We took the subway to Grand Central Terminal and walked around a bit. When we passed the tiny cupcake store we bought 6 more cupcakes and we bought a small bag of chocolates when we passed Neuhaus, a Belgian chocolate store! Then we went to Tim Hortons where we bought our breakfast. Lunch. We entered Grand Central Terminal, passed by the Apple store (that was located on a balcony in the station) and ate our maple syrup donuts at a public dining place inside the building. After our delicious donuts (much better than Dunkin Donuts) we took the Subway up North.
Our donuts.
Sonaj really wanted to have ice cream at a place called Serendipity 3. When we walked in for a reservation it turned out that it was not just an ice cream place, but a complete restaurant! We had to wait a while before we could get a seat so we walked around in the neighbourhood for a bit. There was a candy shop on the corner named Dylan's Candy Bar. It's apparently famous because there were a lot of tourists in there. We decided to come back later to buy some gifts for our family and friends. We walked out and rested a bit on some benches that were placed outside.
When there were seats available in the restaurant we returned. We ordered food. A lot of food. Sonaj had an omelette with caviar and a chicken hot pie and I had an avocado stuffed with shrimps. It was really good. For dessert Sonaj ordered their famous frozen hot chocolate. He really liked it.
Our food.
The frozen hot chocolate.
We returned to the candy store, bought some stuff and returned to our hotel to drop off our purchases. Then we walked to the Empire State building. That's right. Walked. We actually didn't take the subway for once. Thing is, when you walk you see stores you want to visit. We visited a comic store and I finally found a good Iron Man action figure! Sonaj bought it for me. Then we went to a souvenir shop and bought some T-shirts and such as gifts.
Empire State building from a distance.
The queues inside the Empire State building weren't that long but we still had to pass some security and buy our tickets. It was really expensive, $25 per person. Then we had to wait for an elevator to go to the 80th floor. There we ran into a longer queue but you could also take the stairs so I convinced Sonaj to take the stairs. We had to climb up 6 floors to reach the observatory deck. It was kind of windy and rainy outside but we were really excited about the view so we didn't really care. The view was really nice, for the full 5 minutes we had the chance to look around at least. The security came and told everyone to go inside. There was lighting approaching.
Entrance hall of the Empire State building.
Some views.
The top of the Empire State building.
As soon as we got inside a lot of fog (clouds) showed up. We couldn't see anything anymore. Sonaj asked the security when we could go back outside again and they said they would decide in 30mins if it was safe enough. I was tired but Sonaj really wanted to see more so we waited half an hour. It started to rain really badly and the clouds were swirling around the tower. It was really cool to see. There was thunder 2 or 3 times. Meanwhile a lot of people left so it became easier to walk around. The Sonaj saw two buff gay guys making out and he really wanted to take sneaky pictures of them. Maybe he likes that kind of stuff after all. I keep my hopes up!
After half an hour we could go outside again. It was still raining and there was a lot of wind (I could almost lean against it) but it made me really happy after so many warm days. It was the first time I actually felt cold in New York but I didn't mind at all. Rain is awesome!
The view.
Back outside.
The top of the tower.
Inside the building.
The fog didn't seem to clear up so we went back inside and took the elevator to the ground floor. We left the Empire State building and bought a corn dog. It was ok but I didn't like it much. I'm glad I got to try one though. When we got back to our hotel we ate a small piece of the cake Sonaj bought at Serendipity 3 and we tried one of our cupcakes and chocolates.
Rainy New York.
Corn dog.
Cupcakes.
Chocolate cake.
Read more about our trip in the following posts!
Introduction (+ Hotel pictures)
Days 1-2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Our week
