New York: Day 4 - Chinatown, Lower East Side, East Village, Squirrels

Day 4 started like any other.  Late and a little disorganised.  We got on the train with no real destination in mind and just thought we would go where the subway took us.  It took us to Chinatown (the subway can sense my people) which was good as I was craving dumplings.  I texted my cousin Sara for a recommendation.  She suggested Big Wong on Mott Street.  We ignored this and went next door to the Shanghai dumpling restaurant.  It was a good call, but I may always regret never going to Big Wong (or I may have saved myself from serious food poisoning, either way we will never know).  After we stuffed 16 dumplings into us we weaved through Chinatown making our way to the Lower East Side.

This is how Marc rolls in Chinatown.

This is how I roll.

I felt so at home with my people.  Marc was uncomfortable, too white and too tall.

Chinatown - pushing Little Italy out just like they did international media and free speech.

Smartest cat ever.

Child labour still in use in Chinatown.

The Lower East Side has two of my favourite things - a tea shop rumoured to be owned by a famous person, and a vegan cup cake shop!  We wandered the cute streets admiring the architecture and history of the area but really just trying to get to Babycakes before all the agave bites sold out (like little brownie bites but with less guilt, although it is a Jewish neighbourhood so there is some guilt).

I was clearly focused on the bakery.

Mmmm vegan baked goods!

Inside Babycakes

AGAVE BITES!!!!!!!

Yellow school bus blocking the Tenement Museum

Who says the American school system is rubbish?  I believe their math is sound.

The Lower East Side - where all good bikes come to die.

After Babycakes, we thought we would wash it all down with some tea from Teany, a cafe with a 40 page (just guessing) tea menu, supposedly owned by Moby.  The thing I like about Teany is that they don't just offer soy milk to those of us with a penchant for the plant based milk derivatives, they also offer, almond, oat, rice and hazelnut milk.  Delicious.

Satisfied with our gastronomic treats we ventured up to the East Village.  We would have wandered around more but we got caught up in Tomkins Square Park where Marc saw even more squirrels and took about 100 photos of them.  Then it started to rain so the squirrels all went home and we thought we ought to do the same.

Squirrel in a tree

Squirrel on the ground 

Squirrel on a fence

Marc feeling obliged to take my photo but resenting me for taking his attention away from the squirrels.

Squirrel drinking from a puddle.

That night we caught up with Breigh and Whitney who we met in Ecuador and went to a comedy show at Dangerfields (named after Rodney Dangerfields of Caddyshack fame).  I do love some good race based comedy and the comedians definitely delivered on that.  There were also the requisite political, penis and sex based jokes.  The highlight was when one of the waiters, who had been working there 40 odd years, got up on stage and told some real humdingers (none of which I can presently remember but trust me, they were great!).

New York: Day 3 - Washington Square Park and Greenwich Village

Since it was Sunday and God commanded that we take it easy, we were a little slack in getting up so by the time we got moving it was close to 3pm.  The plan was to check out the East Village, Greenwich Village and the West Village but due to the lateness of the hour we decided to just check out Greenwich and have a late lunch/early dinner while we were there.

We got off the train at 8th Street and Broadway and started to head down towards Washington Square Park but ran into a street fair that run up Broadway to Union Square.  We were slightly distracted by the cheap trinkets and iPhone covers and eventually by a massive shoe sale.

Broadway street market

Shopping done we headed back down to Washington Square Park.  It was a beautiful sunny day and the park was crowded, mainly due to a couple of street performers who didn't actually do anything that interesting but they had a lot of personality.  They also had awesome t-shirts that said "Twins are People Two"!  AWESOME!

Walking down to Washington Square Park along 5th Avenue

"Twins are people two" - he runs

He jumps...

He reaches...

He dives through to ring...

And he makes it.  That was pretty much all people were standing around to see.

We finally made it to Greenwich Village where we stopped to have what was now dinner at Quantum Leap, a vegetarian cafe with awesome vegetarian/vegan desserts.

Greenwich Village 

Black sesame soy ice cream with mixed berry tofu pie

Most importantly, day three was the day Marc saw his first squirrel.

OMG TWO SQUIRRELS!!!!!!!!

New York: Day 2 – Greenpoint, Williamsburg and Brooklyn Markets

We decided since we weren't staying in Manhattan, we should give this side of the East River a try.  Luckily it was also a Saturday which  meant market day!

We thought we should try walking the area but this turned out to be a stupid idea as for one thing it was 12 kilometres of walking, ONE WAY, and secondly, I was wearing new shoes which I was sure by the end of the day would be filled with blood.

Anyway we set off to have breakfast in Greenpoint, a suburb of Brooklyn just north of Williamsburg.  By the time we actually made it there it was closer to lunch so I felt less guilty when breakfast came with a bloody mary.

On the way to Greenpoint

59th Street Bridge

View across to Manhattan

Just in case anyone is looking for one - and you don't even need your spouse to sign!

View from the Polaski Bridge across to Manhattan

The next stop was the Williamsburg Flea Market.  It was a cute little market in an old warehouse full of overly trendy and too cool people.  I felt thoroughly out of place in my blue jeans (which I wasn't wearing ironically).  By this stage my foot was one giant blister so I made the executive decision to catch the train the rest of the way.  Brooklyn Flea Market was amazing.  There were so many beautiful pieces of furniture and randomness it was heartbreaking not to be able to buy any of it.  We decided to head home purchase-less (except for the maple bacon mini cup cake) and rest up before heading in to the city.

View of the Chrysler Building from Williamsburg

Looking across at Manhattan from outside the Flea Market

That day was also a very important day as it was the Macy's One Day Sale.  A momentous occasion.  If my mother had been with us she would have gone to the preview day the day before, hidden all the good stuff then run in either really early in the morning or late at night when there were less people.  We had hoped that by going in the evening it would a little quieter and since the sale finished at 11pm we thought a 9pm arrival would make things nice and pleasant.  We were wrong.  It was still kaos.  Bags were flying everywhere, shoes were being snatched out of peoples hands, hair was being pulled, floral print satin was being purchased.  It was a nightmare.  We quickly got in and out and then thought we should check out the lights of Times Square at night.

As it was a Saturday and a lovely warm night, the place was even more crowded than usual.  I made Marc take his pictures and soak up the atmosphere as quickly as possibly before shoving him down into a subway station to make our way back to the calm and peaceful LIC.