It can eat you up and spit you out just like that and you can scratch your head wondering what to do next. But the Big “B” is not as scary as one might think, it’s a big teddy bear with lots of honey jars and goodies. Go 50 meters in any direction and there is food and lots of it, all kinds of donuts, bagels, juicy sandwiches, restaurants and bars, fresh food supermarkets and of course coffee by the gallon.  This is…….

New York where, unlike Tokyo, no effort has been made to make its subway system user friendly for visitors. It’s actually not that complex but without good access to a local phone on which to search, a map, information on where you are or signage of what goes where it’s a bit of mystery. Figuring out your G line from your Q line is a challenge we faced, but we conquered Tokyo’s system, so once we started to get the hang of it, it was all good and so was getting to the next restaurant or dinner we were eager to try out.

Whilst we were in New York it coincided that a friend of Malene’s from London was in town the same week on business. We met up with Sandra a few times and explored a bar or restaurant or two. Being in NY Malene was on fire and having the added bonus of a close friend to talk to after a year on the road really made her week.

Sooo… many cool looking bars and eateries one must wonder how NY cornered the market on interior style.

I think the secret lies in the old buildings, warehouses and railway depots which have been cleverly converted into lovely spaces still retain that old-timey feeling. Spending time in New York is as if we were in Perth, it’s so expensive, especially after Mexico with its $3 cocktails and $2 beers, now we are paying $8 a pint of beer and the service is so pushy, which am not keen on, but in NY one still has to tip regardless.

After a day of wandering we got back to our apartment and the bed has never looked more inviting. But it’s very exciting and like the tide you are out again the following day despite the weather, fighting waves of people and battling the subway just to get to see the next new thing or try those tasty morsels you couldn’t fit in the night before, because you ate too much, donuts hmmm.

No opportunity missed and we never know when we will be back so Malene caught up with Leeann an old friend from her hotel working days. So they met up one day and did the New York thing, had Sushi and asked a passer-by to take their photo standing in front of a big kitchen sink, actually it’s a pool on it’s side, don’t ask.

You could easily put a year aside to get to know Manhattan. We took an airbnb apartment in Brooklyn with city views just a short subway ride to Manhattan, it’s a smart and trendy-ish area and here too there is no shortage of nice looking places to kill some time.

We took some time out of our busy schedule to visit the High Line a disused raised railway line that ran down the west side of Manhattan and has now been turned into a stylized park, would be great on a sunny day but we hit it when the wind was cold so we wore our Shanghai vests to keep us warm.

Sleep walking man (Artwork on the High Line) along side frozen man and cool design on the line

If that is not enough there’s the theaters the galleries the fashion houses and museums to keep you out of trouble and for tourists there’s the tours which can be at ground level, above ground or below and if that is not enough you can just ride the subway for entertainment. Me, I like the latter and the bar crawl.

There is such a wide range of people in NY, more so than any other city I’ve visited and it’s as if each one needs to have their own individual look, I went for the old-man dorkish look in my winter essentials but Malene looked the NY part except for her shoes which after heavy use had the homeless person look. We got her a new pair of Nike’s.

We enjoyed our time here and didn’t do the big items like Empire Estate Building at $35-$65 per person but there was enough to keep us entertained just getting around town and taking in the people, the shops and the cafe restaurant scene.

What we’ve learned from our travels is that time flies and we need to move on to the next place.

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