The sweetest thing

I seriously don't know why they call it the Big Apple... New York doesn't "taste" like apples at all, it tastes like sweets! If you don't believe me keep scrolling; you don't imagine the quantity and variety of sweets' shops & bakeries this city has. Not to mention the Starbucks (that you can find every step you take, and I'm not kidding, every new step there's one) and Dunkin Donuts, both also packed with amazing pasteries and hands full of other yammy things. And... I had them all!!! From the Bomboloni donut (187 Columbus Ave. - between 68th and 69th - and apparently one of the best in town) to the Banana Pudding from Magnolia Bakery, and with two-just-to-know-what-they-are fried Oreos in the between, as said before: I had it all!!! And surprisingly haven't gained a kg. Not one!!! But on the other hand I have been dealing with this annoying tooth ache that until today, when I started putting together all my "sweetest" pictures, didn't realize where might have came from...

 Baked by Melissa is all over town and has some amazing mini-cupckaes.

Amazing!!! 

 The orange ones are from carrot and are the best, but all and all they were delicious and because they're so little you can taste several and get the "big picture". 

In the m&m megastore in Times Square you can buy the colorful chocolates directly from the source. 

And in the US they not only have a lot of different colors, they also have different stuffing and flavors.  

In this store there's also a m&m color scan that tells you which is your m&m color, according to your personality and profile... Mine turned out to be GOLD!!!

 Eleni's is a bakery inside the Chelsea Market that, as you can see, is all set and ready for Halloween. 

And although the cupcakes are also very good in here it is best known for it's cookies. This NYC box is just and example of what they can create. The fashion (with stilettos, shades, a little and very cute purse and a lipstick) and the typical girly (with nail polish, a brush, a hair dryer, a mascara and two different sets of eye shadows) are the ones that made this place famous.

 The ceiling from Dylan's Candy Bar (the sweets' shop from Ralph Lauren's daughter) resembles the lollipops with which this store is stuffed...

 Like this one!

 In here you also can buy personalized chocolate bars. Of course I couldn't find my name!!!

And non-personalized ones... 

 And more candy!!!

 And letters made out of jelly!

Chupa-chups directly from Barcelona to NYC! 

Typical american jelly beans with a lot of different tastes... some very unexpected and not so pleasant.
But I love them anyway! 

Of course the stairs had also to be stuffed with sweets!

I hope that after this post your sugar levels didn't spike... And that you can take just a little bit more of sweetness. Friends at the other side of the world, have a sweet sweet monday! Love you all!!!

The 101st floor

The Empire State Building was the first thing I saw in New York City, a week ago when I arrived (after The Times Square Museum & Visitor Center, where i went to pick a map from the city - actually several maps because I keep spoiling them with so much usage). It was actually the best I've done, because it was a lovely warm and sunny day - the best so far - and I was able to see a lot from up there. Also, because it was a perfect way to start interpreting the map I had in my hands. Meaning, that was a perfect opportunity to "organize" the things from and in the city. Before I came I did a list of 70 things I wanted to see, do, buy, etc. but, even knowing the names and number of the streets where all my 70 wanna-does are, if I haven't gone up there it would have taken me ages figuring out where all of them actually ARE in the city. From the 101st floor of the Empire State Building, with Manhattan under my feet, I started knowing the city a little bit better. Now, one week later, I already know pretty well my ways: but I will never forget that first impression. 

Let me tell you a quick story that illustrates my feelings even better. Have you ever seen the movie L'Auberge Espagnole? The scene when Xavier comes out of the tube in Plaza de Urquinaona in Barcelona is very dear to me, because I remember having that exact some feeling when I came out of that same exit in my first visit to Barcelona (in 2006 - one year before I moved there and far from imagining that I would live in that city for almost 5 years). But, as a matter of fact, I have that feeling all the time when I travel, when I see a city for the first time. Nevertheless, in the movie, after a while you see Xavier passing by that same square moving quickly, confidently and being perfectly sure of his ways. The same happens to me as well... to all of us. After a while in a city the place where we "landed", that square, is not frightening anymore, it is just another square. But still, there is always something special about that place, something that never quite takes the first impression way, never quite erases that first feeling from our hearts. To me, the first place I ever visited in New York (no matter how many times I will come here, no matter if one day I even move here) will always be the 101st floor of the Empire State Building.

Just a regular sidewalk

Yesterday, after the High Line experience I went to look for a Gemeos graffiti in 25th St. Although I wasn't far (the High Line starts on the 11th Ave. with 30th St. and finishes at the 10th Ave. with 12th lower St.), it took me a long time to arrive there because on my way there I stopped every second to photograph these beautiful entrances. They're all in the same sidewalk, a regular sidewalk from NYC, and absolutely breathtaking with their simplicity and unique characteristics. 

Those of my readers that are really my friends - I mean, that actually know me - know that very often, when a see a building (if I wasn't a journalist I would have been an architect, because I love love love buildings) that has something special, I use the following sentence: I would be happy in here. In this case nothing I could say will describe these pictures better... I would be happy in here!

(Well, of course this doesn't "fit" the Fire Station picture but do you see how lovely it looks, painted in red, with the US flag hanged above the gate and those typical fire escape stairs?! I couldn't not put it in here, since it made the whole sidewalk even more special...)

High Line highlights

After a week in NYC I've finally found the time to update the blog. Today, I also had the opportunity to visit the High Line Garden, a former railway turned into a garden with hundreds of botanic species and lots of different and interesting spots to rest (some of them, like the wooden chaise-longues, perfectly integrated in the "landscape"), so here are the highlights of today's touristic walk. Although the weather could have worked as a major turn-off I really loved this place, especially the way it interacts with some of the things from the city, like graffitis or art installations... even with traffic (there's a point where it has glass amphitheatre over the 10th Ave. and all it's busyness).

And now... a taste of Portugal!

Just one hour drive away from Lisbon, your find these rocks. They’re called “Boca do Inferno” because on the days the Atlantic is “angry” the sound of the sea heating the rocks is so laud and frightening that people associate it with the way they imagine the entrance of hell might look and sound like. The day this picture was taken it couldn’t be calmer!

A bit more north is Cabo da Roca, the most occidental cape of Europe. 

Sintra is, perhaps, the most charming village in the whole country. No wonder kings and queens, painters and writers choose to live here. 

Sintra is also known for it’s micro-weather, but this time around we were super lucky and it was sunny and flowery. 

The village centre palace… amazing with it’s chimneys. 

The surfers in Praia Grande.

And the skimboarders…

This is a sport that I will surely learn next time I will be in Portugal for an OK amount of time. Love it! Looks easy, fun and wet (I love to be in the water, when I was little I used to spend so much time in the water that after a while my fingertips became wrinkled)... 

Getting ready for the best sunset of Summer. Great company, music, drinks and that sun going down that I will never forget, no matter how many years I spend abroad, no matter how many sunsets I will see: in London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, New York… even in Ibiza. Nothing is compared to that. The sunset that marked every end of summer day since my childhood. (When I was little, from the balcony of my father parent’s house you could see these same sunsets, every afternoon. While the sun was going down my mum used to call me and send me to shower and for me not to take a lot showering she used to say “let’s see who showers first, you or the sun!” Because of this, since my childhood, every time the sun sets in the sea I think “now it will shower!”)

Didn’t I say so?! Better, much much better than Ibiza!