The Pond at Bryant Park (42nd and 6th) offers a free ice rink along with free lockers (you provide the lock) all winter long. I love it. I can't stop going. There is something about skating outdoors among giant buildings to Christmas Music that is so appealing to me. When I heard the rink was literally 2 blocks away from my work, I went to Modells and bought some skates. I figured if I went three times I would pay off the skates compared to rentals. It's December 8th, and I've already paid them off more than twice.
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| Welcome to The Pond |
Mind you, I'm not the greatest skater known to man, and there are plenty of people who go to this rink just to show off to their friends and girls, but I've gotten much better than I was in early November. I can now skate with a crossover on the curves, and I've been working on turning around and going backwards. That normally results in me landing on my ass, but whatever. By the end of winter I really hope to be able to go from a forward skate motion to a backwards one without stopping. Just keep falling and learning, which is why gloves are the most important piece of clothing to wear throughout this activity. It was a pretty cool experience to skate with KJ and my Mom when they visited in early November in just a sweatshirt in the 50 degree weather. Very odd. Now a coat and scarf are pretty important.
Tonight I actually got tackled by a girl as she was falling. Instead of grabbing for the wall right next to her, she decided to go for me instead. I felt like a 6th grade running back, it was poor form, but she still made me fall down.
Ice Skating in other places around the city is pretty ridiculous. I really want to skate at Rockefeller before I leave, but its 20 bucks even if you have your own skates. I get that its an experience I'm paying for, but thats steep. Luckily the ice is never that crowded because of the prices. Central Park operates an ice rink owned by Donald Trump. It's price isn't too crazy, near the 10 dollar range for a bigger rink than both Rockefeller and The Pond. While the rink at Rockefeller may seem big on TV, its actually very tiny. It's also crawling with tourists because of the Tree, which is quite lovely. The Pond is full of locals (probably because its free) but also can get really crowded on the weekends and right around 7PM.
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| Completely unrelated, here is the tree at Rockefeller Center. |
It's just nice to do a little skating after a long day at work. I really can't jog where I live (especially at night) but ice skating provides a bit of exercise and the freedom to skate as fast as you can. The city can get cramped sometimes (especially in Times Square) but the Pond lets us break free from the city for awhile. Fact is, after an hour of ice skating, I'm a little sweaty, my face is red because of the cold, and I feel fantastic. I have been fortunate enough to go with friends most of the time this year, but even if I'm stopping in by myself after work for an hour of skating before closing I still leave feeling marvelous. It's a stress relief, gives me something to look forward to after work. I love it. I wanna go atleast 10 more times before it closes in late February, right before I leave the city for my next destination.
I apologize for the lack of posts lately. Work has left me with little free time, but I promise that I have a few ideas for posts pretty soon here. Just know that if you are reading this I am most likely missing you very much right now, and definitely will during the holidays that are quickly approaching. Not being home for Xmas will be tough. I'll just have to ice skate instead.
1 comment:
Every time you tweet that you're skating at Bryant Park I remember the amazing time I had skating there with you. In fact, I think I'm going to have to buy some skates and hit the rink here in EC!
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