I woke up around 7 am but had a hard time getting out of bed. I slept really well though - the room is extremely comfortable, modern, and clean - really like this hotel! Anyway, I eventually got my yoga stuff ready and headed out. I took a picture of myself just before I left and sent it to my friend:
So I take the B train to 14th street, then hop on the L train going towards Brooklyn, and get off at 1st ave, head to Avenue B, turn right and walk down to 8th street to the Ashtanga Yoga Shala New York ( http://aysnyc.org/ ). It was further away from my hotel than I initially thought, but didn.t have too much trouble finding it. Here's a picture to the entrance:
When I got there, the instructor (Guy Donahaye) was busy tending to the Mysore room, but came to the entry way when I entered. I asked if I had arrived too late (nearly 9am by this point) and he said I was late, but could either do a full primary series at a quicker pace or a slower half primary series, and he'd let me practice. Cool beans - I got changed into my yoga clothes, brought my mat into the shala. Guy told me to go to the empty space in the back of the room, where I proceeded to put down my mat and start my practice. The room was pretty busy, though I imagine it is normally a lot busier in the early morning. Practice felt R-E-A-L-L-Y good today! The room was warm (it's colder today in NYC), the energy was vibrant, I really enjoyed it!
However, Guy gave me little to no adjustments during the practice. Not sure why, maybe he was too busy and I was a brand new student and he didn't know my body or my issues. Eventually in kormasana and supta kormasana he did, and got me pretty deep into supta. When I got towards the end of practice, he told me I could just finish up on my own, and not worry about paying the drop in. Wow that's really cool! He let me use the space for practice for free! There was only 1 other guy in the room with me by now, and we both came out of Savasana at the same time. Guy and I talked a little afterwards, I told him where I was from, etc. Only after I left did I realize he (and Eddie Stern) are the authors of the recent memoir for Sri K. Pattabhi Jois called "Guruji". A picture of that book cover is on the website link above...
Anyway - I got out of practice, charged and refreshed and feeling good! I said "Hey I'm in New York - probably THE place to get some good bagels! Let's do it!" So I searched my trusty iPhone for the nearest bagel shop that looked interesting - not too corporate, but a small mom & pop that got good reviews. Eventually found a place called Heaven's Hot Bagel ( http://www.yelp.com/biz/heavens-hot-bagel-new-york ). I opted for a healthy # 2, which is egg whites, mushrooms, asparagus and spinach (I think), on a toasted sesame bagel along with a soy hot chocolate. YUM! Funny thing too - I asked to use their restroom but for some reason I still cannot understand, they would not let me use it - I couldn't catch why (she was Chinese and had a bit of an accent that made it hard to understand), but somehow they would get in trouble for letting customers use it. Insurance? I don't know. So I held it in and walked back to the Subway to go back to my hotel...
Once at the hotel, I showered, and then decided I would spend the next few hours roaming around Manhattan on my own. I was scheduled to meet Sean for dinner later that evening, so I had 4 - 5 hours to do whatever I wanted. Cool - I decided to walk uptown on 5th ave and just check out the sights. No particular destination - just let the wind take me where it was (and by this point the wind chill was pretty cold - probably 30's or 20's, so thankfully I had gloves and scarf today)...
I stopped in a few places along the way as my interest piqued - the first of which was Rockafeller Center ice skating rink:
Later, the Abercrombie & Fitch store to the famous Apple Store / Cube on 5th Ave (where the employees in blue shirts outnumber customers 3-to-1). It is a really cool design though - the elevator is a cylinder that runs right in the middle of the cube, and the store itself a floor below. It's open 24 hours, and provides a nice place to warm up from the chill outside, even if for a few minutes:
Later, I kept walking uptown (by now at 59th street, coming from 35th initially). I walked all the way to 72nd and cut across into Central Park. Ahhh I love Central Park - a quiet respite from the hectic energy of Manhattan. Yes, there are truly some tranquil spots there - you could still hear car horns in the background but they were distant and faded - otherwise the only thing I heard was birds chirping:
I kept heading west and eventually stopped by Strawberry Fields, cuz I really wanted to see the emblem tributing John Lennon:
I was getting hungry by this point so decided to Google for a French bakery where I could have some kind of pastry and another hot chocolate (I don't really drink coffee). Found a REALLY good place called The Magnolia Bakery over on Columbus Ave in the Upper West Side ( http://www.magnoliabakery.com/home.php ). I had a Peanut BUtter Toffee square with hot chocolate - delish!
I started to text my friend back home who used to live in the UWS to see which part was his residence. After some back and forth, I decided to walk all the way towards Colombia University and check it out (walk north on Broadway). Mind you, I was at 69th street and needed to go towards 112th. Did I take the subway or a cab? Hell no! I walked it out! Yes, 37 blocks, added to the 38 blocks I previously walked on the east side, then all the way through Central Park. This picture is representative of the scenery:
Now, 112th and Broadway has a particularly interesting landmark called Tom's Restaurant ( http://www.tomsrestaurant.net/ ). You might remember this from Seinfeld, as it was used to portray Monk's Diner, and is also the subject of the song "Tom's Restaurant" written by Suzanne vega. Remember that song??? Yeah I didn't realize this was the same place - I was charmed because I used to sing that song in my youth! Now I have reference to it! I took my own picture here (but did not eat there):
By this point my feet were KILLING me! I headed 2 blocks south to the subway, got on the 1 line and headed all the way back to my hotel, grateful for the rest. When I got back, Sean called me and we made dinner plans. I arrived in my hotel, took a quick nap, and actually overslept a little because he was waiting for me in the hotel lobby and had to call my room to wake me up (I guess my phone was on vibrate and I didn't hear it). I quickly got dressed, went down to meet him and brought him back to my room where we discussed dinner options. I told him I wanted to go to a cool Vegan or Vegetarian restaurant, since I'm in New York and they should be plentiful here!
We ended up going to the Upper East Side at a REALLY cool place called Candle 79 ( http://www.candle79.com/ ) at Lexington and 79th. Super cool place that is all Vegan - but without a reservation we had a choice of waiting 2 hours or eating at the bar. We chose the latter, which wasn't a big deal at all. We shared a Spinach Ravioli Appetizer which was really good. Then, as an entree, I had Mustard-Ginger Grilled Tempeh with a really nice sweet potatoe puree at the bottm, along with brussel sprouts, lentils, rice, and even appls and cranberries on the top. Of course I took a picture!
Sean opted for the Wild Mushroom Squash Risotto in a cashew cream:
We even opted for dessert - Chocolate Peanut Butter Bliss, which was Chocolate Mousse, Peanut Butter Mousse, a chocolate shell, peanuts on top and berry coulis:
Needless to say we were stuffed! If you click on the restaurant link and find the dinner menu, you'll see it's not cheap! But totally worth it...
Then, we decided to just walk some more! All the way back to 5th Ave, then back down to 35th, stopping at a Starbucks along the way to warm up once more (by now it's 8:30pm or so, temps are dropping quickly). We walked through the very posh Upper East Side apartments - most have doormen that dutifully guard the entrance. Lots of mercedes, towncars, limos, etc. I can only imagine how much those places go for, especially the ones that front Central Park. We figured anywhere from $5 million to $15-$20 million easily. A world that's difficult for me to imagine - honestly though, I wouldn't want it. I'd be happy with a small little place on a side street within easy walking distance of the subway - just enough to live my daily life. Don't need the flash and glamour...
So that's about it! I'm back in my hotel room now, getting ready to retire for the evening. A REALLY great day today! I'm super happy right now :-)
Oh - another thing! My good friend from my youth lives here, and she, Sean and myself are all going to have lunch tomorrow! Will be great to reconnect with her once more...
For now, Namaste and Love from the City That Never Sleeps :-)
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