NYC

Last weekend, Clemence and I went for a short trip to New York. We arrived at LaGuardia after a 1.5h plane ride from Toronto, waiting for the bus to take us to Manhattan. There, we stayed in a hostel near midtown and Union Square. First thing there, Clem's towel was dirty, but otherwise it seemed ok. Some friendly people were there, too, and some idiot teenage girls who switched on the dryer at 3am in the morning (and again at 7:30am). Besides that, the breakfast was decent and the place clean enough.

Friday night we went out for Thai food @ Pam Real Thai, delicious! It was as remembered from my trip 2 years ago, nicely spiced in contrast to thai food in Canada. Afterwards, we took a walk along Times Square. I got to say, I don't like it very much, too many glitzy advertisments, too many people (and 99% of them tourists), just not a nice atmosphere. After a beer in a pub-club close to the hostel, we got some sleep, albeit for me only till 8am. I cannot sleep in. Starbucks served the needed Americano for my start into the day.

Times Square, no tripod needed

Typical tourist picture

After supplying ourselves with strawberries, cherries, bagels, cream cheese and mini-pretzls, we went to Central Park. We had brought our climbing shoes as there are boulders in the park. We went to Rat Rock in the south end of the park and attempted the traverse. V0 is damn hard! It was a bit slippery, the rock actually painful, and we gave it a couple of tries before giving up. Later, we walked a bit through the park, watching guys play baseball, and kids playing with foam bubbles. We walked towards the boat house, and took pictures on 'Clemence's white bridge'. It was super humid and warm this day.

We were in need of coffee and a rest. For that, we went to Greenwhich Village/West Village, to Perry Street, where a lot of SatC was filmed. I saw the first half of England:US, with half of the cafe cheering England, the other half the US. After a good rest, a great muffins and a long awaited sandwhich, we continued strolling through the streets, along Bleeker, Christopher Street and more, and eventually walked back to the hostel from there after a stop in a book store. Clemence took a nap, and I decided to write a card over a beer at happy hour in a pub. For the night, we went to Williamsburg. It's different than Manhattan, lots of people around on the streets, but no high rises.

Crysler buidling

Sunday we did lots of shopping, spending too much money, but enjoying ourselves. We were always lucky to find good places to eat, so again, great brunch in a cafe along Lexington Av. Unfortunately it started to rain, and we could not see the Rockefeller Center. Eventually, it stopped again when we exited the subway. I don't understand the Americans, it's nice and warm outside but freezing inside. The subway was freezing while the waiting area was boiling hot (of course due to the heat emitted from the too cold trains).

on the Brooklyn bridge

That night, we walked with flip flops and sandals to the East Village to have some sushi, and a nice glass of wine and sake cocktail on the patio of an organic food and wine bar. Monday was our last day, so we had to do some more shopping....Walking over the Brooklyn bridge gave us a rather foggy view over Manhattan. After lunch of the Brooklyn bridge, we had some longer rest and coffee in from of the New York stock exchange, before we had to get back. Leaving was a slight panic due to a sales girl at Victoria Secret, but after all we managed to be in time at the airport.

NY Stock Exchange

view from Madison square, just before we had to leave

New York was cool, my feet were hurting every day :) We did lots of walking and shopping, too bad that we had no blue sky this time...