Tired from the day before we decided not to walk as much today. However, we realized that was unavoidable and so we ended up walking quite a bit that day as well. We started off with some breakfast at the place just around the corner from our hotel. It's a scruffy cafe and hygienic is a word never uttered here. Josh had a croissant and when he had eaten half of it he realized there was paper inside it, probably from the cheese that the cooks hadn't taken off before putting it in the bread. He asked for another one which was paper free. I got pancakes which tasted like flour, with a couple of melon bits on the side. The place was called Europan and it seems like a lot of places around here name their places with some kind of European name, often French, in order to make it sound special or exotic. That does happen in London too though.
After breakfast we walked down to a big jewish store called H&B that sell all kinds of technology since Josh wanted to get some bits for his camera. However, this place was hell on earth. People were running around and the system to buy something in this store included about five different steps. First you ask one of the sales people standing around in the store doing nothing or talking to their colleagues where you can find this product, they point you in the direction, yes that's it, they point, they do not show you it in person. It's as if they didn't want to help but rather have someone else in that area help you. Then if you find your product you have to go up to one of the people who stand behind a desk and some computers. These people will then find the product on the computer send the information to someone who cones running there with the product in a massive box. The clerk then gives you a receipt. This receipt you then take down to the ground floor where you stand in line to the cashier. You pay the sum on the receipt an the cashier gives you a new receipt to pick up your things in the next area where someone finds your bag and gives it to you. This procedure was tedious and even more so when you find out that you actually got the wrong product. Then you have to do the whole process all over again. Never going back there.
After this amazing experience we walked around on the west side and ended up in Times Square again. There was some kind of press conference going on with some professional boxers that I don't have a clue about, but Josh was interested so we stayed for a while. When we started walking back to the hotel we got hackled buy some guys who wanted to break into the rap industry. They gave us their CD, or forced it into our hand, said it was free, wrote our names on it, and then asked for donations. If we didn't give them anything they took the CD back. It's crazy how you work under situations like that because you feel kind of pressured into giving them money even though it is nothing you wanted to have in the first place. We ended up giving them 10 dollars and they still begged for more. It's the tipping thing all over again. I tip as much as I think you deserve. I'm not a charity for people who already have a job or is trying to become famous. I'd rather give those 10 dollars to someone who actually needed it to survive.
We left our things back at the hotel and then walked up to Central Park to see the Alice in Wonderland statue and Strawberry fields with the memorial of John Lennon who got killed in his home just on the other side of the road from there.
For dinner we had take away pizza from an italian place across the road. We sat on the sky terrace of our hotel who has amazing views. The pizza was heaven on earth.
