Day #22- Wednesday

We got another late start on Wednesday because we worked most of the day. We left the apartment around 3, and went to the Original Patsy's in East Harlem (also known as Spanish Harlem). Whatever images come to your mind when you think of Harlem- well, that's exactly what it was like. A very rough neighborhood, with sketchy people all hanging out on the sidewalks. Apparently no one works here as they all seem to be just standing around out on the street, in the middle of the afternoon. Thankfully it was the middle of the afternoon, otherwise it would probably have not been very safe to come here. But, Scott wanted to try the Original Patsy's to compare it to all the other Patsy's. This Patsy's uses a coal fired oven, where as all the others use a wood fired oven. Also, they have different ownership, therefore having different recipes. And this one was close to where we were going, the Central Park Botanical Garden, so we were in the vicinity for trying this one out.

Every time we go to a pizza place, we always get the Margarita pizza, which is just sauce, mozzarella, and basil. I wanted to add a little something extra to this one though (I need variety!) so we added meatballs.

The meatballs turned out to be a mistake- they definitely were not that good. Neither was this Patsy's. In our list of NYC pizza places, this one came in last place for me. The crust wasn't as good, the sauce needed salt, and the neighborhood was definitely not an inviting one. Needless to say, we will NOT be coming back to the Original Patsy's.

After that disappointing experience, we walked to the Conservatory, which was about 7 blocks from Patsy's. The Conservatory is at the very top of Central Park, at 110th st. (Central Park runs from 59th st-110 st; we always go in around 59th street). The Conservatory was pretty. Here are some pictures from the day:

After the Conservatory, we walked back alongside the park. We walked past the Guggenheim museum. This is one museum we haven't been to, but it was closed.

We also walked past the Reservoir for the first time. This was a HUGE body of water in the park.

We decided to walk through the Upper West Side to go to Zabars (a local grocery store). I love walking through the Upper West Side streets. It always reminds me of one of my favorite movies, "You've Got Mail" with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. In the movie, they both live in the UWS and a lot of the movie is filmed here.

Doesn't this look like Meg Ryan's house in the movie? So cute!

We then went to Zabars and got some staples for our apartment: olives and tea.

This place is awesome. They have tons of variety of our favorite things. Look at all those olives!

All these yummy desserts! And even yummier CHEESE! Mmmmm!

Scott had an overwhelming selection of tea to choose from.

Around 10:00, we decided it was dinnertime, so we walked over to this little Mexican place Amy's friend Ernest had told us about, called Mexicana Mama. As usual, Ernest knew what he was talking about- this place was so dang good! We both got a burrito, Scott got chicken, I got shredded beef. Mmmmm......

Hot, spicy, and delicious! Another end to another long day (of walking!)