeks, and now it was finally here. And all I really needed and wanted was....a bathroom! LOL!
The theatre was really cool inside. There were three levels, with a cafe setup on the third level, overlooking the street and the cinema's sign. We got an iced latte, a dark chocolate Toblerone, and gourmet popcorn. Not your traditional cinema snacks.
But, wowzers! Doesn't anyone in New York ever sleep?? We came out of our 10 p.m. movie around midnight and the streets were more crowded than when we'd first arrived around 7:30 p.m.
Amazing!
We're still pinching ourselves...
1 comment:
You're sweet, Dawn! It was a great adventure! And I'm still reeling at the surreal-ness of it all! LOL! I'm glad you're back to blogging! :o)
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