It was time to go through 21st Century for further bargains. In was not so crowded as last time when we arrived at eight, eight-thirty. As time passed others started to pour in however and around ten the density approached usual christmas standards.

One may think that a humongous discount store like this would have plenty of restrooms, this is however not the case. First of all the building reminds me of Excet in Gothenburg or the labyrinth in some old greek tale with mezzanines, weird misplaced elevators and stairs spanning between the main building and “the other” part. After maybe twenty minutes of directions by a handful employees we found the holy restroom, only to find that it was closed. Closed as in not open, this was bordering to illegally evil in my not so humble opinion, the restroom opened after some ten minutes though. After the marathon-shopping we were off to have a nice lunch, noodles of course. It was decided a draw since both got really nice noodles.

Next stop was Uniqlo, the Japanese version of H&M which we’d spotted the day before and had some promising items. I fell in love with an awesome blue jacket and Mirsada marveled at all the “heat”-fabric clothes, some ultra soft and moisture and heat removing fabric, which was a perfect match for her skin. The combination of rather nice prices and japanese design and materials was unhealthy temptation for our credit cards.

While shopping away the laws of probabilities interrupted and who did we spot in the store if not a client from work that we both had met many times. After a quick chat we continued our shopping, we had only been in the fitting rooms twice so far, there was much more to try out.

I also bought two pair of jeans, and lazy as I am I only measured one of them for alterations and asked the clerk to use the same distance on the other pair as well. Finally it was time to suffer for our sins and we paid. The lovely lady who accepted my credit card however said a total price some hundred dollars or more less than I’d expected, strange. While checking the receipt I first saw that the jeans were not only of different color but also different models, this made me a bit curious if the measure-one-pair-only trick was so wise after all. Also I got several of the clothes for prices way lower than on the price tags, but who was I to complain over these things – perhaps there was some hidden sale?

Done with Uniqlo shopping we headed off to ground zero, the former world trade center twin towers. It looked like a big construction site, it was however a bit eerie to see the other high-raisers just across the streets, I guess people there were a bit scared at the time since we aren’t talking about any distances here.After all the shopping it was time to pay J&R another visit and this time walk out with a Canon 50mm 1.4 USM lens. It was then back to dump our wares at YMCA and we decided that we would pay the movies a visit this night. We went to the nearest cinema and bought Imax tickets for Desert Eagle after a quick decision and had some dinner at the restaurant across the street. Japanese off course. I was here however beaten in the choice since Mirsada’s fried tofu outmatched my soup without further ado. The movie was the worst crap I’ve seen in a long time, and the fancy Imax screen and sound could not change that. After a long day we were off to bed, but not before verifying that both pair of jeans fit well despite the lazy alteration.

The biggest difference between discount stores and regular ones are not the mentally challenged personnel, the lack of an organized structure or scarce good looking items of right size, it’s the music. In every store that has decent clothes or wares of any kind I will assure you that the music will be nice, it may be house, jazz, soul or pop but it’s something good. In discount stores you’d be happy for hearing “Best of Lionel Richie”. Despicable.

It was interesting to see that among the popular brands in the posh stores were often Swedish or at least Scandinavian ones. Ranging from Acne and Nudie to Lelo or jewelry by Efva Attling. A slight difference is that a pair of Acne jeans usually goes for about half the price in Sweden than here.

SoHo is visually very pleasant and has a certain atmosphere, the breakfast we had in a sunny backyard was simply awesome. I was considered to be the winner by 3-0 in score for my breakfast selection. The chai latte won over Mirsada’s latte, my awesome bacon, pear and cheddar sandwich whopped Mirada’s ham&cheese and her sour apple was no match for my delicious banana. She learned her lesson and later copied my order for lunch when we both had a nice spicy spaghetti with shrimps.

The Apple store in Soho wasn’t as spectacular as the one in Ginza, Tokyo, but sure was overly crowded by presumptive customers. After checking out iPods and the price for a new macbook battery we left. In general it seems far more common with iPhones or Macbooks here than in Gothenburg, I’d say that on cafés or restaurants it’s more than two thirds Apple.

After numerous stores we headed off to J&R to pick up my lens and flash and Mirsada’s Tivoli and were greeted by that none of the sought for devices were in stock. Now it didn’t appear such a good idea to consider the purchase over night, but I’m not bitter. At least the lens would be in by tomorrow but for the flash it seems I’ll have to pay the jewish B&H store which opens on Thursday after some religious holiday called succot.

It was the day of the lord and Harlem religious followers was on the list to be inspected. We started the day with some american breakfast with extra bacon, this would be a long week of healthy food if following the local food traditions and then headed north.

Harlem was more or less deserted though, and damn cold on top of that. After some time we found a church, or actually a church with a ridiculous queue. It turned out we were not the only tourists who had thought some Sunday gospel was good and free entertainment. Unless a miracle occurred (pun intended) we and the last 100 of the queue would not get in for this sermon. Instead we strolled over to the less fashionable but still holy church by the prestigious name African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

To our demise the ratio between tourists and old religious ladies were not to the ladies advance. Even if one added the quire it wouldn’t be a fair fight. Mirsada with limited church experience thought there would be a song and we could leave, yours truly sniggered when she looked tormented and the clock slowly slowly made it’s second round as the priest preached something about the jesus marathon. Nice experience but perhaps not something we’d repeat.

Some strolling in Harlem, where each block has a church and each corner a pub gave us opportunity to get yelled at by a old colored lady. It’s not often you are entitled to hear phrases like “Get those niggas out of here” directed to you. We took it as a compliment and had lunch at Jimbo’s hamburger palace. A place with that name simply can’t be resisted. More strolling took us to a lovely park and after realizing we had ended up in upper east we head off to 21st Century in search for some bargains.

Numerous considerations and a green wesc parka later there was time for some window shopping at J&R. A lens and a flash looked abandoned and begged for a new family but instead of shopping on impulse I decided to sleep on it.