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| Lego James and Lego Antoinette |
The last five weeks have passed in a blur of sights, food and caffeine. New York has far exceeded any of our expectations and we can see why it is considered by many to be one of the best cities in the world. After having completed the great American road trip and living in the centre of Manhattan for over a month we were very happy to be discovering little bits and pieces throughout New York well into our final days in the USA. Apart from repeat trips to some of our favourite food and coffee hangouts we have taken in the less seen areas surrounding Manhattan.
Since we last touched base we have done a lot of things we had on our ‘to do’ list. One of those things was seeing some stand up comedy and the Comic Strip was where we ended up after picking up some discounted tickets in Times Square. The club was quite small and we didn’t know what to think after we were seated with a group of strangers, but it wasn’t long before the strong drinks and quality comedians made the night worthwhile. After two hours the caliber of comic steadily deteriorated, or maybe the alcohol was wearing too big a hole in our collective wallets, and it was difficult to find what they said funny. Leaving meant the hecklee became the heckler and any one seen leaving would cop a mouthful from the comedian, but that didn’t bother us, and it was funny to watch some of the patrons confused expressions as they got caught speechless.
There have been many days when we have just chosen a starting point for our day and kind of explored the side streets and avenues on our way home. These explorative walks have let us see a lot more of the city than most tourists and we can really say we prefer the downtown areas to uptown, except for Harlem of course. The diversity and collection of shops, cafes, delis and restaurants make it easy to get what you want when you want it.
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| Katz's infamous meat-wich |
One New York attraction, that we highly recommend to any carnivorous tourist, is a trip to Katz’s Delicatessen. It is one of the oldest delis in the New York area and serve up quality slow cooked meats that are hand carved the old fashioned way with nearly nothing else. The results are delicious meat mountain manwiches with a side of pickle and their perfectly spiced pastrami and corned beef (both on rye bread with mustard of course) is the reason this Deli is still packed from open till close every day of the week. What made this place even better was that Baby Cakes was only a five minute walk away and there have been a few lunches followed by irresistible chocolate chip cookie sandwiches. The foodie memories punctuate the great times we have had in this city and we have definitely made the most of it because we are skeptical of what our next transatlantic destination holds in store for us.
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| Deep fried oreo = win |
Even though we are thousands of kilometers and months away from Texas we couldn’t help ourselves and we just had to get some decent BBQ eating in one more time. It was at a place called Rub, ideally just around the corner from us, and the food was just what we were craving. Delicious pulled pork, wicked pastrami (not as good as Katz’s Deli though) and ribs that rivaled the mighty Joe’s BBQ shack, way back in Houston, for the title of best baby back ribs. We ate way more than we should and even ordered a serving of deep fried oreos to take back to the apartment. It may sound like a weird concept, but wrapping a real oreo in donut batter and deep-frying it made this once in a blue moon dining experience something to remember.
On a very fine winter’s day last week we caught up with one of James’ aunt’s acquaintances and had a really relaxing day wandering the streets of Brooklyn. Not knowing what each other looked like made it very interesting trying to figure out exactly who it was we were supposed to be meeting in a café with no spare seats. A fortunate encounter while we were paying for our drinks, as we arrived unexpectedly early because we had no idea how long it was going to take to get to Brooklyn, meant we discovered each other with little difficulty. We walked around Brooklyn, which is a nice area of New York with lots of vintage music stores and quirky retailers tucked away in the brown rock and red brick buildings. We had a really satisfying lunch at a local pub and talked about anything from Margaret River’s beaches through to smoked hot sauce and it was awesome to catch up with some locals. Seeing Manhattan’s impressive skyline from the Brooklyn foreshore really lets you appreciate exactly what makes this place so special.
Our last weekend in New York City started with a bang at Café Wha. This place has seen it’s fair share of big shot musos over the years with Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix playing regular gigs at this under ground club and café. If you are looking for an ‘intimate’ night out do not come here. You get sat at a really small table with up to six other people and the service is pretty average, but it is a lot of fun and a really entertaining couple of hours if you like loud music and alcoholic beverages (which we have both been sincerely missing over the last couple of months). The night started around 10pm and after 15 minutes intoxicated revelers had taken to the impromptu dance floor in the walkway. All the musos were having a great time and they played a lot of classic rock songs and their on stage energy was very intense, it was just a shame our waiter couldn’t keep up with our thirsty appetites. We got to meet some wicked people from Canada, who’s names escape us thanks to our good friend Mr.Alcohol, and were able to let off a little steam after being cooped up in the apartment for too long thanks to the colder weather.
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| One very fat pigeon |
One thing we just had to do while here was head up-town and check out Harlem and some of their infamous culture and gospel churches. The whole day was really intense and intriguing. Andy, our tour guide, was an incredibly energetic 82 year old who has lived in the area since his early 20s and seen it transform from heaven, hell and back again. Seeing a real gospel style worship service was entertaining and spiritual in a way many churches can only dream of and the buildings in the area are very well kept considering most of them are over 100 years old. We also learnt that most of New York’s older residential buildings are safe from demolition because all a building needs to be worth saving are structurally sound exterior walls. It doesn’t matter what the inside looks like. If a building has dodgy wiring, no plumbing and no floors it doesn’t matter. If the building is purchased in that state the new owners enters into a pre-existing agreement that means they have to leave the exterior façade intact and update the interior to modern safety and building codes. It is so refreshing to see a city that embraces modern architecture, but works very hard to maintain the unique, old school and historical elements that contribute to making this amazing city what it is today. After seeing some of the oldest churches and buildings in the area we were taken to Harlem’s main business district to see the legendary Apollo Theatre, where both The Jackson Five and James Brown have won amateur nights, and catch a glimpse of where former US president Bill Clinton has his offices. It was sad to hear there are proposals to radically change the Harlem area into just another commerce centre with 25 story skyscrapers lining the wider roads and pedestrian walkways. It was a privelage to see this area the way it is today because with things changing as fast as they are and the ruthless persistence of New York realtors and property developers looking for their next big cash cow, Harlem will not be what it is now in five years time.
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| The holy grail for gluten free celiacs. |
Our last days in New York City were spent taking in long walks through the streets and avenues while re-sampling some of the cities best food and coffee places. Another visit to Kaffe in the Financial District, the last batch of chocolate chip cookie sandwiches, milkshakes from Shake Shack and one of the most satisfying lunches from a place in Chelsea Markets called Friedman’s Lunch. The highlights and lowlights from the journey thus far were always on our minds as the American chapter of our round the world trip came to a close. Being able to say we have driven across America is pretty awesome and to have met some ‘real’ Americans along the way, instead of the stereotypes we see sensationalized in most modern media, was quite eye opening. Having to say goodbye to the comfort of our New York apartment, the city that never sleeps and North America all at once was an interesting feeling full of conflicting attitudes and emotions.
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| quite a view from the Empire State |
On our last night in New York, at least what we thought would be our last night (don’t worry we’ll explain that later), we did what we had to do before we left the United States. The Empire State building affords gorgeous night-time viewing of the world within a city and this iconic landmark delivered in a big way. Getting there was easy as and within half an hour from leaving home we were up on the 86th floor taking it all in while competing with blustery winds. New York for us really personifies the best parts of America and it was hard to leave somewhere that has become more homely and comfortable than we imagined any place other than home could. So after a gluttonous and relaxing day in the city we started our journey out to JFK. The thing is we got so very caught up in the holiday lifestyle we completely lost track of what the date was so we arrived at the airport 24 hours before we were supposed to. We saw this as an opportunity to do things not many New Yorkers get to do, take a day trip out to JFK, and all we got for it was a stupid air rail pass.
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| Our comfortable studio apartment in Chelsea |
The final steps have been taken to make our transition into the working world as easy as possible. Our resumes, which are looking quite sharp in our opinion, have been edited and reformatted to suit the acceptable UK style and been sent on to a number of recruitment agencies in London. Our accommodation will take a little adjusting to as we will be in a four-bed dorm to save cash while we find jobs and a place to call home for the foreseeable future. We are not sure what will happen over the next couple of months, but being able to start with a clean slate is really liberating and we are incredibly motivated to make the most of London, the UK and the rest of Europe. We are sure the phrase books and language DVDs will get a good workout over the coming months and we are hoping to save hard, again, to do a majority of our European adventures in September and October of 2012, with a couple of exceptions of course.
‘Till next time,
Antoinette and James.
