New York

Monday 18^th March

It's not every day that you turn 30 and what better way to celebrate than going to New York! We made our way to Heathrow full of excitement; we had been waiting for this trip for ages. Hamish made the quickest purchase decision I have ever seen and bought his flash watch (courtesy of the Bennie's) and we were off.

We landed in a grey overcast JFK airport and made our way to Brooklyn (not the cool part as we were to find out but the ghetto part) to our "hotel". It took ages to find and when we got there we were not pleasantly surprised. It was meant to be a self-service apartment but it was a bedroom and a kitchen with no cooking utensils! And it was super noisy. But anyway we ventured out to this American BBQ place that Lou had read about using the subway for the first time. Incredibly straight forward system and the tubes are so big so you can fit way more people on them.

We got the fright of our lives when we got out of the subway and there was a huge snowstorm going on! We battled through the snow to this place called Fette Sau and got amongst the best brisket, pulled pork and craft beer served in jam jars. It was an amazing introduction to American food and a great place to celebrate Hamish's birthday.

Highlight: Fette Sau!!! And the snow! And Hamish is 30!

Lowlight: Our hotel was dumb

Interesting Fact: Brooklyn was an independent city until1898 and is now home till 2.5million people.

Tuesday 19^th  March

We headed to downtown again using the subway, although it was freezing cold and raining so we tried to do the inside activities. We found Grand Central station which was beautiful, so weird seeing places in real life that you have seen so many times in movies. It was built in 1913 and is so busy!

We also saw the Chrysler building and wandered down Madison Ave and 5^th Ave to get our bearings. We took some shelter in the New York Central library, and then found the Flatiron building that they always showed in Friends.

We had lunch at Katz's deli, which is famous for that scene in Harry met Sally. It was a bizarre place with photos of famous people with Katz himself everywhere. We had matzo ball soup (which is a Jewish chicken soup with a massive dumping) and pastrami on rye sandwich with a giant pickle. Hamish was in love. 

We walked the Highline, which is a 1-mile linear park built on a 1.45-mile section of the elevated former New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway. Its so cool, loads of graffiti and outdoor sculptures.

That night Lou had organized tickets to the New York Rangers vs. New Jersey Devils ice hockey game at the "Devils Den" in New Jersey. We were really amped having never been to an ice hockey game before. The Americans take sport to a new level in terms of the entertainment available. It was a long long game though for Lou but she was happy with the hot dogs and popcorn.

Highlight: Hamish would say the ice hockey and sitting in the middle of a derby game listening to the chants…Lou would say the Highline

Lowlight: New Jersey is quite far away from Brooklyn when its late and you are jet lagged.

Interesting Fact: Ice hockey has 3 “quarters” which last 20 minutes.. without stoppages.

Wednesday 20^th March

We finally awoke to some sunshine so we decided to walk the Brooklyn Bridge to get some views of the city. Even though they were doing some construction on it, it was still awesome and a great way to see how big New York is.

We found City Hall and also St. Pauls church that is actually the church that backs onto the site where the twin towers once stood. Because of the location it turned into a refuge for the firefighters, policemen, and emergency support workers who were working to get people out of the rubble in the days after the destruction. It was really emotional and quite confronting; we both didn't really expect to be affected by it so I guess it was surprise more than anything.

We had a bit of a rolling lunch; first up we found our way into Chinatown where we sampled some dumplings at Shanghai Joe's. Amazing food and very authentic.  Next up was a slice of pizza in Greenwich, just like in the movies….

Central park was our destination, again so weird seeing a place you are used to seeing in movies. Because it was the end of winter there wasn't much to see in terms of trees and flowers etc. but it was a beautiful park and New Yorkers seem to make good use of it too.  There were some lovely little spots including the Alice in Wonderland statue that was made for the children of New York who lost parents in the Twin towers disaster, and the rose garden that was planted for John Lennon by Yoko Ono.

Lou had booked tickets for the NBA; we were so excited to be going to Madison Square Gardens. It was such a cool venue right in the middle of the city. Lou got the biggest bucket of popcorn ever seen and was tempted by the candy floss and Crrrracker Jacks but resisted…the game was between the New York Knicks and the Orlando Magic. We didn't see any famous people but it was still amazing. And the game was short and sweet too! 

Highlight: Brooklyn bridge was a great free attraction

Lowlight: We underestimated how big everything was, blisters galore!

Interesting Fact: Central Park was opened in 1857 and is 840 acres big,

Thursday 21^st March

Another day, another list of things to see in the Big Apple. We headed back downtown to see Wall Street and the famous charging bull statue along with about 500 other people. 

We also saw the New York Stock exchange building, before getting in the security line for the World Trade Centre memorial. This was a very strange experience, as you essentially were queuing up to see an empty space where these buildings were, like it was theme park. There isn't much there obviously, apart from this water feature where all the names of the people that died etched onto the stone around it. And in classic American style you have to exit through a gift shop which sold some of the worst tat we had ever seen. It wasn't emotional and I think if you wanted to get a true sense of what happened, going to St. Paul's church was much better.

Battery Park is where the tours for the Statue of Liberty go from but we were really disappointed that due to Hurricane Sandy, you couldn't visit the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island so instead we took advantage of the free ferry from downtown to Staten Island which gives you great views of the Statue. Always up for an experience, we thought we might hop off the boat on Staten Island and have a look round (most people just stay on the boat to go back to New York). We realized after about 10 minutes why most people go back….not much to see but suburbia! 

We plodded up to see Times Square, which is such an assault on the senses. Noise, lights, people, everywhere! It was quite cool just to stop and look, but then you got grumpy people pushing you out of the way.

We then treated ourselves to a Magnolia bakery cupcake. This wee shop was made famous in Sex and the City and the line around the block was worth it. Hummingbird bakery doesn't even come close…

We were shattered after 3 late nights out, so we went for an early dinner at famous Asian fusion restaurant Momofuku for some delicious noodle soup.

Highlight: Times square was something else!

Lowlight: Stupid Hurricane Sandy

Interesting Fact: The Statue of Liberty was only open for one day after years of restorations before Hurricane Sandy hit.

Friday 22^nd March

We got up especially early to get the subway to the lower east side which is where the famous Clinton Street Bakery is. Renown for the most amazing pancakes in New York City. We arrived 30 minutes before they even opened and there was already a line round the building. But it was worth it! Lou had banana walnut and Hamish had blueberry (with a side of bacon of course!) and we were in pancake heaven.

Still massively bloated we waddled to the Empire State Building as the sun was shining and we were waiting for a good view. It is super cool up there, the views were incredible and they do the whole tourist experience thing really well. But man it was cold!

Next up on Lou's foodie tour was the Corner Bistro, an old man's type bar that only did burgers and fries and beer. But man they did it well.

Next we went and did some window shopping in FAO Schwarz which is one of the world's most famous toy stores. It was epic, any toy you can imagine you could get, and it's also home to the floor piano and the Zoltar fortune teller from the movie Big. 

We then trekked through the park to the Museum of Modern Art, but after seeing the entrance fee and not really being in the mood for interpreting modern art, we were content to browse the gift shop.

We were craving more BBQ, but the only place around the Rockefeller was this massive chain called Virgil's. We went the whole hog (literally) and feasted on burnt ends, collard greens and baked beans, followed by peanut butter cheesecake….Americans have the most amazing ability to make everything available in peanut butter flavor. Much to Lou's delight. 

We wanted to see the New York skyline at night so we chose the Rockefeller Centre as the way to do it.  It was so pretty! Although Lou succumbed to the cold and watched Hamish take photos through the glass wall. We caught the subway from Times Square and got to experience Times Square at night, just craziness. 

Highlight: Today was definitely a good eating day

Lowlight: We wanted to buy all the toys but no one to buy them for L

Interesting Fact: You have to line up and pay to go on the floor piano….not cool

Saturday 23rd March

We had heard that Brooklyn was a great place to browse the flea markets so we took the short subway ride to Williamsburg. This is a really funky part of New York, loads of vintage shops and cafes. We trawled the bins and Lou picked up an old Fleetwood Mac vinyl record for 10 bucks! Bargain.

We also went down to the harbor to check it out, unfortunately even though it was the banks of the Hudson, they hadn't really developed much of the area.

We had a drink in a cool bar, followed by some amazing pizza….safe to say we were enjoying American food and drink…

Highlight: Brooklyn was a really cool wee area, definitely somewhere we want to live.

Lowlight: The weather….it was a bit rubbish again.

Interesting Fact: Fleetwood Mac is the greatest band of all time….fact (in Lou’s opinion).

Sunday 24th March

Sylvia's in Harlem was our breakfast stop today. This famous restaurant boasts Obama as a fan and is in the heart of Harlem. Which was a weird experience in itself? Being blonde and white, Lou got a lot of weird looks but Grand master pimp Hamish was there for protection. It reminded Lou of being in the middle of the Grand Bazaar in Marrakesh!

This place is known for its soul food and we got in the action. Fried chicken and waffles with maple syrup. Don't knock it till you try it! Because we were in the neighborhood we travelled to Queens to see Yankee Stadium which was cool although we couldn't go in.

We also stopped by the Museum of New York which had lots of interesting exhibitions, but most memorable was how small apartments are and how furniture can be made teeny tiny.

Lou wanted to experience some culture, and we found that the prices of the Broadway shows were so much more expensive than London so we thought we would give a Jazz show a go. New York is famous for its jazz clubs and one of the most famous is called Birdland, off one of the back streets by Times Square. It was opened in 1949 and since then has seen the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and many others.  We really enjoyed the show; the singer was just really really talented.

 After the show we ended up in one of our favourite celebrity chefs Guy Fiorelli's restaurants for desert, yep more peanut butter.

Highlight: The Jazz club, very unexpected but great

Lowlight: More walking…

Interesting Fact: Why chicken and waffles? One such theory is that waffles entered American cuisine in the 1790s after Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of a waffle iron from France. Recipes for waffles and chicken soon appeared in cookbooks. Because African Americans in the South rarely had the opportunity to eat chicken and were more familiar with flapjacks or pancakes than with waffles, they considered the dish a delicacy.

Monday 25^th 

We wandered round Bloomingdales and Macy's on our last day in New York, soaking up the shops and the madness that is New York.

And then back to the airport for a long flight back to London, landed at 6.30am and straight into work for a day – massive struggle!