the day was spent finishing off the final things we wanted to do and see in manhattan. we began the day back at b&h, returning something that i had bought previously and was dissatisfied with. the people were super friendly and with no questions asked returned my product and wished me a lovely day. seamless and streamline- proving once again why americas retail remains impeccable regardless of their financial climate.
it was looking to be a particularly hot day, with a heat wave currently descending on north america. from b&h we headed for chelsea, having been told that it was particularly hip to the hop. being awfully hip to the hop ourselves- we decided it was probably a perfect location for us! we found chelsea market- a place that originally housed the oreo factory. mmmmmm oreos... they had an amazing array of foods on offer- with fresh produce as well as ready to eat noms. we walked a little further through the market to discover a pop up store. these are a myriad of stores by designers and artists- selling everything from jewelery and wallets to photographs and clothing.
suitably well fed and happy with our pop up shop purchases- we left the cool oasis of the market and ventured out into what was now searing heat. we headed for the chelsea skyline- it is elevated and runs along the lower west side of manhattan. formerly a central railroad- it has been re-designed and planted as an aerial greenway. despite it being so hot i could hardly put one leg in front of another or stand up- it was a beautiful and very unusual sight. being amongst the buildings with plants and flowers was pretty lovely- and being elevated may have provided about half a degree of cooling relief.
a fantastic lomography store.
descending from the skyline we headed for 25th street to run an errand for dad- picking up some catalogs from an auction house. what a super sophisticated thing to do!! i waited outside, holding our cheap and inferior slurpees from 7/11 whilst mum went inside. she returned after what felt like an eternity- explaining that she had to go to the sixth floor. from there, she was asked to pick from a wall of hundreds of different catalogues. umm, we were just hoping for the catalogue catalogue i guess? such peasants we are...
sauntering around the depths of mordor, we escaped to central park for what was minimal heat relief. we spent the late afternoon lying in the park before heading to a deli for dinner. after eating a salad the size of my head, we headed home to finally have a cold shower and bathe in the air conditioning.
whilst mum slept, i ventured out for the night to times square with a couple of friends from uni. after getting ready at their hotel - the night was spent photo-bombing tourists and watching ourselves dancing on the big screen in the middle of the square. we got giant 'small' icecreams from coldstone creamery, and then i headed home around 3am. a fantastic last day in manhattan.
