Saturday morning. NYC. Hostel dorm room. Emily woke up early to take a nice long run (she's a runner, even if she won't give herself that title), so I got to "sleep in". I got 5 hours of sleep, yet I was more alive than ever! Once Emily was back and we were ready for the day, we walked down the street for a bit until we found a quaint little bagel shop to eat breakfast at.
We then found a subway station to take to Times Square. The subway was a pretty good deal I thought. It was called the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority), which is what the public transportation system is called in Baltimore (Maryland Transit Administration) :) It cost $2.25 each metro ride, no matter the distance of the ride. I thought it was a way good deal. I ended up spending about $20 bucks on metro fare the entire trip.
Once we got to Times Square, it was our duty to then find Broadway tickets for the day. My roommate Megan had booked at bus ticket to NYC for the day and had planned to get tickets to a Broadway show that day as well. I thought that it would be super fun to go to a show with Megan. However, I had heard from Sam at work that student discount tickets for shows the day of on Broadway were super cheap, a lot cheaper than TKTS (which is how Megan was going to buy her tickets), even as low as around $30 or so. Which, for Broadway is unbelievable. Normal tickets for Broadway are over $100. Emily and I wanted to go the student discount route obviously to save to most money. This means that we wouldn't be able to go to the same show as Megan, and if we did, we couldn't sit by her. We can't talk during shows anyway, so we thought it would be alright. So...we started walking around Broadway and tried looking for shows that we might be interested in. The ones that I thought would be fun to see were Mama Mia, or Phantom of the Opera. They were already on discount, and we knew that we could get cheap student seats to them also. However, as we were walking around, we saw a poster for Wicked.
It has ALWAYS been my dream to see Wicked on Broadway. I'm obsessed. There are few things in life that I'm obsessed with, and I daresay that Wicked would be one of them. I'm perhaps not so vocal about, but I really am. I've read the books, and I listen to the music ALL the time. Megan didn't know about this obsession, which really surprises me. I guess I've done a good job hiding this obsession. I didn't think that seeing it on Broadway would be an option while I was there. I thought that it would be sold out for sure. And if it wasn't, it would be ridiculously overpriced. I didn't have my hopes up at all. I didn't want to have my dreams crushed.
We walked to the theater. Gershwin Theater. New York City. There was a line outside the theater. We were simply going to ask if they had student discount tickets, and that was all. The line moved fast, and we quickly got to the front. The guy told us to write down our name, and how many tickets we wanted. What?! I had no clue what he was doing. I asked. Well, it was the lottery. They do a lottery before every show for really cheap tickets. From the whole line of people, they were going to draw the name of 13 people that would get tickets for $26. $26!?! Unbelievable. And that was only 20 min away. Emily and I both wrote down that we wanted two tickets. There were probably over a hundred people in the lottery, but it was still worth a shot.
While we were waiting for the lottery to start, we walked into the box office and looked at the price of the tickets, and to see if they had a student discount. They didn't. But they did have a few tickets left for the day at regular price. $141.25. Emily and I decided that if we didn't win the lottery, we would pay full price for the tickets. This meant that I WAS GOING TO SEE WICKED ON BROADWAY!!
The lottery came. We didn't win. We ran into the box office and purchased our tickets. You would think that size of a purchase would make me feel sick inside. But it didn't. It was the best purchase of my life. I can't believe that I didn't do it years ago. Perhaps I wouldn't have appreciated it as much. I held my ticket as if it was gold.
We then had a couple hours before the show started. I called Megan to see where she was at, and then we met up with her. We walked around Times Square for just a little bit, and it was so much fun to see it during the day after having seen it the night before. There are lots of people dressed up that you can get photos with. There was one that I thought was super cool, so I put a buck in his bucket and got a photo with him.
Then we all went to Toys R Us. It has four stories, and it's seriously like a little kid's dream world! It's not like a typical store at all. There is a ferris wheel right in the middle of the store. Of course, we rode it. We got the car that looked like a Barbie car, but each car was unique.
The ferris wheel in Toys R Us
All of us in our Barbie Car
Emily
Megan
There were different parts of the store too. We didn't have much time to look around, so we decided to check out Candy Land. So awesome! The store seriously had everything you could dream of there, and more!
Me and Megan in Candyland!
Emily and I hadn't had lunch yet. We picked up something from a street vendor. It wasn't half bad. The street vendors in NYC are fairly nice actually. Nothing at all like vendors in Bmore.
It was then time for WICKED!! We had 10 min before the show started and we were a few blocks from the theater. We got there as quickly as we could.
I walked in the theater. A guy was selling CDs, and programs. They give playbills to everyone, but the programs they were selling were fancy books with lots of pics and stuff. $20 bucks each. I, of course, bought one. He was happy because I was probably the easiest customer of the entire day. I was beaming just looking at the thing. Then we got our tickets scanned, and we walked up the stairs to go to where we could enter the actual room where the seats were.
It was soo beautiful. Grand staircases almost. And everything was decorated for Wicked! We didn't have much time to look around because we had to hurry to our seats. Speaking of our seats...our seats were INCREDIBLE. Since we bought the tickets the day of, we just got the only seats they had left. Well, apparently the cheapest tickets sell out first. So, we got the most expensive seats, which are also the BEST seats. Ground level. Row M. Whatever row that equals. Center section. They were seriously ideal. The lights dimmed within three minutes of us getting there, and the show started. I started tearing up during the first song because it was so AMAZING. I couldn't believe that I was there!! It was the best day of my life!!! I had a fraction of a doubt about the actors, because they weren't the same as the original Broadway cast that I'm used to listening to, but the actors were just as good, or even better. Their voices were absolutely stunning. I sat on the edge of my seat the entire show. Everything about the show was incredible. It feels like a dream looking back on it, even. And that's because it was...a dream come true :)
Inside the theater after the show. This is where our seats were at!
When we left, I was in a state of euphoria. Emily probably could have gotten me to do anything in the world at that point, because I was the happiest person alive. And I suppose that's what she did ;) Although, what she chose to do next, I would have loved doing regardless. She wanted to go out to Coney Island to the Aquarium and see a Walrus. Emily's favorite animal is a walrus, and there is a walrus at the NY aquarium. Everytime Emily has tried to go to the aquarium, she hasn't been able to get in. She had a complimentary pass. Because Wicked got out so late in the afternoon, we had to rush to the aquarium, because the last person of the day is admitted to the aquarium at 6:15 (they close at 7). It was an hour long metro ride to Coney Island. We got off of the metro at 6:10. We had to run to the aquarium. Well, speedily walk anyway. When we got there, the guard dude was very rude and said "sorry, we're closed" or something like that. All Emily wanted to do was see the walrus! She only had one complimentary pass anyway, so my plan was to just wait for her outside anyway. I didn't want to pay full admission for half an hour at the aquarium. So she told the guard that she had the pass and all she wanted to do was to see the walrus. The guard was then, suddenly nice. He took her to the ticket counter and they decided to still let her in, even though it was 6:20. They asked if she was here with anyone, and she said yes, and (get this) they let me in FOR FREE too!!
Emily ran straight to the walrus. She looked so happy to see it! She claims that that was the best day of her life because she got to see the walrus. I claim it was the best day of my life because I saw Wicked. I guess those are both justifiable reasons to have great days :)
Emily was so excited to see the Walrus!
At the aquarium with the walrum
We looked around the aquarium a bit more, but there wasn't too much to see, plus we didn't have too much time. It was great considering that I got in for free, but I'm so glad that I didn't have to pay full price to get in!
We then left, and it was right as a storm was rolling through. But, we were at Coney Island! We had to walk the beach! We didn't quite walk the beach, just the boardwalk, but still. It was fun to be there! Just stormy. We even got a funnel cake there! I could have gotten a legendary Coney dog. But I don't really like hot dogs. Plus, we had a way better dinner planned.
Coney Island!
Funnel Cake from Coney Island
We got on the metro back towards Brooklyn.
This is my favorite picture!!! Here's why: 1) the dude in the background. 2) we're taking the number 3! the number 3 has GREAT significance to me and Emily. ask me about the #3 route sometime if you don't know the story... 3) The #3 goes to Harlem. 4) It's in a subway. yet, there's no one else but me and the man in the pic. I just love it! hahaha. It reminds me of good ol' Bmore :)
We got off near the Brooklyn Bridge. We got off in a neighborhood area and walked towards the water. When we got to where we could see Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge...it was really just an unbelievable sight! It was so beautiful!! The city lit up at night was amazing, and the Brooklyn Bridge was so great too. Here are some pics. But they, again, only do a small fraction of justice.
You can see the Statue of Liberty...it's small, but this pic is for you mom :)
The Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge again
The restaurant that we had planned for dinner was under the Brooklyn Bridge. It's called Grimaldi's Pizza, and Jun (from work) actually recommended it to me. We got there, at about a quarter to nine, and there was a line outside just to get in. I asked the people in the front of the line how long they had been waiting and they said about an hour and half. Everyone said it was totally worth it though. So we waited. We waited just over an hour until we got in. It was so crowded inside! The place was small, too. But it was kind of cute. We ordered a small pizza, with roasted red peppers and mushrooms on it. It came with basil and fresh mozarella on it also. Let me tell you...it was the best pizza I have EVER had. SOO good. Emily and I ate the whole entire thing it was THAT good!!
We then got to walk the Brooklyn Bridge! Again, an AWESOME experience. It's maybe like a mile and a half? walk across the bridge. From the bridge we could see the Statue of Liberty. It was super small, but we still still see it none the less. It was mostly just really cool to see the whole city of New York. The pedestrian walkway is just slightly above the traffic. We were walking this at about 11:30 at night. It was cool to see all of the city lights. The last part of the walk, it starting raining again. At that point, we were so tired and just wanted to get back to the hostel. We got the a metro station as quickly as possible, and made it back to our hostel.
It was SUCH a great day! Like I said the best day of my life :)
Tune in later to hear what adventures Sunday in NYC brought!
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