New York New York

We're about to start day 3 in New York and it feels like we've been here a month, we've been totally packing it in.

Arriving early morning Easter Sunday off the red-eye on no sleep, we found Jacquie's awesome apartment in the Lower East Side, chatted for a while and then absolutely crashed out for a couple of hours. As soon as we arose at midday, Jacquie took us out for the best New York City neighbourhood walking tour ever! We spent the next 5 hours crisscrossing every cool block in the Lower East, East Village, Nolita, Chinatown and Little Italy.

Amazingly Jacquie seems to know the history of every bar, cafe, restaurant and store on every street, which areas used to be cool and are now gentrified, which areas used to be dodgy and are now cool, and which areas are still dodgy but soon-to-be cool! I guess she's lived in half a dozen locations around the area over the last decade and a half, and it was amazing to get an insiders point of view on this part of the city.

Lunch at Katz (the massive Jewish deli which was home of the faked orgasm scene in "When Harry met Sally"), a new york bagel with vegan cream cheese and a homemade matzo ball at a traditional Kosher deli, a dessert agave gluten free vegan brownie at Babycakes.

Then later drinks at Sweet & Vicious then dinner at Barrio Chino - the modern mexican restaurant with chinese decor - such a cool spot and amazing food and cocktails.

I can't even begin to go into detail about Day 2 - Sarah and I walked across virtually the whole city it feels like! It was a gorgeous clear sunny day and even got warm (compared to the arctic 5 degree day the day before) and we hung out in Central Park and ate pretzels:



Last night involved drinks with Jacquie's awesome group of friends in some of the coolest bars we've ever been in, over in Washington Square. One (Minetta) that has been there for hundreds of years since the area outside was mainly farmland!

Another (The Rabbit Hole) that was in a basement down a set of stairs and through an unmarked door that you would never find, almost pitch black (no lights but half a dozen candels on the bar) about 5 feet wide and 15 feet long, but somehow managed to have 50 Belgian beers on the menu and pack in a little band in the corner!