NYC Trip – Day 21 : DUMBO

Ah, last day. Sad yet happy at the same time. We took the subway to city hall and had coffee at a place around the corner called BLUE SPOON.

Clouds cleared to reveal a stunning last day adventure walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, to D.U.M.B.O and Brooklyn Heights. Explored some cute shops although not a lot to do as a few shops were closed on Monday’s (Mental note for future)

Down to GRIMALDI’S under the bridge. The 30 minute wait for a table was well worth it as we cooled our heels with some Olde Brooklyn soda and Brooklyn pilsners. Then came the biggest pizza we had ever seen! And tasted pretty damn good too. Also quite affordable so feel free to take the fam.

Back over the bridge to meet Todd at the apartment. Ducked down the road to converse over some happy hour Pabst Tinnies at the best little dingy pub called TRAILER PARK on 23rd between 7-8th. Really eclectic and retro mexican with friendly staff.

Met Catherine at THE SPOTTED PIG in the Greenwich Village where there was a 2 hour wait for dinner! So we followed our alcoholism around the corner to a little bar, 2 for 1 cocktails and a free tapas each, great meatballs and apple purée and cheese on crusted bread for desert (compliments of the chef. Wink wink). Back to the spotted pig for dinner, bottle of red (more Dolcetto D’Alba) , pork crackling and a mountain of shoe string fries. YUM!

In a cab to a bar called SUPER LINDA. Unfortunately the fact that it was a Monday night really didn’t make for the most social night out. Todd and I stop off on the way home for a drink at a downstairs pub called EAST OF EIGHTH in Chelsea. Not sure if i would recommend it or not but they were the only place on the whole trip that didn’t ask for I.D. If that’s helpful. Met a guy named Kenny that told us stories about his time in Sydney during Mardi Gras. Interesting.

All in all one of my favourite days…

All pics taken with a Canon 1000D or 1Phone3

NYC Trip – Day 19 : Williamsburg Pub Crawl

Bought a second $5 scarf from a street vendor on the way to the MET which was amazing! And huge. And wore us out. Note: entrance desks inside the MET say $25 keep in mind it is a ‘recommended’ price so you can pay as you like. Somehow we just walked through. Modern art was my favourite. Unfortunately not much photography.

We had lunch nearby in the Upper East Side at a place called EAT CAFE where we had the biggest slice of lemon meringue ever! Very expensive though so maybe recommend against taking families there.

Subway to Williamsburg to check out vintage stores most notably BEACONS CLOSET. Great stuff and
Cheap. We really have nothing good like this In oz. If you’re a vintage lover, Save your $ for this place!!

Williamsburg pub crawl – BROOKLYN BREWERY supplies and sponsers businesses and events all around Manhattan, and the brewery was right across the road from Beacons Closet. Very cool inside with a beer garden vibe, and free tours going during the day.

We went on to THE BEDFORD – dim lit, classy, great food. ALLSWELL – cute, SOFT SPOT– hipster, cool music, eclectic vibe, small.

Met Catherine at the subway and ran into some wierd brothers that lived on a farm. One played me the song sweet Lorraine by Nat king cole and then he proposed to me.

Went to a bar called HOTEL DELMANO and had a few wines and a cheese platter then down to BERRY PARK where we danced hard until the amount of sweat on us meant i was time to leave.

The girls were dying for Thai so we subwayed it to 3rd and 14 to searched for a Thai place. We found one but not worthy of wasting space in this sentence.
I had a small bout of homesickness and almost cried in my vermicelli. Actually i think we are all feeling a little homesick now.

Al pics taken with Canon 1000D

NYC Trip – Day 18 : Let’s go Yankees lets go!

‘Apparently’ we have bed bugs, which are ‘apparently’ running rampant through the city. Glamorous. Coldest day so far.
Rough night. Living in an apartment is great, I feel like I really enjoyed having the experience of living IN new York. But there are a few Downfalls. Chelsea is closer to the city and the place we stayed at was right near Madison square garden. So safe to say it was pretty busy and loud at night. Cabs, enthusiastic ranger fans, and loud rubbish trucks come through at 2.30am like clockwork. I would recommend staying in a quieter/ trendier district such as Soho or Williamsburg. There are some really nice and quiet parts of Brooklyn.

So once again Jess and I off on a determined coffee adventure and literally stumbled across a place called PORT on 23rd 7th and 8th. A hole in the wall. Great coffee!

Off to meet Catherine and Lauren at EATALY which is kind of like an Italian food Hall. We had a heavy lunch of pasta and pizza with bottle of red that Jess now has a penchant for called dolcetto d’alba. Recommendable. Jess and I broke away on a mission to find a tattoo parlor and accidentally stumble upon a cafe that made intellegistia coffee –EMPIRE CAKES . Found coffee but no tats.

Home to throw on 5 more layers before heading into a packed subway system to the YANKEES. Was awesome. Drank Beer hot dogs (snack box in times square still the best) and cheese fries and understood what was going on a very fundamental level. Was a lot of fun although ridiculously cold.Tip, buy your subway voucher in advance to avoid the rush on the way home.

Today i heard this song for the first time in years. Seemed so applicable and summed up my day entirely.

Pics taken with a Canon EOS 1000D, last pic courtesy of Jessica Reeve Via Instagram.

NYC Trip – Day 17 : Screw You Spicy Mustard!

Breakfast in CHELSEA at Parisian cafe LE GRAINNE CAFE only to have my brain blown out by spicy mustard. Tasted like chlorine and a small atom bomb had exploded up my nose. Jess kindly shared her French toast which redeemed the experience.

Walked down a section of the HIGH LINE which is an old raised train track that has been converted into a garden-like walkway and runs from W 34th all the way down to 14th Street. Scenic and peaceful.

Stopped in at a gorgeous store called ALL SAINTS in the MEAT PACKING DISTRICT. Met Catherine at the WHITNEY museum for the biennial. Not overly impressive, actually had a bit of a ‘my kid could do better than this vibe’. Stand out piece and personal favourite, saving the experience for me, was artist LATOYA RUBY FRAZIER. Her pieces spoke out about consumerism were really inspirational and encouraging.

Catherine wanted to take us to an authentic American diner, so we went to BURGER HEAVEN on the upper east side and literally gorged a feast of Burgers, curly fries, Cheese sticks, happy hour daiquiri’s and everything else sickening American.

Bloomingdale’s (so much better, and more expensive, than dj’s or Myers) and MAGNOLIA BAKERY for red velvet cheesecake. Yum!! Got Lost in the subway. Again. But made it back ok. On the way home i stopped in at the dodgy handbag shop and haggled for a good price on a black pleather handbag.

Photo 5 courtesy of Haley Johnston via r&h FB, all other pics taken with my Canon 1000D

NYC Trip – Day 16: Meatballs To The Walls

This time Jess took us on an early morning ‘adventure’ to BLUE BOTTLE COFFEE and we had crepes at Chelsea markets to sustain us on the subway ride to CONEY ISLAND ….only to find it wasn’t open. Remeber to do your research guys…

So… took the 40minute journey back to MADISON SQUARE PARK to SHAKE SHACK for unsurpassed hot dogs, burgers and shakes. Lots of humanized squirrels that stole chips but were so cute I wanted to take home.

Had a non-scheduled wander through lower Manhattan then off to every mans dream : the MEATBALL SHOP with Catherine and her lovely friend Meagan. This place was delectable, and i wasn’t even hungry! You get to choose your own meatballs, the sauce, your accompaniment, and then for dessert, you chose your biscuits and ice cream for an ice cream sandwich.

Then for a vino at THE OTHER ROOM, a few cocktails at THE RUSTY KNOT and another impromptu vino stop on the way home at THE SPOTTED PIG.

NYC Trip – Day 15 : Italy in Cheese & Wine

Woke up after midday and dragged ourselves to a traditional American diner (MALIBU DINER) for some bacon, eggs and pancakes. All at once. Drowning in ample syrup.

Todd and I went to Soho to buy him a suit for his conference. Got him into a casual suit jacket and some new jeans at Bloomingdales. Sister high-five.

Met up with the girls for Italian wine and cheese tasting at OTTO, a wine bar owned by renowned chef MARIO BATALI. Extremely fun. What did i learn? Um…… dry equals less sugar.

After we walked through to a bar called ZINC BAR and watched some Spanish jazz. The manager who was french and therefore loved Todd, fawned over us and was overly enthusiastic about being the worlds most charming host. Once we left we found out from the bouncer after that he was in fact not the manager but just some crazy guy that was, as Haley says, trying to get a tip from us for being an unofficial host. Can’t even get compliments for free in NYC.

NYC Trip – Day 14 : Garment District & Drunk Bingo

Hale and I skipped off to the GARMENT DISTRICT today. Crazy good fabric and trim stores on 37th and 41st between 7th and 8th avenue. Most notably MOOD FABRICS which they make reference to in shows like PROJECT RUNWAY…

Met Jess at TIFFANY’S on 5th avenue and had lunch next door at OBIKA mozzerella bar in TRUMP TOWER, which was tackily built of gold & super duper trashy although i didn’t mind it. Stopped in at the LINDT store on the way home and i bought 1 of every kind of Lindt ball.

We had dinner at TORTILLA FLATS in the Meat packing District and partook in some drunk bingo…

“Much like the word love, only say BINGO if you mean it”

Pics taken with a Canon EOS 1000D. Bingo pics courtesy of Jessica Reeve via FB.

NYC Trip – Day 13 : Chelsea Markets

It rained all through the night and continued all morning as coffee adventures began again. We tracked down a coffee-house called JOE – THE ART OF COFFEE on 9th and 23rd then walked down 19th street to TIPSY PARSON for drunk brunch – minus the drunk, as our stomach’s still weren’t feeling thier usual selves.

We walked from there in the icy cold (in thongs wtf Laraine!) to CHELSEA MARKETS, and so glad we did. Although, they aren’t so much markets as they are high-end stores in a market style building. Kinda like Diagon Ally but for shoppers. Truly magic. ANTHROPOLOGY is a homemakers dream and one of the most beautiful stores I have ever been in.

The girls slept again before they headed out to see THE DRUMS and i headed out in my gumboots on a solo mission to take pics of TIMES SQUARE at night. I have to say walking 20 blocks in the rain trying to take pictures without ruining my camera was surprisingly fun.

Happily had my first hot dog from not too dubious looking cart called SNACK BOX. Soo good.

Pics taken with a Canon 1000D

NYC Trip – Day 12 : Who’s line is it anyway?

Got up early to head to WILLIAMSBURG in BROOKLYN for the ARTISTS & FLEAS MARKETS. Amazing vintage gear as well as some unique hand-made jewellery. We then let the crowd lead us to the waterfront to the ultimate food market called SMORGASBURG (get it? williamsBURG?) Ridiculous variety of foods from dessert hotdogs to hibiscus glazed donuts and S’MORES pies!!

Walked/rolled through Williamsburg which is super hip and by far the best and most interesting place we had been to yet. Great shops, trendy people and cute stores include one in particular named DIJITAL FIX. Decided to hang around and get mani+pedis which are super cheap in comparison to oz. Got lost on the subway and had to cab it home. Standard.

Arriving home we found that Todd had also caught the evil illness but we drugged him up enough to get him to join us in seeing WAYNE BRADY at GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB. He is so ridiculously talented and unbelievably funny i was literally gasping for breath several times during the show. Not to mention i was picked to go onstage! Below are pics of me meeting and growling at Wayne. I also picked him up and carried him offstage at the end of the skit, at which he seemed quite impressed. Highlight of the trip so far. HE IS COMING TO OZ VERY SOON! Everyone should go see him if they can. Great venue although the food was horrible. Would recommend heating up the party pies before you head there…

Pics taken with a Canon EOS 1000D. Wayne Brady pics courtesy of Jessica Reeve.

NYC Trip – Day 11 : Central Park

Still not feeling crash hot after yesterdays fun-sucking illness but off to CENTRAL PARK for a picnic! Of course the place to stop for supplies was WHOLEFOODS outside of which was a ‘Get rid of Obama’ stand! And i thought everyone loved Obama? We grazed in the sun with hundreds of others at Sheep Meadow. Yes, that’s its name.

We decided to walk the 30 blocks back to Chelsea through Times Square and search out THE LOVE SIGN. We did find it, although they were doing massive construction around it so we could only get pics at this mutated angle. Lame! But still happy. Through Times Square for the first time and found and attacked an M&M store. Only 4 in existence and now i’ve been to two of them!! (The others are in London & Orlando. Visiting them is now something i added to my 30 by 30 list)

Catherine introduced us to a wonderful restaurant called MISS LILY’S in NOHO which is African and was packed to the hilt! Wonderfully and refreshingly different food. Not to mention they make a slammin’ sangria and have the most beautiful hostess’s. We jumped in a cab to the MEAT PACKING DISTRICT, a super cool hub of bars, restaurants and designer stores. We sat for a wine and a giggle at THE STANDARD (with complimentary blankies: See below) and across the street from DIANE VON FURSTENBERG‘s house/store/design room/architectural monument and from the bar that apparently Coyote ugly was based on. The waiter told us the hotel above was famous for sex acts being performed in the windows, although we didn’t see any and not for lack of trying. My illness got the better of me and i went home early leaving the girls to it. They went to a bar called CHLOE 81 which Is supposed to be super hip.

Photo’s taken with a Canon EOS 1000D, an iPhone 3. DVF Image courtesy of http://www.loveinspirecreate.com/. Pics 7 & 8 courtesy of Alexandra Smelt via FB.