photos from new york

So whenever I get back from a holiday I always kick myself for not having taken more photos, I did alright this time but oh well. Here are the highlights I managed to get my phone out for! Top right to left.

1. A plate of meat. Yes, yes. All flavoured amazingly (can you see that red bit, yeah that's spices!) From Peaches, the best restaurant in Bedford-Stuyvesant. It was also followed with the best brownie I've ever tasted in my life.

2. Central park on my 21st birthday, the weather swung between sunny and cold and snowy and cold. Luckily this was a sunny day so I could just about get away with my silk birthday dress.

3. Kiosk is an exhibition of everyday things from around the world. It's a nice little break from Broadway (which is like a crazy shopping boulevard) up some dodgy looking stairs. Every item comes with a little personal story or some information. It was lovely! Plus they had a doughnut map of New York. Definitely a must investment for my next trip to NY!

4. The view out my window in Brooklyn

5. Birthday breakfast at Pershing Square across from Grand Central Station, waffles, waffles, waffles. (did I already use this? Oh well, waffles, waffles)

6. View out of the MoMA which was an experience in itself!

7. The High Line in Chelsea. Reminded me on the one in Paris, but converting old disused railways turned into gardens is such a good idea, just imagining it in summer...

8. Shark graffiti on Mulberry Street!

9. Coney Island classic view.

10. Screw the Guggenheim, my favourite gallery in New York is the one next door. The National Academy Museum and School had the best modern art exhibition I've maybe like ever seen. There was so much breadth, from textiles (this is just the sculpture in the circular stairway up to the exhibitions! I wanted to take it home with me...) to sculpture to everything in between. It was just lovely. And after the hectic MoMA definitely some needed relief.

11. Williamsburg after the snow, just round the corner from the Barclays Centre (where the Nets play) and Brooklyn Flea. I did my most successful shopping here because the boutiques have the most amazing stuff in the world but the people who work there don't make you feel like a lesser human being (does that make sense?)

12. Narwhal skeleton!!!!!!! In the American Museum of Natural History (from Night at the Museum haha) a bit of a disappointment but it was our last day & we were kind of exhausted so... It was still amazing to see it though, all the dinosaurs and that. & it was the best gem exhibition I've seen, ever. Plus you can touch everything! Which makes it surprisingly better somehow...

11. Again the exhibition at the National Academy Museum, this was just sharpie on fabric but I've made a note to try it myself!

12. The Strand bookshop, (in the snow!) 18 miles of books! It was so overwhelming to go into a bookshop and have it all buzzy and busy (is was a Sunday) and it was just so overwhelming  We spent like an hour in there and barely scratched the surface. I grabbed a mug as a present and left before it swallowed me forever & I spent millions. Definitely going back though every time I'm in New York.

13. Green eggs and ham! Not sure which came first, the book or just pesto in scrambled egg but this was so fucking delicious I'd eat it again even if it wasn't Dr Seuss. From Brooklyn Label which also had amazing coffee. So. Good.

14. BIG BIRD IN CENTRAL PARK

Seems like the perfect note to end on. Phew.

observations from new york

Going over the Williamsburg Bridge (complete with yellow taxi, hell yeah!) from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Anyway, BACK. Hello, hi, how are you? I see some comments have built up that I'll attend too and need to get back on with reading etc, but I think I'll prioritise washing and getting back to the right time zone first if that's cool. In the meantime here's a few photos and some of my observations from New York.

VISITING THE MoMA WAS BOTH INCREDIBLY INSPIRING AND SCARY AS FUCK

Seeing extremely famous works of art in real life is always incredibly surreal, Gogh's Dolce Vita, Rosseau's the dream, Friday Kahlo, Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse... You see where I'm going. And then we came to the work on the cover of the MoMA's current programme, The Scream by Edward Munch. Now this to me was incredible, to see this close up and real. Every fucking stroke of the pastel. But instead when we got there, the painting itself was illuminated by a thousand flashes and lights from cameras and phones and the crowd of people around it were stood back, not because of an enforced fence, but to get a better picture. The irony and absurdity of travelling all the way to New York, fighting your way through the crowds to the exhibition and then to simply stare at it through another screen just, well, I was speechless. So after standing in front of their flashes for a few moments to really see the piece I moved on. But man I wish I'd got their picture.

THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH HIPSTERS IS TO EAT

Ok let's get more specific. One of my main aims in NY was breakfast food. Waffles, pancakes, French toast, eggs, whatever, as long as their was an option to swamp it with maple syrup I was there. One of the unexpected consequences of this is that the places where we wanted to go (mainly Soho and around or Williamsburg) are like hipsterville. This is probably an outdated method to refer to them, but I'm not too down with the kids so let's just say, all in black, apple laptop, iced latte and granola (if any food at all). Sitting in the middle of all these skinny hipster boys and girls (often though not always vegan) and eating plated piled with stodge, calories and bacon is like THE most satisfying thing ever. If you don't understand then you're probably "one of them". (Just kidding guys you know I love you really)

FREE WIFI BREEDS ROBOTS

I don't know if its because of the "hick" town I live in or because I'm at work most weekdays but the whole going to a cafe with a friend to sit opposite each other on laptops thing really hasn't caught on here yet. And I hope it never does. In fact Grey Dog had a sign up about not hogging seats and using laptops (which sort of makes up for putting all our pancakes on one plate...). But in Williamsburg we were looking for a bun and a cup of tea and were faced with two places both with rows of people's backs against the windows, laptops in front of them. We dubbed them the robot cafes. I guess if you don't have Internet at home, but to actually sit there with someone else and barely look up just seems like, unnatural to me.

CONEY ISLAND IS EVERYTHING I HOPED IT WOULD BE

After looking at what to do in Coney Island before we went and realising that everything was still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, I was a little apprehensive about what we would find. But to be honest everything was back together, Nathan's had a sign up saying that it would all be fine and since everything was due to open in time for Easter like a week after we were there, it was all done. And however cool it would've been to see it in full swing, there's just something about seaside towns in off-season that intrigues me. It's sort of the appeal of the abandoned park in Berlin, even though there were more people about. The creepy face too was just perfectly eerie and seeing the houses on the way as well as being able to go on a beach just 20 minutes out of the city is amazing. I really can't wait to go back and do everything, the museum, the hotdogs, the mermaid parade!

So yes. My birthday in New York was just perfect. It's a city I've always sort of idolised in that way that Europeans do about America and vice versa, but this was something else. I thing I've eaten my body weight in maple syrup, batter, pizza and Mexican food and I've spent enough money on incredible clothes to (hopefully) last me the year. I've also made a little map of my favourite places in New York and Brooklyn, mainly for me but its public so yeah, if you want tips! Shout out to Chuck too who guided some of our best food adventures. And well just phew, 25 hours of travelling there and back makes it almost nice to be home!